Getting everyone to check-in and acknowledging feelings is important in creating connections. It is also helpful for you to be able to notice and support students who are not OK.
There are many activities to chose from, depending on class size, the cohort etc. A list of ideas and where to find the connected resources is given here.
Some activities can be something started in Zoom’s Chat (such as curating a playlist), others via a screen share or Zoom’s whiteboard. By enabling Zoom’s annotation feature people can draw, colour and write over a shared image.
The result can be saved as a .png and posted on the Module’s VLE page.
• Choose an emoticon that describes how you feel today (pasted into Zoom Chat)
• Choose an image for your Zoom screensaver that describes how you feel today
• Write a word on the Zoom whiteboard (this is an anonymous activity)
• Share a picture of your workspace with a caption to describe it
• Share a picture of where you’d rather be
• Describe something in the room that participants can see on your screen
• Share the view out of your window
• Share a word or image of what you are missing (or not missing) about being in university
• Choose a group mascot – students show their proposed mascot and the group votes (in chat) for their favourite. That mascot can stay in shot (you could refer to it during the session) for the session
• Share a picture of your bookshelf with a recommendation for one of the books
With large groups, the annotated activities such as hangman may best run using the chat function to suggest answers, rather than spoken, you could have a designated person who can annotate.
These activities are designed to encourage student interaction and create opportunities for social groups/friendships to occur.
You could ask students to run these activities, create activities related to the module or suggest ideas.
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