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Community Building: Icebreakers, Introductions, Sharing and More

Overview:

Creating community with your class has never been easier by using any combination of many available tools. The following are examples of how Instructors can use text, video, and images using widely available tools to share information with each other. 

Learn more about community building in your classroom in this research-informed guide authored by friends at Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning. 

Options:

Moodle Forum

Instructor creates an Icebreaker / Getting to Know Each Other Forum 

  1. Students create an "About Me" slide (use google slides or Powerpoint), include…(instructor inserts details) 

  2. Record an video overview of the slide using Echo360

    1. Login in to Echo360

    2. Create>>New Browser Capture

    3. Record 3-5 min with screen share, video on. 

    4. Give Echo time to complete processing.

  3. Embed it into a Moodle forum post:

    1. Select the Echo icon from the Default tool bar

    2. Select Launch Media Picker, select desired media from Echo library

    3. Post to forum 

  4. Reply by video to two other forum posts by Monday

    1. Select the Echo icon from the TinyMC Toolbar

    2. Record from New Browser Capture, close when complete

    3. Click Echo icon again from the TinyMC Toolbar, select from library

    4. Click to post in the forum

Moodle Board Tool

Moodle Board is a virtual bulletin board tool very similar to Padlet, however, it is built right into Moodle. With the Board activity, you can place post-it notes with text or media to share with your students, or you could have students share their post its with you and each other. For educational purposes, Board is an excellent tool for curating and sharing digital content, having discussions or debates, collaboration and creating class community.

Full Article

Padlet

Google Slides

Useful to create feedback/dialogue on individual slides.

  • Student creates a slide deck.
  • Sets the Sharing permissions for Comment access.
  • Posts link for peers to view.
  • Peers annotate individual slides with text based comments. 


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