Icebreaker Tutor Notes

‘Health and Safety Alert’ is an icebreaker to get learners started on the course. It’s also how they’ll join their forum working groups. The exercise will test their observation skills and introduce them to a virtual office environment.

When learners enter the office for the ‘Health and Safety Alert’, they are asked to have a look around the office for any signs of potential hazards and remember which hazard they identified last.

Read what your tutor has posted and introduce yourself to the group by making a new posting. Tell them something interesting about yourself. Answer the forum questions. Read other people's postings and reply to them.

There are four different hazards to identify. These form the four forum groups in the Who’s Who forum. Learners will join the forum group that is named after the hazard they identified last.

The tutor creates the four Who’s Who forums, and then makes the first posting in each forum to get it started. Comment on the icebreaker and follow the discussion in each forum. The learners are asked:

• which hazard they identified
• what they think might happen with the hazard
• what was in the office
• why they’re taking this course and what they hope to get from it
• for a favourite photo (this is optional)
• for at least one ground rule they think is important for online discussions.

The icebreaker is ideally suited for class sizes of 24 to 40 learners, with 6 to 10 in each of the four groups. If you have significantly more or fewer than this, you will either have to manage the forum groups, adapt the icebreaker, or choose a different icebreaker. There is some flexibility in managing the forum groups. This may entail making more than one forum group for each category if you have significantly more learners. If you have a smaller number, you can merge the categories.

The learners will read what you have posted and then introduce themselves to the group by making a new posting based on the questions posed in the forum. Read their postings and reply to them. Try to make sure any ‘lurkers’ are included.

If the groups get too unbalanced you may need to ask some learners to join other groups. Think about how you do this, to make sure that everyone gets introduced and feels included.

Give a timeline to finish this activity.

Enjoy!