How to break the ice with your fellow students in your distance learning program

Planning to do your MBA or BMS? Are you aware of the skill set that you would need as an MBA or BMS aspirant? Read on. As an MBA/BMS aspirant, you would require good management skills, communication skills, creativity, decision making, leadership skills as well as be a team player. Applying your skills would be rather easy in a traditional classroom where over a period of time you will get to know your peers but how would you use your skills in an online classroom where you will never meet your classmates. They may belong to a different country, culture or time frame that you may not even be aware of. What will you do then? How will you strike a chord with your fellow students whom you will rarely meet face to face?

Before that let’s find what is a distance learning program and what are its features?

Though self-explanatory a distance learning program means an instructor would design learning content which is then shared among the participants of a learning program using the Internet. Imagine exams too will be online by making use of online exam software. It liberates the students as they need not be present in a physical state to take instructions, classes or even exams. Time and space would not matter, everything will be according to the student’s convenience. So now when you browse for online MBA courses in India or a BMS distance learning program, do consider the various attributes of MBA study online as your returns with online learning are much higher.

Distance can pose to be a huge challenge for a team, to work in an efficient manner especially if they don’t know each other, this may result in a struggle while you are encouraging creativity or even obstruct the flow of problem-solving ideas while undertaking a project as a team.

Using icebreakers in a distance learning program will help you in getting to know your fellow students which will in future allow the group to be better prepared to complete tasks assigned to them as a team. Icebreakers can be a game, an interesting activity, an engaging competition or a challenging exercise designed to get people in a group to know each other better.

Given below are 10 icebreakers that can be used to break the ice with your fellow students in your distance learning program. Whether you have opted for online MBA courses in India or BMS distance learning these techniques will ensure you MBA study online is smooth sailing.

1. Name Card- every student in the group will write their name and then write one word each for their personality, hobbies, strength, and weakness. This is a basic ice breaker that can be used to get acquainted with the other members of the group. You can have others give input (only positive) by putting it up on the discussion forum.
2. Lost on an island- an imaginary situation where each of the participants in the group is lost on an island, and you can have 5 things with you. What will those things be and why? The description of things they want to take along will describe what kind of person he/she is. However, you need to pen down the things that you want quickly without thinking much.
3. Me 10 years ago vs Me now- a more detailed version where you can get to know more about each other is by knowing them as before and after. The participant has to write a dream he/she had for himself/herself 10 years ago vs a dream that they have now. Has the dream changed, If yes why? If no then what have you done to achieve your dreams? Such an icebreaker allows deeper introspection of yourself.
4. View and review of you A simple icebreaker where the participant shares a picture of his/her from their phone on the discussion forum and then speak about it for 30 seconds. This activity will allow the person to talk freely about him/her as talking about your own picture is something that most people will be comfortable doing.
5. Create and describe- A similar activity like view and review but the difference is that instead of showing a picture you will have to draw something and then describe it, such activities bring out hidden aspects of a person which usually don’t come out with an introduction or tell me something about yourself type of activities.
6. A bucket list – This generation definitely knows what a bucket list is. In this activity, all they need to do is write down the top 3 activities they want to do in their lifetime. This activity brings out hidden aspects out and a deeper retrospect of what the person really is as it shows his/her real attributes.
7. Time travel A topic which is liked by one and all is time travel. So, tell your participants to set up an imaginary time machine in their mind that could take them wherever they want to go. The choice to go in the past or future will be entirely theirs. Answer question like where would you go? Why did you choose that particular place? What will you do there? Would you return back? If no why? This is a fun activity to loosen up.
8. Nab the truth- Write down five sentences about yourself on the discussion panel. Out of the five sentences, two will be true while three would be false. Then turn by turn the participants have to gauge which of the statements are true and which are false. This too is a fun activity to break the ice.
9. Name to fame- write your name down and then using each letter of your name write down an adjective that describes you. This is a better way to introduce yourself as compared to the age-old way of saying “Hi I am………”
10. Describe yourself in one word and create a hashtag – an interesting activity to break the ice is by writing one word preferably a non-living thing or an object that describes you in the best manner and then create a hashtag using the same word. This social media frenzy generation will definitely connect using this activity.

With the growing influence of online MBA courses in India and the huge wave of BMS distance learning options available, you need not worry about ways to connect with your peers whom you may not know or may never meet. With MBA study online being the best option to upgrade yourself leave the headache of getting acquainted with your fellow mates as these ice breakers stated above will help you connect with each other in a rather easy and effective manner.