True or False – the virtual classroom can be a great source of fun and entertaining activities even after the end of the school year? The answer is “True”! Here are a few reasons why.
The past few months have been challenging for education worldwide because of the required self-isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools and universities in many countries had to transition to online learning programs in order to provide their students with effective education and complete the school year successfully.
Virtual classrooms quickly became one of the most widely used and powerful tools for online learning that provided a safe and engaging environment for students and tutors to continue their studies remotely. Virtual classrooms gave both students and teachers an abundance of features to create and enjoy extraordinary lessons with a few clicks of the mouses. There is no doubt that virtual learning environments are great for studying, but they are also a great hub for entertainment as part of the learning process. They can be used even after the end of the school year to drive away boredom.
5 Fun and Exciting Group Activities to Try with Friends and Classmates in the Virtual Classroom Today
Table of Contents
1. Virtual Storytelling and Brainstorming Sessions
Bring your creativity and extraordinary thinking to the online whiteboard and take part in different brainstorming sessions with your classmates or group of friends. You can separate into teams and choose a basic topic for the brainstorming session. Use the breakout rooms for each team where participants can share their ideas on the online whiteboard. After each team has finished with the brainstorming session, join together in the online classroom and exchange ideas and information.
Get inspired by the topic and the ideas to begin virtual storytelling exercises with each team creating different parts of the story.
For example, choose Egyptian History as the topic . During the brainstorming session you can divide the class into groups to write down (or draw) on the online whiteboard everything they can think of that is related to the topic. After the teams have finished with the task, let everyone share their thoughts and knowledge in the main group. This is a great opportunity to use the exercise to add more facts about Egyptian History and also correct any misleading facts shared by the students.
Once the brainstorming session is complete, it’s time to start an inspiring storytelling exercise. For instance, you can choose the topic to be about one of the famous Egyptian pharaohs and encourage students to interpret the facts and write their version of the story of his life, much like taking a journey with a time machine to a certain historic period.
2. Challenges and Competitions (Daily or Weekly)
Challenges and competitions are a great way to engage in amusing and rewarding experiences, especially when access to popular summer activities is still limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Use the video-conferencing feature in the virtual environment to organize talent shows where participants can present their talent. Bring more joy to the day with different costume competitions inspired by different topics that were studied during the year. These can be things like clothes inspired by historic periods and events, fun costumes, animal-inspired outfits, holiday costumes, etc.
3. Role Reversal
Give the learners a taste of the experience of being a teacher by including turn-the-tables sessions on one or more days of the week. Assign topics to each student for them to research and then teach in the class during the turn-the-tables activities. Encourage them during the preparation and offer help when needed. This is also a great exercise to do in teams – just pair the learners in couples or teams and assign them to be teachers for the day.
4. Virtual Debates
The virtual classroom can become a great “arena” for exciting virtual debates on all kinds of topics that allow the students to express different opinions and points of view and engage in serious discussions. Divide the class into teams and use all of the tools in the breakout rooms for sharing and presentations, like the online whiteboards to prepare for the live debates in the virtual studying space. The topics can vary from the curriculum studied during the year to current topics and events that are happening in the world today.
How can you implement virtual debates in the online classroom? There are different variations of this exercise. You can adjust the rules for the debate according to group size, available time, etc.
First, choose a topic, for example, “Yes or No to Wearing Uniforms at School.” Divide the participants into two teams that will support the two sides of the debate, and choose a separate group of participants to be the jury. Give the teams the same amount of time for preparation in the breakout rooms. During the actual debates the captain of each team will have the same amount of time to present their team’s basic position. After each group has completed their presentation, it is time for questions and arguments. The captains of the teams appoint who will ask the questions and who will answer them using the raise-hand feature in the virtual classroom. The jury can take notes and ask additional questions. At the end of the debate, the captains of the teams can make their closing statements. The jury then votes for the winner of the debate.
5. Games
It is amazing how many popular games can be played in the virtual classroom by using the video-conferencing feature, the online whiteboard, and lots of other features for live sessions.
- Two Truths and a Lie: This is one of the most entertaining games for group activities that is perfect as an icebreaker and is also a fun way for the participants to get to know each other. The rules are simple. Each participant needs to write down 3 statements: 2 that are true, 1 that is a lie, and give them to the tutor. The game begins when the teacher reads a statement and each participant votes whether it is true or not using the raise-hand feature.
- Pictionary: This is one of the easiest games to play in the online classroom and is appropriate for all ages. The teacher uses a private message to send a word to one of their students who then begins to draw clues on the online whiteboard. The rest of the classmates then try to guess the word. Before the game begins, the whole team sets the rules for the types of clues that can be used.
- Charades is a very similar to Pictionary. The only difference is that the participants use gestures and pantomimes to act out a given word or phrase. Thanks to the live-chat and videoconferencing features, it is easy to play this game, even remotely.
- True or False: This is a great game that is equally fun and educational. Either the teacher or one of the students researches different facts on a chosen topic and prepares cards with true and false statements. The rest of the classmates then vote on the correct answer. It is a great way to learn while having fun.
Find new ways to encourage students to express their creativity, curiosity, and competitive sides with different activities in the virtual classroom besides the regular lessons. Incorporate a variety of active learning methods into games and challenges to stimulate the creative thinking of learners and to bring more fun and excitement to the sessions.
