Skills Scavenger Hunt: Online Icebreaker & Team Building Exercise

If students don’t form into high-performance teams, their learning curve significantly flattens.

You can create the most amazing content, and deliver it in the most engaging manner. But if your students are in teams that are dysfunctional, or just sleepy, their learning can come to a screeching halt as they disengage.

Students put the course content into practice in their team environment where they apply it to bring ideas that matter to them to life. Student teams formed randomly erode the student (and professor!) experience through internal conflict and apathy.

Helping students form high-functioning teams will boost their learning capability exponentially.

We built our concept of high performing teams on the idea of matching students based on aligned goals and diverse skills. We developed our Skills Scavenger Hunt to facilitate that process and thus mitigate the biggest drawbacks of student team projects.

BONUS: This exercise is also an incredible icebreaker, which is critically important to do in an online course environment.

In this exercise, students go on a scavenger hunt to find other students with complementary skills in the following categories:

Graphics
Technology
Social Media
Design
Sales
Marketing

Step 1: What Skills Do You Have?

Each student checks any boxes in all 6 areas that are applicable to them. They may be able to check more than one box in a particular area, and they may not be able to check any boxes in a particular area. This doesn’t matter – the goal with this exercise is for students to identify their gaps in skills and fill them with qualified teammates.

If students check any boxes for their skills, that particular column will turn dark grey – to indicate they do not need to add any potential teammate names or notes.

To see the entire Skills Scavenger Hunt Exercise enter your email below!

Step 2: The Group’s Skills

In each group (face-to-face, or in Zoom breakout rooms if running a class online) the person whose birthday is coming up next is the facilitator. This person goes through each of the boxes asking if anyone has that skill/experience. If someone does, the facilitator asks them to share, in 30 seconds or less, details about how/why they achieved that experience.

As this process evolves, each student writes down names and quick notes about any students who possess skills that student doesn’t possess.

Step 3: The Group’s Skills v2.0

Repeat Step 2 again, but with students shuffled into new groups. Once again, the person whose birthday is coming up next is the facilitator.

Step 4: Filling In Skills Gaps

After the class session, students should post in a discussion board on your LMS what skills they possess and a quick sentence about that particular skill. Students with gaps in their worksheet can identify other students to fill those gaps on this discussion board.

When students finish this exercise, their worksheet sections should look something like those below.

Graphics

Here we are interested specifically in skills related to image editing, graphic design (logos and other assets), and video editing.

Technology

Here we are interested specifically in skills related to coding in HTML and JavaScript, and writing mobile apps.

Social Media

Here we are interested specifically in skills related to building an engaged community of followers on various platforms like Instagram, Youtube, and Reddit.

Design

Here we are interested specifically in skills related to interviewing, user interface design, and usability testing.

Sales

Here we are interested specifically in skills related to online advertising, selling product online, and running a profitable business.

Marketing

Here we are interested specifically in skills related to publishing writing, email marketing, and event planning.

Get your copy of the Skills Scavenger Hunt Worksheet here and keep your students motivated all semester!

Help students execute better, and conflict less, by empowering them to successfully assemble their own high-performing teams.

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