Ideas for Introduction Discussion
Staple Prompt
Briefly introduce yourself as a student and a human. Tell us about you. What are your interests
both academic and non-academic? Tell us about your degree program, your interest in the
course, and your goals for the semester. Essentially, what do you bring to the course and what
do you hope to get out of it?
Telling Additions
You can select one, a few, or offer students the opportunity to select two or three to add to
your discussion or reply.
• Academic: Review the course objectives.
o What questions do you have based on the objectives? What do you already
know about our course topic? What do you want to know more about? Is
anything missing that you hoped we would discuss?
• Academic: What experiences have you had with the subject? In a BUSN or MGMT
course, you might pose a "have you ever" question or ask students to share their
favorite product or company, mission or vision, best/worst service, etc. and explain or
describe their experience or rationale.
• Academic and/or Personal: Finish the following sentence or fill in the blank...
o If I never read another management book about ________ I would be ________
because_______If you want to stimulate interaction with other students, you
might start a sentence and have the students complete it. Other students love to
see what others have written.
o The best book I have read about _______ is__________________(title) because
__________________.
o My most recent Google search was __________________.
o The best class I have taken so far in my program/the one class I would
recommend above all others that I have taken at WMU is___________________
because_____________________.
o My favorite book/podcast/film is _____________________.
o If I could have one superpower it would be ___________________________
because______________________.
o If I could learn everything about one subject (think Neo in the Matrix), the
subject would be ________________________.
• Personal: Write eight nouns that best describe you.
• Personal: Write two adjectives that best describe you as a student, as an employee, and
as a human (total of 6).
Adding Some Style
o Create a meme that demonstrates your feelings about the subject, learning
online, this semester.
o Add one question you always ask when you meet someone new (have students
answer questions as reply).
o Add a link to the most amusing, touching, or terrifying thing you've come across
online this week.
o Link to a favorite Buzzfeed quiz; have students complete it and discuss their
outcomes.
o Have students link a favorite Buzzfeed or another online quiz (have students take
it and discuss outcomes in reply)
Basic Introductions Discussion
