Online preparation checklist for students
Checklist, by Terry Freedman
If you haven’t taught a particular group online before now, you may find it useful to send out the guide below to the students. It’s not a detailed guide to any particular software, just some good practice tips.
See also the online preparation checklist for teachers.
Before your first lesson
Install the software, if necessary.
Test the software: does it work? See the next point.
[Optional] If the software or one aspect of it doesn’t work, you could try installing a different web browser. I discovered that for some reason my webcam wouldn’t work with Chrome in Google Classroom. I tried Firefox instead, and the result? No problem.
Explore the software. Your first lesson is not the time to start trying to figure out where things are.
If a training session has been arranged, attend it if at all possible.
If a trial run has been organised, definitely attend that.
If resources have been uploaded somewhere, make sure you are able to access them.
If you receive an email giving details of your lessons, put the email into a special folder, or give it a particular label, so you can find it easily when you need to.
You should also copy and paste the meeting details in your calendar or timetable or both.
Make sure you have the documents and other resources available for your first lesson, preferably digitally, for reasons given below.
During your first lesson
Dress appropriately. Unless you attend school in your PJs, don’t do so online! It’s disrespectful, potentially unsafe (how do you know your classmates aren’t going to circulate screenshots?) and tempting Fate: see my article, Always Wear Trousers on Skype for a true story. You’ll find it online at https://bit.ly/TrousersOnSkype.
Keep your microphone muted except when you wish to, or are invited to, speak. This is because “noises off”, such as people banging doors in the background, can be very disruptive.
If you have to get up for some reason, or move to a different room, turn your webcam off because all that movement can be very distracting for others.
If possible, read any documents you need to refer to while speaking on a screen rather than have them in paper format. This is because the noise of rustling paper close to a microphone is just horrible.
Use the chat facility if you have been told to, but if not then don’t because that too can be quite distracting to the others.
I hope this guide is helpful.