There are many different reasons to host a live virtual conference with students. The table below
depicts a few examples.
Review for Major
Assessment
Guest Speaker Weekly Office Hours
Interactive Lecture Class Debate Group Presentations
1:1 Demonstration of Key
Concepts
Show Students How to
Troubleshoot Technical
Issues
Introduce New Unit or Major
Project
Build Class Community RolePlaying Current Event Discussion
Peer Review Check and Connect Parent/Teacher Meeting
Tips:
❏ Prior planning prevents poor performance
❏ Have a clear purpose before you begin. Communicate this purpose to students.
❏ Test out the environment and ensure you are familiar with all the conferencing
features. Anticipate common questions students might have with technology and
ensure you are prepared to answer.
❏ Upload any templates or resources you plan to use before the meeting begins.
❏ Open the conference a few minutes before your scheduled start time.
❏ Allows students to chat informally with one another
❏ Allows you time to troubleshoot audio/video issues with students
❏ Refrain from speaking for long chunks of time without engaging students
❏ Have a simple format students understand for responding via chat or through audio
means. Provide students multiple opportunities during conference to provide feedback,
questions, comments, concerns, etc.
❏ Backchannels (Student chat) are great ways for students to insert questions while you
are presenting.
❏ Consider muting students during your lecture or while students join the conference to
minimize background noise.
❏ Play music before the conference begins while students enter the meeting.
❏ Change the layout of the screen students see multiple times during the presentation
which best fits the actions you are performing. For example, if you are having a Q & A
session, it is best to change the layout where everyone may see one another’s faces.
❏ Ask for feedback at the end of the presentation so you may continually improve the
delivery of your live conferences