Best Practices for Web Conferencing Sessions

Following are some guidelines for getting the most out of your web conferencing sessions. You may have additional guidelines indicated in your online classroom or agreed to by your team.

• It is a courtesy to give others adequate notice of team meetings. Scheduling team discussions at least 72 hours in advance is recommended; and when setting team meetings, please consider that some participants may be located in different time zones.
• It will help to avoid scheduling conflicts later in the semester if you establish and schedule regular team meetings throughout the semester at the very beginning of a semester.
• Provide an agenda to team members in advance of the meeting; team members could take turns chairing the meetings, and restating any pertinent outcomes or action items at the end of each meeting.
• For best sound quality, use an external microphone.
• Take steps to minimize background noise, such as participating from a quiet room with the door closed, turning off other audio sources such as radios, minimizing interruptions, etc.
• Only one person should speak at a time; take the time to slow down and speak clearly, positioning your mouth close enough to the microphone (but not too close) and speaking with adequate volume.
• If there are students in your group who experience difficulty hearing other participants, it may be useful to schedule recorded sessions so that team members may go back and review the sessions later.
• When making use of a recorded session, remind others at the session's start that the session will be recorded.

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