Choosing A Web-Conference Tool

OVERVIEW | Overview | Web-Conferencing Process | Choosing A Web-Conference Tool |

REVIEW | Web Conferencing Providers Review |

If you are an online tutor looking to use a web-conferencing program to teach with, look for features that are absolutely essential for conducting your internet classes.

Consider Your Needs
Selecting a web-conferencing program can be a little bewildering at first, however with carefully planning and a little consideration as to what features you most likely use, you will save yourself both time, money and a lot of unwanted frustration later on. Carefully What Your Needs Are Consider your needs. Do you need to communicate face-to-face with your students? If so what tools will help you to best communicate? Do you need voice or will you use a separate voip program? Do you want to give control of your desktop to other online users?
Narrow Down and Focus on The Features You Need
Good web-conferencing programs should have such essential features as screen-sharing, drawing tools, audio and chat messaging. These are absolutely essential to effectively teach ESL online. Keep in mind though that many online ESL students do not understand the jargon and vocabulary associated with web-conferencing tools. They will more than likely become confused and frustrated if you select a software difficult software to master. However, if you go to the other extreme and select a program with only one or two features, you will likely end up using other add-on programs to compensate for what you don't have.
Run Trail Test of Your Preferred Web-Conferencing Tool
Always run a few simulated internet classes, preferably on different computers and browsers to see if the web conference tool is right for you. Running these test will help you to clarify your needs, and see what features you can do without. Unless you plan on posting your recorded video session by mail or by uploading it to your company's website, it would be best to avoid offering recorded class session, either on audio or video files. The reason been is that you will not be able to send or receive these files via a free email service provider, such as Yahoo, which has a 25MB file size limit (or less than 30 minutes of actual video recording time).
Decide on a Program that Both You and Your Students Can Use
Remember that simple is best. There are three features that most ESL teachers will need to successful conduct online classes - chat, voice and screen-sharing. Drawing tools are nice, but they are not essential. The advantage of using software with limited features is that it allows your online students to focus only on the lesson being taught. Another excellent feature is an online account, these accounts allow you to login, view and generate usage reports for all your classes.
Familiarize Yourself with The Web-Conferencing Program Features Before You Teach
Before you begin to teach your first online session, familiarize yourself with your web conferencing tool. Practice teaching and recording your classroom session. Try the different tools such as the voice, chat and drawing tools. Think with as a student and try to sign into class. How does the presentation look to you? Are the tools simple and easy to use? The more you familiarize yourself with the capability and limits of the program, the more smoothly your actual online classroom will operate.

An online tutor stands to gain a lot from experimenting with a web-conferencing software. Trying out different web-conferencing software will help you to learn general troubleshooting skills - skills which you will iinevitably need as an online tutor.

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