Tips For Success

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Online lessons can be just as effective as in-person lessons. However, special consideration must be made for the technology and medium involved.

Tips for online lessons

Be on time for y our scheduled lesson, or reschedule your lesson in advance.
Check your email or SMS messages shortly prior to lesson, in case the lesson has been rescheduled.
Test your audio and Skype connection prior to lesson start. Skype provides an "Echo Sound Test Service" in your contact list. Call it to test y our microphone and speakers.
Test your webcam/video - Tools/Options/Video settings will show you how your webcam is working.
Get good quality equipment for the best learning experience. S ee our equipment recommendations for ideas.
Be familiar with your microphone, computer, and speaker volume settings. You might have to adjust these settings during the lesson if you run into difficulties. For example, extra loud speaker volume can feedback into the microphone, resulting in clipping of the incoming conversation.
Restarting the video call, or restarting the Skype application, can solve many technical problems.
Skype quality can be affected during periods of heavy Internet usage (weekday evenings in the US, for example). Try scheduling lessons on the weekend.

Pick a quiet lesson and practice spot away from general family activity. Background noise, siblings, etc. can be very distracting to students.
Attend each lesson to facilitate communication between child and guru. Often gurus will not understand your child’s particular accent, or vice versa.
Supervise practices. Children are usually not self-motivated and don't appreciate the need for regular practice. Remind your child to practice regularly, or schedule practice time during his/her day.
Do not interfere during a lesson (with the above exception). Children will find it distracting to take direction from both you and the online guru at the same time.
Take lesson notes so child can focus on interacting with the guru.
Pay personal attention to child’s practices. Many young children are busy or lack the discipline to follow a practice schedule. Remind them gently of their obligation to their guru and to themselves.
Do not reschedule or postpone lessons due to lack of practice. Frequent or long breaks between lessons often leads to reduced interest in learning. As they say, "out of sight, out of mind."

Consider emailing compositions to students before the lesson. You can also share files right within your Skype session.