Zoom for attendees and students

…and a lot of other things you can use when attending online meetings or trainings for the first time

So, you’re going to attend an online training for the first time? Cool, it will probably be a whole new experience for both of us.

First thing we think you should do is to read everything on our Zoom starting page. That kind of defines our level of entry.

More things to consider:

When you sign up for a course, it’s crucial that you focus on being a student/participant and nothing else. This is equally important whether it’s a course on-site or online. At the same time, it’s fully understandable you might have a ton of things to do and it’s very easy to get distracted or interrupted by incoming emails from your office.

To avoid this, we suggest you try to plan like this

  • Prepare your “classroom” as much as you can: get your screen, keyboard, mouse, headphones and mic ready. Clear the kitchen table from dirty dishes if that’s where you’re sitting, pre-load the coffee machine and fill up your glass of water and make sure you have good lighting and a comfy chair.
  • Dress like any normal day at the office. Putting on work clothes will get you mentally prepared for work, it will put you in a state much more effective than if you’d still be in your pajamas or sweatpants.
  • If you really have to check your work email – do this before class starts and then shut down the email app (also on your phone).
  • When the class has started – keep your focus on the training and your tasks and assignments. Our trainers are well prepared to teach in a way that will work great with online courses (including lots of small breaks and pauses), but they need your attention and focus to succeed.

Problems you might encounter

We all know it: technology is great, but only if it’s working. And since all of this is dependent on you being able to connect and join a digital classroom or meeting room, we’re sure you might run into some technical issues.

Here are a few things that might help:

Download Zoom

Go to the Zoom website and download the software. Or if you already have it downloaded, make sure you have the latest version well ahead of the start of the course. There is nothing more annoying than classes or seminars that are interrupted or delayed because one or two participants didn’t check their accessibility ahead and can’t get things to work when they are supposed to.

We know for a fact that some organisations won’t allow their co-workers to download software on their own or they have firewalls that prevent them from connecting. So check what conditions you have and talk to your IT people if you need.

Connect and test

It’s very possible to test your audio and video without joining a meeting. Run the software and choose Preferences in the zoom.us menu option. Check the audio and video tabs. We really recommend this to everyone.