Phase 1: Set up your video platform to host your classes
Follow these steps to enable your free Zoom account:
- Have your administrators, staff, and teachers sign up for a free Zoom account.
- Have a member of your school fill out this form to request the temporary removal.
- Upon verification, all free Basic accounts using your school’s email domain will have the time restriction lifted.
After this, teachers will be able to log in, schedule their classes, and send out invites to students. Students are not required to have a Zoom account and can join classes using the links sent from the teacher. For the best experience, we do recommend every user download the Zoom application on their preferred Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, or Android device. Step by step instructions for using Zoom are available in this Comprehensive Guide To Teaching with Zoom
Phase 2: Prepare your educators
- Provide training to your teachers on how to teach online. That way in the event of a closure they can already be set up to run video-based classes online over Zoom. We are hosting regular training webinars to help teachers adapt their curriculum to a live video chat classroom. These 45m webinars are led by Outschool’s experienced teachers who have transitioned from in-person to online teaching. Any teacher or school leader can sign up here.
- Learn to troubleshoot with Zoom in a “practice class”. Encourage faculty to schedule “practice classes” with students to troubleshoot any issues ahead of a closure.
Share additional resources:
- Outschool article about teaching online
- Outschool article that provides resources to make classes more interactive
- Outschool’s video that contains Zoom tutorial
Phase 3: Begin communicating with families
- Share your readiness plans with families and students
- Help families continue learning with additional online platforms like Outschool. Drafted messaging below:
To help your child continue learning from home, we recommend exploring live online classes from Outschool.com where students (ages 3-18) can safely connect with highly qualified teachers and classmates from around the world. Outschool’s teachers are carefully background-checked, vetted, and constantly assessed for quality - creating a safe learning environment for students to stay engaged during any shutdown.
