Tips To Make Work From Home More Efficient!
You may have seen a recent article about educators getting a crash course in delivering their classes remotely in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak.
Here at TLG Learning we’ve been offering classes remotely for nearly 20 years and we’re quite experienced at it. In fact, many of our students prefer remote learning for several reasons including:
- No travel costs
- No commute
- No germ sharing
If you don’t regularly work from home, we’ve put together a short introductory training video about using Microsoft Team’s for on-line meetings, conference calls, document collaboration and screen sharing.
Microsoft Teams Primer
Microsoft makes Teams available at no cost
In response to the COVID-19 outbreak Microsoft and Google have both made their respective conferencing software free for users. There has never been a better time to check out these tools. You can find details of these offers here.
If your manager is concerned about productivity while you are out of the office this is great time to attend some remote courses and invest in your professional career. You can find our complete course schedule of classes offered remotely on our website.
Tips we've learned along the way
- Use a USB wired headset and wired internet connection for the best experience. Bluetooth is great for your mobile phone but introducing wireless links for conferences can reduce the call quality for you and your co-workers
- Don’t forget to put yourself on mute if you won’t be talking for a spell. You don’t want to be the person echoing your keyboard clicks to everyone on the call or calling for your dog during a meeting.
- If you’re going to use a web cam be aware of what’s in the background view. Use a Shoji screen or a bed sheet for a background if you’re not a great house cleaner. Microsoft Teams now includes a nifty feature to blur your background.
- The audio and video quality is quite good these days but if you do seem to be having issues — dropping off a meeting an reconnecting clears many connection issues.
- Many collaboration platforms include a messaging/chat feature which is useful for feedback during a meeting. Many organizations retain this information for compliance reasons so stick to work topics.
Many of us may be working from home for a while. Whether you are new to using the collaboration tools or need to learn the technical aspects of rolling out a collaboration platform we’re here to help.