This is part of Encounter Edu’s additional guidance for using the website during the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak. During this period of uncertainty, school closures and self-isolation, parents and teachers may need to teach differently.
Encounter Edu’s live lessons are an ideal way of sustaining education during school closures. Our live lessons are 45 minute broadcasts on different topics using the YouTube Live platform and can be viewed on any device that shows YouTube.
The live lesson platform was designed with teachers and classes in mind and you can see our standard guidance. However, with different teaching set-ups likely to be in place, we have listed a few hints and tips of how to use these lessons for both teachers and parents during this period of school closures and uncertainty.
The basics are that all are upcoming live lessons are free to view, as are our archive of live lessons. Teachers, parents and students do not need to register to view any of our broadcast live lessons. They are all open to access via the Live Lesson homepage at the time of broadcast.
One of the reasons that we ask teachers and now parents or carers to book a live lesson is the ability to submit shout-outs and questions in advance. We ask that adults still take on this registration process. Once you are registered on the site, you can book as many live lessons as you like. Each time you book a live lesson, it will appear in the Live Lessons section of your profile. Here you can add a shout-out to your class or your new ‘home-school’ and you can submit questions in advance.
The main tool that we use for classes to interact live during a lesson is the YouTube live chat box that appears next to the video. To use the live chat, users need a YouTube channel account and to be logged in (find out how).
As YouTube is classed as a social media platform, users under the age of 13 should not be using it without adult supervision and should not have an account. This means that teachers, parents and carers should post any live questions on behalf of students. We also want to avoid students ‘misbehaving’ on the live chat, and so we ask teachers, parents and carers to ensure that they are moderating what is posted from home or school.
If we do find that there are too many spam or inappropriate messages being posted, we will have to close the live chat. To submit questions during the live lesson, we will ask that these are posted via the live chat app on the Encounter Edu website that can be accessed via the speech bubble icon at the bottom right of each page of the website. We will then forward questions as appropriate to the host or guest speaker.