Recommended guidelines when video or audio conferencing.
- Unless you are actively talking, mute your microphone.
- To reduce bandwidth and improve your connection, turn the camera off.
- Assume you are always on camera and that you are always audible, even when you think that you have muted your microphone or turned off your camera.
- Avoid secondary conversations with others close to you as cross-talk is distracting and annoying to remote participants.
- Be careful not to talk over others by politely waiting for your turn. If you are talking for more than a minute at a stretch, pause to let others ask questions or seek clarification.
- Avoid tapping your pencil, moving papers around, rattling ice, setting coffee mugs down on table-tops, tapping on keyboards, and other seemingly innocuous sounds as they are unbelievably loud and annoying to others on the call.
- Warn family members when you are video conferencing so they do not accidentally wander through wearing inappropriate clothing.
- Before the conference starts, make notes on what you want to say so you reduce rambling. During the conference, take notes on action items or when you are asked to work on something. Remember there are some questions that can be worked offline so those who are not directly involved can spend their time working on their own action items.
Courtesy of EDUCAUSE.
Updated: 3/5/2021