Remote Tutoring Setup

From BMT Tutor Wiki

Setting up Your Environment

Although online tutoring can be very convenient, it can also be stressful for students and create an impression of low quality services when not done right.

The majority of this stress and "low-quality" feeling comes from using the default tool that most of us have available: a laptop on Wi-Fi with a built-in webcam, speakers, and microphone.

Regardless of how high grade your laptop is, most laptops have absolutely awful built-in cameras, and all laptops have microphones that are unsuited to high-quality video conferencing.

Yes, even your $2,000 MacBook Pro.

Lets Get Professional

For professional remote tutoring, we highly recommend that you do not use the built-in camera and microphone on your laptop.

If you want your video calls to look and sound high-quality, we suggest you purchase a webcam, headset, and a reasonable quality microphone.

This doesn't have to be expensive - almost anything you buy will be a HUGE upgrade.

Microphone - Most Important!

The most important upgrade is a microphone.

We strongly recommend that you don’t use the built-in computer microphone because this type of mic picks up all sounds (and noise) in your space and outside.

This also creates problems if your student starts talking and you start talking at the same time. Since your video conference software intelligently mutes your microphone to prevent the other person from hearing feedback of their own voice, your student is not likely to hear you and might miss vital information.

It's important to have a mic that’s placed closely to your month that has a noise cancelling feature. Due to their proximity to your mouth, most headset microphones will pick up comparatively little environmental noise.

Environmental Noise

Even with a decent microphone, you should do your best to minimize environmental noise. Even the best microphones are not magic and noise makes calls uncomfortable and stressful for people on the other side of the line.

Some examples of environmental noise are:

  • TV or Music playing the background
  • Kitchen sounds
  • Vocal pets, housemates, family members, etc.
  • Traffic or construction (with open windows)

Wi-Fi

Many online communication issues (dropouts, stuttering, etc.) are actually caused by bad Wi-Fi, not a bad internet connection.

If you are using Wi-Fi, make sure you have a solid Wi-Fi signal to your computer. The further you move away from your Wi-Fi hotspot, the more dropouts and disconnections you are going to experience.

If you live in an apartment building, there are many people around you who also use Wi-Fi, and the more people around you who use Wi-Fi, the more inconsistent your signal is going to be. This tends to cause stress and frustration for everyone involved.

To remedy this, make sure you either:

  1. move very close to your Wi-Fi router, with no walls between you and the router
  2. connect your computer directly to the router via an ethernet cable

If you've been experiencing low quality Zoom calls due to unreliable Wi-Fi, you'll be shocked at how much more reliable and clear the calls are when using a physical ethernet cable.

Space Set-up

Please do your best to not have any clutter in your background as it can be distracting for your students and is not appropriate for a high-priced service.

Zoom does have the 'blur background' feature, but it can sometimes look kind of weird and tends to be inconsistent.

A nice "real" background is almost always better.

Video Set-up

After fixing your audio, the most important thing that helps video calls feel high quality is lighting.

To achieve good lighting, make sure you don’t have a bright light source behind you and instead have lights in front of you.

The best kind of light is defuse. An open window in front or to the side of you, with a clear sky (but not direct sunlight!) work great for video.

Although window light is best, this won't work after sundown.

Creating Consistent Lighting

If you'd like to have a consistent lighting environment throughout the day and if you’re serious about remote tutoring, we suggest that you invest a little bit of money and to get a small LED light panel. This will create a controllable lighting environment and make your sessions look high quality.

Our Recommendations

Here are a list of products we recommend you consider purchasing to ensure the video and audio is of high quality during your remote sessions:

Webcam

For absolutely INSANE video quality, consider buying a DSLR that can be used as a webcam. Most new Canon cameras can be used as a Webcam with built-in software:

Headset (With Microphone)

Wired USB headsets are usually the cheapest and most reliable. Make sure you get one that's comfortable to wear for extended periods of time:

Wireless headsets are a bit more snazzy and significantly more expensive. They are also limited by battery life, but modern headsets have good battery life. Don't forget to charge it!

MIC Only

If you don't like stuff on your ears, you can use a USB Lapel mic or a gooseeneck desktop mic. The closer the microphone is to your mouth, the less environmental noise it will pick up.

Light Source

This may seem like overkill, but will make a huge difference.

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