Issues and Lessons Learnt in Online Teaching

After a few lessons, I kept on hearing Charlie saying "I'm afraid I can't hear you very well" from time to time. I was low on budget to get new headphones at that time so I decided to borrow my boyfriend's set. Next class, my student said very happily: - Oh, your sound is so much better now! He also mentioned how stressful it was for him to figure out what I was saying because of the poor sound quality. By then, I knew it was time I invested in a new pair of headphones. So then, my journey began.

I spent hours on Mercadolibre analysing headphones descriptions, asking friends for opinions, reading reviews, and so on. I looked at different features that would work together to make my remote lessons sound as best as possible: Bluetooth compatibility, microphone, noise cancelling, external buttons, and others I don't remember at the moment. It was cold, we were on lockdown and there wasn't much to do anyway.

After looking into hundreds of options, I was ready to buy a new headset. It was an in-ear wireless white set. I thought it was so cool and practical. It was a bit pricey though. The problem came when I tried to use it because it didn't work at all, not once. The pods never got connected to Bluetooth at the same time, so I only heard the right side or the left. It was such a mess. I had to return them that same day.

I decided it was time to buy proper headphones so I bought a fancy gamer set. Spoiler alert: they didn't work for me either, and let me tell you why. Although the sound quality was good, the headphones were so heavy and uncomfortable; what's more, they pressed my ears so bad I couldn't stand them for more than two hours in a row. It was a total waste, they were too expensive and I just couldn't bear the headaches after using them for a few hours. So I hopped onto the search bus again and dear reader, this is the part when I hit the nail on the head.

This time I had more requirements. I wanted a headset that was not heavy, that would have great sound quality, that had external buttons so I could mute myself when and how I wanted and that would have high background noise suppression so I wouldn't have to worry every time any random noise would appear. So I bought a Jabra Evolve 20* set and it ticked all the boxes. Let me simply put it like this: I recommend it blindly. My sound quality and my life quality improved after this headset, really.

One of these days, Charlie made a comment on how I looked better on camera. He was not talking about my clothes or make-up... It was my new HD camera. But that's a topic for another article for sure. The point here is that in the virtual world, high-quality gadgets are the new virtual dress code. We don't really care if the person is wearing Prada on the other end of the call. However, the good sound quality would definitely make them look sharp. And even more, if you are an online teacher!

For the ones of you who reached the end of this article: you're going to heaven and also there's an extra tip I'm sharing with you. So, it's great if you can get yourself a good pair of headphones - I actually encourage it- but never underestimate the power of quick check on your devices and software. Set a time to touch base and get ready for the online lesson. It can be five or ten minutes before the actual start time to check everything's working and detect technical problems with anticipation. By doing this, you're creating smoother experiences and also maximising the synchronous time with your students.

*This is not an ad whatsoever.