5 Pro Tips for Handling Technical Issues During Online Lessons

Unfortunately, technical difficulties are part of our job as online tutors. While most of our lessons go smoothly, every now and then, we experience issues like audio lags or poor video quality.

As frustrating as they may be, knowing how to handle issues like these professionally can leave a good impression on your students. So today, let's go over five tips for handling technical issues with care.

Tip #1: Avoid accidentally blaming the student

The biggest mistake tutors make is accidentally blaming the issue on their students. Even if the issue seems to be coming from their end, don't directly say so.

Most of our students come from harmony-oriented cultures, which means that statements that seem harmless to us can come off as confrontational to them — especially if they are already feeling anxious or frustrated.

So avoid saying things like "It looks like you're having connection issues. Can you refresh the page?" instead, say "It looks like there are connection issues. Let's try refreshing the page."

Being diplomatic keeps the technical issue from snowballing into unnecessary misunderstandings and arguments.

Tip #2: Do not leave the lesson room

Another common mistake tutors make is accidentally leaving the lesson room. Whatever you do, make sure you stay in the lesson room (unless you need to refresh the page).

Even if the student leaves, remember to stay put. This will prevent the lesson from getting canceled by the system, which happens when you leave the lesson page for more than five cumulative minutes.

Tip #3: Do some troubleshooting together

Now it's time to do some troubleshooting with the student.

But first, remember to keep your language simple. Your student is probably already confused, so try to avoid technical terms like "troubleshooting" and "audio" (e.g. "find the problem" and "sound" are much easier to understand). You may also want to type your instructions into the chatbox if that makes things clearer for your student.

As covered in "How To Use The Lesson System," here are the first four things you should do if you encounter a technical issue:

1. Wait five seconds to see if the issue resolves.
2. Try refreshing the page. (Inform the student that you will reload and then do it without waiting.)
3. Ask the student to try reloading the page. (If they don't do so, proceed to the next step.)
4. Suggest to the student that you both try turning off the video.*

If the issue remains, here are some more things you can ask the student to try:

• Can you try turning off the virtual background?*
• Can you try closing other tabs?
• Can you try restarting your browser?
• (If their audio is not working) Can you play a Youtube video to check that your sound is working?
• Is there any other device you could use to take the lesson?

For more ideas, check out our Lesson Page Troubleshooting Guide. Patiently instructing students on ways to troubleshoot the issue will put them at ease and let them know they are in good hands.

*Keep in mind these measures are only temporary. You can encourage students to turn their video and virtual background back on after the connection stabilizes.

Tip #4: Show some sympathy

Experiencing connection issues is frustrating regardless of the source of the problem, so it can help to show that you sympathize with the student and feel bad that the lesson isn't going as planned.

Here are some things you can say.

• Technical issues are the worst, aren't they? Let's figure out what's going on.
• I'm sorry about these technical difficulties. Let's try to fix them and get back to our lesson as soon as we can.

The lesson note is also a good place to show that you care. Here's a sample lesson note for these types of situations.

Thank you for booking a lesson with me today, Mike! I am sorry that technical issues prevented us from talking more about the topic you chose, but I hope next time we can expand on it more.

Tip #5: Offer a lesson via the chatbox

Unfortunately, there will be times when technical issues remain unresolved even after you and your student have tried everything. In this case, you can give the student two options:

1. Keep troubleshooting together.
2. Continue the lesson via the chatbox.

If the student opts for a lesson over chat, you can have a conversation, answer Daily News questions, or even do some activities together. For example, you can send your student riddles and puns or play games with them.

Here are some games that can be played over chat:

• 20 Questions: You pick something and your student has to guess what it is by asking you 20 yes-no questions.
• Two Truths and a Lie: You say three statements (two that are true and one that is false) and ask your student to figure out which statement is false.
• Story Time: You and your student make a story together by each saying one sentence at a time.

👋 That’s it for now

We hope these tips gave you an idea of how to handle technical difficulties with care. Regardless of whether we're able to fix the issue, showing the student that we're trying our best goes a long way. Happy tutoring!