• The camera favors solid colors. Avoid plaids, tweeds, stripes, and busy prints.
• Simple jewelry tends to work best. Avoid flashy, dangling jewelry.
• Avoid wearing anything that would distract from your presentation.
• White colored clothing should be avoided, unless it is under a jacket.

Things to Do When Preparing for a Teleclass

• Get the site names and locations for sites you wish to share with your class.
• Find out what technology they are using (NCIH, NCREN, H.323, uplink, downlink, or ISDN).
• Get several days and times that your class could meet. Get with the video manager to see if those dates and times will work on the schedule. This can be sent in e-mail or faxed.
• Make sure you have a contact name for each site you would like.
• Get approximate number of participants at each site so we can reserve the appropriate facility.
• Taping can be done in VHS format, but you need to provide the tapes.
• We can playback tapes during class, but we will not playback a tape that has been damaged or recorded with bad quality. It is recommended that your tape is sent in early to make sure it can be played back.
• Be prepared to have a cost passed on to you for use of certain sites. Some sites charge if the participants do not have an affiliation with their site.
• Get your information in as soon as possible. All universities compete for time on the network. The sooner your information is in, the more likely you are to get the dates and times you would like.

During Your Presentation

The Teleconference Center staff can accommodate a variety of presentation tools, including computer presentations, video tapes, and slides. Please notify staff in the Teleconference Center as to what technology aids you will be using during your presentation.

If you are using overheads, use light blue or beige paper with black graphics and black text. Colors also work well for emphasizing a point. Please print your overheads in landscape style.

It is helpful to use a large font to ensure that the text is easily legible from maximum distance.

To increase interactivity and reinforce the involvement of those participants at remote sites, it helps to do a roll call at the beginning of the presentation to welcome each of the sites and participants to your program. This is also helpful during the question and answer session.

If you have “housekeeping duties” that each of the sites need to perform (registration, evaluation, small group discussion), you may want to discuss those at the beginning of the conference to prevent confusion.

Conference organizers have found it effective to identify a site facilitator who handles the above duties at each site, as well as keeping order in the room.

Each site facilitator may also want to remind his/her group that the microphones on the desks are very sensitive. They do pick up whispering and paper rustling, so participants should keep noise at a minimum to avoid disturbing participants at other sites.

You may want to have your participants arrive at the videoconferencing center at least fifteen minutes prior to the start time so they have a chance to get settled before the session begins.

The Teleconference Center staff will be happy to schedule a practice session if you would like to go through your presentation.

Feel free to contact Wanda McIver in the Teleconference Center if you have questions or need additional information.