Bandwidth friendly teaching and learning

For those of us who are facing bandwidth issues, we may try (and remember to undo if we face additional problems) the followings for low bandwidth teaching and learning

• using different devices: may be PC for sharing screen and phone for audio
• reducing number of devices that are using the shared internet bandwidth
• keeping the video off, at least while not speaking

• unmuting only while speaking

• summarizing things that we are saying to the chat during the section to manage intermittent audio problems for some participants

• posting a summary at the end of each session so that those who could not attend can still have some discussion notes

• offering additional office timings if the situation permits

• reducing our own resolution and window size while presenting

• sharing screen or staying in the collaborative workspace, only when necessary.

• closing other browser tabs

• closing other background apps, cloud drive syncing apps, specially the ones visible near the clock e.g., One Drive, Google Drive, DropBox, etc.

• using incognito or private-browsing mode to temporarily avoid potentially interfering browser extensions or temporarily disabling all browser extensions, specially adblockers

• restarting computer / device

• restarting browser

• reloading the browser page

• temporarily turning OFF browser's "sync" option for settings

• if using Google meet, setting send and receive resolution to 360p and turning on Closed Captioning (CC)

• if using Zoom, disabling HD and other tips, turning ON free zoom live captioning, and disabling profile pictures

• if using Spacial Chat, please see SpatialChat-Recommended-System-Settings

• stopping the recording (if any) by (co)host(s)

• rejoining the meeting might help with intermittent problems e.g., missing shared screen/audio

• if on Windows, temporarily

• turning ON "metered connection"

• turning OFF "background apps"

• turning OFF "sync your settings"

Additional resources:

• https://dld.brown.edu/guides/low-bandwidth-teaching-resources
• https://open.mit.edu/c/teachremote/1nq/lowbandwidth-synchronous-teaching
• http://www.bristol.ac.uk/digital-education/guides/low-bandwidth
• https://elearning.uni.edu/remote-possibilities-considering-your-students-bandwidth
• https://www.vanderbilt.edu/brightspace/2020/03/17/low-bandwidth-teaching-tools-on-brightspace/