To Schedule or Not to Schedule

Last week I received a good chunk of TMS training as I try to get up & running again with scheduling our VCs. I’ve been connecting them on the fly, but 900+ a year is getting too many! Too easy to forget to dial! Now I have to rethink my policies and strategies. You can think with me! 🙂

VC Like a Phone

Chris, the trainer from SKC, suggested that to increase utilization, we must train endusers to think of VC like a phone. You know how to dial your phone, and you know what to do if the call drops. If the endusers know how to dial and redial, they won’t be so afraid of it.

With that in mind, a few questions arise!

To Schedule or Not to Schedule

  • What calls should be scheduled?
  • Schedule: Multipoint projects and meetings.
  • Schedule: Connections to content providers where my school needs me to connect.
  • Not Schedule: Connections my schools can do on their own (i.e. their own projects, content provider connections where they can dial)

To Bridge or Not to Bridge

  • Which calls should be on the bridge? For some unknown reason, my schools get better quality when calls are off the bridge.
  • Bridge: When I need to actually facilitate, watch, or record the VC.
  • Bridge: Multipoint collaborations like MysteryQuest.
  • Not bridge: Point to point calls (now TMS will let me monitor their success)

To Dial Out or Require Dial In

  • Should I dial out to my schools or require them to dial in?
  • Since I’ve been scheduling on the fly, I have preferred to have them dial in. I can’t do 6 calls out at a time easily.
  • Dialing in puts the responsibility on the enduser. They can easily hit redial if the call drops (if trained).
  • I think I still prefer dial in.

Your Turn: What do you think? How do you decide these questions?

0 replies on “To Schedule or Not to Schedule”

  1. These are AMAZING guidelines! resolving VC issues is so intuitive, but teachers and other end users can dail a phone so they CAN dial a VC address!

    In my recent job changes….I’ve noticed how much of an enable I’ve become by doing everything for “them”. Our end users want to be self sufficient. Let’s help them with that.

    • Linda, I have some teachers who have done so many VCs that their school VC coordinator is now giving them the IP address to dial. It seems that even if I could dial for them, I shouldn’t take back what they have learned how to do on their own – or are about to learn to do on their own.

      It’s not that I’m going to be out of a job, it frees me up to run more projects & events….

  2. There can be many questions regarding VC. Applebatch is here to help possibly solve those problems with teachers. Applebatch is a teacher network site that allows teachers to come together and share resources or discuss topics like this one.

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