Technical problems are inevitable. Your professionalism shows in how quickly and calmly you respond — not in pretending they'll never happen. Below is a field guide built from common scenarios working online teachers face every month.
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Common issues and fast fixes
1. Poor audio quality
Symptoms: Choppy sound, echo, can't hear student, student can't hear you.
30-second fixes:
- Unmute check — Zoom/Meet mute icon, OS-level mic mute, and headset hardware mute (all three exist).
- Switch audio device in the conferencing app's settings panel.
- Ask student to unplug/replug headphones.
- Close any other app using the microphone.
- Ask student to turn off video — reduces bandwidth pressure.
Prevention: Use a wired USB headset, test audio before every session, close unused apps.
2. Frozen or lagging video
Symptoms: Video freezes, slow motion, heavy pixelation.
30-second fixes:
- Both turn off video for 60 seconds. Audio-only often clears the queue.
- Stop screen sharing if active — share kills bandwidth fast.
- Close other browser tabs and apps.
- Ask student to move closer to the router or switch to wired.
- Drop and rejoin the meeting if it stays bad after 60 seconds.
Prevention: Hardwire ethernet, teach off-peak local internet hours where possible, keep a hotspot ready.
3. Screen sharing not working
30-second fixes:
- Stop sharing and restart from a specific window (not "entire screen").
- Check OS permissions — macOS especially needs explicit screen recording permission per app.
- Send the file via chat as fallback.
- Describe verbally, type key points into chat.
Prevention: Test screen sharing before your first lesson of the day. Keep critical materials saved as PDFs you can attach instantly.
4. Student can't join
30-second fixes:
- Send the link by SMS or WhatsApp — email may be delayed.
- Create a fresh meeting room; first one may have a glitch.
- Switch platforms (Zoom → Google Meet, or vice versa).
- Offer phone call as audio-only fallback for critical lessons.
- Reschedule if 5 minutes pass without progress — don't waste their time.
Prevention: Send a reminder with the link 24 hours and 1 hour before the lesson. Verify new students have the app installed before the first session.
5. Your internet goes down completely
Recovery, in order:
- Switch to mobile hotspot (should be set up in advance, takes 30 seconds).
- Rejoin the meeting — apologise briefly, move on.
- If hotspot also fails: message the student via SMS, reschedule, send a brief apology and offer a goodwill makeup slot.
Never let the student wait more than 3 minutes without communication. Silence is the worst part of an outage.
Your emergency kit
- Alternative platform ready in another tab (Zoom + Google Meet covers 95% of failures).
- Student phone number for SMS / WhatsApp emergencies (exchanged in onboarding).
- Offline materials — downloaded PDFs, not just cloud links.
- Conversation backup list — 20 discussion questions that need no materials.
- Mobile hotspot tested every two weeks.
- Spare USB headset in a drawer.
What to say (and not say)
Composure communicates competence more than the fix does.
Say this
- "Let me try something quickly — 10 seconds."
- "Technology can be frustrating. Thanks for your patience."
- "I'll add 5 minutes at the end to make up for this."
- "If this isn't fixed in 2 minutes, let's switch to [backup]."
- "This is on my end — I'll get it sorted."
Don't say
- "I don't know what's wrong." (Project competence even when troubleshooting.)
- "This always happens." (Then why haven't you fixed it?)
- "It's not my fault." (Defensive and unhelpful.)
- Long technical explanations during the issue.
- Blame the student's internet or device.
Platform-specific troubleshooting
Zoom
- "Please update Zoom" — do this before your first lesson of the week, never mid-day.
- 40-minute limit on free group plan — pre-stage a second meeting link.
- Breakout rooms not available on free plan.
- "Participant can't unmute" usually means you accidentally muted them with the host control.
Google Meet
- "You need permission to join" — open the meeting to anyone with the link in settings.
- Some features (like noise cancellation) only work in Chrome.
- No dial-in on the free plan; needs Google Workspace.
Skype
- Both need accounts; new students need to set this up before the first lesson.
- Quality varies more than Zoom/Meet — used to be a default, no longer competitive.
- Screen-share quality drops sharply on slower connections.
Platform-built classrooms (Preply, italki)
- Always have Zoom ready as a fallback. Marketplace platforms occasionally have global outages.
- Cached browser logins cause "stuck on loading" — incognito window often solves it.
Pre-lesson tech checklist (5 minutes)
- Close unused apps and browser tabs.
- Test camera — well-lit, eye-level, clean lens.
- Test microphone — record 5 seconds, play back.
- Check internet speed (fast.com) — at least 10 Mbps up, 20 down.
- Open lesson materials in separate windows.
- Silence phone and desktop notifications.
- Have backup platform tab open.
- Water bottle, notepad and props within reach.
When to refund or reschedule
Clear policy upfront beats case-by-case decisions made when emotions are high.
Your fault — offer makeup or refund
- Your internet failed completely.
- You were late due to your tech issues.
- You lost >10 minutes of lesson time to your tech problems.
- Equipment malfunction on your end made teaching impossible.
Their fault — usually no refund
- Their internet problems.
- They couldn't figure out the platform after you sent instructions.
- Their device malfunction.
Goodwill: offer a 15-minute extension or a small discount on the next lesson if it's a long-term student.
Mutual / unclear — partial makeup
- Platform itself crashed.
- Neither internet at fault, just the link between you.
- Weather, power outage.
Long-term prevention
Equipment
- Webcam: Logitech C920/C922 (~$70). Better than any laptop camera.
- USB headset with mic: Logitech H390 or Jabra Evolve 20 ($30–60). Wired beats Bluetooth.
- Ring light: $20–35 makes you look more professional than $300 of camera ever will.
- Ethernet cable + adapter: $10–25. Worth it.
- Backup device: An iPad or older laptop you can join from if the primary dies.
For specifics by budget see our classroom setup guide.
Internet
- Upgrade your plan if you teach full-time — the cost difference is recovered in one cancelled refund.
- Position your router centrally; teach close to it.
- Use the 5GHz Wi-Fi band; faster, less crowded.
- If problems persist, ask your ISP about line quality — they often won't volunteer this.
Staying calm under pressure
- Set a 2-minute time limit on troubleshooting. After that, switch to plan B.
- Use light humour: "Technology keeps us humble." Beats silent panic.
- Take responsibility regardless of fault — leading the solution builds trust.
- Move forward fast. Once fixed, smoothly transition back to the lesson. Don't dwell.
- Run a post-incident note. A 2-line journal entry: what failed, what fixed it, what you'll do differently. Patterns emerge after a few months.