How to Schedule an Online Class and Invite Your Students

To schedule an online class, pick a date and a start and end time, invite your students by contact, group or email, set a reminder, attach the files you will teach from and share the class link. Students then get an invitation, a reminder before the class and one link that takes them straight to the whiteboard.

Scheduling sounds like admin, but it decides how the first five minutes go. A class with a clear invitation, a reminder and the worksheet already loaded starts on time. A class organised in a chat thread usually starts with "Which link was it again?"

What should you decide before you schedule the class?

Decide four things before you open the form: the date and time, who is coming, how long it runs and what you will teach from.

Keep the end time realistic. For most tutoring, 45 to 60 minutes is enough; for a group revision session, 60 to 90 minutes with a short break works better.

How do you schedule an online class in Educastic?

Educastic lets a teacher schedule a whiteboard session (called an educast) from the top bar of the dashboard, in four steps.

1. Click "+ Create Educast" and choose "Scheduled Educast".
2. General Info. Enter the Educast Title and Unit, then the Educast Date, Start Time and End Time. The start must be in the future and the end after the start. Choose the Educast Type (Public or Private), the Cost, the Educast Language and how many minutes before the class students are notified (15, 30, 45 or 60). You can also add an image (JPG, PNG or GIF, up to 2 MB). Click Save and Continue.
3. Attendees and Description. Use Add People to invite contacts, Add Group to invite a whole group, and type email addresses to invite people who are not in your contacts. Set the Educast Capacity, write a Description and add any Requirements.
4. Resources and Settings. Upload the files for the class or pick them from your library, and choose where resources can be loaded from (for example Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive). Click Save and Preview Course, check the preview and click Complete.

If you switch on Save automatically Educast Settings as Templates in your profile settings, Load Template on the first step fills the form from an earlier educast, which saves time for a weekly class.

How do students receive the invitation?

Students receive the invitation by email as soon as you save the attendees. Contacts you invite get an email titled "You are invited to an Educast!" and a notification in their Educastic account. People you invite by email address get an invitation with a button that opens the session.

Before the class, Educastic sends invited students a reminder email at the time you chose (15 to 60 minutes before the start). Pick 15 minutes for a class straight after school and 60 minutes for adults who need to leave a meeting.

How do you share the class link?

Share the class link from inside the session with Educastic's Invite button at the top of the whiteboard. It shows the session link with a Copy URL button and a QR code, and lets you add people or groups from your contacts.

A student without an Educastic account can still join: the link offers Join As a Guest, where they type a name and enter. This suits a one-off trial lesson or a parent who wants to watch.

How do you control who gets in?

Control who gets in with the waiting room. Switch on Waiting Room in the whiteboard settings and anyone who opens the link waits on a holding page until you admit them from the Waiting Room button at the top of the board. It is the simplest protection when a link has been forwarded beyond your class.

For a small group of regular students you may prefer to leave it off so they walk straight in. For a public session or a large group, keep it on.

Can the class sync with Google Calendar?

Yes. If you switch on Integrate with Google Tools (Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Classroom) in your profile settings, Educastic adds the scheduled session to your Google Calendar with the session link in the event, and creates a matching Google Classroom class. Sessions created from a Google Calendar event are also kept in step with that event when you change its time.

Where do you find your scheduled classes?

Find your classes under Sessions in the dashboard menu, sorted into Today's, Upcoming, Past and Recorded. Each upcoming session has View Detail and Start, plus a menu to Edit, Duplicate or Delete it. A public session can also be published or unpublished from that menu.

Click Start a few minutes early, load the first page of your worksheet and admit students from the waiting room as they arrive. For what to do in those first minutes, see the first online tutoring session checklist.

Frequently asked questions

Can I schedule a recurring online class? Each scheduled educast is a single session. For a weekly class, duplicate the session or use Load Template; for a planned set of sessions, create a series from the same Create Educast menu.

Do my students need an account to join? No. Students can join with Join As a Guest by typing a name, although an account lets them see their sessions and resources.

Can I start a class without scheduling it? Yes. Choose Start Educast Now from the Create Educast menu to open a session immediately.

Can I change the time after inviting students? Yes. Use Edit on the session in your Upcoming list to change the date or time.

Does scheduling a class cost anything? No. Educastic includes all of its teaching features in the free version.

Schedule your next class now

Set up next week's lesson today: invite your students, choose a reminder and attach the worksheet. Then teach it on the Educastic online whiteboard.

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