This page provides an outline of best practices when leading a class in an Imperial teaching space for the first time. 

To ensure the space has the correct facilities to support your teaching, we recommend that you visit the space and familiarise yourself with the room. There are many variables including available AV technologies, room layout, lighting control and teaching and learning technology.

Visiting a teaching space

To identify the AV technologies in the room you're using and how to operate them, visit our teaching spaces support pages.  The support pages contain guides on how to use the touchpanel, key support information and contacts for help in that space.  The support pages are a new offering from ICT and we are constantly working to increase and improve the information they provide.

You can see all shared teaching spaces calendars in Celcat. This can help you plan the date and time of your visit. You should bring your teaching materials and your laptop or tablet if you plan to use them in your classes so that you can test how they interact with the room when connected to the lectern.  When in the room, try to simulate teaching a lecture –

• Wear a microphone
• Switch the projectors on and display your content from the appropriate device/s
• Test the lighting controls to understand which setting is best for your purposes
• Understand where the chalk/whiteboards are and if you can
• Make a test recording with Panopto

Powerpoint/Mentimeter presentations will work with all spaces with AV equipment, however whiteboards and visualisers vary from room to room. The capabilities of the space will inform which content delivery styles are most appropriate. 

Matching spaces to your teaching style

If you are running a hybrid/hyflex session you will need to understand the capabilities of the room from which you are teaching. There are some 'Zoom Rooms' and 'Teams Rooms' where there is a dedicated installation.  Spaces with dedicated Teams/Zoom Room equipment can be located using our teaching spaces support pages.  Every PC installed in a lectern has Teams installed as default however you may not be able to use the room camera in Teams depending on the AV setup. There are dedicated instructional videos for Teams Rooms and Zoom Rooms. 

If you are planning group work or more interactive sessions there are spaces available with room layouts that facilitate those teaching cases.  Your Ed-Tech Lab should be able to advise which spaces are available in your area.

Recording in teaching spaces

You can record your hyflex session using Teams or Zoom, for other types of teaching session you will need to know if you are using Panopto and if you are; if it is the Remote (scheduled) Recorder or the Personal Recorder.  
 
Familiarise yourself with Panopto  - most departments use a scheduled recorder that is linked to the room's Celcat calendar bookings.