Running Live Sessions
Join the session, welcome students, teach with lesson content, and use the live tools effectively.
Who this is for
Teachers who are about to start or are already inside a live lesson.
What this page answers
- How should I start the session cleanly?
- What tools matter during the lesson?
- What is different in group sessions?
Prerequisites
- a scheduled session with students attached
1. Join early
Open the session before class starts so you can:
- confirm camera and microphone access
- check your lesson content
- verify the correct audio output and input devices
The "Lesson Starting Soon" banner on the Dashboard shows you and the student all key details — including any assignment note you wrote when scheduling the lesson. Use this to remind yourself and the student of the planned focus for the session.
The banner also shows the Previous Lesson as a clickable link to review or continue the previous session.
Audio handled for you
A few things are tuned automatically so neither you nor your student has to think about them:
- Echo cancellation is on in every audio preset — so speakers, laptop mics, AirPods, and headsets all produce clean audio without feedback loops.
- Noise suppression is always on — engine hum, keyboard typing, and low-level room noise are filtered on both sides of the call.
- Noise Suppression Strength — for unusually loud rooms, open the in-call audio settings and nudge the strength slider up. The change applies to the live track immediately.
- Participant join chime — when a student joins an ongoing session, a short three-note chime plays so you do not have to watch the participant list. The first two seconds after you connect are silent, so the chime never fires for people already in the room.
2. Start the session deliberately
For group sessions, wait until you are ready and then start the group lesson. For individual sessions, move straight into the teaching flow once both sides are present.
3. Review assigned tasks
The live session header shows an Assigned Tasks card split into two columns:
- Previous Homework — lessons assigned for the current class (homework the student should have completed before this session)
- Next Homework — lessons that will be assigned after the current class
Each lesson appears as a pill with an icon. In group sessions, student avatars appear on each pill. Lists longer than 3 items are collapsed with a "Show more" toggle.
Attendance in Group Lessons
When students join a group live lesson, Speakly can mark them present automatically. At the end of the session, students who never joined are finalized as absent in bulk, so the attendance record stays complete without the teacher editing every row manually.
You can still review the final attendance state after class if a student joined late or there was a connection issue.
4. Use the lesson as the session spine
Most live sessions work best when the lesson content drives the flow:
- introduce the topic
- work through explanations or examples
- complete exercises together
- use chat or audio/video discussion when needed
Switch lesson material during a live session
Sometimes the scheduled lesson is not the right material once the session starts. Use Lesson Library in the live session header to open another lesson without leaving the call.
- Click Lesson Library.
- Change the status filter to All if the lesson is not visible.
- Find the lesson you want to use.
- Click Open Here.
Speakly.PRO switches the displayed lesson for the live room while keeping the same session context. The call, chat, timer, rewards, collaboration state, and session record stay attached to the original live session.
Use Return to session lesson when you want to clear the override and show the originally scheduled lesson again.
This is also useful for homework review. In a 1:1 lesson, open the student's submitted or previous homework and review it together inside the same call. In a group lesson, the teacher can use the participants' previous and assigned materials to open an individual student's homework copy when that student's work needs attention, while still keeping the group session context.
Use prepared Whiteboards during the lesson
A lesson can include more than one Whiteboard block. This lets the teacher prepare several visual workspaces before class: for example, a grammar diagram, a process scheme, a vocabulary mind map, and a blank board for live problem solving.
During the live session, open the Whiteboard block you want to work with. Speakly.PRO automatically opens the same board for students, so the class stays on the same diagram without asking students to scroll or find the right place manually.
Use separate boards when each stage of the lesson needs its own visual context. Use image annotation tools instead when you only need to point at or mark a specific picture.
Present the lesson slide by slide
If the lesson is prepared with page breaks, use Presentation Mode during the live session to show the material as slides instead of a long scrolling document. The teacher controls navigation with the arrows, Space, or the section navigation overlay.
When the teacher switches slides, students see the same slide automatically. Use this for explanation-first lessons, group classes, projector-style teaching, or any session where you want everyone focused on the same section before moving on.
Control what students see in the lesson document
When you teach in the normal lesson document view, you can still guide student attention without switching to Presentation Mode.
- Click an item in the lesson Table of Contents to scroll the teacher and all students to that section.
- Double-click a block's drag handle to scroll everyone to that exact block and briefly highlight it.
Use the Table of Contents for larger section jumps, such as moving from explanation to practice. Use the block drag handle when you need a precise focus point, such as one exercise, image, paragraph, or widget.
5. Use in-session tools only when they help the lesson
The main live-session tools are:
- shared lesson content
- chat panel (draggable — click the header to drag it anywhere on screen; auto-resizing text input; on mobile, it docks full-width at the bottom)
- synced media playback
- student participant details and lesson status
- rewards from the participant popover
The video track supports an on-demand background blur that runs locally on your machine and adapts its frame rate on slower devices so it never freezes the call. Toggle it from the in-call controls.
Use these tools to support the lesson, not to create a second workflow around it.
Give rewards during the lesson
Open a student's participant popover and choose a reward such as Star, Fire, Brain, or Trophy. Rewards appear immediately in the live room and are saved with the lesson activity, so they can reinforce effort without turning every interaction into a formal grade.
Use rewards for concrete moments: a good answer, persistence after a difficult task, clear pronunciation, or helpful participation in a group class.
Check the audio profile
Use the call controls before teaching starts:
- microphone button to mute, unmute, or choose another input device
- speaker output selector for teachers
- audio settings to choose a preset such as quiet room, default, noisy room, pro mic, headset, or custom
- echo cancellation, noise suppression, automatic gain, AI denoising strength, speech EQ, and compressor controls when supported by the browser
If a student's audio environment changes during class, adjust the preset first. Use custom controls only when the preset is close but still not clean enough.
6. Close with a clear handoff
Before ending the session, make sure students know:
- what was covered
- what needs more work
- whether homework or a follow-up session is coming next
For group sessions, review presence before final completion. Students who joined can be marked present automatically, but the completion flow still gives the teacher a chance to confirm who was absent before any completion or billing effect is applied.
Cancelling or deleting a session
The teacher assigned to a session — and any Org Admin — can cancel or delete it at any point, including after it has already passed. Either action auto-refunds any billed tokens. For full rules (the cancel vs. delete trade-off, per-student refunds in group sessions, what the student sees), see Cancelling and deleting lessons.
Related pages
- Live Session Follow-Up
- Homework Management
- Lesson Document Lifecycle — cancel/delete and refund rules