Video call practice: a pretend call to learn on

Video calls, in plain words

• A video call lets people see and hear each other over the internet, on a computer, a tablet or a phone. Clinics, schools, employers and some courts use them.
• The way in is usually a link in an email or a text message. Some calls give a code of numbers instead, and sometimes a second short code that works as a password. A code is typed into the call program where it asks for it.
• The first time, the browser or the call program usually asks whether the call may use the camera and the microphone. With “Block”, the others cannot see or hear you. The answer can usually be changed later in the settings of the browser or of the device.
• Muted means your microphone is off and nobody hears you. Many calls put you in muted. “You are on mute” is said in a great many calls, to people who have used them for years.
• With the camera off, the others usually see your name, or a letter, where your picture would be. You still see and hear them.
• With the camera on, the others also see what is behind you: the room, and anyone who walks through it.
• The chat is for written messages during the call. Unless a message is sent to one person, usually everyone in the call can read it.
• “Raise hand” asks for a turn to speak without talking over anyone. It is used most in calls with many people.
• A waiting room is part of many calls: after you join, a screen says to wait until the person who runs the call lets you in. That is not an error. This page has no waiting room.
• A call that freezes or ends too soon can usually be entered again with the same link. Turning your camera off often helps when the internet is slow. Many invitations also give a phone number, to join by voice alone.
• A call can be recorded by the person who runs it. Many programs show a notice when that happens. It is fine to ask.
• “Leave” ends the call for you; closing the tab or the program usually does too. Before saying anything private in the room afterward, look that the call is really gone from the screen.

Before a call that matters

• The office’s own instructions come first. A clinic, a court or an employer may ask for a certain program, a sign-in, or a form filled in beforehand. Read their message again the day before.
• Open the link a few minutes early. A program may need to be installed or brought up to date the first time, and that takes a while.
• Light in front of you, such as a window or a lamp you are facing, lets the others see your face. Light behind you turns you into a dark shape.
• A quiet place helps, and so do headphones: they often keep the others from hearing their own voices come back.
• A phone or a tablet runs longer plugged in. Set against something steady, it leaves your hands free.
• On a computer other people use, such as one at a library, ask whether it has a camera and a microphone and whether there is a room for calls. When the call is over, close the tab, and sign out of anything you signed in to.
• If the call will not open, the phone number of the office is the way to tell them. Keep it within reach before the call starts.
• A link you were not expecting, or one that asks for a password or for money before the call, is best left alone. Call the office at a number you already have. Scam check is our page for messages that ask for too much.
• For a job interview, Interview practice is our page for the questions and your answers. For a visit to the doctor, Get ready for your appointment puts what has been happening and your questions on one page.

How the lessons work

• The pretend call is the light-colored box. The strip at its top says where you are. Its addresses end in .example, a name set aside for examples, which no real site has.
• The two pictures are the other side, a made-up clinic, job center, school or library, and you. Under your name it says in words whether the microphone and the camera are on or off.
• Each button says what it will do. When the microphone is off the button says “Unmute”, and when it is on it says “Mute”. “Start video” and “Stop video” work the same way. Real programs often show small pictures instead, with a line across the microphone or the camera when it is off.
• The line under the pictures is what the other side would say: “We cannot hear you”, “We see you now”. It is written by this page. Nobody is there.
• Only the step at hand answers. The step is written above the pretend call. If something else is clicked or typed, the page says what it was, and the pretend call stays as it was. Nothing can be broken.
• The box the step asks for has a blue edge, and what to type is written once more right under it. The box is done the moment it holds what the step asks for. Capital letters and extra spaces are forgiven, and the code can be typed with or without its spaces; every letter and number counts.
• What there is to type is short: a made-up first name, a code of nine numbers, a message of a few words.
• “Send” sends nothing. The message goes into the list on the pretend screen and nowhere else.
• The page waits. There is no countdown, and taking a long time costs nothing. At the end it says how long the lesson took, from the first time the pointer went into the pretend call, and how many times something else was clicked or typed.
• “Start this lesson again” makes another name, place, code and message.

Every time the page is built, a program makes 32,000 lessons, half in English and half in Spanish, and walks through their 176,000 steps on a pretend call of its own, written apart from this page’s: that the thing each step asks for is on the screen when it is asked for, that using it changes something, that each button is named for what it will do, that the step is said in full, and that nothing but the step’s own thing answers.

What this page does not do

• It is not a real call. Nobody is called, nothing is heard or seen, and it cannot tell you whether your own camera, microphone or internet will work. Many call programs have a test of their own for that.
• It does not look like every call program. Real ones differ: the buttons are often small pictures, the row is often at the bottom and hides until the pointer moves, and on a phone some of it is behind “More”.
• It does not teach installing a program, making an account, starting a call of your own and inviting people, showing your screen, a made-up background, captions, calling in by phone, or small side rooms.
• It is not advice about a medical visit, a court date or an interview. The office that set up the call is the one to ask.
• It is not practice for the hand: Mouse and trackpad practice and Typing practice are.
• It does not keep your times or which lessons you have done, gives no certificate and makes no promise about how fast anyone will learn.
• It can be worked by keyboard (Tab, Enter and the space bar), but it has not been tried with a screen reader, a switch or an eye tracker.