Table of Contents

Before Your First Lesson

Technical Setup Guide

Lobby

Tabs

Uploading and annotating files

Video layouts

Leading mode

Screen sharing

Best practices

An Example Maths Lesson

An Example Language Lesson

Leading Mode

Locking Objects and Tabs

Managing Participants

Using the Resource Drawer

Having trouble?

Become an expert in using the Sherpa Classroom by following our video tutorial series playlist on youtube. You’ll learn all about the different features, tips and tricks to use in your online lessons.

Make sure to demo the Sherpa Classroom before your first lesson to ensure your audio and video works fine. Be sure to resolve any warnings such as browser updates or camera permissions that will have an effect on your lesson.

Note: The above button only works when you are logged in as a tutor.

Joining a Classroom doesn’t require any logins or downloads, thanks to modern technology in most browsers. Using the most recent version of Chrome on Windows, Linux or Mac devices, and Safari on iOS devices, as well as having at least 1mbit/s symmetrical connection is recommended.

When joining a Classroom, make sure to grant the correct browser permissions. You can choose audio and video sources in the Device Setup menu within the Classroom. Any issue in the Classroom is indicated in the Troubleshooting Menu (this can be found within the classroom).

Now let’s get familiar with some of the basic features of the Classroom. When you first join, you’ll arrive in what’s called the Lobby. The Lobby is the "waiting area" where you can get ready before your lesson. In the Lobby, you can test your microphone, speakers and video. When you’re all set, click Join.

In a Classroom, you can have three different types of tabs: Document Tab, Whiteboard or Code Tab. The Document Tab is a collaborative document editor, where you can write and format text documents. The Whiteboard has all different types of collaborative tools such as drawing, shapes, highlight or graph tools. You can upload and annotate PDFs, images and other documents there. The Code Tab allows you to add and edit code in many different coding languages supporting syntax highlighting and collaborative code editing.

Upload and annotate files and learning material easily to the Classroom. Use the "+" icon on the left-hand corner. Alternatively, you can use the "Upload" button on a whiteboard to add files to your Classroom. When a file is uploaded to the whiteboard, you can start annotating using the tools in the toolbar.

You can choose between three different Video layouts in the Classroom. In Video Grid mode, you have the chance to fully focus on the participants in the Classroom. Video sidebar mode arranges each video as an anchored bar to the right of the screen while Floating Videos mode gives you the control and allows you to drag and drop and resize the videos to your liking. Double click on any video to see the video in full-screen mode.

Leading Mode allows a teacher (leader) to lock a student into their view. This means that whatever the teacher sees, students see too. If the teacher changes a tab in the Classroom, all other participants automatically go to that tab. When on a Whiteboard, the student’s view is always the same as the teacher’s.

Share your screen directly from the Classroom with other participants with just one click. You can choose to share your entire screen, an application window or a browser tab only (we recommend sharing an application window or browser tab only, to avoid the infinity mirror effect when screen sharing). When screen sharing, Leaders automatically enter presenter mode, so if a non-leader shares their screen, make sure to expand it by double-clicking on the shared screen.

The best way to learn more about how the Sherpa Classroom works is by seeing it in practice. Here are two example lessons, highlighting some useful features you can incorporate into your online tutoring.

To make sure your students see what you see, enable Leading Mode to make students follow you to any tab or part of the whiteboard. Leaders (teachers) have the ability to control Video Layouts, manage tabs (including locking tabs) and enable Read-only Mode.

As a Leader, teachers can disallow changes made on tabs or lock objects on the Whiteboard. This will prevent students from making edits and deleting things from the Classroom. The global Read-only Mode will prevent all participants other than the Leader from making any edits in the Classroom.

As a Leader (teacher) you have the ability to manage participants in the Classroom. This includes the ability to mute or ban students, as well as to stop their video feed.

Insert material easily from the Resource Drawer. Anything you have previously uploaded to this during a previous lesson will remain here in future classrooms.

Find a worksheet or image you like, click on it and it will be added to the whiteboard. You can then resize and annotate the material as you like.

No problem!

If you're having a camera or microphone permissions problem, check out our article on fixing these issues:

If you're having issues with quality or connection, try running our troubleshooting tool which will run through your Browser setup, as well as checking the quality of your connection:

If you're still having issues, don't hesitate to get in touch with our support. We're always ready to help. During working hours (9am - 5.30pm), you'll receive a response within a few minutes. Outside of working hours, you'll hear back from us the moment we're back.

Get in touch with support by clicking the 'Chat' icon in the bottom right of this screen.