What's Better for Live, Online Training: Computer Audio or Phone?

When teaching live, online classes, voice communication is huge. Not only do your students need to hear you clearly all of the time, you need to be able to hear them.

Most training platforms (such as Adobe Connect, Citrix GoToTraining, and Cisco WebEx) allow you and your learners to use computer audio (audio that transmits either through the computer built-in microphone and speakers or an external headset, also known as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), or using a phone (traditional landline or mobile phone).

Before I get into if computer audio or phone audio is best, keep in mind that some companies (such as Citrix) provide both options to you and your learners for no additional charge. When students log into the room to start class, they are presented with the option to use their computer audio or dial a long-distance number. If the long-distance number is selected, the toll charges are handled by the learner (not you as the trainer or training company). While toll charges can be cost-prohibitive to learners who call into the training space from home, most people have unlimited long distance plans as part of their phone package; I rarely hear anyone complain about having to call long distance. Other vendors (such as Cisco and Adobe) offer a toll-free number you, as the trainer, can share with your learners. Keep in mind however that the toll-charges for the call are not free. You, as the trainer, will need to pay the fee. And while the fee is usually only pennies per minute per student, those minutes will quickly add up and get very expensive (especially if you've got a large class).

Should you, as the trainer, rely on computer audio or a phone when you connect to your online training room? This important issue is discussed at length during a trainer certification that I co-teach (the course teaches and then certifies people to become an online training professional or COTP (the course is offered by the International Council for Certified Online Training Professionals).

Phone or computer? Computer or phone? The choice between the two audio options isn't really a choice at all. In my experience, using the phone is far less problematic than using computer audio. Why? Because when teaching a class online you are, well, online. Should you lose internet access during your class, it's bad enough that your students won't be able to see what you're doing any longer (when your internet goes down, students typically see a frozen screen that shows what you were doing at the point your service went down). Worse, if you're using computer audio your students can no longer hear you.

Imagine that you're teaching a hands-on online course on disarming an explosive device. Your students are following along with you, each of them safe in their own labs. You're now at the critical part of the course where you will snip a wire and all will be right with the world. You warn the students that if they snip the wrong wire... let's not even think about it.

So here they are, following along with your video feed. You position the cutters above the wrong wire intending to make a point and... poof (not boom, that would be bad)... poof, your internet goes down. And so does your computer audio.

The last thing your students heard before you went radio silent was, "OK, I'm going to snip this wire." They never heard you say, "Just kidding, of course I'm not because that's the wrong wire."

Okay, okay... so clearly I exaggerated this scenario but it does shed light on the problem. Should you lose internet access, you lose everything... video feed, voice communication, everything.

On the other hand, if you're using a phone and the internet service goes down, your students will still hear you. You'll be able to explain, "Oops, I seem to have lost my internet. I'm switching to my backup system... don't cut any wires. I repeat... do NOT cut!"

The debate pitting computer audio against the phone isn't as cut and dry if you're using an internet provider where the phone and internet services are bundled. In my home/office I use Time Warner Cable (TWC) as my phone, internet, and cable service provider. TWC uses the same cable for all of my services. If my service goes down I lose everything (most notably, internet and phone). No worries! Part of my "trainer backup plan" (we talk about the value of a backup plan during the ICCOTP class as well) includes backup internet via a hotspot. And of course I have a mobile phone with AT&T as the service provider. I have unlimited minutes on my plan I could easily communicate with my class via my mobile for days without worrying about going over an allowance.

What's your take on the computer audio vs. phone debate? What do you use for voice communication when teaching classes online?