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intermediate ⏱️ 13 min read

LiveOS: Running a Live Class

Schedule, run and file a live online session in skillSYMS — the room, the register, chat and polls, recordings, moderation and the evidence a live class has to leave behind.

For: Training Providers Administrators Assessors Learners
On this page(12 sections)

Summary

LiveOS runs online sessions and, more importantly, files them. A live class that nobody can later prove took place is a class that did not happen as far as a funder or an auditor is concerned, so the module treats the register, the recording and the evidence pack as part of the session rather than as an afterthought.

Note: skillSYMS currently has two live-class stacks. The older one lives under Live (/sdp/live) and the newer LiveOS one under Live Sessions (/sdp/sessions). Nothing has been migrated between them. If your provider already runs rooms under the older stack they keep working — but new work should be done in LiveOS, and you should not expect a session created in one to appear in the other.

Who This Guide Is For

  • Facilitators delivering online or blended classes
  • Operations managers watching what is running right now
  • Moderators reviewing how a session was conducted

Prerequisites

  • A class group or cohort with learners on it
  • Learners with working logins and email addresses
  • A device with a camera and microphone, on a connection that can carry video

Step 1: Schedule the Session

Navigate to Live Sessions → New.

Give the session a subject, a time and the group it is for. Scheduling from the group rather than by inviting individuals is what lets the register reconcile afterwards: the system knows who was expected, so it can tell you who did not arrive.

Tip: Schedule against a timetabled class session where one exists. The live room then belongs to the class, and its attendance flows into the same coverage view as the in-person sessions.

Learners reach the room from their own dashboard, and from the link the invitation sends them. Send the invitation from inside the session rather than pasting the URL into a WhatsApp group — the invited list is what the no-show report is computed against.

Step 3: Run the Room

Open the session at its start time.

Inside the room you have the participant list, chat, screen share, recording, polls, a whiteboard and mute-all. The register builds itself from who joined and how long they stayed, which is the point: a live register that depends on somebody remembering to take it will eventually not be taken.

Two things worth knowing before your first class:

  • Recording requires consent. The module records the consent alongside the recording. Announce that you are recording; do not rely on the notice alone.
  • Ending the session is deliberate. Use the End button. A session left open does not close itself cleanly and the duration it reports will be wrong.

Step 4: Capture Evidence, Not Just Attendance

During or after the session, attach what the class produced — the shared screen, a worked example, a poll result, a photograph of a whiteboard. Attendance proves a person was present; evidence proves something was taught.

Step 5: File the Session

Navigate to Live Sessions → Overview.

The wall shows what is running, what is about to start, and — the column that matters — what has finished but has not been filed. A session is filed when its register is confirmed and its evidence is attached. Clear that column weekly.

Step 6: Review and Moderate

Navigate to Live Sessions → Moderation.

Moderators sample live sessions the same way they sample assessment: not to police facilitators, but to answer whether what was delivered matches what was planned. Live Sessions → Analytics carries the pattern-level view — attendance by group, drop-off within sessions, which sessions consistently run short.

What Good Looks Like

  • Sessions are scheduled against a group, not by ad-hoc invitation
  • The unfiled column is empty at the end of each week
  • Recording consent is announced and recorded
  • Attendance and evidence for online classes read the same way as for in-person ones

Common Mistakes

  • Pasting the room link into a chat group. The people who join that way are not on the expected list and the no-show report becomes meaningless.
  • Leaving sessions open. Durations become fiction.
  • Recording without saying so. Consent captured in the system is not consent given by the person unless you told them.
  • Assuming the two live stacks share data. They do not.

What's new in skillSYMS

  1. MicroQuests in the browser, in the app and by email
    • skillsyms.com/learn: take LearnChat MicroQuests in any browser with buttons instead of chat replies. You get the same quests, wallet, progress and certificates as on WhatsApp
    • Learn by email: anyone can ask for a personal learning link on skillsyms.com/learn. There's no account and no password, and the link keeps you signed in on that device for 30 days
    + 6 more
  2. Schools & Early Learning (alpha): grades, registers, marks, promotion and SA-SAMS import
    • Learners → Schools & ECD: set up a school or ECD centre under its provincial department, with grades, classes and subjects for each academic year
    • Choose your institution type (primary, secondary, combined, independent, ECD centre and more) to switch on the matching pack
    + 12 more
  3. Schools & Early Learning: learner support, behaviour, governance, ECD development and a guardian portal
    • My classes: a teacher's registers still to take today, open assessment tasks and which learners need accommodations
    • Teaching assignments and teaching scope: start by observing captures outside a teacher's classes, then limit teachers to their own classes and subjects
    + 10 more
Full changelog

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