What is expected from my child during sessions?
- Students are encouraged to behave in a kind and appropriate manner.
- Tensions naturally arise with fast-paced, complex games or discussions, but each student must communicate respectfully with every teammate; bullying and using profanity are not tolerated.
- Students are expected to be mindful of not sabotaging their team or intentionally distracting/disrupting their teammates.
- Students are required to be fully clothed during sessions.
- Students need to be present and visible on their devices.
- Adults are not permitted to play on a student account under any circumstance.
- Students’ video presentations should clearly show their entire face in a well-lit environment.
- Students are always welcome to step away to grab a snack, use the restroom, etc. by closing the Synthesis website or quitting the game after it has ended. They can come back to join a new team when they’re done.
- Our system will automatically remove students who are away from their screens after a minute of inactivity.
- Students are asked to avoid distractions in their physical and virtual environments. This involves:
- Loud background noise (for example - other people talking, music, TV)
- We also discourage multiple students from participating in Teams at the same time in the same room/area due to background noise
- Videos/games/websites/apps that they're visiting instead of being on the Synthesis page
- Video backgrounds that are very bright/dark or have a lot of movement
- Eating meals during sessions
- Small snacks are okay if the student is still able to play and discuss without disrupting their teammates
- Family or friends trying to play/talk/discuss with the student while they are meant to be focusing on their teammates
- Students must join from a device and network connection that meets our minimum requirements. We also strongly recommend connecting to a headset with a microphone to improve their audio quality and reduce background noise.
- Students are expected to have English proficiency at a B-1 at CEFR level (being able to describe their opinions and plans).
- Students must join sessions using their own, unique account. Account sharing is not allowed so we can provide custom student feedback on their playing, speaking, and actions.
- Students are advised not to share personal contact information or links to sites outside Synthesis. If students want to connect outside Synthesis, they can ask their parents to have the Synthesis support staff connect them via their parents' emails.
- Students and their families are asked not to record or share photos, videos, screenshots, or other media of sessions.
- Students are expected to plan to attend full sessions and not leave midway through (Play sessions are 1 hour and Discussion sessions are 30 minutes). We suggest students take small breaks after multiple hours online in back-to-back sessions.
