The first time you teach online, the temptation is to obsess over your content. But your students aren't only listening to what you say. They are reading you — your framing, your eyes, your expressions — and within the first few seconds they have already decided whether you feel like someone worth paying attention to. So before you worry about your notes, let me walk you through the non-verbal basics that actually hold an online audience.
Start with your setup
Two things sabotage beginners more than anything else: a cluttered background and a badly placed camera. If people keep walking behind you, if there is washing on a line or a busy shelf in frame, your viewer's eyes drift there instead of staying on you. Pick a plain wall, a clean background, something that doesn't compete for attention.
Then look at where your camera sits. Most people prop the laptop on a table and end up filming the underside of their chin, with the lens looking up at them. That low angle is unflattering and, oddly, it reads as slightly distant on screen. Lift your laptop so the camera is at eye level. You want your face filling a comfortable part of the frame — not just half a head poking in from the bottom edge.
Look at the lens, not the screen
This is the single correction that changes how connected you feel to your students. We naturally look at the little video of the person we're talking to, which sits at the bottom of the screen. But that means our eyes are pointed downward, away from the lens. To the student watching, it looks as if you are never quite making eye contact.
The fix is simple and feels strange at first: look at the lens itself when you speak. That tiny dot is your student's eyes. When you address the lens, everyone on the call feels you are speaking to them directly. Practise it for a few sessions and it stops feeling unnatural.
Dress for the half they can see
Remember that online, your audience often sees only your upper body. So the top half does all the work. Avoid loud tiger stripes and busy patterns — they shimmer and distract on camera. A plain, solid colour reads cleaner and keeps the focus on your face and what you're saying.
Let your face carry the message
The third piece, and the one beginners forget, is facial expression. A flat, frozen face makes even good teaching feel dull, and students can absolutely sense when you are not engaged. Your expressions are part of your teaching. A genuine smile, an open brow when you ask a question, a small lift of interest when a student responds — these are the cues that signal you are present and that you care.
Watch your own face while you teach for the first few sessions. We are often far less expressive than we imagine. The energy you feel inside doesn't always reach your face, and online, only what reaches your face actually lands.
Make it a conversation
The thing that connects you to an audience is not a perfect monologue — it's interaction. Ask questions. Pause for answers. Invite students to bring their own examples back to the topic. The moment learning becomes two-way, attention follows, because people stay engaged when they feel seen rather than spoken at.
None of this requires expensive equipment. Clean background, camera at eye level, eyes on the lens, a solid-coloured top and a face that actually moves — get these five right, and your first online class will already feel far more alive than most. The content matters, of course. But the non-verbals decide whether anyone is still watching long enough to receive it.