How to survive WFH – Le Wagon’s staff favorite tools

Le Wagon has gone full remote in a matter of days with the Covid19 pandemy - Those are the tools we used and recommend. #stayathome

Le Wagon is a community of 38 campuses around the world and as soon as early February, with the warnings sent from our driver in Shanghai and, then, Italy we knew we had to prepare to go 100% remote temporarily for a couple of weeks, maybe months.

Our technological philosophy at Le Wagon has always been to build our own tools at a last resort, when we saw a competitive edge. So, of course, we adapted to the situation by exploring tools that the market offered. This is a list that we hope will help other schools, companies and even families to adapt to this “never-seen-before” kind of situation.

Video Calls

Whatsapp – for 2 participants

So far the best quality tested for 1 on 1 calls.
whatsapp.com

Whereby – for 2 to 4 participants

Good for quick meetings for up to 4 people (free version). Very easy setup (in the browser), no login required. Ideal when someone can’t install an app.
whereby.com

Slack – for 4 to 15 participants

We use Slack for class video calls and screen sharing for up to 15 students.
We also use it for 1 on 1 questions between student and teaching assistant/teacher (we saw an increase of that with remote batches).
slack.com

Zoom – for 4 to 100+ participants

We use Zoom for classes with more than 15 students (Pro version). The free one allows you to get up to 100 participants but will cut at 40 minutes.
We also use Zoom for our webinars and online Meetups. If you plan more than 100 participants, prices increase to $ 50 USD/month.
zoom.us

Xsplit / OBS – webinar

Great tools to setup screenshare for one to many streaming to facebook / youtube, no time or participant limit. You can also record sessions run on Zoom or Google Hangouts to increase the potential reach of your online events.
xsplit.com

Handling Remote Computer

Teamviewer

We’ve been using Teamviewer when the teacher really needs to take the student’s laptop in charge.
teamviewer.com

Anydesk

It’s like Teamviewer but it’s free 🙂
anydesk.com

Improving the Call experience

Krisp

A noise cancellation app (free up to 240 minutes/week), very useful for teleworkers with kids at home 😉
krisp.ai

Muzzle

An app to quickly turn off any notification on your desktop while screen sharing. Can be life saving. Their homepage gives funny examples.
muzzleapp.com