How to Hold a Virtual Open House This School Year

A virtual open house offers flexibility and accessibility that traditional in-person events can’t always provide. Parents juggling work schedules, multiple children’s activities, or transportation challenges can participate from home at a time that works for them. Plus, a virtual open house gives you the chance to share classroom information in a way families can revisit whenever they need it.

Whether you’re teaching in person, remotely, or somewhere in between, hosting a virtual open house doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. In fact, with a few simple digital tools, you can create an experience that’s even more informative than a traditional open house – and you only have to set it up once.

Planning Your Virtual Open House: Start With What You Know

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel when planning a virtual open house. Think about how open house typically runs at your school, then create a simplified digital version that achieves the same goals.

If you usually give a presentation to a room full of families, consider recording that presentation or turning it into a slide deck you can email. You can provide a Google Form for parents to submit questions afterward.

If your school does a more casual meet-and-greet with stations around the room, those stations can easily become sections in a clickable digital booklet or pages on a simple website.

The key is to keep it simple and focus on what matters most: helping families feel connected to you and prepared for the year ahead.

Create Digital Welcome Materials for Your Virtual Open House

One of the best parts of a virtual open house is that you can give families a peek into your classroom and teaching style before the school year even begins.

Share a Classroom Tour
Whether you’re teaching in person or remotely, consider sharing a video tour or photo slideshow of your classroom in a Google Slides presentation. Students feel more comfortable walking in on the first day when they already know what their space will look like. Point out where they’ll sit, where supplies are kept, and any special areas of your room they’ll use throughout the year.

Record a Welcome Video
If you’re comfortable on camera, a short welcome video goes a long way in building trust with families. Introduce yourself, share a bit about your background and interests, and talk about what exciting things students will learn this year. Keep it brief—two to three minutes is plenty. Parents appreciate seeing the person who’ll be spending every day with their child, and it adds a personal touch that text alone can’t provide.

Build a Simple Open House Website
I’ll admit it – I’m a total tech nerd, so this is the option I’d choose! Google Sites has free templates with drag-and-drop capabilities that make creating a mini-website surprisingly easy. The beauty of a Google Site for your virtual open house is that everything lives in one organized place, and you can reuse it year after year with minor updates.

If you’re not comfortable with technology, though, skip this option. There’s no sense spending hours wrestling with a new tool when simpler methods will work just as well.

Use a Clickable Digital Booklet
A clickable booklet created in Google Slides is one of the easiest ways to organize your virtual open house information. You can add pages for your daily schedule, classroom expectations, supply lists, and contact information – all with clickable navigation so parents can jump to whatever section they need.

The best part? Once you create it, you can easily share it via email, embed it on your class website, or post it in your learning management system. When you update any information, it automatically updates for everyone viewing it. No reprinting, no chasing down revised copies.

Streamline Communication and Forms for Your Virtual Open House

Explain Your Learning Platforms Clearly
You never know how tech-savvy your students’ families are. Some parents may be very familiar with the platforms you use, while others might be seeing them for the first time. Take a few minutes to create simple, step-by-step instructions for accessing important websites, finding student login information, and submitting assignments.

Use screenshots with labels and arrows to show exactly what parents should look for. If you teach on a grade-level team, consider dividing this task—each teacher can create a tutorial for one platform, then share with the group. You can link to these instructions in your virtual open house materials so families can reference them throughout the year.

Collect Forms Digitally
Using Google Forms to collect information from parents at the start of the school year is a game-changer. Everything ends up neatly organized in a spreadsheet for you, and you don’t have to chase down paper forms or decipher handwriting.

Google Forms are incredibly easy to create and even easier for parents to complete. They can fill them out on any device – computer, tablet, or phone – without any special software. If you’re using Google Classroom, you can assign the forms directly to parents, which ensures you get them completed for every student. It’s also a great way to help families become comfortable with the platform.

Even if you don’t use Google Classroom, you can share form links through any learning management system your school uses, like Microsoft Teams, Seesaw, or Canvas. Need ready-made forms? Check out the Back to School Forms resource at the end of this post to save yourself some time.

Host Optional Live Video Sessions

While your digital materials will give families most of the information they need, some parents really value the chance to “meet” you face-to-face – even if it’s over video.

Consider offering a few optional Q&A or “Meet the Teacher” video chat sessions before school starts. You can host multiple time slots so parents can choose what works best for their schedule. To keep groups manageable, limit each session to a set number of families.

Use a site like SignUp Genius to let parents reserve their spot, then email each group their video link a day or two before the session. Keep these chats informal and open-ended—this is about building relationships, not delivering a formal presentation all over again.

Making Your Virtual Open House Work for You

The beauty of a virtual open house is that it meets families where they are. Parents can review your materials at midnight after the kids are in bed or on their lunch break at work. They can revisit your classroom tour video when their child feels nervous about the first day. And you can spend less time repeating the same information to individual families throughout the first weeks of school.

Remember, you don’t have to do all of these ideas. Choose one or two approaches that feel manageable and align with how you already communicate with families. The goal isn’t perfection – it’s connection.

Ready to make back to school even easier? Grab my free Back to School Forms to get editable, ready-to-use digital forms you can share with families right away. Everything from emergency contacts to student information – organized and streamlined so you can focus on what matters most: your students.