Sharing a large PDF with someone on a slow-speed internet connection is like trying to drink a big milkshake through a straw...it takes a long time.

If you are teaching online, it is essential to have easy and quick access to your teaching materials in your virtual classroom.

The best way to do this is by keeping your PDF file sizes small, so it's fast, even if the student has a slower internet connection.

1) The easiest way to keep your file sizes small (<1MB) is to break up your big PDF documents into smaller bits.

It's best practice because it's faster to load and will allow you to adapt to your students' learning needs much easier.

Confusingly, a 2 MB file will take 8 seconds to load on a 2 Mbps connection (note its megabits, not megabytes per second). See here for a quick calculator.

2) Compressing your multi-page PDFs through a free service like ilovepdf.com

By compressing your file, you can reduce its size to one-tenth. Additionally, this process minimizes the risk of file corruption or display issues (As an example, there have been instances where Japanese students encountered issues with specific font types and this process has helped them).