Vor der Videokonferenz schreibt die Dozentin, dass wir das Headset und die Webcam prüfen sollen.

Because vor can take either the dative or the accusative, depending on meaning.

• dative: location or time, no movement toward something
• accusative: movement/change of position toward something

Here, vor der Videokonferenz means before the video conference, so it is a time expression, and German uses the dative:

• die Videokonferenz → feminine singular
• dative feminine → der Videokonferenz

So vor der Videokonferenz is correct.

This is because German main clauses follow the verb-second rule.

The first position is taken by Vor der Videokonferenz. Once that happens, the conjugated verb must come next:

• Vor der Videokonferenz = position 1
• schreibt = position 2
• die Dozentin = subject, after the verb

So the structure is:

Vor der Videokonferenz schreibt die Dozentin ...

If the subject came first, you would get:

Die Dozentin schreibt vor der Videokonferenz ...

Both are correct, but the emphasis is slightly different.

Dozentin means a female lecturer/instructor.

In German, many nouns for people have:

• a masculine form: Dozent
• a feminine form: Dozentin

The ending -in is a very common feminine ending for professions and roles.

Examples:

• der Lehrer → die Lehrerin
• der Student → die Studentin
• der Dozent → die Dozentin

So die Dozentin tells you the lecturer is female.

Literally, schreibt means writes. In a sentence like this, it often means that the lecturer writes a message, sends an email, or writes to the class.

So it does not necessarily mean she is physically handwriting something. In modern German, schreiben is often used for written communication in general.

Because dass introduces a subordinate clause, and in German, subordinate clauses are separated from the main clause by a comma.

So the sentence has:

• main clause: Vor der Videokonferenz schreibt die Dozentin
• subordinate clause: dass wir das Headset und die Webcam prüfen sollen

That is why the comma is required.

Because in German, a clause introduced by dass is a subordinate clause, and subordinate clauses usually put the conjugated verb at the end.

Compare:

• Main clause: Wir sollen das Headset prüfen.
• Subordinate clause: ..., dass wir das Headset prüfen sollen.

So after dass, the word order changes. This is one of the most important German sentence structure rules.

In a dass-clause with a modal verb, both verbs go to the end, and the usual order is:

main infinitive + modal verb

So:

• ..., dass wir das Headset prüfen sollen.

not:

• ..., dass wir das Headset sollen prüfen.

The infinitive prüfen comes before the modal sollen in this kind of clause.

Because modal verbs in German take a bare infinitive, just like in English.

So you say:

• wir sollen prüfen
• wir müssen prüfen
• wir können prüfen

not:

• wir sollen zu prüfen

This is normal after modal verbs such as:

• können
• müssen
• wollen
• sollen
• dürfen
• mögen

Here, sollen means something like should, are supposed to, or are expected to.

It often suggests that the instruction comes from someone else. In this sentence, the lecturer is telling the students what they are expected to do.

A useful comparison:

• wir sollen prüfen = we are supposed to check / we should check
• wir müssen prüfen = we must check / we have to check

So sollen can sound a bit less absolute than müssen, and it often carries the idea of an instruction or expectation from outside.

They are the direct objects of prüfen, so they are in the accusative.

However, in German, the articles for:

• neuter singular (das) and
• feminine singular (die)

look the same in both the nominative and the accusative.

So:

• nominative: das Headset, die Webcam
• accusative: das Headset, die Webcam

There is no visible change here. You would notice a clearer change with a masculine noun:

• nominative: der Computer
• accusative: den Computer

They are very common loanwords in German, especially in technology and everyday speech.

German has borrowed many English words, but they still get German grammatical gender and articles:

• das Headset
• die Webcam

So even though the words come from English, they behave like normal German nouns in the sentence.

Because in German, all nouns are capitalized.

In this sentence, the nouns are:

• Videokonferenz
• Dozentin
• Headset
• Webcam

This is a standard rule in German spelling, unlike English, where common nouns are usually lowercase.

Wir is the subject of the dass-clause:

dass wir das Headset und die Webcam prüfen sollen

It means the lecturer is writing that we—for example, the students or participants—should check the equipment.

So the sentence has two different subjects:

• die Dozentin in the main clause
• wir in the subordinate clause

That is completely normal in German.