Managing the Virtual Classroom Tools to help minimize distractions and maximize learning when instruction is remote.
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Table of Contents Get Ready to Go Remote Calculate Seat Time When Students Aren’t at Their Desks
4-6
Mimic Your Whiteboard When You Can’t Be In Front of The Class
7-9
Keep Students on Task When You Can’t Peek Over Their Shoulders
10-11
Enforce Internet Policies Outside of the School Building
12-14
Ensure Students are Engaged Even When They’re At Home
15-17
Never Lose Focus on Learning
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Get Ready to Go Remote Learning isn’t just going to look different state-to-state in 2020-21. It’s going to look different district-by-district —- and in some cases school-by-school and student-by-student. Much of the decision-making regarding “return to learn” plans will be made at the local level. Some schools will bring students back to the classroom. Others will keep learning remotely. And then there are those planning a blended approach. Parents may even choose to keep their children home no matter how their district moves forward. 2020 has certainly taught us to adapt. So, even if you’re planning for students to return to the classroom come fall, that doesn’t mean they’ll still be there by winter. If COVID-19 ramps up, many districts may be forced to close their doors again and transition instruction online to combat the spread of the virus. Learn how NetRef can help solve some of the challenges of remote learning with tools for managing devices, monitoring internet and
By April 3, 2020,
83% of parents
reported that their child was receiving some form of online instruction.
app activity, and measuring student usage and engagement. Source: Gallup Panel, 2020
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Calculate Seat Time When Students Aren’t at Their Desks Before the pandemic, Ms. Roan took for granted how easy it was to take and report attendance. All she had to do was scan the room to see who was missing! Now that instruction has moved online, she doesn’t know who’s logged in and learning. How is she supposed to determine which students are “attending” her class and show that she’s meeting requirements for her district’s remote learning plan? And, if she can’t take attendance, how will her administrators submit data for school accountability reporting?
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SOLUTION With NetRef, Ms. Roan can set rules for how long students must be online each day, and even which sites or apps they need to be active on, to be counted as present.
2 hours, 2 minutes
22% of teachers said they didn’t take attendance at all during distance learning classes last spring. Source: Educators For Excellence
Ms. Roan can pull up NetRef’s Engagement report to see which students met the attendance thresholds set by the school or district. Students with an “A” did not spend the required time online focused on learning.
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SOLUTION Ms. Roan can view attendance by school, classroom or student according to her specified date range.
The Engagement report provides a trend line for attendance so Ms. Roan can gauge day-by-day which instructional strategies, programs and activities are working to keep students focused on learning.
2 hours, 2 minutes
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A pie chart shows at-a-glance student engagement in online learning for the date range Ms. Roan chose to view.
Mimic Your Whiteboard When You Can’t Be In Front of The Class Now that Mr. Jimenez has transitioned his math classroom online, he misses being able to walk through a problem with his students before having them solve equations on their own. And in the past, when a student was having trouble, he’d sit down and talk them through each step to pinpoint where they were making mistakes. How is he supposed to provide that kind of small group or 1:1 support when there are miles (and screens) separating him and his students?
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SOLUTION Using the screenshare feature in NetRef, Mr. Jimenez can share a screen or an application he has up on his computer with a student or group of students to model steps for working through a problem. And when he wants to work 1:1 with a student, he can view their screen in real-time to watch them work.
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SOLUTION Mr. Jimenez can even broadcast a student’s screen to a small group or the entire class to show how they found the solution.
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Get Everyone On the Same Site Quickly Have a website or page you want a student or class to visit? Rather than send them the URL, you can use NetRef to push the site to their devices. It will appear just as though they opened a new tab on their own.
Keep Students on Task When You Can’t Peek Over Their Shoulders Mrs. Hoff used to walk around the room while her students worked on their devices just to make sure they were using the websites and applications they were supposed to be. Now that students are learning from home, she wonders what other tabs they have open while they’re on their morning Zoom meeting. Are they playing Minecraft when they’re supposed to be working on concept maps?
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SOLUTION
Is Arianna More Interested in Cat Videos Than Concept Maps? When you notice that a student is distracted, use the NetRef instant message feature to send them a quick message to get back on task. You can send messages to individuals, small groups or your entire class.
From the NetRef teacher dashboard, Mrs. Hoff can monitor internet and app activity for every student in every class she teaches across the district in real time.
She has a couple of options for how to view their activity.
Or, she can see what
She can see which tabs her students have open.
they’re currently viewing on their screens.
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Enforce Internet Policies Outside of the School Building Mr. Fairchild has a test coming up at the end of the week, and he might be more nervous than his students. They’re taking it online, and he needs to find a way to deter cheating. What’s going to stop students from simply looking up the answers online? How will he know if they’ve truly mastered the material?
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SOLUTION NetRef gives you a number of options for allowing internet and application use for your class, and essentially functions as an on/off switch. Mr. Fairchild can turn the internet and apps on
Using the Allowlist, Mr. Fairchild can even limit students’
for an individual student or entire class.
access to only the specific apps, sites or subdomains he has approved at any given time. For example, during testing periods, Mr. Fairchild can grant students access to only the testing website.
Or he can turn it off completely.
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SOLUTION Alternately, Mr. Fairchild can set a Blocklist to
Not only can Mr. Fairchild set these rules at the classroom level,
keep access wide open with the exception of
he can create a permanent Blocklist for an individual student, too.
sites, subdomains and apps of his choosing. Mr. Fairchild can create these lists for each of his classes, and they won’t affect the rest of the school’s internet access — only the classes he’s created custom lists for.
Once created, he can apply the Allowlist and Blocklist rules to a student.
Or Mr. Fairchild can set the rules for the entire class.
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Ensure Students are Engaged Even When They’re At Home Mrs. Mori’s students are turning in their assignments, but she’s not sure how much effort is actually going into their work. Are they simply looking up answers and not doing the required reading (and learning)? Are they actually putting in time to research their papers, or are they relying on online encyclopedias? Participation and engagement are so important to learning, and she wishes there was a way to ensure they aren’t lost during remote instruction.
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SOLUTION NetRef’s reporting features can tell Mrs. Mori pretty quickly how
She also can view the time they’ve spent on task vs. off
much time students are actually spending on instruction and
task based on their activity on allowed sites.
schoolwork at both the individual and classroom level while they’re working from home. And, of that time, how much of it is spent on-task.
She can see how much time students are spending online or on unique or blocked sites.
The reports tell her what sites the student or class is on most, and how much time they spend on them.
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SOLUTION And how much time they spend on allowed or blocked sites.
On average, teachers report that only
60% of students regularly engage in remote learning activities. Source: Upbeat
Mrs. Mori can even compare time spent on specific sites and applications between students in the entire class.
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Never Lose Focus on Learning
Side Effects of the Sudden Shift to Remote Instruction
Many teachers report that participation, student engagement
Only 9% of teachers said that 91-100%
and staying focused on teaching and learning were all a
of students participated daily in their distance learning program.
challenge when instruction went remote in the spring. As a result of school closures, students suffered greater-than-normal learning loss that teachers will be tasked to make up when
86% said that student engagement
instruction resumes this fall. Whether learning takes place in
was a somewhat to very serious obstacle to the effective implementation of distance learning during the outbreak.
person, online or a blend of both, NetRef’s easy-to-use device, internet, and application activity monitoring and management controls can help ensure that students stay engaged.
87% said staying focused on teaching and learning in the midst of the pandemic was a somewhat to very serious challenge.
Learn more about how NetRef can support teaching and learning this school year. Contact us to talk with our team about your
Source: Educators For Excellence
specific challenges and how NetRef can solve them. Features NEW!
A new feature in 2020-21 release
support remote A great feature to g instruction and learnin
our
nt
View a complete list of NetRef features for device management, network monitoring and usage reporting.
Classroom Manageme
activity in real time and direct for every student Oversee device use g from home. classroom or learnin students are in the nce reporting
• Remote attenda
• Teacher and student • Real-time usage
r in a click — whethe
NEW! NEW!
screensharing
monitoring (view
by screen, tab title
or URL)
NEW!
! dashboard NEW • Improved teacher sharing co-teaching and rule o Accommodates taught across a district o Includes all classes
g NEW! and class usage reportin • Robust student visited and blocked o Number of sites nd on specific sites o Time spent online a isons compar o Student usage pushing
• Website and app • Internet and app • Automated rule
on/off controls
application and custom
rules by class c sites and apps
n access to only specifi
• Allowlist to lock dow
nd apps
tion of specific sites a
with the excep to keep internet open
• Blocklist
ain management
• Granular subdom
NEW!
previously visited • Screen shots from
sites and apps
• Instant messaging • Easy class editing o Merge classes o Change class names
s o Add/remove student o Create ad-hoc classes ltering with Cipafilter
• Real-time content fi
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