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At Hāpara, your feedback is essential and we take it to heart. It drives improvements and updates to our tools, and we continue to ask ourselves, “How does this help educators and learners?” Because of your feedback, we recently released streamlined features in Hāpara Highlights. The goal is to save educators time and make it even easier to keep students focused on their learning.
This blog post will give you an overview of our latest releases and a sneak peek of an exciting feature that’s coming soon.
Class View (new!)
Toggle between screens and website links
We’ve heard from many of you already about our newest release in Hāpara Highlights, Class View. A recent poll showed that an overwhelming majority of educators rated it 5/5!
The new Class View tab combines two views: Current Screens and Browser Tabs. We know how busy class time can be, so we wanted to make it easier for you to check on learning progress. Now you can quickly toggle between the two views. See exactly what learners are viewing on their screens by toggling to Current Screens. Or toggle over to Browser Tabs to see a list of URLs students are currently on and have recently viewed.
Educator Darcy Arends Tompkins recently shared,
“Love the Class View! The option to switch between tabs and screens is awesome! Thank you!”
Updated “Guide browsing”
Many Hāpara educators use the “Guide browsing” feature in Highlights to focus learners on certain websites or filter out distracting ones. In the Class View tab, we’ve streamlined this feature.
Guide browsing bar
In Class View, from the blue bar at the top of your screen, you can now quickly see any current guided browsing sessions. Or you can start one directly from the blue bar at the top of your screen. This is helpful if you’re in the middle of class and want to quickly focus learners on a website for an activity. You may also find that some learners are getting distracted by a website, and you need to start them on a filter session.
Updated “Guide browsing” window
In Class View, when you click on the “Guide browsing” button, you’ll see an updated window with features to save you time. Quickly start a Focus or Filter Session, schedule one or create a template. Your templates list will also include icons to help you spot the type of sessions you saved.
Recurring guided browsing sessions
Many of you have asked for this feature, and we can’t wait to release it to you soon. In the Class View tab, the “Guide browsing” feature will soon have an update.
When you set up a Focus Session or Filter Session, you will be able to check a box that says “Repeat this session.” Yes, you’ll soon be able to set up recurring guided browsing sessions!
Select the days of the week and times you’d like the sessions to repeat (and set them up four weeks in advance).
You can also edit or delete your recurring sessions, allowing for flexibility in instruction. If you make an edit, it will apply to all of the recurring sessions going forward.
For example, learners in your class period after lunch may struggle to stay away from a distracting website. You could set up a recurring Filter Session for that class period. Or perhaps you want your learners to stay focused on a math website during their warm-up each day. In that case, you could set up a recurring Focusing Session. This new feature could also be helpful when scheduling assessments or when planning time away from the classroom and preparing for a covering teacher.
Learn more about recurring sessions in our support article.
Keep your eyes out for this new update, and please feel free to keep sharing your feedback!
Explore how schools use a web filter and screen monitoring to keep students safe and teach digital citizenship.
