How do I guide student browsing? Follow
In this article:
Removing a URL from an active guided browsing session
Guide browsing is a Hāpara Highlights feature that allows you to curate students’ online learning experiences, as well as keep them on task. As a result, you can create meaningful online lessons that are tailored to a student's individual learning needs and interests.
With the Guide browsing feature, you can limit students’ access to specific websites to help students practice safe browsing or focus on an activity. You can also give students more browsing freedom but prevent them from visiting a few particular sites.
This feature also allows you to differentiate instruction by setting up guided browsing sessions for individual students, student groups or the entire class. Plus, you can schedule guided browsing sessions ahead of time. This helps you make the most of your instructional time and makes planning for substitute teacher days simple.
There are two types of guided browsing sessions: focus sessions and filter sessions.
Focus sessions
Focus sessions give students access to only a few specific websites.
What you can do with focus sessions
- Enter up to 10 websites that students can access during the session.
- Specify if students can visit the whole site or only a specific page within a website.
- Establish how long the session will last.
- Determine what happens when the session ends (Will the tabs stay open? Will students’ original tabs be restored?).
- Set up the session for the whole class, specific students or groups.
- Schedule the session ahead of time.
- Save your session as a template or use a template you’ve already created.
Why focus sessions help learning
Focus sessions are great for times that you need students to work with certain websites or documents. For example, you can set up a focus session if you want students to complete a Google Forms quiz you created but not search for answers elsewhere online.
Or you may want students to decide on a research topic for their science project, so during the focus session, you only give them access to the National Geographic Kids website. Another way to use this feature is by setting up a focus session when students are learning at home because of inclement weather. You can add the websites you want them to work on, and parents won’t have to worry about what their child needs to do for class.
How to set up a focus session
1. Click the blue Guide browsing button.
2. Select Set up a Focus session.
3. Type the website links you want students to access.
4. Select The whole site(s) or Only the page(s). This gives students access to any page within the website you list or access to only the specific page you list.
5. Select the amount of time you want the session to last.
6. Next to Keep all tabs introduced in this session open, toggle to Yes or No.
7. Next to Restore student’s original tabs, toggle to Yes or No.
8. Select The Class, Student(s) or Group(s).
9. To schedule the session for later, toggle to Yes.
10. Then click Start Session.
Note: You can also save the focus session as a template to reuse in the future. Click Save as template.
Filter sessions
Filter sessions prevent students from accessing specific websites.
What you can do with filter sessions
- Enter up to 50 websites that learners are not allowed to access during the browsing session.
- Establish how long the session will last.
- Set up the session for the whole class, specific students or groups.
- Schedule a session ahead of time.
- Save your session as a template or use a template you’ve already created.
Why filter sessions help learning
Filter sessions work well when students are working on an open-ended activity and need to exercise good digital citizenship. If they aren’t quite ready to independently make choices about the content they consume online, you can set up a filter session. If you have digital citizenship conversations with your students, they may mention websites that distract them. You can also set up filter sessions to restrict these websites and keep students on track.
How to set up a filter session
1. Click the blue Guide browsing button.
2. Select Set up a Filter session.
3. Type the website links you want to prevent students from accessing.
4. Select the amount of time you want the session to last.
5. Select The Class, Student(s) or Group(s).
6. To schedule the session for later, toggle to Yes.
7. Then click Start Session.
Note: You can also save the filter session as a template to reuse in the future. Click Save as template.
Removing a URL from an active guided browsing session
Teachers can also remove a URL from an active Focus or Filter session. This will give them more flexibility to provide personalized learning.
To remove the URL:
1. Click Review in the Active guided session bar at the top of your screen.
2. From the active session, select the links bar on the right.
3. Click the X next to the URL you want to remove from the guided browsing session.
Note: If there is only one URL, you will need to end the guided browsing session instead.
How teachers can use this for learning:
- Remove an assessment website link when a learner, a group or the class is finished with an assessment.
- Some learners may struggle to focus right after lunch or another time of day. Create a guided browsing session for them. Then remove any links if they’re ready for more browsing responsibility before the session is over.