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Sharing links, guiding browsing, scheduling browsing and freezing tabs Follow

Hapara Support
  • Updated

In this article:

Share links (open website links onto student screens)

How to set up Guide Browsing: Focus Session or Filter Session

Guide Browsing Focus Sessions: Login pages

Guide Browsing templates

Identifying existing Guide Browsing sessions

Ending a Guide Browsing session

Focus Sessions with Google Workspace: Gmail, Drive and Docs

The student experience of Guide Browsing sessions 

Editing Guide Browsing after they've started

Scheduling Guide Browsing sessions

Freeze student browser tabs

 

There are several ways teachers can use Hāpara Highlights to focus students on their learning instead of digital distractions. 

Teachers can:

  • Share links to open directly onto student screens
  • Focus (allow) or filter (block) students' browsing
  • Schedule guided browsing sessions that focus or filter 
  • Freeze tabs to keep students on task

Below is a comprehensive guide that takes you through the steps of each. 

 

Share links (open website links onto student screens)

  1. In Highlights, click Share Links Screen_Shot_2019-01-18_at_2.38.17_PM.png
  2. Enter up to 10 URLs (include https:// if a login is required).

  3. Choose who to share with (individuals, groups, or whole class).

  4. Click Share links. Tabs open instantly on student devices.

     

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How to set up Guide Browsing: Focus Session or Filter Session

1. Click Guide browsing in Highlights.

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2. Choose Focus (allow only listed sites) or Filter (block listed sites).

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3. Enter URLs and set a duration.

4. Select students or the class.

5. (Optional) Toggle to Schedule for a future start time.

 

Tips:

  • Only one session can run at a time. Starting a new one ends the previous.

  • Include login URLs (e.g., Google, McGraw Hill) in Focus sessions to prevent access errors.

Note: Only one session can be active at any given time, and a new session will deactivate any existing sessions. For example, let’s say a teacher begins a filter session for one hour, then begins a 15-minute focus session. Once the focus session is complete, the filter session will no longer be in effect, and students will be able to access any sites that may have been blocked.

 

Guide Browsing Focus Sessions: Login pages

Focus sessions work best with websites and web pages that can be visited directly — versus private sites and pages that require a login. For example, you can’t access your Gmail account without logging in to Google first.

Some private sites redirect the student through multiple pages before arriving at the desired site, and focus sessions don't currently handle these complex cases.

For example, if a teacher wants to focus her students on a private McGraw Hill resource, then the students would need to log in to the McGraw Hill site first.

For example, McGraw Hill resources are located at catalog.mcgraw-hill.com, but the login page is a different URL, connected.mcgraw-hill.com.

The teacher has the option of asking students to first log in to McGraw Hill before focusing them on catalog.mcgraw-hill.com. But if the teacher knows the login URL, we recommend entering both URLs in the same session. 

Follow these steps to enter both URLs:

  1. Set up a focus session.
  2. Type all URLs required for browsing and logging in, ie: catalog.mcgraw-hill.com and https://connected.mcgraw-hill.com in this example.
  3. Follow the rest of the steps to start the session.

This will open two tabs in each student browser - one for each URL. Once the student logs in, they can click on an ebook to view it. 

Note: In this example, there is no way to force the student to select a specific book — but Highlights will show the book each student selected. If a student chooses a different book from the rest of the class, the Activity Viewer will show this in the Unique Activity panel.

We recommend teachers asking students to sign into private URLs before initiating a Focused session that requires a login, but they can specify all necessary URLs if they are known.

 

 

Guide Browsing templates

Within the Guide browsing feature, teachers are able to create focus or filter session templates, which can be saved and reused when needed.

How to create a new template

  1. From the Highlights tab of any Hāpara class, click Guide Browsing
    _2.png
  2. Choose to either Set up a Focus session or Setup a Filter session
    _3.png
  3. Once you add your session details, click Save as a template on the bottom left-hand side._6.png

 

How to delete Guide Browsing templates

  1. From the Highlights tab of any Hāpara class, click Guide browsing
    _2.png
  2. Next to the template you'd like to delete, click the drop-down menu.
  3. Then select Delete template
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  4. Click Delete to confirm you would like to delete the template.

    _8.png

Note: Deleted templates cannot be recovered, so please exercise caution when deleting templates!

 

 

Identifying existing Guide Browsing sessions

When a guided browsing session is active, you can easily see it at the top of your page in the yellow colored bar.

Screenshot 2025-10-01 at 10.29.48 AM.png

To see which students are in a focus or filter session, click Review. 

Also, when you set up additional guided browsing sessions and click Student(s), you’ll be able to see if a student is already in another session.

Screen_Shot_2019-01-18_at_2.56.06_PM.png

If a student already has a guided browsing session in progress, next to their name it will say: (active in a session).

Note: You cannot start a new guided browsing session unless you stop the current session (or the current session expires). Each student can only belong to ONE guided browsing session at a time.

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Ending a Guide Browsing session

If you need to stop a guided browsing session before the expiration of the set period:

From the aqua-colored Active guided session bar, click Release all.

Or if you have multiple guided browsing sessions running and only want to end one:

  1. Click Review.
  2. Then click on the End Session button for that session.

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For a focus session, you can then choose to keep focused links open for students or close them. Keeping the links open will allow students to continue working on these sites, but they can also open new tabs and navigate to new pages.

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Clicking on the Guide browsing icon in individual student panels also gives you the option to release select students.

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Focus Sessions with Google Workspace: Gmail, Drive and Docs

To focus students on any of the Google tools, follow these steps:

  1. Click Guide browsing.
  2. Select Set up a Focus session.
  3. Enter the website https://mail.google.com. 
  4. Enter the website https://drive.google.com.
  5. Enter the website https://docs.google.com.
  6. Add the other session details.
  7. Click the Start Session button.

Note: We recommend entering all three websites. This is better for students who are not logged in and are redirected by Google to a login page.

The "https://" prefix is required. If you forget it, Google will try to redirect your students from http://mail.google.com to https://mail.google.com, and it will fail.

 

The student experience of Guide Browsing sessions 

When a teacher initiates a guided browsing session, students receive a pop-up message letting them know their browsing will be limited. It will also show a countdown to let them know when the guided browsing session will begin.

Screen_Shot_2021-02-05_at_3.05.13_PM.png 

If a teacher starts a guided browsing session, and a few minutes later a student arrives to class, when the student logs into their school account, they will be automatically added to the existing session. 

If students attempt to navigate away from a focus session or to a page blocked in a filter session, they will receive a message in that window letting them know their browsing is being guided by their teacher.

 

 When the guided browsing session has expired, students will receive a pop-up notification:

Screen_Shot_2021-02-05_at_3.22.54_PM.png

 

Editing Guide Browsing after they've started

If you need to make changes to a guided browsing session after it's started:

Click Review in the aqua-colored bar at the top of Highlights. 

To add students to a Focus or Filter Session:

  1. Check that the student list is selected at the top.
  2. Type in the students' email addresses in the text box.
  3. Then click Add student.

Screen_Shot_2020-03-23_at_7.30.30_PM.png

To add links to a Focus or Filter Session:

  1. Select the links list.
  2. Type the URL in the text box at the bottom.
  3. Then click Add link.

Screen_Shot_2020-03-23_at_7.30.48_PM.png

For focus sessions, you can also edit what happens at the end of the session.

 

Scheduling Guide Browsing sessions

You can now set up guided browsing sessions in advance. Have an online quiz planned? You’ll be able to schedule a session to open the website automatically at the start of class, giving students more time to work. Making sub plans? Schedule website tabs to open so students have everything they need.

To schedule a guided browsing session:

  1. Toggle to Yes where it asks if you would like to schedule the session for later.
  2. Select the date you would like it to occur
  3. Select or manually enter the start time.
  4. Click Schedule session.

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Viewing scheduled Guide Browsing sessions

A list of scheduled browsing sessions can be found under Schedule at the top of your Highlights page.

  1. From here, you can give each session a title to make it easier to keep track of. 
  2. Or you can schedule additional sessions. 
  3. You can narrow your view of scheduled sessions to just this week, all upcoming sessions or past sessions.

Screenshot 2025-10-01 at 10.35.57 AM.png

 

Editing your scheduled Guide Browsing sessions

You can also edit your scheduled sessions:

  1. Click Schedule.
  2. Then click This week or All upcoming sessions.
  3. Click the Edit this session pencil icon on the right to edit.

Screenshot 2025-10-01 at 10.37.16 AM.png

 

Copy past scheduled Guide Browsing sessions

To copy a previous session:

  1. Click the Duplicate this session button on the right. 

When you do, the normal focus or filter session window will appear with the same settings as the past session, other than the date and time.

  1. Optionally edit the pre-filled settings. 
  2. Select the date and time.
  3. Click Schedule session.

Screen_Shot_2019-01-18_at_2.44.12_PM.png

 

 

 

Freeze student browser tabs

Another way to guide students as they learn online is to freeze their browsers on the tabs they already have open. 

This feature can be useful for a variety of instructional purposes including:

  • Creating personalized focus sessions: When each student opens the materials they need for the lesson, freeze those web pages in place.
  • Focusing students on assessments from Google Classroom or Workspace: Each student can open their specific assessment document. Then you can freeze on those pages.
  • Accommodating login pages and redirects: Sometimes it can be difficult to create focus sessions on websites with login pages or redirects. With the Freeze tabs feature, you can have students log in to the sites they should be working on. Then freeze on those pages. 

To freeze students' tabs:

1. Click Freeze tabs in the white menu bar in Highlights

2. In the window that opens, select to freeze browsing across The whole site(s) or limit it to Only the page(s).

3. Type how long their tabs should be frozen.

4. Select whose tabs you would like to freeze: the whole class, specific students or groups of students.

5. Then click Start session.

 

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Any students you included in the session will be locked onto the pages they already have open. 

While a freeze tabs session is in progress you can use the Share links feature to open additional sites for students. 

If students are on sites that they should not be, you can also close those tabs as usual.

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