Allowing teachers to approve website unblocking requests Follow

In this article:

• Allowing teachers to unblock websites overview
• How to enable teachers to approve unblock requests
• The student experience
• The teacher experience

Allowing teachers to unblock websites overview

One of the unique features of the Deledao ActiveScan, presented by Hāpara is that it allows teachers to temporarily unblock specific websites for students. Enabling this feature can save your IT staff time, as it cuts down on requests to block/unblock websites at the school level. It also gives teachers more flexibility in deciding what is appropriate for their classes and individual students. 

When this feature is enabled, students will be able to send a request to their teacher, asking for websites to be unblocked. You can determine the scope of for whom and for how long teachers are able to unblock websites.

How to enable teachers to approve unblock requests

There are two steps to turning on this feature:

1. Enable the feature and set the scopes
2. Map teacher and student relationships

Enable the feature and set the scopes

In the web filter admin console, you will need to turn this feature on and determine the scope of for whom and for how long teachers are able to unblock websites.

• Navigate to the Teacher Portal and click Settings on the left.
• Toggle Enable teachers to approve unblock requests to Enabled. 

• Select the maximum student scope teachers can unblock. 
  • Student only: The teacher can only unblock for the requesting student. 
  • Student’s OU: The teacher can unblock for the requesting student’s OU. This is the recommended setting. 
  • All schools: The teacher can unblock for all students. This is not recommended. 

• Decide the maximum period of time before the unblock expires and type the number of days into the box. Teachers can set different lower values when approving requests. 

• Select website scope that teachers are allowed to unblock. 
  • Entire website (excluding search engines…): This is the recommended setting. Teachers will be able to unblock entire websites with the exception of the mentioned categories, in which case they will only be able to unblock the requested webpage only. For instance, if a student requests access to a page on coolmathgames.com, the teacher can unblock the entire site, coolmathgames.com. However, if a students requests access to a specific YouTube video, the teacher can only unblock that video. 
  • Entire websites with no restrictions: Teachers will be able to unblock entire websites, including sites such as youtube.com. This is not recommended. 
  • Exact URL only: Teachers will be able to unblock the requested webpage only. 

Map teacher and student relationships

In order for students to send unblock requests to their teachers, you will need to map these relationships in the Teacher Portal section of the web filter admin console. You can do this by OU or direct student to teacher mapping. IT Administrators can enable themselves to approve these requests as well. 

• To begin mapping student-teacher relationships, navigate to the Teacher Portal in your web filter admin console, then select Directory Management. 
• Click Add New

• Choose one of the two ways to map student-teacher relationships. 
  • OU Mapping allows entire student OUs to map to specific teachers, or to entire teacher OUs
  • Student Mapping allows you to map specific students with specific teachers
• If you select OU Mapping, simply select the student OU from the dropdown, then select the teacher OU or the individual teacher email that you would like to map to those students. Then click Submit.
• If you select Student Mapping, select the individual student email from the dropdown, then select the email for the teacher that you would associate that student with. Then click Submit.

Students will now be able to submit unblock requests to one of the mapped teachers. Only the teachers that are mapped to students can approve unblock requests. 

The student experience

When a student would like access to a website that has been blocked by the web filter, they can click the yellow Send Unblock Request button on the block page to request access. 

Students will be taken to a request form on which they can select the teacher they would like to send the request to, and provide a reason for why they need access to that site. 

Once the student clicks Submit, they will see the following message confirming their request has been sent. 

If the teacher approves the request, the student will receive an email letting them know. The student will have access to the website for the period of time set by their teacher. 

The teacher experience

When a student requests access to a blocked website, the teacher they selected will receive an email informing them of the request. The teacher can click the link in the email to open their Teacher Portal, where they can accept or reject the request.

You could also navigate to https://portals.deledao.com/teacher/ and sign in using your school G Suite""

All of the unblock requests a teacher received can be found in the Teacher Portal under Pending Requests.

The teacher can choose to approve or reject any request.

If the teacher approves a request, they will need to determine:

• whether they want to unblock the entire website or just the requested URL. 
• whether the site will be unblocked for just the student who requested it, or for the student's entire OU
• how long the website will remain unblocked

Once the teacher has configured their approval, they can click Approve. The student(s) will now be able to access the site for the set period of time.