Getting to know Hāpara Highlights – Hapara Support

In this article:

Guide browsing

Share links

Browser Tabs

Highlights quick guide

Hāpara Highlights allows you to create a well-choreographed online lesson by providing you with visibility into students’ online lesson activity. As a result, Highlights helps you keep students focused, while giving them the support they need during the lesson.

Highlights also minimizes the logistical headaches that sometimes accompany online lessons, making the process smoother and easier for you.

Here are some of the most valuable features of Highlights.

Guide browsing

Guide browsing is a button in Highlights that allows you to set up a browsing session with certain parameters for students. This especially helps those who need support in staying on or off certain websites.

Focus session — keeps students focused on the websites you specify
Filter session — keep students off the websites you specify

You can use this feature to help students practice digital responsibility, and you can personalize learning based on who needs more guidance.

Share links

Share links is another button in Highlights that helps you guide students. With this feature, you can send students to specific websites. It allows you to enter up to 10 links to share directly with students.

You can also decide if you want to share links with:

Individual students
A group of students
The entire class

This is a great way to get students or groups started on an online activity quickly. Plus, it makes differentiated instruction and personalized learning much easier.

Browser Tabs

In Browser Tabs, you’ll see a list of the websites that students currently have open. This helps you keep track of students’ progress online and start digital citizenship conversations with them.

Current Screens

In the Current Screens tab, you’ll see a screenshot of the website that students have open at that moment. This gives you a quick understanding of how students are progressing through the online lesson so you can give feedback or help.

Activity Viewer

The Activity Viewer tab is another way to see how students are progressing online. There are three windows in the Activity Viewer:

Class Activity - shows you a list of tabs that are currently open and a list of tabs that were previously opened during your Highlights session for the whole class
Unique Activity - shows a list of sites that have been visited by only one student
Collaboration - shows you sites (including Google Docs!) that have been visited by more than one student

In the Activity Viewer, you can also take Snaps. These automatically save a screenshot of a student’s online activity, along with details such as when and how long they were on the website. You can even send the Snap to a student with feedback about their online activity and have a conversation about digital citizenship. The Snaps are then stored in the Snaps tab.

Announce

Announce is another button that you can use to give students feedback. When you click on it, you can send a student, a group or your whole class an instant message that will pop up on their screens. This is another useful way to give positive feedback or digital citizenship guidance.

Drive button

The Drive button in Highlights allows you to quickly access your students’ Google Drive documents.

When you click this button, you’ll see:

Student Tiles for the class showing each student’s recent Drive documents.
A search bar that allows you to search for any Drive document.
A drop-down menu with options to show student documents that are:
- Public and available to anyone on the internet
- External because someone without a school email address shared with the student
- Unshared with you
- Deleted and in the trash

Highlights quick guide

Use the following guide for quick reference on how to use the features in Highlights to create meaningful and safe learning experiences.

Feature and how to access it	What the feature does	Example
Activity Viewer Click the first tab on the left-hand side of the Highlights page.	The Activity Viewer gives you an overview of students’ activities online. There are three windows in the activity viewer: Class Activity Unique Activity Collaboration	When students are working on an online assignment, you can check to see: Which students are on task Who has wandered onto another website Who might be getting stuck on a difficult concept
Class Activity Click on the Activity Viewer tab. The Class Activity window is on the top left-hand corner of the screen.	Class Activity shows you a list of tabs that are currently open across the class and a list of tabs that were previously opened during a Highlights session.	Suppose that students are completing an online scavenger hunt using a list of five websites. You can monitor their progress in the Class Activity window. That way you’ll know who’s on the right track and who might need some extra encouragement.
Unique Activity Click on the Activity Viewer tab. The Unique Activity window is on the top right-hand corner of the screen.	Unique Activity shows a list of websites that have been visited by only one student, along with the student’s name and when they were on that site.	This feature is a flag for off-task activity. If you assigned students to nationalgeographic.com, but the Unique Activity window shows one student on a site called Cat Bounce, you know right away that something’s up!
Collaboration Click Activity Viewer. The Collaboration window is on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.	Collaboration shows you sites that have been visited by more than one student, making group work much easier to facilitate and monitor.	For example, let’s say you’ve put students into groups of three to watch a short video and fill in a guided note-taking template in a Google Doc. If all three students in a group have that same Google Doc open, you know they are on the right track.
Browser Tabs Click Browser Tabs in the top left-hand corner of the Highlights toolbar.	Browser Tabs displays Student Tiles that list the sites each student currently has open. The bolded text listed there is the site the student is currently viewing.	Perhaps it’s the end of the year, and you’ve given students a lot more online autonomy. However, you want to make sure that everyone is on task. The detailed list in a student’s Student Tile can give you information about how students are progressing online.
Pause screens Click the Pause screens option in the Highlights toolbar to on this feature.	Your school or district’s Hāpara Administrator can optionally enable this setting and set the maximum pause length at 5, 10 or 15 minutes. Turning on Pause screens will prevent all students in your class from navigating the internet for a set period of time.	This is a helpful feature if you need to get the entire class’s attention for direct instruction or to facilitate a change in activities.
Current Screens Click Current Screens on the left-hand side of the Highlights toolbar.	Current Screens allows you to see the actual pages students are viewing in near-real time.	Maybe Jane is struggling to stay on her learning path and is visiting the Cat Bounce site. Save a copy of her current screen and start a conversation with her about digital citizenship.
Snaps Take a snap in the Activity Viewer by hovering over any activity listed. Then click on the camera icon. To view records, click Snaps in the left-hand corner of the Highlights toolbar. They are saved for up to seven days.	Every Snap record includes the website, when a student opened and closed the tab and when the Snap was taken. You can also quickly send formative feedback with the Snap. Click the Send learner feedback button. Plus, you can email a copy of the Snap record to yourself for your own documentation or to forward to a colleague, parent or guardian.	Jimmy is doing a great job on his latest project, which includes a Slides presentation. Take a Snap while Jimmy is working on it in class and send it to his parents to show them how well he’s doing. Also, click on Send learner feedback to tell Jimmy, “Great job on this presentation!”
Schedule Click Schedule on the left-hand side of the Highlights toolbar.	In the Schedule tab you can set up a browsing session ahead of time. You can also see a list of all upcoming sessions and past sessions in this tab. Additionally, you can edit upcoming sessions or duplicate past sessions that you want to use again.	Do you give weekly online quizzes? If so, the Schedule feature could be a great time saver for you! By clicking the duplicate icon, you can easily copy last week’s quiz session and make minor edits for this week’s quiz.
Announce 1. Click Announce in the top right-hand corner. 2. Then select the whole class, groups or individual students. 3. Type your message and click Send.	The announcement will pop up on the recipient’s screen. It’s a great way to support students while they work.	You can send announcements of encouragement, check for understanding or redirect off-task activity. If you'd like, you can add an emoji to the announcement.
Share links Click Share Links in the top right-hand corner of any Highlights tab.	With this feature you can: Enter the links you want to share. You can enter up to 10 links. Specify the audience (class, groups or individual students) Schedule the link access for a later date and time	Quickly share a Google Doc bell ringer activity with students when they enter the classroom. Or if you notice that a research group needs help finding articles on a topic mid-class, share three online articles.
Guide browsing 1. Click Guide browsing in the top right-hand corner of any Highlights tab. 2. A box will pop up with the option to select Set up a Focus session or a Set up a Filter session.	Guide browsing allows you to take students to specific websites or prevent them from viewing certain sites. Some options include: Limit browsing to individual web pages or give access to entire sites Set the length of the session Open the session to the whole class, groups or individual students Schedule a session for a specific date and time	If you are working with students at the beginning of the school year and want to show them what responsible digital citizenship looks like, schedule each part of your lesson for specific times.
Focus session After you click Guide browsing, select Set up a Focus session.	You can set up a focus session to give students access to only a few specific websites. During the focus session, students can only visit the websites or pages you specify. You can also save the focus session as a template to re-use across classes.	For an online bell ringer, set up a focus session that directs students to a Google Doc and a resource page.
Filter session After you click Guide browsing, select Set up a Filter session.	You can set up a filter session to prevent students from accessing certain websites. During the filter session, students can’t visit the websites or pages you specify. You can also save the filter session as a template to re-use across classes.	No more Cat Bounce! You can restrict access to websites like this. Or for an online quiz, you can prevent students from accessing a website with the answer.
Freeze tabs Click Freeze tabs in the white menu bar at the top of Highlights.	When you use Freeze tabs, any students you include in the session will be locked onto the pages they already have open. While a Freeze tabs session is in progress, you can also use the Share links feature to open additional sites for students.	For example, you can create personalized browsing sessions. When each student opens the materials they need for the lesson, you can then freeze students’ browser screens in place. You can also focus students on assessments from Google Classroom or Workspace. Each student can open their assessment. Then you can freeze them on that page.
Groups Click the groups icon on the right-hand side of the Highlights toolbar.	You can select the groups you want to see and edit group names by clicking on the text in the box.	Let’s say that you have assigned groups to research different events from the American Revolution. If you just want to see what the Boston Tea Party group is working on, you can click on Groups and select only that group to view.
Drive button Click Drive at the top center of your screen.	The Drive button in Highlights allows you to quickly access students’ Google Drive documents.	While you are viewing students’ browsing progress, you may want to open one of their documents and leave formative feedback.