The Apple Classroom app helps teachers guide learning, share work, and manage student devices. You can launch a specific app or website on any device in the class, share documents between teacher and students and share student work through an Apple TV. You can even see which apps students are working in, and mute or temporarily lock student devices to get their attention.
This guide will take you through an overview of Classroom. You’ll learn how to get started setting up the classes, using the app, and integrating it into daily classroom tasks.
To be able to use Apple Classroom, the iPads must meet the following requirements:
» The teacher’s device(s) must have the Apple Classroom App installed. This can be done using the Relution admin console (either through an ‘Install App’ action or through a required app configuration in a policy. Please ask your administrator to provide the app if it’s not installed.
» The student’s devices must be in Supervised Mode. This is done during the enrollment of the devices and cannot be changed later.
» In order to allow Student devices to be displayed on the Tutor device and vice versa, a restriction must be applied to both the Student and Tutor devices that allows screenshots and screen recordings. Otherwise the Classroom App will be prevented from displaying remote screens. The function can be found in Relution under:
Devices > Policies > Add iOS Policy > Add Configurations > Restrictions > Settings > "Allow screenshots and screen recordings".
The policy must then be applied to the appropriate Student and Tutor devices under the 'Devices with this version' tab by adding the appropriate Student and Tutor devices. This can also be done in the device details under the 'Policy' tab.
Relution can configure the Apple Classroom app for teacher’s and student’s iPads automatically. To enable this, the classes must be defined in the Relution admin console using the Devices -> Education menu which is enabled only for Relution Education licenses.
Press the “Add” button to add a class to the system. Now, specify who is the teacher and who are the students in this class. For non-personalized devices, specify the technical users that the devices were enrolled with.
The list should look similar to this:
Notes:
» A teacher cannot be a student in the same class.
» The first and last name is used in the Classroom App to identify the device. Especially when using technical users, make sure they have different first and/or last names, otherwise it will be hard to distinguish them (i.e. every tablet is called ‘Tablet’).
» In “devices -> Auto Enrollments”, you can transfer the device’s user name to the device name, making the names used in Classroom and AirDrop identical.
Once the classes have been set up, click “Save” and all the necessary configurations will be automatically applied to the devices. Depending on the number of devices, this may take a minute or so.
The classes you have created in Relution will show up in the app like this:
Select a class to begin teaching. The student’s devices will show up in a list:
You can use the menu above the list to manage the student’s devices. See the following paragraphs that describe each option in this menu.
Classroom lets you create custom groups within your class, so you can tailor guidance for a single student, a group of students, or the entire class. You can break the class into groups based on project assignment, and guide each group’s experience differently:
Select the students to be placed in a group, then tap "Group" in the "Actions" list.
Name the group based on project, skill level, or other categories as appropriate.
The group is now visible in the group list. Classroom also creates dynamic groups of students based on which app each student is using.
Launch a specific app on each student’s iPad at the same time. You can also lock iPads into a single app, so students stay focused on the subject or test at hand:
Tap "Open" to view the list of available apps, then select the app that you would like to open. Note that you and your students must both have the app installed for this to work.
If you would like to lock your students into the app, select "Lock in app after opening" in the lower right.
The app now opens on every students iPad. Tap "Done", or follow along by opening the app on your iPad.
Classroom lets you navigate students to resources within Safari, such as a specific web page using a bookmark:
Tap "Navigate", then select "Safari" from the list of options.
Select the bookmark that you'd like the class to view.
The entire class has now been navigated to that bookmark in Safari. Tap "Done", or follow along by opening the web link on your iPad.
Classroom 2.0 provides an easy way to share files with your students, such as worksheets, presentations, or photos and videos:
Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the new dock. Tap and hold the "Files" app to view recently opened documents. Then drag a file to an individual student, a group, or all students.
Or open another app right next to Classroom to drag files or URLs onto students.
Instruct your students to accept the document you are sharing. Students can then select the appropriate app to open and save your shared document. The document will be saved on each student's iPad.
The Classroom app allows you to see documents and links that students share with you:
Students can tab your name in the Share Sheet in any app to share documents and links with you directly.
Tap on the notification to open the Classroom app and review the shared documents.
Tap "Sharing" to see a list of all shared items, then select the item you want to review to open it in the appropriate app. Shared documents will be saved on your iPad once you open them.
View any student’s screen directly on your device. Check in and see how students are progressing through an assignment or quiz:
Tap "Screens" to view each student's screen. This feature can be disabeled if needed.
To view a specific student's screen, select the student and tap "View Screen".
Students will know that you are monitoring their screen when they see the status bar turn blue.
If your classroom has Apple TV, you can mirror any student’s screen to your TV monitor or projector. It’s a great way to highlight student work, encourage collaboration, and keep everyone involved:
In the Actions list, select "AirPlay" to project a student's screen using Apple TV. Then select the appropriate Apple TV from the list.
The student's screen will be displayed on the Apple TV that you selected.
If the sound on a student’s iPad becomes distracting for the rest of the class, you can mute individual or all devices. To get everyone’s attention, you can also lock each iPad in your class, which might be helpful during an important announcement or activity:
Select a student, a group of students, or your entire class, then tap "Mute" to mute the sound. The sound will be muted on student devices.
To lock devices, select a student, a group of students, or your entire class, then tap "Lock". Tap "Unlock" to unlock devices.
The screen will be locked on all student devices, and students will not be able to access them until the devices are unlocked again.
When class ends, you can easily stop controlling student devices and return each iPad to normal use. Simply tap “End class” on the top left corner of the screen.
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