As we begin this year navigating fluctuations in an ever-changing learning environment, we want to take a moment to celebrate all that we accomplished together in 2021. The feedback, ideas, and passion you shared helped us better serve educators and students with new product features — with more to come this year!
Read on for a refresher of what features were introduced in 2021, as well as a sneak peek of some features coming in 2022.
GoGuardian Features Released in 2021
You asked, and we listened! Last year included one of the biggest moments in GoGuardian Teacher’s history: the release of the highly anticipated Student Groupings feature in Scenes. We also brought you more efficiency and visibility into GoGuardian Admin filtering policies, new Beacon alert categories to address the rising mental health concerns among youth, and transparency features that uphold our continued commitment to transparency and privacy.
GoGuardian Teacher
- Scenes + Student Groups
With Student Grouping now possible in the Scenes feature, teachers can personalize digital learning environments for students individually and in groups, even when they’re in the same class.
- Google Classroom Integration
Thanks to this integration with Google Classroom, teachers can seamlessly distribute Classwork assignments and materials to students from within GoGuardian Teacher.
- Website Checker
The Website Checker allows teachers to check if specific URLs are blocked by an administrator’s GoGuardian Admin filter or by one of their own Scenes. Save valuable time with a quick answer and a direct link to make adjustments!
GoGuardian Admin
- Website Categorization Update
By introducing categories of websites, including “violence,” “weapons”, or “intolerance and hate,” you can more easily prevent students from reaching inappropriate or unwanted pages of content.
- Policy Checker
Administrators can better troubleshoot blocked content and filtering configurations by having increased visibility into policy information.
- Quick Editor
With this update, administrators can update multiple filtering policies on the fly, reducing steps and saving time.
Beacon
- Threats & Violence Categories
With a new Threats & Violence category and a dedicated escalation list, Beacon users can spot additional threats to student safety.
- Snooze Alerts
The snooze functionality helps to reduce the number of incoming alerts and manage false positives within Beacon.
- Updated “View & Filter Alerts”
This enhanced filtering functionality allows Beacon users to quickly view alerts that have not yet been reviewed and cleared, allowing them to take more immediate action.
Org Management
- School Session Indicator
This on-screen visual indicator provides a supplemental layer of transparency to students, reminding them that their browsing activity is being monitored by their school.
Note: this setting is optional to display to students and must be turned on in Org Management > Products > General > Privacy.
- Extension Transparency
By displaying teacher session information, this new feature provides students with increased transparency about sessions, and equips admins with beneficial information for troubleshooting Scenes.
What’s coming in 2022
This year, we’re focused on new ways to support the changing dynamics of today’s classrooms. Exciting updates include flexible options for your policies, transparency into alerts generated across your schools, and increased coverage by supporting additional operational systems — among other things!
GoGuardian Teacher
- Multi-OS Compatibility
Our team is hard at work developing the GoGuardian App (learn more below!), which will increase GoGuardian Teacher coverage to all operating systems.
- Flexible Schedules
Our calendar tool will support rotating schedules, giving teachers more flexibility when automating or adjusting classroom sessions.
GoGuardian Admin
- Flexible Filtering
Super Users will have the flexibility to support filtering at both the individual student and group levels without affecting other OUs, giving teachers the ability to create a more personalized digital environment to support differentiated learning.
- “Why was this blocked?”
This update makes clear why a specific website is blocked, leading to less troubleshooting by administrators.
Beacon
- Improved Dashboards
We want to make it easy to get a quick pulse of the health of your school and districts.
- Multi-OS Compatibility
The development of the GoGuardian App will increase Beacon coverage to additional operating systems. (Learn more below!)
Org Management
- Flexible Permissions
Tailoring user roles and access in GoGuardian will be more flexible than ever before.
- Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
With SFTP sync, managing GoGuardian users based on different information systems will become a more automatic and straightforward process.
GoGuardian App
GoGuardian Teacher and Beacon will soon be joining GoGuardian Admin on any device and any OS! We’ll be bringing our award-winning classroom management solution and robust student safety solution to more devices and operating systems, such as Windows, iOS, and tablets.
Looking Forward
The year ahead is guaranteed to be full of opportunity and new ideas. Thank you for letting us be a part of your school communities and for everything you do in spite of the challenges. We look forward to sharing another meaningful year with you!
