And just like that, a new school year is upon us. We hope you took some time this summer to decompress from a truly unusual year. We want you to have a seamless transition from summer break as you get ready to return to class with a new set of students. As you prepare for the year ahead, read on to learn more about our back-to-school webinars and key product updates to our suite of K-12 products for your digital learning environment.
Product Updates for Fall 2021
The GoGuardian product teams have been busy working on enhancements to Admin, Teacher, Beacon, and Org Management so you can make this year your best ever. Keep reading for the latest product updates, as well as what we have coming soon for our users!
Back-to-school webinars are back!
Need a refresher on your GoGuardian® product knowledge? Get ready for back-to-school by joining us live in our back-to-school webinars, which are scheduled throughout the month of August. These webinars are exclusively for our GoGuardian customers so we can answer your frequently asked questions and help you prepare for the school year ahead.
GoGuardian Teacher™
The latest updates to the GoGuardian Teacher™ product include easier ways to create rules in Scenes, as well as error-reducing ways to add students to classrooms.
Scenes updates
It’s now easier than ever for your teachers to create browsing rules with enhancements to Scenes in GoGuardian Teacher. The improved UI and simplified categorization means teachers can simply add URLs to their allow or block lists. Teachers find this useful when administering tests and quizzes to students while allowing them to browse online, or when a distracting website continuously pops up on students’ browsers. Soon, teachers will be able to apply different browsing rules to students using the Student Groups feature! Read about how to apply these new rules here.
Emailing student reports
GoGuardian Teacher now has the option to email reports of student browser activity from a classroom session! With this new feature, teachers can keep parents and administrators informed, or they can email reports to themselves to save or print. Check out our Help Center article for details on how to email reports!
Updated GoGuardian Teacher settings
Admin’s can now help teachers ensure the correct students are included in their GoGuardian Teacher sessions. By limiting to only students in specific OU’s, rostering errors will be reduced while increasing student privacy. Read more about teachers’ access to students in an Organizational Unit (OU).
Website Checker
When students encounter a webpage that is blocked, teachers often can’t determine why a website is being blocked for that student. With Website Checker, teachers can now check if specific URLs are blocked by an administrator’s GoGuardian Admin filter or by one of their own Scenes. If the block is a result of a teacher’s Scene, then they can make immediate corrections to allow the student to access the site. See where to access this feature and how to use it.
Updated Chat functionality
Students will be able to find chat easier than ever. Chat will now appear as a window rather than a bubble, assisting in visibility and ease of use for students.
Coming soon:
Detecting student inactivity
Teachers will see a note when students stop interacting with their browser, indicating that a student may be idle.
See what GoGuardian Teacher can do for your classrooms!
GoGuardian Admin™
The GoGuardian Admin™ team has been working hard to improve the user interface to make your user experience easier. You now have the benefit of quick views, easy-to-understand policies, and a feedback system for improving the Admin product!
Website Categorization updates
Website Categories enable you to block entire groups of websites to prevent student access. With the improved interface, now you can easily understand which categories and URLs are allowed or blocked within specific policies. You can also submit category feedback with the updated Website Categories interface. Your category suggestions help us improve GoGuardian Admin for all users! Read all about the new changes here.
Policy Checker
GoGuardian Admin’s Policy Checker helps you quickly troubleshoot blocked content. With our new user-friendly interface, you can search for rules within a designated search box, compare policies quickly, and see the full name of longer OUs by hovering over them.
Learn more about policy configurations in our Help Center.
Coming soon:
Group filtering
Individual and group-based filtering will be permitted so that IT admins can group students based on their needs. You will also be able to apply your filtering policy to these groups.
Check out GoGuardian Admin for all of your filtering needs!
GoGuardian Beacon®
GoGuardian Beacon™ is a student safety solution that helps identify students who are at risk of harm to themselves or others through self-harm, suicide, bullying, threats, and violence.¹
Updated View and Filter Alerts Function
Beacon alert cards show user information about a student and the alerts that their online activity generated. Users no longer have to scroll through all Beacon alert cards to identify which ones need attention. Now with a simple toggle, you can skip alerts that have been reviewed and cleared, allowing you to see only the alerts that still need attention. You can also quickly view alerts based on specific filters, such as actions taken or risk-level priority. You can then determine the next steps needed in your workflow to resolve and close the alert. Learn more about the new advanced filtering in Beacon.
Coming soon:
Device-agnostic capabilities
Like GoGuardian Admin, Beacon will be able to run on any device, any browser, and any operating system. This means student safety filtering with a wider net for students and the schools that serve them.
Separate escalation list for Threats and Violence
Users will be able to create separate escalation lists with different contacts for Suicide and Self-Harm alerts and for Threats and Violence alerts.
Learn how GoGuardian Beacon® can help your school support student mental health.
GoGuardian Org Management
Administrators of GoGuardian accounts can manage, edit, and grant product access to users across your organization within Org Management.
User Management OU Enhancements
IT admins now have greater control over which OUs your faculty members have access to for each GoGuardian product. The most recent changes enable you to make product-based selections for which OUs a user has access to, rather than only through the OU, as before. Now you can specify or assign OUs to your teachers and staff by editing their access rights in the User Management page. Get the details here.
Coming soon:
User Provisioning with CSV via SFTP syncs
IT admins will be able to import staff and faculty data and set it up to automatically update regularly via a CSV transfer, using your school or district’s SFTP server.
Do you have questions about any updates or the GoGuardian Suite’s bundle of products? Reach out to your GoGuardian representative, or contact us!
