What’s New in Classroom 9.5 - April 2024

Blocking Plans

Blocking Plans is a new feature that enhances the way teachers manage access to websites and Windows apps during class sessions. This feature is designed to replace the existing Block Lists functionality, offering a more versatile approach to controlling access to both websites and Windows applications during class.

A Blocking Plan is essentially a customizable list that includes both websites and Windows applications. These lists can be configured as either Block Only or Allow Only. Block Only mirrors the functionality of the current Block Lists feature. Allow Only is similar to how the Site Lock or “Site Lock to Collection” feature currently works.

For more information on how Blocking Plans work, see this article.

Native Windows Agent for Classroom

For districts utilizing Windows devices, the new Securly Classroom Windows Agent enables full-screen viewing of Windows desktops, along with application monitoring and blocking capabilities.

Windows Application Blocking

Blocking and allowing Windows applications is managed similarly to websites, with teachers selecting from a predefined list of Windows applications. Full documentation will be available in the Classroom User’s Guide.

Disable Classroom for Individual Students

Securly Classroom can now be disabled for individual students. The setting can be found on the User Detail page for Rostered Students. Toggling this setting will be recorded in the Audit Log. This setting is available for users in the Teacher 2 role and higher.

Multiple Sessions per User

Securly Classroom will now allow a user (admin, teacher, etc.) to be logged in on up to five devices or browsers simultaneously.

Prevent teachers from adding students not rostered to them to manual classes

Administrators now have an option to prevent teachers from adding students to manual classes unless that student is already rostered to them in another class. This allows them to create and edit manual classes, while limiting them to only students that are also in their rostered classes. This new option can be found in the Settings > System > Classroom menu. When enabled, teachers will be shown only their students when adding students while creating or editing a manual class.

Other

• All permissions have been combined into a single tab in Settings, rather than a General tab and a Classroom tab.