How monitoring works - an overview

Dyknow's monitoring feature enables teachers to:

• Start, Join, Leave and End a Monitoring Session for an assigned Class
• Monitor the devices of students assigned to a Class roster:
  • View a thumbnail image of monitored student activity
  • Track and tally each monitored student's activity in real-time
• Collect and store all monitored student device activity data in Class History
• Use additional features during a monitoring session to:
  • Help keep students on task and focused
  • Engage students

In this article:

• How Monitoring Works
• Types of Monitoring
• During a Monitoring Session
• Ending a Monitoring Session
• After Monitoring

HOW MONITORING WORKS

Dyknow monitoring occurs via class assignments: student enrollment and teacher enrollment.

Each Dyknow Teacher's assigned classes populate his/her My Classes page.

Each student listed on a given class roster can be monitored by the Teacher(s) assigned to that class. But a student must be listed on a Teacher's class roster in order for that Teacher to monitor his/her device activity.

Each student device can be monitored by only one class at a time and each Dyknow Teacher can monitor only one class at a time.

For students using Windows and/or Mac devices, the entire desktop can be monitored, including any web and application activity. For students using Chromebook devices, only in-browser activity can be monitored.

TYPES OF MONITORING

Dyknow enables two types of monitoring, both of which are designed to:

• Enable teachers to interact with students, preventing them from having to watch their screens throughout class; and,
• Provide peace of mind for teachers knowing Dyknow is recording students' activity history and they can access all of it after class (in Class History).

Passive monitoring

Monitoring without enforcing a Blocking Plan - just click the Start Monitoring and let the data collection begin!

Active monitoring

Monitoring with an enforced Blocking Plan, which will provide both Allowed and Blocked data in the resulting Class History.

DURING A MONITORING SESSION

Views

During an active monitoring session, grid view enables Dyknow Teachers to see (on their own screen) all student device activity via:

• Thumbnail image:
  • A screenshot of the student's current activity
  • The name of the student
  • An icon for the type of device the student is using
• The Real-Time Activity Tracker, a live list and tally of all monitored student device activity

During an active monitoring session, big view enables Dyknow Teachers to get a closer look at a student's screen and Current Activity (Activity Tracker). If a student is using a Chromebook device, Teachers can also select the active tab and also close out tabs on that Chromebook device.

Blocking

During a monitoring session, a Dyknow Teacher can enforce a Blocking Plan to actively prevent off-task behavior on student devices.

For more information on Blocking Plans, review our Blocking Plans Overview article.

Engage

Dyknow also helps teachers keep students focused/engaged while on their school devices using these features:

• Send a Message
• Ask a Question
• Request Understanding

ENDING A MONITORING SESSION

To start monitoring a new class, a Teacher must first leave the active monitoring session or end it for all participants.

If a Dyknow Teacher does not end a monitoring session:

• It will automatically end after 4 hours;
• A Dyknow Administrator can force-end a monitoring session; and,
• The teacher of the next class may need to "steal" students for monitoring.

AFTER MONITORING

The student device activity data collected during monitoring sessions is stored in Class History.

When the End Monitoring button is clicked (ending the monitoring session), the Dyknow Teacher is automatically redirected to the Class History page to review the results of that monitoring session.

MONITORING FAQs

For more information on Dyknow monitoring, check out our Monitoring FAQ article.