Scenes are designed to give teachers added control over students' web activity during classroom sessions. 

Each Scene is made up of 6 main components.

• Scene Info 
• Filter Mode
• Exceptions
• Quick Lists 
• Auto-Open Tabs
• Maximum Open Tabs

Scene Info

Scene Name - Give your scene a descriptive name. Scenes are displayed in the order in which they were created, starting with the oldest.

Description - Write a custom description of the context in which the scene will be used.

Pattern - Set a pattern to visually distinguish the scene from others. 

Update Scene - Click the Update Scene button to push any changes to an actively applied scene.

Filter Mode

Select a filter mode to determine how restrictive your scene will be when applied. 

Block Mode is a restrictive setting. When Block Mode is enabled, ALL websites will be blocked except for the sites added to the exceptions list. Block Mode is useful for testing scenarios or when you want students to only access a few specific sites. 

Allow Mode is a less restrictive setting. When Allow Mode is enabled, only sites added to the exceptions list will be blocked. Allow mode is useful for granting open access to the internet, except for a few distracting or problematic sites.  

Exceptions

Adding a URL to the exceptions list will exclude the site from the selected filter mode. 

Block Mode Exceptions

When Block Mode is enabled, the exceptions list acts as a whitelist. Any URLs added as a Block Mode exception will be accessible. 

Websites blocked by Admin-level filtering policies cannot be overridden with an exception.

Note: Block Mode requires at least 1 exception before it will block content. An empty scene with Block Mode enabled will not block any content until at least 1 exception is added. 

Allow Mode Exceptions

When Allow Mode is enabled, the exceptions list acts as a blacklist. Any URLs added as an Allow Mode exception will be blocked. 

For more information about filtering websites, please read How to block websites using Scenes.

Exceptions Lists and Quick Lists

Quick Lists are groups of URLs that can be quickly added or removed to your exceptions list. They can be added to block or allow mode scenes. There are two types of quick lists, GoGuardian Quick Lists, and Custom Quick Lists. 

GoGuardian Quick Lists

When using Block Mode, adding a single URL to your exceptions list may not be enough to allow access to a site. Many websites use a series of redirects and subdomains in order to access their site.

Google Docs, for instance, has 21 subdomains and redirects that need to be accounted for in order to access all features in Google Docs. So, GoGuardian put together Quick Lists for commonly used educational websites to help quickly add websites to your exceptions list. 

GoGuardian Quicklists are typically used in Block Mode scenarios. Adding the Google Docs Quick List to an allow mode scene will cause all Google Docs services to be blocked. 

Custom Quick Lists

You can also create your own Quick Lists to easily add or remove groups of URLs to your exceptions list without having to add or remove them individually. 

Quick Lists can be added to any of your personal scenes in Block Mode or Allow Mode. Quick Lists can be modified at any time.  

Note: To save a custom Quick List, a name must be defined. 

Auto-Open Tabs

You can configure your scene to automatically open websites on your students' devices when applied using the Auto-Open Tabs section. URLs added to this section will be opened when the time the scene is applied. 

Tabs will only open if the student has a Chrome web browser window open and running. So, if your student does not receive them right away, ask them to open a Chrome web browser window, and they should receive the tabs.

Note: When using Block Mode, any URL added to the Auto-Open Tabs section must also be added to your exceptions list, or they will be blocked. 

Maximum Open Tabs

You can limit the number of tabs a student can have open at a given time using the Maximum Open Tabs option. By default, there is no limit set, but you can quickly adjust the limit using the drop-down menu. The tab limit is only in effect while the scene is actively applied to your classroom session. When a scene with a tab limit is applied, any tabs over the limit will be closed automatically.