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

Whether creating an Allow List or a Block List, each Scene is made up of 3 Steps and 5 main components.

 

Step 1

• Name this List 
  • Description (optional)
  • Icon Color (optional)

Step 2

• Websites List
• Quick Lists 
• Auto-Open Tabs
• Maximum Open Tabs

Step 3

• Save all changes (by clicking the Save button at the top-right of the screen)

Scene Types

You can either create an Allowed Websites List (to block everything except the sites that you've explicitly allowed) or a Blocked Websites List (to allow everything except the sites that you've explicitly blocked). Click the Create List button on the Allowed Websites List to create an Allow List (anything not allowed will be blocked). If you'd prefer a Block List, click the Create List button on the Blocked Websites List instead (anything not blocked will be allowed).

 

For this example, we've created a Blocked Websites List.

 

Name this list - Give your scene a descriptive name. By default, Scenes are displayed in the order in which they were created, starting with the oldest. However, the order in which they appear can be changed.

Add a Description (Optional) - You may add a custom description of the context in which the scene will be used if preferred. But this step is not necessary to create a Scene.

Icon Color (Optional) - Select the color of the icon that will display next to your Scene name from the main Scene list (if no icon color is chosen, the icon color will be Niagara blue-green by default).

Auto-Open Tabs - Add website URLs to your list of auto-open tabs to have a tab that navigates to that website for students as soon as your classroom session starts.

Maximum Open Tabs - Set the maxiumum number of tabs that a student can open. 

Note: Be sure to consider the number of tabs that a student will need to complete assignments, when setting a tab limit. (Ex. If your tab limit is set to 2, and your student already has two tabs open, clicking on a link that opens a new tab will not work since opening the next tab would exceed the two-tab limit that you have set). The same rule applies to auto-open tabs. Once the tab limit is reached, no new tabs can be opened until a previous tab is closed or the tab limit is increased.

Save - Click the Save button to push any changes to a Scene.

 

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

For more information creating and applying a Scene, please read How to Create and Apply a Scene.

Quick Lists

Quick Lists are groups of URLs that can be quickly added or removed to your list of websites. They can be added to both Allowed Website Lists and Blocked Website Lists. There are three types of quick lists, GoGuardian Quick Lists, District Quick Lists, and Custom Quick Lists. 

GoGuardian Quick Lists

When using an Allowed Websites List, 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 Allowed Website Lists. Adding the Google Docs Quick List to a Blocked Website Lists will cause all Google Docs services to be blocked. 

District Quick Lists

District Quick Lists (also referred to as Shared Quick Lists) are collections of URLs managed through Org Management by a Super User. These Quick Lists will be accessible to all Teachers within the organization. 

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 Allowed Website Lists or Blocked Website Lists. 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 automatically as soon as 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 an Allowed Websites List, 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.