Setting up Courses and Rosters
There are several ways that you can setup course and rosters in Mosyle, let’s review them:
Apple School Manager
If you are leveraging Apple School Manager (ASM) and you can sync your Student Information System (SIS) then this can provide an automated way of creating and updating courses and rosters. If your SIS does not provide integration with Apple School Manager you could upload the data via an SFTP sync, feel free to check with your SIS provider if you are unsure.
Once you have data in ASM then in Mosyle go to My School > Apple School Manager, click “Sync hierarchy” and then “Pull fresh data”. Once the data preview appears, press “Start integration”.
Spreadsheets
If you are not leveraging Apple School Manager then you could download the spreadsheet templates in Mosyle to populate your user information. Go to My School > Spreadsheets and download the .csv templates so you can complete them and upload them. If you already have users in Mosyle and not classes then go ahead and just complete the spreadsheet for classes.
Manual Entry
Lastly, you can create your courses manually, go to My School < Courses < + Add New Course, and then give it a name:
● An Elementary school that has students staying all together would name a course “1st Grade”, then click save, then you can add periods which could be the teacher’ last name or the 1st Grade group number if there are multiple sections.
● A High School would name a course “English” and then add periods based on teacher and section.
As you build each period you can add student names and the primary teacher along with any secondary teachers that should also be able to manage that class.
Best Practice #1: Creating an app workflow
The most popular feature of Class Manager is Study Apps. This allows a teacher to select multiple apps (Native, App Store, and/or Apps and Books (VPP) deployed) and hide everything else on the device. There is also the ability to install applications on the student’s device if one or multiple apps on the study apps list are not installed on the device.
In order for this to function you will need to make sure you have enough app licenses available through your Apps and Books token. Also, make sure the appropriate settings are activated in Management > Apple Apps and Books, then click edit next to the token(s) you would like to use with Study Apps and make sure the option pictured below is checked. You will also need to make sure you have enough app licenses available through your Apps and Books token.
If apps are selected from the App Store and are not already installed on the devices, the students will be prompted to enter their Apple ID and password in order to purchase the app license and install the app. If you do not want teachers to be able to install apps directly from the App Store you must disable this by going to Preferences < MDM Platforms < iOS/macOS Preferences and make sure the box that allows teachers to install apps via the App Store is unchecked.
Best Practice #2: Focusing web access
If your schools is not deploying a third-party filtering solution that provides a local agent to the device for 24-7 filtering then Study Sites might be a great solution to temporarily restrict what website students can visit. Teachers can enter a series of websites and create a whitelist where all other websites are blocked. Let’s take a look at Study Sites:
Keep in mind that if you are using a device based filtering solution you will want to test this feature since there can only be one global proxy profile installed on the device at a time. If you find that this feature conflicts then you can navigate to Preferences > MDM Platforms > iOS/Mac > Class Manager Preferences and turn on the option to disable Study Sites. Also, Mosyle does not block Apple, Mosyle, and Google traffic.
Best Practice #3: Assessment validity
Ensuring a secure testing environment is key in any distance learning environment, our Safe Test feature helps provide a little more peace of mind. Most web-based assessments can be deployed by entering the link in the Safe Test area of Class Manager. Once enabled the devices will lock into our Manager app and a web view activates locking the student devices in the website. Students can’t take screenshots or exit the app. As always make sure to test your links with Safe Test to make sure the link can be accessed when the feature is active.
Best Practice #4: Encouraging class participation
If you would like to capture a short answer or multiple choice response from the students use Quick Poll. Here you’ll be able to see the responses by clicking the refresh arrows as they come in. Also on the top right corner the view history button will keep track of every question and response. This is perfect to use to check for understanding or promote class participation with a little anonymity amongst the students as only the teacher can see the responses.
Best Practice #5: Focusing students on a single app
Since you are not on the same wifi network as the students you can’t leverage Apple Classroom to lock students in an app but we have you covered in these moments. App lock allows you to designate a single app and lock the student devices into it. They will not be able to leave the app or take screenshots. So you would be able to lock them into your preferred video conferencing app for lectures or into any other app that’s installed on the device.
General tips
● The devices should be supervised to take advantage of the feature-set.
● Make sure devices are on the latest operating system whenever possible.
● For iOS devices - it is recommend to be on iOS 13 or higher to enable the restriction to “Force Wifi Power on,” this will ensure that airplane mode won’t turn off wifi which could potentially leave a student locked if you deploy App Lock or Safe Test and they flip airplane mode on or turn off wifi at the same time the command is received.
● For macOS devices - the live screen view will only work if the devices are on the same network. So in a distance learning scenario teachers will not be able to view the student’s screens.
● If students restart their device the MDM commands applied by Class Manager will reactivate the moment the device reconnects to the network!
● Keep in mind that commands can take up to 20 - 30 seconds to apply or remove, use the class view in Class Manager to confirm commands have been applied, the red “push pending” button indicates the device hasn’t received or removed the command and the grey “update” button indicates the command has been received or removed.
If you have any additional questions about Class Manager please feel free to open a support ticket in your Mosyle console and our Support team will be more than happy to review our feature set further with you.