Welcome back to a brand-new school year! As we gear up our Chromebook classrooms, Blocksi rolled out a few key platform updates over the summer. To help your digital classroom run smoothly, here are four important changes and best practices to keep on your radar.
1. Assessment Mode Changes (And the Temporary Save Workaround)
Using Assessment Mode to quickly lock students into a preset list of curated websites now features a guided four-step wizard. Whether you are locking down a unit quiz or simply restricting browser access to specific research links for a lesson, you can apply these settings to your whole class or to a pre-created Blocksi group.
Because Blocksi currently lacks a direct "Save" button, saving an assessment to launch later requires a temporary workaround until they streamline the process (a fix we’ve already requested on behalf of the district!).
To save your setup for a future date, check the box for Save this as a preset, click Auto start in next class, name your preset, and click Confirm and start. Next, head right to the orange bar on your main dashboard, click Next class, and then hit Cancel assessment. While it takes a few extra clicks for now, this guarantees your curated list of sites are safely saved in your library until you need it.
2. Assessment Lockout & Why You Need Blocksi Scheduler
Blocksi updated its security so that any student in an active Assessment Mode session cannot be pulled or hijacked into another teacher's class. While this guarantees zero interruptions during focused work, it creates a major roadblock if a class session runs long.
If you leave your class session running past the bell with Assessment Mode turned on, those students remain completely stuck in your class. Their next-period teacher cannot override the lock or pull them into a new Blocksi session. The only way to free those students is for you to physically go back into Blocksi, find that past class, and manually end it.
To prevent accidental lockouts and keep your colleagues from getting stuck, we strongly recommend setting up the Blocksi Scheduler. Configuring your schedule guarantees your class sessions automatically shut off right on time at the bell, freeing up your students for their next period without any extra clicks on your end.
3. Extended 30-Day Screen Replays
Reviewing student screen activity just got a lot more forgiving. Blocksi extended the Saved Replay window from 14 days to a full 30 days!
This extra time gives you a much wider safety net to review past screen activity and follow up on classroom management questions without worrying about session history vanishing before you can look at it.
4. Sticky Student Message Alerts
Directly messaging a student through Blocksi used to be a bit hit-or-miss. Previously, when you sent a message to a student's Chromebook, a small notification box would pop up at the bottom of their screen for just a few seconds and then disappear. If the student happened to be looking away, working on a paper notebook, or stepping out to the restroom, they missed your message entirely.
Now, student notification alerts have received a major visibility upgrade! When you send a student a message, a bright green box pops up on their screen and remains there until the student clicks it to read your message. There is no longer any chance of your instruction, encouragement, or redirect fading away before the student sees it.
Need Help Setting Up Your Blocksi Dashboard? We know multi-step workarounds and scheduling settings can feel like a lot to navigate when you are prepping lessons. If you want a quick one-on-one walkthrough of the assessment setup, need help configuring your Blocksi Scheduler, or want to test an assessment before game day, reach out to your building Tech Coach(es)! Your coach is always happy to pop into your room and help you get everything configured for a successful week.