Hapara Focused Browsing

Focused Browsing

Hapara is a robust program that has solved so many classroom technology problems. This past month, I find myself sighing, "Where have you been the past 33 years!" whenever I explore a new feature. For today, let's look at just Focused Browsing.

First, open Hapara Teacher Dashboard. If this is your first visit, find the name of your classroom by clicking on Classes>Manage Classes at the top of the screen. Click on the star in front of the name of your class to add the classroom to your list of classes.

Then open your classroom tab and find the link symbol in the blue header. Open this link to take all of your students immediately to the web addresses that you choose.

On the next screen, type in up to 10 web addresses that you want your students to access. If you just want to open tabs for your students, leave the slider to No for Focused Browsing. Turning on Focused Browsing will open the tabs listed on every student computer and lock out all additional web browsing.

To schedule a browsing session to open automatically at a specified day and time, move the slider next to scheduled browsing. Choose the date and time from the calendar or pop-up menus. The scheduled browsing option can be used independently or with a focused browsing session.

Session duration can be set for 15-180 minutes, and you have control over whether the session ends quietly or if student tabs will be returned to their previous state. I usually turn off the "At the end of the session restore student tabs" box as shown above.

Uses

Focused browsing solved some major classroom problems for me:

• Students can quickly be taken to the same websites without first having to post links to Google Classroom. I used to use the Share to Classroom extension, but students had to be logged into Google Classroom to receive the web links. Hapara does not require any student action and will automatically open student computer tabs for you.
• Students cannot misspell a web address and go to the wrong site.
• I can focus student research on reputable sites and block out Wikipedia.
• Focused browsing eliminates digital cheating for tests and quizzes. No more google searching for spelling words or using the online calculator on math tests! 

Not only does this give teachers control over their student's web usage, it allows you to schedule secure sessions even when you will have a substitute in your room. Simply set up focused browsing sessions for your classrooms in advance.

Monitoring and Deleting Focused Browsing

To review, edit, or delete a browsing session, go to the Schedule option on the Highlights screen. Use this menu to view sessions for this week or in the future.