Instruct and Demonstrate

Show the Tutor’s desktop to all or selected students
While presenting, the Tutor can show their desktop to connected Student devices to help demonstrate a point or show students how to do a particular task, for example. 

Show a student’s screen to the rest of the class (Exhibit mode)
With NetSupport School, it is possible to Show the Tutor’s screen to a number of connected Students. It is also possible to show an individual Student’s screen on selected or all Students’ screens. This is useful in situations when Student ‘A’ has produced some work which you wish to show to rest of the class.  Only the Tutor and the exhibiting Student will be able to change the screen.

Restrict Internet access to approved sites only during Show
The Tutor can only access websites that are on the Approved Site List, preventing inappropriate websites being displayed to Students during a Show Mode.

Show just a selected application to students
The Show feature enables the Tutor to display their screen to Students. However, if a number of programs are open at the Tutor end, there may be occasions when they want to show a single application in isolation. The application can be selected and shown to either all or selected students.

Annotate the screen in either a Show or during a remote control session with a range of tools to aid in presenting (arrows, shapes, highlighters, text and more)
While the Tutor screen is being shown, the Tutor may want to draw the student’s attention to a particular area. The Annotate tools can be used to highlight the relevant part of the screen. If the Tutor does not want the Students to see the screen being annotated in real-time they can suspend the show, enabling the Tutor to continue working in the background. 

While viewing, the Tutor can use the annotate tools to highlight a particular area of the Student screen. In Share and Watch Mode, the Student can also use the Annotate toolbar options. The Tutor can still use the other tools while annotating such as Chat, File Transfer etc.

Show a Replay file (previous screen recording video) to selected students
When a Tutor remote controls a Student workstation they can record the screen, keyboard and mouse activity taking place. In addition, if the PCs are configured for audio, any narration that takes place can also be recorded. The information is stored in a file that can be replayed at the Tutor machine and, if required, shown to other Students. Activity on the Tutor’s PC can also be recorded.

Show a video to selected students
All standard video files, for example .avi and .mpg, are supported. The Video Player runs locally on each Student workstation and the video file can be accessed locally or from a network drive. If the video file to be played does not exist on the Student machine NetSupport School will automatically send it to the Student.

When the video file is launched, the Video Player Control Panel appears and standard operations are available, play, stop, pause etc. While the video is running, the Student workstations are locked.

Leave a recording of your Show on the student’s PC for future review
A Show session can  be recorded enabling Students to playback the demonstration at their convenience. NetSupport School Replay files can also be converted to video files allowing them to be played outside of NetSupport School on a range of media players. 

Use Audio mode to speak to students during a Show
The Tutor can enable audio support. If the Tutor is showing to only one Student, both the Tutor and Student can speak. If the Tutor is showing to many, only the Tutor can speak (announce).

Deliver presentations optimised for both wired and wireless classrooms
NetSupport School is designed to work flawlessly over both wired and wireless networks with desktops, laptops or tablets and for use in traditional PC, thin client or virtualised environments. The ‘NetSupport Connectivity Server’ or ‘Name & Connectivity Server/Gateway’, is provided as an optional installation component. Its purpose is to provide a simple and reliable method of locating and connecting to Student PCs in LAN/Wireless network environments.

Virtual whiteboard
A full screen interactive whiteboard is provided, enabling the Tutor to use NetSupport School’s annotation tools to highlight the screen and show the results to a selected group of Students.

When Students are viewing the whiteboard, they cannot initially annotate the screen themselves. However, the Tutor can nominate a Student to be the ‘Whiteboard Leader’. This activates the annotation options at the selected machine. The Tutor can switch control to any of the other participants as required by selecting their icon in the Student list.

Group leaders 
When working with defined groups of Students, the Tutor can assign ‘Group Leader’ status to a selected member of the group. The designated leader can then take control of the group, performing many of the tasks that the main Tutor can (chat, send/collect work, show screen, view and control screens and more). The main Tutor retains overall responsibility while a Group Leader is in place, and can remove and suspend the status at any time.

Chat
Great for student collaboration and supporting students with their work, NetSupport School allows the Tutor to chat to any number of connected Students simultaneously. The Tutor can add or remove Students from the chat session as required. The chat diglogue box is displayed at each participating member’s machine and lists the progress of the Chat session. The content of the Chat session can be added to the Student Journal or saved for later use or copied to another application.

If required, a title or description for the subject to be discussed can be added in the Chat session. This will appear in the Title bar of the Chat window that is displayed at the Student machines. If left blank, the Tutor name will appear.

Audio Support 
NetSupport School allows the Tutor to use audible communications to connected Students, via microphones, headphones and speakers during the View and Show mode, allowing a two-way audible chat session. NetSupport School will only operate audio if the workstations have audio support installed.

Using the Announce Function, the Tutor can also send an audio announcement to all the selected students headphones or speakers. They will be able to hear the Tutor but will not be able to speak back.

Teacher toolbar
The Tutor Toolbar provides details of the current lesson to the Tutor and access to key NetSupport School functions when the Tutor program is minimised. The Tutor can mute sound from all of the Students, add notes to the Student Journal, Scan, Chat, Message, Announce, Show, Lock/Unlock Students, Blank Student screens and block all Internet access by clicking the relevant icon. When the Tutor program is maximised the Tutor Toolbar will disappear and any settings applied will show in the main console screen.

In the main console screen, NetSupport provides two modes to view the user interface in: full, which provides full access to all NetSupport School’s features and basic, which provides access to a selection of frequently used teaching tools. Tutors can switch between these modes by clicking the Basic Toolbar/Full Toolbar icon on the toolbar.