PLATFORM SUPPORT
iOS / Android
iOS / Android
Responding to the growing use of mobile technology in the modern classroom and the increased adoption of BYOD initiatives, NetSupport School has extended its multi-platform capabilities to include support for tablets and smartphones.
The NetSupport School Student for Android and iOS ensures students using these devices can still join with your NetSupport School-managed lessons.
The Tutor Assistant for iOS and Android tablets and smartphones delivers the freedom for a teacher to move around the classroom while still being able to monitor and interact with the class.
What they say about us…
Student App (Android)
For installation on any Android tablet (Android – v5.0 or later), NetSupport School Student for Android gives teachers the power to connect to each student in a NetSupport School-managed classroom (NetSupport School Tutor application connecting to a Windows desktop required), enabling real-time interaction and support.
Key features:
Manage
- Ask students to register at the start of each lesson – the teacher can request standard and custom information from each student at the start of a lesson.
- Set objectives and expected outcomes for the current lesson – if provided by the teacher, once connected, students are presented with details of the current lesson along with the objectives and expected learning outcomes.
- Blank and lock all students’ screens to gain attention – by default, a graphic will appear on the student workstation, informing them that their mouse and keyboard is locked.
- Transfer files to a selected student or multiple students’ devices in a single action (not supported on Windows students). Once a file has been transferred to the student, they can access it in the File Explorer in the NetSupport School Student app.
- View the current status of wireless networks and display battery strength for connected students’ devices.
- Browse for students (from their desktop application) or allow students to connect directly to the relevant class from their Android devices. The NetSupport School Student can be configured to launch automatically when the device is powered on.
- Teachers can choose to pre-configure each device with the required classroom connectivity settings, or ‘push’ the settings out from within the NetSupport School Tutor program.
Instruct and Demonstrate
- Show the Tutor’s desktop to all or selected students. Students are able to use touch-screen gestures to pinch, pan and zoom in order to highlight key information when needed.
- Open a discussion session that all or selected students can join, enter their comments and share with the rest of the class.
- Send an attention-grabbing message or instruction to all / selected students. The message will be displayed in a dialog on the student screens.
- Request Help facility – students can send a request for help to the teacher. When a student raises a help request an alert will be raised on the teacher’s screen, provided it currently has that student connected. Any outstanding help requests will be visible to the teacher with an indicator highlighting the number of help requests. There will also be a Help Request icon displayed next to the student icon. These indicators will show until that help request has been cleared. In addition, a red toolbar appears at the top of the student’s device, enabling the teacher to easily identify students in need of help as they move around the classroom.
Monitor
- Monitor the entire class or individual students via thumbnails of each connected students’ screen, providing a quick and easy method for monitoring student activity in a single view.
- Student thumbnails can be resized to suit personal preferences. This is particularly useful when connected to large numbers of student devices.
- Select a thumbnail to zoom into the screen of that selected student device.
- Remotely launch a selected website on one or multiple student devices, helping to save time and keep students on task.
Assess
- Send an instant survey or request for feedback to all/selected students to help gauge if the students have understood the content covered during the lesson. The teacher sends a question together with a selection of pre-defined responses, and when the students respond, the results are displayed in real-time in percentages and as a bar chart. The surveys can be saved and re-used again.
- Reinforce key learning points and instantly gauge student understanding during a lesson via the Question and Answer module. The teacher can verbally ask questions to the whole class, evaluate students’ answers and understanding, bounce questions around the classroom and develop peer assessment opportunities, as well as track rewards against both the individual and, where appropriate, teams.
- Remotely assign ‘rewards’ to students to recognise good work or behaviour. During a lesson, the teacher can give individual students a reward (in the form of a star) which is highlighted to the student.
NB: The NetSupport School Student for Android can be used with your existing NetSupport School licences already purchased (as long as you have sufficient unused licences). Alternatively, additional Android-only student licences can be purchased from your NetSupport reseller at a reduced cost.
NetSupport Browser App (iOS)
This mobile Browser app (for iOS 9.3.5 and above) brings together the functionality previously available separately in the NetSupport DNA Browser and NetSupport School Student apps – making app use simpler and more streamlined for users of NetSupport DNA or NetSupport School, or both! It delivers the tools you need to help maximise the effectiveness of computer-led teaching on iOS devices. For NetSupport School, the following features are supported:
Manage
- Ask students to register at the start of each lesson – the teacher can request standard and custom information from each student at the start of a lesson.
- Set objectives and expected outcomes for the current lesson – if provided by the teacher, once connected, students are presented with details of the current lesson along with the objectives and expected learning outcomes.
- Lock students’ screens to gain attention.
- Battery Status: View the current battery strength for each connected student device.
Instruct and demonstrate
- Show the Tutor’s desktop to all or selected students. Students can use touch-screen gestures to pinch, pan and zoom in order to highlight key information when needed.
- The student and teacher can initiate a 1:1 chat session and participate in group discussions.
- Send an attention-grabbing message or instruction to each /all students device. Students receive an audible and visual alert when a message is received and they can then be viewed and managed by the student.
- Students can send a request for help to the teacher’s desktop. In addition, a red toolbar appears at the top of the student’s device, enabling the teacher to easily identify students in need of help as they move around the classroom.
- Remotely launch a selected website on one or multiple student devices.
Monitor
- Monitor connected students’ tablets from the teacher’s PC via thumbnails of each connected students’ screen, providing a quick and easy method for monitoring student activity in a single view.
- Zoom in to view a larger thumbnail of any selected student’s tablet.
- Internet metering and restrictions – The teacher can employ a list of approved/restricted websites for use during the lesson.
Assess
- Send an instant survey or request for feedback to all/selected students to help gauge if the students have understood the content covered during the lesson. The teacher sends a question together with a selection of pre-defined responses, and when the students respond, the results are displayed in real-time in percentages and as a bar chart. The surveys can be saved and re-used again.
- Reinforce key learning points and instantly gauge student understanding during a lesson via the Question and Answer module. The teacher can verbally ask questions to the whole class, evaluate students’ answers and understanding, bounce questions around the classroom and develop peer assessment opportunities, as well as track rewards against both the individual and, where appropriate, teams.
These features are disabled when the user is using an iPhone. If NetSupport DNA is installed, the following features are also supported by the Browser app: Hardware Inventory, MDM deployment/configuration, Phrase monitoring, Safeguarding Resources and Report a Concern. Users will need an iPad to allow both sets of features enabled concurrently.
Installation and configuration
1. Tutor component – This can be downloaded via the ‘main download’ option on our website, to install the Tutor onto the instructor’s desktop PC. From the instructor’s desktop, you can then connect to each system, enabling you to interact with each student.
2. Student component – Download the relevant student app from the Google Play store (Android v4 or later), iTunes stores (iOS v9.3.5 or later).
Set up and configure the Android/iOS Students
You can pre-configure each device with the required password protected classroom connectivity settings from the device or ‘push’ the settings to each device from within the NetSupport School Tutor program:
- Select {School}{Tablet}{Apply Student Settings} from the Control drop-down window.
- The Student Settings dialog will appear.
- Select the students you wish to send the settings to.
- To amend the configuration settings click Modify.
- The Modify Student Settings dialog will appear.
- Set the required options and click Save.
- If a password has already been set at the Android/iOS device, enter this.
- Click Send.
- You can now browse for Android and iOS Students in Room mode.
If you selected the ‘Tablet students only’ licence type during installation the NetSupport School Tutor will only display the features that are supported for Tablet Students.
View the full Android and iOS installation and configuration guide
Central Management of the NetSupport Browser App for iOS
What they say about us…
Tutor App (Android)
For installation on a teacher’s Android tablet (v5 and above), the NetSupport School Tutor for Android extends the product’s capabilities into dedicated tablet-based classrooms, giving the teacher the power to connect to each student device to deliver real-time interaction and support.
Note: The students’ tablets must be running the NetSupport School Student app – also available to download from the store.
Key features when connecting to students’ devices:
Manage
- Ask students to register at the start of each lesson – the teacher can request standard and custom information from each student at the start of a lesson.
- Set objectives and expected outcomes for the current lesson – if provided by the teacher, once connected, students are presented with details of the current lesson along with the objectives and expected learning outcomes.
- Blank and lock all students’ screens to gain attention – by default, a graphic will appear on the student workstation, informing them that their mouse and keyboard is locked.
- Transfer files to a selected student or multiple students’ devices in a single action (not supported on Windows students). Once a file has been transferred to the student, they can access it in the File Explorer in the NetSupport School Student app.
- View the current status of wireless networks and display battery strength for connected students’ devices.
- Connect to the required devices by creating ‘rooms’ in advance; then the students’ devices can be configured to a specific room. At the start of a lesson, the teacher simply indicates which of the pre-defined rooms they want to connect to. ‘Roaming’ students also have the option of connecting to a designated room.
Instruct and Demonstrate
- Open a chat session with an individual student or use multiple Chat sessions open at the same time to chat with multiple students.
- Send an attention-grabbing message or instruction to all / selected students. The message will be displayed in a dialog on the student screens.
- Request Help facility – students can send a request for help to the teacher. When a student raises a help request an alert will be raised on the teacher’s screen, provided it currently has that student connected. Any outstanding help requests will be visible to the teacher with an indicator highlighting the number of help requests. There will also be a Help Request icon displayed next to the student icon. These indicators will show until that help request has been cleared.
Monitor
- Monitor the entire class or individual students via thumbnails of each connected students’ screen, providing a quick and easy method for monitoring student activity in a single view. (Only view student devices that have the ‘Extended Features Utility package’ installed)
- Student thumbnails can be resized to suit personal preferences. This is particularly useful when connected to large numbers of student devices.
- Select a thumbnail to zoom into the screen of that selected student device.
- Remotely launch a selected website on one or multiple student devices, helping to save time and keep students on task.
Assess
- Send an instant survey or request for feedback to all/selected students to help gauge if the students have understood the content covered during the lesson. The teacher sends a question together with a selection of pre-defined responses, and when the students respond, the results are displayed in real-time in percentages and as a bar chart. The surveys can be saved and re-used again.
- Reinforce key learning points and instantly gauge student understanding during a lesson via the Question and Answer module. The teacher can verbally ask questions to the whole class, evaluate students’ answers and understanding, bounce questions around the classroom and develop peer assessment opportunities, as well as track rewards against both the individual and, where appropriate, teams.
- Remotely assign ‘rewards’ to students to recognise good work or behaviour. During a lesson, the teacher can give individual students a reward (in the form of a star) which is highlighted to the student.
The NetSupport School Tutor for Android is free to try in your environment for 30 days and can then be used with existing NetSupport School licences. Alternatively, additional licences can be purchased from your NetSupport reseller.
What they say about us…
Tutor Assistant App (iOS & Android)
For use in your existing NetSupport School-managed classroom environment (NetSupport School v11 or higher connecting to a Windows desktop), the NetSupport School Tutor Assistant app is an extension to the traditional desktop Tutor application – delivering greater mobility for teachers around the class and the ideal tool to allow teaching assistants to help with monitoring students’ progress.
Recognising the value of assistants in the classroom, multiple devices can be used in a single class to ensure all teaching staff can retain full visibility at all times.
Features supported on tablets:
Manage
- Support for both Android and iPad tablets.
- Log on /Log off all student computers.
- Restrict student printing by turning printing options on/off.
- Display a badge on the teacher’s PC to show the number of currently connected Tutor Assistants.
Instruct and demonstrate
- View Help Request notifications from students as they are sent.
- Choose from a list of pre-configured messages that the Tutor has created and send the attention-grabbing message or instruction to all / selected students. The message will be displayed in a dialog on the student screens.
- If the Tutor has created groups of students, for example into levels of ability, the TA can see the different groups, helping them to identify and work with selected students.
Monitor
- Monitor the entire class or individual students via thumbnails of each connected students’ screen, providing a quick and easy method for monitoring student activity in a single view.
- Select a student thumbnail, to zoom and view their screen full size.
- Switch from Thumbnail view to a Detail view, showing key student information in sortable columns such as current application and websites in use on each student device.
- Monitor and control internet use. Use approved websites only by activating the “Approved Websites List”. The student will only be able to view websites that are in the approved list, all other websites are blocked. Block unauthorised websites by activating the “Restricted Websites” List. The student will not be able to view websites that are in the restricted list but will be able to view all other websites. If a student is currently viewing a website included in the activated restriction list, they will be redirected to a message stating that the URL has been blocked by the Tutor. Alternatively, block all internet access.
- Blank and lock all students’ screens to gain attention – by default, a graphic will appear at the student informing them that their device is locked.
- Monitor and control application use (desktop and store). Activate the “Approved Applications” list and the student will only be able to run applications that are in the approved list, all other applications are blocked. Activate the “Restricted Applications” list and the student will not be able to run applications that are in the restricted list but will be able to run all other applications. If a student is currently running an application included in your activated restriction list, an Application Blocked dialog will appear on their screen, stating the application that has been blocked by the Tutor. This will also appear if a student attempts to run any of the applications included on the restriction list.
Features supported on smartphones:
- Support for Android and Apple iOS smartphones.
- Block restricted websites, allow only access to approved websites or simply block all internet access.
- Lock and unlock, and log on/log off all students’ computers.
- Blank and unblank students’ screens to gain attention.
- Restrict student printing.
- Block the use of restricted applications or allow access to only approved applications.
- Send students a pre-set message.
The Tutor Assistant app is free to download for all mobile variants from Apple iTunes, Google Play and the Amazon App store.
