NetSupport today announced that its newest solution for classroom management and online safety, classroom.cloud, will now further enhance students’ online safety at all times – and, critically, in any location – by including integration with the widely-used communication and collaboration solution, Microsoft Teams.
With many students equipped with their own school learning devices to enable blended and individual learning to occur both inside and outside of school hours via platforms such as Teams, online safety no longer stops at the end of the school day or applies to only certain applications.
Schools can now widen their safeguarding provision by connecting their Microsoft 365 tenancy to classroom.cloud to allow keyword and phrase monitoring of Teams channels and chats. Powered by more than 14,000 phrases across multiple languages, classroom.cloud’s keyword and phrase monitoring tool enables schools to monitor what topics their students are typing or searching for across diverse applications and learning environments – helping to identify, support and protect students engaged in any concerning activity. It also allows schools to share and exchange local terms with other schools and add any new ones to their database to further broaden their eSafety net.
Going beyond highlighting concerning words or phrases, classroom.cloud expands on the context in which these terms are being used (i.e. whether they are accidental, academic or indicative of risk) using contextual intelligence. From looking at the time of day, the device used, the history of similar searches a student has carried out, and whether the search is within a school lesson or in their own time, helps schools determine a false alarm versus a genuine risk.
Linking the accounts couldn’t be any easier (simply sign into the Microsoft 365 account through the classroom.cloud portal and accept the link) and, once linked, the school’s tenancies will be listed, so they can see and edit the details and monitoring settings for each tenancy. For example, schools may wish to exclude selected channels and users from monitoring – such as teachers’ chats – helping to maintain privacy and reduce false positive alerts.
Al Kingsley, CEO of NetSupport, comments, “With this latest integration to classroom.cloud, schools can offer a comprehensive solution to keep students safe while using their school devices online, as well as ensuring that they are fully monitored and protected across a range of applications and environments, including Microsoft Teams.”
“With Microsoft Teams becoming an effective learning environment for students and educators worldwide, online safety is of paramount importance to us,” said Yaron Hezroni, Teams Ecosystem Principal Program Manager at Microsoft. “We are pleased to see NetSupport classroom.cloud’s online safety measures integrate with Teams Graph APIs to monitor chat and ensure students are protected at all times.”
About classroom.cloud
Already deployed by schools, Districts and Ministries of Education across the world from the US to the UK, UAE and beyond, classroom.cloud provides award-winning teaching, classroom management and online safety tools – all hosted and protected by Microsoft Azure. From screen sharing and monitoring (all within one environment) to remote control and assessment tools, classroom.cloud makes it easy to lead learning in classrooms and with remote learners. For more information, visit https://classroom.cloud/
