What is Live View?

Live View is a feature that allows teachers to see, in real-time, what students in their class are looking at. You can select any active student’s tile and Live View will automatically show you what’s happening on the tab they’re currently looking at, even if they change tabs.

Availability

Live View is available for schools using Linewize Connect for Chrome, Windows and macOS. It is currently unavailable for iOS and Android devices, and any unmanaged BYO devices. See Classwize Feature Availability for Teachers for more information. If you're not sure what versions of Connect your school is using, please contact your school's IT support.

Using the Live View Features

Live View on Connect for Chrome

In Classroom View, select a student tile with a Chrome device indicator. Live View will appear, displaying a range of available options:

1. Follow Active Tab: This toggle is on by default and lets you see what the student is viewing in real-time.
2. Active Tab: The tab the student is currently looking at.
3. Background or Inactive Tab: Any other tabs that the student has open.
4. Open in new tab: Opens the student’s tab as a web page or application in your browser when you hover the mouse over the tab.
5. Open Site: Opens your chosen website in another tab for the student.
6. Chat: Opens a chat window to communicate with the student.
7. Create Rule: Creates a rule to immediately block and close this page for the student or the whole class.
8. Screenshot: Creates a downloadable screenshot of the current tab.
9. Full Screen: Displays the selected tab in full screen.
10. Close: Closes Live View.

Live View on Connect for Windows and macOS

In Classroom View, select a student tile with a Windows or macOS device-type indicator. The Live View will appear with the following options:

1. Open Site: Opens your chosen website in another tab for the student.
2. Create Rule: Creates a rule to immediately block and close this page for the student or the whole class.
3. Screenshot: Creates a downloadable screenshot of the current tab.
4. Full Screen: Displays the selected tab in full screen.

Live View for Windows

Live View for macOS

Working with the Live View features

How to view a student's Active Tab

1. Select the student tile that has the Chrome device indicator. The student's Live View will appear.
2. On Live View, the Follow Active Tab toggle is on by default, which means you will see in real-time which tab the student is currently looking at or is currently active on their screen.

The student’s active tab also shows the Active Tab indicator. When the student opens or goes to another tab, the indicator will appear on this new active tab.

How to view a student's background tabs

From Live View

Select any tab that does not have the Active Tab indicator. Live View will display the background tab and toggle off Follow active tab. The Active Tab indicator will remain on the tab that the student is currently viewing.

From the student tile

Background tabs appear as underlined icons at the bottom of the student tile. The active tab is not underlined.

When you select a background tab's icon from the student tile, the student's Live View will appear but the Follow active tab toggle will be switched off. The Active Tab indicator will remain on the tab the student is currently viewing.

How to open a student’s tab in your browser

You can open a student’s Chrome tab in your own browser. From Live View, hover on a tab title and the option will appear to open the link on your browser. Select the URL and the link will open in a new tab in your browser.

How to close a student's tab

The student will receive a notification that a tab was closed by the teacher.

See Closing Tabs for more information on how to close tabs from different Classwize screens.

How to display Live View in full screen

To view a student’s tab in full screen, select Full Screen.

To exit Full Screen, hover over the top of the screen and then select the Exit Full Screen icon (two arrows) that appears on the top right.

How to add a rule in Live View

You can create a rule to block a specific tab to help the student focus on the lesson.

1. On Live View, select the tab for which you want to create a new rule.
   Note: Skip this step for students using Windows.
2. Select Create Rule.
3. The Add new rule dialog appears with pre-populated fields:

• 1. This rule controls - the top-level domain name or URL of the tab.
     TIP
     You can replace the top-level domain with the URL of the open tab. Hover over the tab, then right-click on the URL that appears. Select Copy Link Address or Copy Link As…, then select Create Rule. Paste the new URL on the This rule controls field and select Add Rule.
  2. During class it should be - Blocked is preselected if the rule is currently allowed. 
  3. This rule applies to - the name of the student is preselected. You can select the Whole class check box or more students by selecting their names in the dropdown list.

4. Select Add Rule.

A notification that the tab was closed when it the teacher blocked it will appear on the student's screen.

How to save a Live View screenshot

Screenshot allows you to download a time-stamped screenshot of the student’s Live View in PDF. This feature is available for students using Chrome and Windows.

To save a Live View Screenshot:

1. Select SCREENSHOT.
2. Select Accept and download screenshot.
   This prompt appears only once per day.
3. Save the file in your preferred folder.

Understanding the Live View screenshot

The downloaded Live View screenshot contains the following information:

1. Name or email address of the student.
2. The name of the School Manager device.
3. The URL of the site or page the student was browsing (Chrome only).
4. The screenshot of the student's screen or browser.
5. Details of the screenshot, including date and time it was taken, the student's device type and identifier, class name, and the teacher's email address.  
6. Details of the downloaded screenshot, which includes date and timestamp, and page number.

How to open a site from Live View

When you open a site, it becomes the active tab. Opening a site via Live View only opens the site for the student.

1. Select Open Site.
2. On the Open a site dialog, enter the website URL, then select Open Site.
3. The website will open in a new tab as the Active Tab.

How to use Chat within Live View

Make sure that Chat is enabled for the session. To start a chat with a student on Live View:

1. Select Chat. The Chat panel will appear on the right side of the screen.
2. Enter your message to the student and then either press Enter on your keyboard or select Send.
3. The student will receive your chat message in a chat window, where they can also reply to you.

For more information about using Chat, see Using Classwize Chat.

Live View Troubleshooting

I can't view a background tab, it keeps moving to the Active Tab.

If your students are using Chrome, check if the Follow active tab feature is toggled on. Toggle this feature off to view background tabs without Classwize changing focus.

You cannot view background tabs in Live View if your students are using Connect for Windows, as they capture the student’ s screen instead of their browser.

I can’ t view a background tab in real-time

Only the active tab has a real-time live view. Background tabs will only show a screenshot of the last time the student visited the page.

I can’t view multiple monitors when a student is using a device with more than one monitor

When a student is using a device with multiple monitors, Live View behaves differently depending on the type of device:

• Chromebook: any open tab across multiple monitors can be viewed, Live View with the Connect for Chrome extension displays the browser activity.
• Windows or macOS with Connect: Live View displays only the primary desktop monitor.

A student has more than one student tile

The student may have more than one device connected to Classwize, such as a laptop and a tablet. If the student doesn' t have more than one device connected, try refreshing your screen. This will usually remove any duplicate student tiles.

If a refresh doesn’ t remove the duplicate tab, and your student is using Connect for Chrome, it’ s possible that your student has two copies of the Connect installed on their computer. You can check to see what plugins the student has installed by having them open a Chrome browser and navigating to chrome: //extensions/.

If you think a student has two copies of the Connect Chrome extension installed, please contact your school' s IT administrator or Linewize support.

I can't get Live View to work for some students

If your school has a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, it's possible that some of your students are using laptops or browsers that don't have Linewize Connect.

If they are using Connect for Chrome:

1. Check if they have the Connect for Chrome extension installed by opening Chrome and navigating to chrome: //extensions/. If they don't have the extension installed, please contact your school's IT team. If they do have the extension installed, go on to the next step.
2. Check if they have the latest version of the Connect Chrome extension by selecting the Linewize icon on the top right of the affected students' Chrome window. You will see the version number at the bottom of the popup. The latest version can be found here.
3. If the affected student has an older version of Connect, please contact your school' s IT administrator to fix the issue in the Google Workspace admin settings. If you can' t see the Linewize icon on the top right of the affected students' Chrome window, select the Puzzle piece icon, then select the Linewize icon.

If they are using Connect for Windows:

• Connect will automatically update when there is a new version available. If the issue persists, please contact your school’ s IT team.