Focus rooms in Trelson

  What is required to be able to use Focus Rooms? 

• That you have students with Chromebooks as student devices or that Safe Exam Browser     is downloaded on the students' PC/macOS devices.  
• That the Trelson Browser Lockdown extension is installed (only for schools with Chromebooks) through your Google Workspace domain (done by your administrator).

What is a Focus Room?

A Focus Room in Trelson can be described as a virtual room with four digital   walls that shut out distractions – where you as a teacher decide which websites   may be used on the students' Chromebooks. One of the major advantages of Focus Rooms   is that you can keep your planning in Google Classroom and let your students work with, for example, Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides, but in a locked-down mode.

How to use Focus Rooms in Trelson 

The first thing you do is create your planning in Google Classroom. Add   all the resources you want students to work with, e.g., teaching materials, links   to webpages, Google Docs, Google Slides, etc. 

The second thing you do is create and activate a Focus Room. 

Do the following to create a Focus Room: 

1. Click on the “Create” button in the menu to the left.   
2. Select “Focus Room”.   
3. Select the Google Classroom you want to connect the Focus Room with (optional).  
4. Make any other settings.  
5. Click on “Create”.   

  Good to know: 

• You can change settings at any time up on the gear icon to the right once the Focus Room is created.  
• The students in your selected Classroom are automatically added to the Focus Room.   

  Add students 

1. The "Students" tab: Scroll down a bit and you will see a tab called "Students". If you have synchronized your Focus Room with one of your Google Classrooms, the students will be fetched from that Classroom and added to the Focus Room. You can then skip point 2.   
2. If you want to add students manually, click on "+". You then get to choose from three different methods:

• Add individual student: If you want to add individual students or one student at a time, select the option “Add user as student” and enter the student's email address.
• Add from Google Group: If you want to add a Google Group with students, select “Add group members as student”. By group, we mean an existing group created centrally within your Google domain.
• Add from Google Classroom course: If you want to add students from a Google Classroom class, select “Add students from course”. Enter the name of the course you want to add, and it will appear as an option.       

  Step 2: Change the name of the Focus Room (optional)

If you have connected a Classroom to a Focus Room, the Focus Room will automatically get the same name as your Classroom.

However, you can change the name of the Focus Room at any time.

Here is how to change the name of the Focus Room:

1. Click in the box under “Name”.   
2. Enter the new name and click anywhere on the background to save the name change, both for you and your students.  

  Step 3: Connect an assignment in Classroom   to the Focus Room

  Now you add the assignment you created in Google Classroom as a resource in the Focus Room.

  Here is how:

1. In the Focus Room, scroll down and click on the right tab “Resources” and then on “+”.  
2. Click on Google Services and select the option Google Classroom.  
3. A dialog box opens where you select the assignment you created in Google Classroom.   
4. Click on “Save”.  

  Good to know: 

• When you select a specific assignment, any associated tools (e.g., Google Slides) that you added to the assignment automatically become available in the Focus Room.  

Step 4: Add more resources and use the digital whiteboard

If you wish, you can allow students to use more resources, such as a website or a YouTube video. If you have chosen to connect an assignment in Google Classroom to the Focus Room, any resources you added to the Classroom assignment automatically become possible for students to use in the Focus Room. 

If you do not want to do your planning in Classroom but directly in Focus Room, add resources like this: 

1. The "Resources" tab: Go to the "Resources" tab and click on "+".   
2. Select resource type: You will see a number of options for resources you can add. For example, you can choose to add a webpage. You are then asked to add the link to the allowed webpage. You can choose to allow the entire domain (so the student can browse freely) or limit access to the specific link. NOTE! The link must be copied, it should not be entered manually. You can also select "Teaching Material", where you can add, for example, Gleerups, ILT Education, Slöjd.nu, or similar digital teaching materials that students should be allowed to work with in a locked-down mode.   
3. Document with text-to-speech support: To add a document with text-to-speech support, click on 'Add resource from Drive', select your document or click on 'Upload' and check the box 'Convert to PDF with text-to-speech support'. Note that Trelson only supports documents and PDF files, not images.  
4. Assign resource to selected students: If you have added a resource that only one or a few students should have, add the resource to the assignment and then click on the row where the resource is located. Choose there which students should have access to the specific resource.  

Do you want to give students unlimited web access while they are in the Focus Room?   For example, if students need to find information/articles for an assignment.   Simply toggle the unlimited web access on and off next to the "add resource" button   under the "resources" tab. The change happens immediately. 

How to use the digital whiteboard:

Here you add any instructions you want to show the students. 

The digital whiteboard exists in every Focus Room. It is you as the teacher who controls what is on the whiteboard, but it is also visible on the students' devices. If you want, you can enlarge the whiteboard to full screen. 

On the digital whiteboard, there is a toolbar. In the toolbar you will find: 

•     Text box  
•     Draw (freehand)  
•     Standard timer  
•     Visual timer (like a TimeTimer)  
•     Upload image or YouTube video to the board  
•     Randomize student groups   
•     Change background color of the board  

  How to bring the board up in full screen:

1. Click on the green button with a square in the upper right corner to bring the board up in full-screen mode. You can still edit the board, even if it is in full-screen mode.  
2. Click on the same icon to exit full-screen mode again.  

What is the difference between an assessment assignment in Trelson compared to a task in Focus Room?

Focus Rooms can only be used by you who teach students with Chromebooks. The tool   is developed primarily to prevent digital distractions during regular teaching,   and should therefore not be used during exams. See the comparison below between assignments and   Focus Rooms in Trelson. 

When should Focus Rooms be used instead of assessment assignments in Trelson?

We recommend continuing to use the Assignments feature for exams and assessment tasks. When you create an assessment assignment in Trelson, you choose Trelson's Kiosk app as the security client (lockdown method) as usual. 

Focus Room is suitable for use on all occasions where Chromebooks are present in the classroom during regular lessons. It is suitable if students are to collaborate on a group assignment, access digital teaching materials, practice vocabulary, or, for example, write a report or article.

Two simple rules are:

Will the students be assigned a task in Google Classroom? If the answer is yes to that question, you can advantageously use Focus Room to lock the computer and remove distractions when students are working on the assignment. 

 Is the student to be assessed and do you want a basis for grading? Always choose to create exams in "regular" Trelson. 

How does Focus Room in Trelson interact with Google Classroom?

When you create a Focus Room in Trelson, you are asked to select a Google Classroom to synchronize the Focus Room with (optional, but recommended). If you synchronize a Classroom, the students located in your selected Google Classroom will be automatically added. After that, you will be able to, in the resource list in the Focus Room, select a specific assignment from your selected Classroom that the students should work with. Students can work with all links and resources you added to Classroom, but nothing else. 

Let us show an example: 

The teacher Maria has created an assignment in one of her Google Classrooms, “Swedish 8B”, where students get to act as journalists and write an article during a number of lessons. The assignment is called “Write a news article about a current event”. 

  1. In the assignment in Google Classroom, Maria has added the following resources: 

•     Instructions for the students:  
•     A Google Doc where students are to write their article (“Make a copy for each student”)  
•     Links to news channels for students to be inspired by (DN.se, Aftonbladet, and Expressen)  
•     Direct link to an article in Gleerups teaching material about journalism  

  2.  Maria logs in to Trelson and creates her first Focus Room. She chooses to synchronize it with the Classroom “Swedish 8B”. The Focus Room then gets the same name as the Classroom. She chooses not to change the name of the Focus Room.

  3. In the resource list for the Focus Room, Maria selects the option Google Classroom > Select assignment. The system then scans which assignments are available in the Classroom and asks Maria to choose which assignment she wants to connect to the Focus Room. 

  4. She clicks on the assignment “Write a news article about a current event”, and the assignment is added as a resource in the list. The Focus Room detects which resources Maria has added to the assignment in Classroom, and approves (so-called whitelisting) the students using the resources she added to the assignment. 

  5. Maria opens the Focus Room to let the students in. She asks the students to log in to their Chromebooks, go to the web address assessment.trelson.com, select student, and join the Focus Room she has created. (When it is an exam, students log in via the kiosk app.)

  6. The students click Join the Focus Room “Swedish 8B”. All tabs on the students' Chromebooks close and students can only access the resources Maria added. They cannot access the web; instead, they are met by a red stop sign if they try. ***

  7. The students click on the Classroom assignment visible in the resource list in the Focus Room. From there, they enter Classroom and their assigned documents, Gleerups teaching materials, and the news channels Maria added to the assignment. 

  8. The students start working and have full focus on the assignment.

  9. When the students are done and have written in, for example, Google Docs, the student submits the assignment just like usual in Classroom. The teacher can give feedback on the text and send it back. In this way, the writing process can continue over time and multiple lessons. 

Overview: Assessment Assignment in Trelson vs Focus Room in Trelson: