LanSchool User Guide

Prepared by Lauren Friedman, University of MD

LanSchool is classroom control software for computer labs. It can be used to view student activity, limit

student abilities, and many other pedagogical outcomes.

OPENING LANSCHOOL

To access LanSchool, locate the small white arrow at the bottom right-hand side of your screen and click

on it. A small window will pop up.

The icon you are looking for will be a circle of green dots, as seen here:

Figure 1: LanSchool icon

Figure 2: Opening LanSchool

INTERACTING WITH STUDENTS

When students sign on, they will appear as a list on your user panel. The panel will show you their login

name, the student name, what machine they are using, and what application they are using. It will also

show you the last website they visited and the last question the student asked.

Figure 3: Teacher Control Panel

You can also view the student screens as thumbnals by selecting “View All” if you wish to monitor their

screens.

Figure 4: View All

At the topof the screen, you will see a number of icons.

Figure 5: Icons at Top

Show: Allows you to broadcast your screen to one or more student screens. Also allows you to show

student screens to other students.

Show Student: Allows you to view a student screen individually on your screen.

Vote: Conducts a yes/no poll of students.

Testing: Allows you to administer a test in LanSchool.

Run: Allows you to boot a program on your student’s machine.

Control: Allows you to assume control of student screens.

View All: Allows you to view all student screens as thumbnails

Snapshot: Take a photo of student screen(s).

Message: Send a private message to a student, or start a group chat.

Blank Screen: Allows you to display a message on student screens, asking them to direct their attention

to the front of the room.

In addition, if you select the arrows at the right-hand side of the bar, there are some additional options.

Limit Web: Allows you to control which websites your students may or may not visit. Must be

configured in “preferences” before use.

Limit Apps: Allows you to control which applications your students may or may not use. Must be

configured in “preferences” before use.

Limit Print: Allows you to remove printing privileges.

Limit Drives: Allows you to control which drives (C:, D:, E:, etc) a student may not access. Handy for

disallowing thumb drives on test days.

Mute: Mute the sound on student computers.

Clear Desktop: Stops all running student applications.

Show Video: Allows you to distribute and play video on student screens.

Files: Allows you to send or collect files from student machines.

Shutdown: Allows you to shut down, restart, or log off student machines.

Co-Browse Internet: Allows teachers to browse the web using the primary tab and have the web

browsers on the selected student machines browse to the same location as the teacher without student

input. Co-browsing is supported on Internet Explorer for Windows machines , and Safari is supported for

Macs.

Choose Random: This feature allows the teacher to let LanSchool randomly select a student. This is a

fun way to engage students and encourage participation in the classroom.

Refesh: You can refresh the list and see any new students that might have entered the class. This occurs

automatically every three minutes.

Right clicking on a student’s name can also bring up some of these options, as seen below.

Figure 6: Menu Accessed by Right Clicking on a Student

LanSchool Student Icon

On student computers, LanSchool appears as a small icon at the top of the screen. If you place your

cursor over the icon, it will tell you which teacher channel this computer is using. If a student single

clicks on this icon they can click it to request help from the teacher. The student can type a question and

a small question mark is displayed in the console indicating that student has a question. The question

mark goes away when the teacher chats with the student or uses the menu Clear Student Question. If a

student right clicks on this icon, it will bring up the student files folder where the Send/Collect files

feature sends files.

LanSchool® is a registered trademark of LanSchool Technologies, LLC.