Technology Used by Students
Student accounts
The OCSB uses GSuite for Education tools and services to provide students with access to a variety of online tools and workspaces. GSuite for Education provides a collaborative environment in which students can create and share documents, slide decks, and spreadsheets.
All students are provide with an OCSB Google account. It will have a format similar to firstname.lastname@ocsbstudent.ca. This gives them an email address, and access to the Google tools such as Drive, Calendar and Sites. Their Google account also allows them to access all other OCSB-supported tools such as Hapara Workspace.
Your child's teacher will provide you with their OCSB email address.
Safety & Privacy
GSuite for Education's privacy and security policies are more stringent than Google's standard policy and include:
Secure servers
No ads
Compliance with industry requirements
Transparent policies
As an additional level of safety, the email accounts of students in grades K-6 are "fenced in." This means they can only communicate with other OCSB email accounts.
Student Portals
All students in the OCSB have access to a variety of digital tools through our Student Portals. There, you and your child will find resources that you can use to support your child’s learning at home. The portals can be accessed by going to your child's school website and clicking on the “student portal” tab.
The tools available on the Student Portal require students to log in with their OCSB accounts.
Chrome profiles
Because students do not always use the same device in school or at home, we recommend that students set up a profile in the Chrome browser. This will enable users who share a device at home to keep the student's account information and data separate.
Hapara Workspace & Hapara Highlights
Hapara Workspace is our chosen platform for teachers to manage their students' learning activities. It enables teachers to share information, open website links, track student progress and submissions, and provide feedback. The majority of your child's work will be submitted through Hapara.
Hapara Highlights is a feature that allows teachers to share files, sites or URLs with students easily to support and engage student learning. Teachers can also remotely open or close a browser tab on learner devices to re-focus them to the task at hand. This enables teachers to support students by monitoring their online activity and ensuring their learning is on track.
In a child's OCSBstudent.ca “Chrome Profile” ... whether logged in via the Chrome Browser on a PC/MAC, or using a Chromebook (this logs one in to the Chrome Profile and Google account simultaneously) .. one finds themselves logged into the OCSB student domain. Being logged into their ocsbStudent Chrome profile allows for helpful learning tools to be added for your child (e.g., Google Extensions), as well as streamlines access to student portal softwares and their Google accounts via “Single-Sign-on” to ease the logon/access process.
What we recommend:
When using a PC or a MAC ...
we recommend that you always check/verify that you are not in your child’s Google Chrome Profile. Keep your Chrome Accounts Separate referencing this support video.
If you are using a Chromebook ...
SIGN OUT completely from your child’s profile/account. Then, log in via your own profile (personal or work) before proceeding with any tasks at hand.
What can teachers see with Highlights?
Hapara Highlights only works during weekdays between school academic hours and if a student is logged into the Chrome browser using their OCSB account. When this occurs, teachers are able to see the titles of the tabs students have open in their Chrome browser, and a STATIC (not live) screenshot of the tab currently being viewed by the student. This refreshes approximately every 3-5 seconds.
Therefore, if a student opens their Chrome browser, and is logged in as themselves (ocsbstudent.ca profile) ... and you as a parent borrows the device (e.g., while your child is on break) and open up a new tab in their ocsbstudent.ca Chrome browser that they are working in, the teacher may be able to see a static shot of the tab you are working on (e.g. between 8am-4pm, Monday to Friday).
What can’t teachers see with Highlights?
Teachers CAN NOT see anything outside of the specific browser that your child is signed into with their “@stu.ocsb.ca” accounts. This means, nothing on the device or via other Chrome Browsers signed in by another person can be accessed or seen. Teachers also CAN NOT access anything in terms of student browser settings or browsing history within Chrome.
To protect your own privacy, parents and other family members who may share a device with a student(s) should ensure that they are not logged in to the student's Chrome profile when using the device and browser to complete their tasks.
Hāpara Parent FAQ.pdfHapara Workspace & Hapara Highlights
FAQ for Parents (Hapara Website)
PLEASE NOTE:
At the District Level, our Google/Hapara Admin DOES NOT have access to view Highlights as the teacher would. Only your child's classroom teacher has access.
Youtube Accounts
The OCSB Google account also gives students a Youtube account. These accounts are set to “restricted mode” which blocks some content and comments.
This video shows how to set up "restricted mode" on your own computer.