Instructor tools

This page covers the tools available to instructors to help them facilitate their virtual and in-person events. These tools include messaging, raised hands, and user management through the dashboard.

Setting up your Live event

How to create a live event and enable Instructor tools

  • Go to “Share Content” in main menu > Select Invites

  • Now add a new invite. Push "Create" in the top right to add a new event

  • Begin creating your invite

    • Choose “Live Event” as the invite type

    • Name your Event

    • Add description if desired

    • Add your tracks

  • Enable the instructor tools, by checking the box in the instructors tools section. Here, you can also enable an opportunity to see the user's shared screen by selecting the checkbox next to it.

    • You also have the option to enable screen sharing for the live event.

  • Finish creating your invitation & save

  • Your live event is now ready. You as the instructor can access the dashboard at anytime. To give other instructors access to your dashboard you must add them to invite.

How to add instructors/team members to an invite so they can access the dashboard?

  • Select the invite you want them to have access to

  • Now click the "Avatar" icon next to the "Edit invite" button at the top of the screen

  • Select “Add team member” and search for the user you want to add. They will now have access to the invitation and dashboard.

Using the instructor dashboard

To access the dashboard: Go to your invite > in the top right corner, select the "Go to live dashboard" button in top right corner

  • Attendance: See who joined and is participating in your event

  • Track progress and identify who needs help: See users’ current step and if they need help (help indicators)

  • Communicate with users: Either through a group broadcast message or create a direct message

  • Take control of users’ track: You can open the users track/lab yourself & perform actions for them. Learners must refresh to see results of your actions

  • Users activity details: Review logs of the users’ actions & their sandbox details

  • Ask the user to share their screen: You can see the user's screen and see what they are doing.

Below is a breakdown of the dashboard

Help indicators

These are statuses that suggest learners need assistance. Learners with more than 1 status suggest a greater need for help.

Raised hand: Learner is signalling for an instructors attention. This could be they have a question or they are stuck.

Failed attempts: If your challenge has check scripts, each time a user fails to pass their active challenge the attempt will show. Learners who have multiple failed attempts are likely stuck and need help.

Inactive: If the learner has not done anything inside the lab for >5 min. This can be because the learner is listening to your presentation, stepped away for a moment, or given up on the lab. Combine inactive with other statuses to give yourself a more rounded picture of the user.

Messages: Users who are sending messages are likely stuck and unable to proceed.

Messaging

Message learners directly in the lab so they don’t need to switch screens and lose the immersive experience of your training content.

Broadcast message: Send messages to the entire group. All instructors can message the group. Learners can not message in the group thread YET.

Direct message: Instructors can talk directly with learners. Learners can also start conversations with the instructor. All students send messages to instructors in general. Direct threads are shared by instructors. Instructor A will see the same thread with the learner as instructor B.

Message content: The chat function supports plain text, images, emojis, code blocks, and some markdown formatting.

Styling: Currently only text, emojis and code blocks are supported. Stay tuned for images and video support

  • bold = **xyz**

  • italic = *xyz*

  • Code block: use the code block to share code snippets. Code blocks automatically include “line numbers” and a “copy code” button.

Messaging events:

In the chat for each user we show specific actions the user has taken to help you keep track of what they have done. This is an abbreviated version of the activity log. Include events are:

  • Joined event

  • Raised their hand

  • Lowered their hand

  • Started lab

  • Completed challenge

  • Started challenge

  • Skipped challenge

  • Completed lab

  • Failed attempt at “[challenge]”

What your learners see (messaging and raised hands)

This is what your learners will see while using the track (lab).

Screen sharing

During a live event you can watch your participants screen. This will help you to better understand their issues and provide guidance. When the user shares their screen, you view their screen in real-time, though users cannot see your or any other participant’s screen.

How it works:

The instructor must request access to view screen and the user must accept. Heres how:

  1. Enable screen sharing for your event

  2. Instructor ask user to share: (Instructors have to initiate the screen share)

    1. On the dashboard, select a user via their name or the eye icon.

    2. You will land on the user details page on the "Screen and Chat" tab

    3. To start the screen share, click "Ask user to share screen"

    4. This is only available once the user has started the lab(they must have a sandbox active)

    5. The request has been sent to the user. Once they accept you will see their screen.

      1. If the user declines or a connection problem occurs you will get an error message

  3. User shares screen (only once an instructor has asked for access can a user share their screen)

    1. Once the the instructor has asked for access the user will be prompted to accept

    2. The user is asked to select a screen or tab to share. Either select the tab playing the lab or select your entire screen.

    d. To stop sharing a user can push the stop sharing button. (UI may vary depending on the browser)

Screen sharing constraints & trouble shooting:

Depending on your network and machine setup you may be limited in the amount of screens you can view at once. We encourage you to report any issue you may encounter so we can assist and improve our product.

  1. Keep the number of open tabs to a minimum. Having more than 6 tabs open can degrade the quality of the screen sharing due to increased resource consumption

  2. Ensure that your and your users' browsers support screen sharing functionalities

  3. The quality of screen sharing is heavily dependent on your devices hardware and the stability of your internet connection

Most issues can be solved by:

  1. Reloading the instructor the page

  2. Asking participants to reload their page

  3. Check permissions (make sure you have granted the necessary permissions for screen sharing in your browser settings)

Screen sharing feature is supported on the browser versions listed in Instruqt Platform Requirements page.

FAQs

Can I see users screen without taking control?

Yes, go to the user details page and ask user to share their screen.

Can multiple instructor use the same dashboard?

Yes. Any instructor who is added to your Live event invite can access the dashboard and use its features.

Is the dashboard in real-time?

Currently the dashboard updates every 5 seconds. This will change to real-time updates by end of Q4 2024 Screen sharing is real-time.

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