TABLE OF CONTENTS

• How do licenses and auto-licensing work?
• How do I create a content filtering policy?
• How do filtering policies apply in and out of school?
• What is the Penalty Box?
• How does Student Safety work?
• How do I add teacher, delegate, and admin accounts?
• How do I impersonate a teacher's dashboard?
• Why can't a teacher log in?
• Why aren't student screens displaying (green Wi-Fi icon)?
• How do I export students' logs?
• How do I validate substitute teachers?

How do licenses and auto-licensing work?

To license individual users, go to User Licenses in the Main Menu and click Google Workspace Users (or Azure AD Groups / LDAP OU) in the sub-menu to open the Users screen. Select the checkboxes to the left of the user names you want to license, then click the Assign License button. The red X in the License column changes to a green checkmark once the license is assigned. You can also click the icon in the Action column to license a single user without selecting them first.

Auto-licensing an organizational unit (OU) gives everyone in that OU a license automatically. In User Licenses > Google Workspace Users, find the OU, click the edit icon to the right of the OU name, click Assign Licenses (the button turns red and changes to Clear Licenses), click Save Changes, then click Update Policies on All Clients on the Action Bar.

How do I create a content filtering policy?

Open Content Filtering > Policies, type a policy name (names must be longer than three characters), choose a type from the Choose policy type drop-down, and click Create Policy +. 

Blocksi offers different policy types:

• Regular — User-bound policy offering URL-level filtering, along with YouTube and AI Context Filter controls.

• Time-Based — Specifies different filters for different time periods. For example, one set of filters can be active during morning hours, and a different set during afternoon hours.

• OSX Time-Based — DNS-based, time-based category and host domain filtering policy used with the Blocksi for OSX solution.

• OSX Regular — DNS-based category and host domain filtering policy used with the Blocksi for OSX solution.

• Blanket Time-Based — Domain-wide filtering policy for Apple devices. Does not need to be applied; only one can be created, and it applies to all domain-enrolled devices only if user-based filtering is not configured.

• DNS — DNS-based category and host domain filtering policy.

Select your filters from the drop-down lists (choose None to leave a category unset), optionally set an Access Denied Page URL and options such as SafeSearch or Image Blurring, then click Save Changes.

How do filtering policies apply in and out of school?

Filtering follows a hierarchy. 

• While a class is running, the Class Policy is in effect for all students during class time. 

• When no class is running but the student is in school, Delegate filtering takes precedence over Admin filtering. 

• When the student is out of school, Parent filtering takes precedence over Delegate and Admin filtering when geofencing or time-based policies are used.

You assign the in-school and out-of-school policies at the organizational unit (OU) level. Click Organizations and Entities from the Main Menu, then Google Workspace Organizations (or Azure AD Groups / LDAP OU), locate the OU, click the edit icon to the right of its name, and choose your policies from the In school policy and Out of school policy drop-down lists. You can also assign these policies to an individual student through the Penalty Box.

NOTE
If an OU is not configured, it inherits its policy from the first configured parent OU.

What is the Penalty Box?

The Penalty Box lets you give an individual student their own in-school and out-of-school policies, which take precedence over the default OU policy until the student is removed (at which point filtering reverts to the OU- assigned policy). 

Go to Content Filtering > Penalty box, click Add Student, search in the Search for a student... box, select the in-school and out-of-school policies, then click Add to Box. You can also set a Penalty Timer to release the student automatically.

NOTE
Only regular policies are supported in the Penalty Box.

How does Student Safety work?

To enable Student Safety, go to Student Safety > Areas of Concern and click the Toggle Student Safety button. 

Areas of Concern is a pie-chart view of how a student has received or sent questionable material across sources such as Google Emails, Outlook Emails, Google Chats, Images, Google Docs/Sheets/ Slides, Search Engine Queries, and YouTube Searches, using classifiers including Cyberbullying, Threat, Mental health, Adult Images, Images of Violence, and Mass Violence.

Alerts send live notifications to administrators and delegates when harmful behavior is detected in students' Google Workspace Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Chat, and YouTube activity. To create an alert, navigate to Student Safety > Alerts, then click Configure Alerts followed by Create Alert. To turn a specific alert on or off, find the alert, and click its ON or OFF button. Alerts use three severity levels (informational, warning, and critical) and a status of Open (unacknowledged) or Closed (acknowledged).

The AI Flagged Issues screen shows safety issues (such as Cyberbullying, Mental Health, Threats, and Sexual Language) as soon as Blocksi's algorithm detects them, and is part of both packages. With a Premium Account, Blocksi's Expert Human Reviewers verify or disprove flagged issues around the clock, so you receive only accurate, true-positive information. With a Standard Account, you see unprocessed AI-flagged issues and your team is responsible for verifying them.

IMPORTANT
AI is not infallible, so carefully evaluate the context of each issue. To upgrade, contact sales@blocksi.net.

NOTE
The severity you set next to the alert name is only a visual cue. It tags the alert so you can tell its type at a glance, but it has no effect on the alert itself. The actual severity is determined under Alerting Conditions > Alert Severity Prediction.

How do I add teacher, delegate, and admin accounts?

For teachers, go to Dashboard Settings > Teacher Dashboard, enter the address in the Teacher Email box under Add teacher, and click Add + (you can also import from a .txt file or from Google Workspace, OneRoster, Clever, ClassLink, Brightspace, Canvas, or Wonde). 

For delegates, go to Dashboard Settings > Delegate Dashboard, enter the address in the Delegate Email box, click Add +, select the organizational units the delegate can manage, and click Save. To create and manage roles for delegate accounts, locate the Delegate Roles and Access Permissions section in the table and click Manage Roles.

For Administrators, go to Dashboard Settings > Administrators and Roles. To add an admin, click Add New + in the Administrators section, enter their address in the Enter email address box, pick a role from the Select role drop- down, click Add >, then Save. Blocksi emails the new administrator that their account is ready. To control access, click Create New + in the Roles section, name the role, select the permission checkboxes, and click Save. You can later edit a role's permissions or change an administrator's roles from the same screen.

How do I impersonate a teacher's dashboard?

Impersonating a teacher opens their Teacher Dashboard so you can see exactly what they see, which is especially useful when troubleshooting on their behalf. 

Click Dashboard Settings from the Main Menu, then Teacher Dashboard. Scroll to the teacher email list at the bottom of the page, search for the teacher, and click the button next to their email address in the first column. Their Teacher Dashboard opens in a new tab with full access.

NOTE
If the teacher is currently signed in to their own dashboard, actions taken by either of you only appear to the other after the page is refreshed.

Why can't a teacher log in?

There are a few documented reasons a teacher may be unable to access their dashboard. 

• First, confirm the teacher has been added to the teacher email list under Dashboard Settings > Teacher Dashboard. 

• Next, check whether a Teacher Access Schedule is turned on: when enabled, teachers can only reach their dashboards during the days and time ranges you define, and are blocked outside those periods. 

• If the person is a substitute teacher, make sure their account has been validated, since a substitute with a red AWAITING VALIDATION status cannot access the Teacher Dashboard until an administrator approves them.

Why aren't student screens displaying (green Wi-Fi icon)?

A green Wi-Fi icon means the Blocksi extension is working, so a missing screen is usually caused by a setting on the administrator's side.

First, make sure the Screenshot settings in your Google Admin Console are configured correctly. Go to Devices → Chrome → Settings → Users & browsers, enter "screenshots" in the Search or add a filter box, and set it to Allows users to take screenshots and video recordings.

Also whitelist the following on your firewall. Be sure to allow ports 80 and 443, but do not SSL decrypt / HTTPS inspect on these:

block.si

blocksi.net

107.178.240.41

130.211.31.105

socket.io

backblazeb2.com

IMPORTANT
Students have to log out for these changes to take effect.

How do I export students' logs?

Logs can be exported in Insights > Web Analytics. Click the Web Analytics section and navigate to Logs. Use the magnifying glass icon to set parameters for the logs you wish to export. For example, search for "User," "is," and then the student's email address. You can also add any other filters you may need. To select a timeframe, click the clock icon.

How do I validate substitute teachers?

Substitute teachers added from either the Teacher or Admin Dashboard need an administrator to validate them before they can access the dashboard. 

Click Dashboard Settings > Teacher Dashboard and scroll to the teacher email list. Search for the main teacher, then click the Access Sub Teachers button in that teacher's row to open the Teacher's Sub Teachers List. Find the substitute with the red AWAITING VALIDATION status and click that status in their row; it changes to a green VALIDATED, confirming the substitute is approved.

NOTE
Note: The maximum number of substitute teachers per main teacher is three.

Find even more information on how to use Blocksi as an administrator by visiting our Help Centre.