The Waiting Room is a feature that allows staff members to manage when and which Learners can enter a live class session. This feature is especially useful if you are hosting private tutoring sessions or 1-on-1 office hours. In this article, we'll cover all aspects of the Waiting Room.
How to Enable Waiting Room for Your Class
The Waiting Room can be enabled ahead of time via the Admin Portal or, if you're already in a live classroom, via the classroom's Settings area.
To enable this in the Admin Portal, go to "Class Details" > "Live Configuration", look for the "Enable Waiting Room" checkbox.
To enable this within a live classroom, go to "Settings" > "Class Configuration", look for the "Enable waiting room" switch and turn it on.
How to Use the Waiting Room
When the Waiting Room is enabled, any Learners who join class will be redirected to a waiting room page, instead of their usual experience of being taken into the live classroom. Below is a picture of what the waiting room page looks like.
You'll notice the waiting room page is basic, it contains a message advising the user to wait to be let in and a button to "Leave class" if they wish to go back to the lobby. Despite its name, the waiting room page does not allow learners to communicate or see one another while waiting to be let in. It's essentially a loading page.
For all staff members currently in the classroom, various notifications will appear when a Learner has entered the Waiting Room:
- A message will appear at the top of the page, letting staff members know that there are Learners in the Waiting Room.
- From the Class Gallery tab, the participants counter will show a count of the number of Learners "not admitted" into the classroom.
Below is an example showing both notification areas:
The notification at the top of the page can be clicked to bring up a pop-up window where you can admit specific Learners or click the "Admit all" button to admit everybody currently on the waiting room list. See below for an example of this window:
Alternatively, clicking the Class Gallery's participant counts will expand a window, where you can allow individual learners on the waiting room list or disallow any that are already in the classroom to send them back to the waiting room page. Below is an example image of this window:
Notes
Below are a few important notes about the Waiting Room:
- Staff members (i.e. Instructor and TA) are not restricted by the Waiting Room: when they join the class, they will go straight into the live classroom.
- Any Staff member (i.e. Instructor, TA) inside the class can manage the waiting room list.
- Learners who were in the classroom and briefly disconnected won't be redirected to the waiting room page upon rejoining; they'll be taken directly to the live classroom. If they are gone for too long, they will need to be re-admitted when attempting to rejoin.
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