Monitoring remote students with Impero Education Pro

Impero Education Pro is LAN based but that doesn’t mean it can’t be utilized in remote schooling scenarios. There are several ways that you can accomplish this with Impero Education Pro, some of which can require some additional infrastructure setup.

This article outlines four ways Impero Education Pro can be utilized when students are working remotely, and provides a summary of the key tools that will help teachers in this scenario. If you have any questions or concerns with any of these points please contact the Impero support team who are happy to help.

1. VPN Tunnel– A VPN tunnel allows devices to connect to the school’s network, as if they are at the school, and Impero continues to work without any additional configuration. However, please note firewall exclusions may need adding*.
   
   
2. Impero server added to school’s DMZ– Setting up the Impero server into the School’s Network DMZ, allows devices to connect to the Impero server at the school from anywhere in the world, via a Public IP Address. This requires some additional changes on the student/staff device** and for live thumbnail views to work, the school has to be a SaaS customer, with access to Impero’s web interface. This may also need firewall exclusions adding*.
   
   
3. If any of the above doesn’t work for a school, and the devices are not connecting, Impero still monitors a student’s activity and any block policies that are in place still continues to work while the student is remote. Once the devices come back to school and reconnect to the Impero server the client sends this data back to the Impero server (excluding iPads and Chromebooks).

The following features prove to be extremely useful when students are remote working:

• Broadcasting Screen – allows you to share your screen in the absence of a whiteboard.
• Live Chat – allows teachers to initiate a chat with a student or a group of students (desktop console only).
• LogViewer – allows a staff member to see a student’s history and what they have been doing throughout the day.
• Block List – blocks applications and/or websites as these devices now away from the school’s filtering system.
• Run Website – can be used to keep students focused and quickly get them onto the website you want them to go to.
• Lock Screen & Lock Internet – keeps students focused and on task.

For live thumbnail views to work, the school will have to be a SaaS customer, with access to Impero’s web interface. This may also need further firewall exclusions adding.

* For any firewall exclusions please see this link for details -Impero Education Pro Minimum System Requirements for Installation
** This requires a Server IP file/bookmark to be put on the clients, so that it can communicate with that IP Address. Here are some steps on how to do this:

Windows
In the directory for Impero on the client machines (C:\Program Files (x86)\Impero Solutions Ltd\Impero Client\), create a file named 'ServerIPFixed.txt' - the contents of this file should be the IP address of the server. Once the ImperoClientSVC service (or the machine) has restarted, the client connects to the server.

MacOS
In the following directory create a ServerIPFixed.txt in this following location;
OSX --> Library --> Application Support --> ImperoClientSrv --> ServerIPFixed.txt

Once this file has been replaced the Mac has to be rebooted.

Chromebooks

In Google Admin, navigate to Devices --> Chrome Management --> User and Browser Settings

Select the User OU on the left which contains the students you wish to monitor remotely.

Scroll down to the Managed Bookmark section, and add/modify the 'Impero Server' bookmark to point to the new IP.