[ipad] Students in classroom showing as offline on iPads

[Mrpower]

Hello all

I have set up some iPad as shared iPads, added them into the same managed group connected with a class from apple schools manager. When they are login on each iPad the teacher iPad should see in classroom each student login and connected. However at the moment it says offline, and each student is greyed out. The wifi is on and bluetooth is on and they are all connected to the same network. According to Apple own information on classroom, shared iPad should work with classroom.

[Brimstone]

Are the classes you have in ASM synced from the MDM...?

 

For Apple School Manager synced classes, the teacher also needs a Managed Apple ID and can then create an ad hoc class, details below..

 

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/classroom/apdd491bf924/2.5/mac/11.3

[Mrpower]

Yep, MDM & ASM synced. After a but of hit and miss experimenting, I think I have found the culprit, if I add the device group to the classroom group in my MDM , it seems to block classroom from seeing the users for some unknown reason. Not sure if there is a work around for this?

[Brimstone]

For Apple Classroom to work your devices MUST be assigned to users in the MDM.

[Mrpower]

That's correct. but I wish to set them up as shared devices which will allow any student in that class to login to any iPad, in that classroom. it is simpler than locating an iPad to each child in turn.

[Brimstone]

That's correct. but I wish to set them up as shared devices which will allow any student in that class to login to any iPad, in that classroom. it is simpler than locating an iPad to each child in turn.

What MDM to you use...?

[Mrpower]

Profile manager and yes I know it's been discontinued, and I am looking for a replacement.

[Brimstone]

Forgetting your MDM for a moment...

 

You can now create classes on the fly with students that are signed into iPads with a Managed Apple ID, the teacher needs one as well. These classes are synced back to ASM and require no MDM solution. My view on this is may get in a mess quickly if you have various teachers creating classes in ASM all the time.

 

Back to Profile Manager...have you assigned the shared iPads devices to the Shared iPad Group created in Profile Manager ?

 

This is what I mentioned before, devices or groups of devices have to be assigned in the MDM.

[Mrpower]

I created the classes in ASM they synced with profile manager; I created a group in PM for both the devices and the learners / teachers and added them to the class in Profile manager. When I removed the shared iPad group from the classes, the users on the iPads became online in classroom. I rightly considered that the group added into the classes was the issue.

I had added restrictions to the iOS to allow the use of classroom to the device group. However before when it was still not working there was no restrictions and it still did not work and after I added the restrictions classroom still saw the learners as offline.

Classroom not working was not the end of the world as staff don't really use the software. But it would be nice for them to use it to control the iPad in their classrooms.

Also the Managed iCloud account will keep learners data off the iPads and store it in the cloud, as we have a lot of screen breaks and accidents with the iPads.

It's a SEN school and there are only 9 learners in the class so the way I have currently set the iPads will be fine.

[Tefters]

I'm in the middle of testing classroom now and find it a joke from a secondary school perspective.

 

One of the biggest flaws I've found is if the teacher locks the iPad as Jonny is messing around they can turn it off and on again and voila they have full access again and the device stays offline until it next checks into your MDM.

Most MDM's are 2 hour cycles so.... Yeah....

 

Also, the mute function is only a temporary mute!?!

 

Can't say I'm too impressed with it and am looking forward to the headache of requests.

[TFishwick]

I've been lurking around for a while and I finally have something to post about.

 

There's another issue my school has discovered:-

 

If students disconnect from the Wifi and instead tether to their mobile Hotspots they appear offline in ASM.

 

No idea why. Staff and students are on separate SSID's in school but we're not sure if it's connecting when they have the devices at home!