Active, Away, Offline, Left: Live Session Presence

During a live practice, "is everyone actually working on this?" is a question you ask yourself a dozen times. ClassKite's Live Student Grid answers it on every student's card: Active, Away, Offline or Left, and for Away, what the device actually saw. This guide explains what each one means, and how the optional Require full screen setting fits in.

The four states

Active: the practice is open, on screen and in use.
Away: the practice is still open, but the student has stepped away from it. The card says why (see below).
Offline: the student's connection dropped while the practice was on their screen. They stay Offline for up to five minutes and switch straight back when the connection returns.
Left: the student closed the practice or went elsewhere.

Students who haven't joined yet appear as "Not joined", so you can see the whole class, not just the students who are there. Above the grid, a row of counts shows how many students are active, away and left at a glance.

Why a student is away

Under the badge, the card says what the browser observed:

Page hidden: another tab or app was in front of the practice.
Focus left the page: the practice was still visible but something else was in use, such as a second app side by side on an iPad.
Exited required full screen: the session requires full screen and the student left it.

The wording is deliberate. ClassKite reports what happened on the device, not why it happened. "Page hidden" could be a game, or it could be a calculator. It's a prompt to wander over, not a verdict.

Built to avoid false alarms

Short blips don't count. The grid waits ten seconds before showing a disconnected student as Left, so a Wi-Fi hiccup doesn't make anyone look gone.
Offline isn't Left. If the connection drops while the practice is on screen, the student shows as Offline, not Left, and comes back by themselves.
A paused tablet isn't instantly Left. When a student switches to another app on an iPad, the device may pause the practice. The card shows Away for five minutes before it shows Left, so a student who comes straight back was never "gone".

Require full screen

For some activities you want students to stay on the practice and nothing else. Tick Require full screen when you start the session, or switch it on or off during the session. Students see a "Go full screen" panel until they enter full screen, with a reminder that their answers are kept. If they leave full screen, they show as Away with the reason "Exited required full screen".

It is designed never to trap anyone:

Devices that can't use full screen carry on without it. If full screen won't start, the student can continue without it, and your grid says so.
iPads and iPhones are never asked to use full screen, because Safari interrupts typing in full-screen websites. Leaving the page is still shown as Away on those devices.
Typing is never interrupted. While a student is typing an answer, leaving full screen doesn't count as Away and the panel doesn't appear.
You can exempt any student from their card, for example a student who uses an accessibility tool.

In SBQ mode, Require full screen is ticked for you as part of quiz conditions. You can untick it.

Afterwards, in your reports

Each live session's report shows how many times each student left the session or stepped away, and both counts are in the CSV and Excel exports. Away is counted when it lasts five seconds or more. The reasons and the Offline state are shown live on the grid only.

Create a free teacher account and run your first live practice.

Frequently asked questions

Can students see their own status?

No. The states and reasons appear on your Live Session grid. Students only see the full screen panel when you require full screen.

Does this work in self-practice?

No. Presence and Require full screen are for live sessions.

Which plan do I need?

The Live Student Grid and reports are part of ClassKite Plus and the School plan. Require full screen works on every plan.

Active, Away, Offline, Left: Who's Really in Your Live Session