Planning and managing sessions

In this article, we briefly discuss all the necessary information you need for successfully organizing a session on imedu. Besides information, we also include some related articles where we explain other necessary functions.

What are sessions, spaces, and locations, and how do they work?

A session is an activity that takes place in a space. That is why you always need a space before you can start a session.

A space is a virtual environment that you can access via your browser. A space can consist of one or more locations. You can easily create your own spaces using the standard locations we already built for you.

A location is a virtual location that you access as a single website in your browser. Each location has its own link. There is always one standard location in each space, which is where a session invitation leads to. People need to be in the same location to communicate with each other.

Mostly you will use one location per space, so we use both terms for the same thing. In some situations you will see a space has more locations, eg. if you are working with bigger groups, or discussing different themes. Then using multiple locations can be a great solution to spread people over the space.

During a session, people can easily switch between different locations using the 'Guide' in the menu bar.

Reusable spaces can be found in the 'Library'. If you have creator rights (handed out by your organization admin), you can easily create your own spaces, by using and/or combining the default locations we have made for you.

For each session, you can create an invitation, which you can share with your students. If a space has more locations, this link will lead to the 'default location' of the space. The invitation contains different links for access via laptop, and access with a VR headset.

Spaces are built to work as real 'classrooms'. This means you can plan multiple (protected) sessions in a space, but you can't enter a space with an invitation outside the session hours. (See it as a different lock on the door for every session in the room).

When you want to use a space for two sessions at the same time, you can easily duplicate the space and organize a second session in the copy.

How do timezones & language settings work?

imedu works with different timezones and languages. You can find the active timezone and language at the top of the screen. If you don't work in different timezones you probably don't have to look at this. Still it is easy to understand how it works:

All sessions that you plan are stored in your active timezone. So check if you are in the correct timezone, before you plan a new class. Click on the timezone to change it.
The system will show the start and end time of a class in the active timezone of the person viewing it. So somebody who resides in a different timezone will see a different start-time than you.
If you change your timezone, you will see that the times your Schedule will change accordingly
imedu is available in three languages at this moment: English, Dutch and Traditional Chinese, but we can add more on request.

Manage your sessions in 'Schedule'

The 'Schedule' page provides an overview of all your scheduled sessions, and lets you plan new sessions and invitations for your students.

The overview shows all upcoming sessions by default, which includes ongoing sessions. Click on 'Past' to show sessions from the past.
You will find a button to schedule a new session on the top right. You will also find links to schedule session (eg. in a specific space) in other parts of the application.
In case you scheduled a session from a space page, you can easily start an 'instant' session with a special button on top of the page. This gives you a link that you can use directly, and saves you time to fill in the form.
For all sessions, imedu generates a secret link and PIN. You can request this by via the button 'invite' in the session overview or on the detail page of a session.
Access to a session is only possible using the link and pin-code (see Security and Privacy). For better protection we advice to let us activate a student login.
For each session, you can indicate how far in advance space should 'open up'. Before that time, access is closed. We advise you to always open up a few minutes in advance to prevent losing time.
Sessions can be changed or updated at any time, even while they are running. This means you can also add some extra notes or change the end-time. Note that if you change the space in which a session takes place, people already inside need to reenter the space using their invitation link to move their.

Security & privacy in imedu and collecting data

imedu values privacy, and we strive to minimize the personal data we collect

To avoid collecting private information about students we don't work with student accounts by default. Instead, we use a secret link and pin code to control access to the class. Without a PIN code, you can't enter a session.
This means that students can identify themselves using their own chosen avatar and name.
If you want more control over the identity of students, we can enforce a login for students and automatically set their name/identity and track their events. Please contact us to inform you about the possible integrations.

Questions or suggestions? Let us know via hello@imedu.support