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DeKalb, IL — As the school season comes into full swing for the fall, Zoom has unveiled a new mode called “Focus” to keep students from getting distracted in class.
The new feature, aimed for teaching environments, allows teachers to see every student in class, but students will only see the teacher. On a student's view, they’ll only see the names of students in available windows, but not their peers' nonverbal feedback or hear other students when unmuted.
The new mode works similar to when teachers enable screen sharing mode and will allow a teacher to share a student's screen during class. Zoom’s Focus mode article states that the feature can be enabled or locked on for accounts, groups, or individual users.
"Focus mode is designed with the digital learning environment in mind, allowing students to stay attentive or work on their tasks while under supervision, without being distracted by others and their tasks," the company said in a blog post.