Add work to a student's portfolio
A student's portfolio fills from two directions: you put in what you want to keep, and the student sends their own work from the tablet. A photo, a video or a sound you put in yourself is shared with the parents as soon as it is saved. What the student sends stays hidden from parents until you approve it.
Capture a photo or a drawing yourself
- Open "Quick capture" from the class.
- Under "For which students?", tap the student, or several students if the same photo goes to the whole group.
- Under "Capture type", tap a tile: "Photo", "Video", "Audio", "Drawing" or "Note". The tile opens the camera, the recorder or the sheet right away. There is no second button to tap.
- For a photo, tap the round camera button, "Take a photo", then the green check, "Confirm photo". While it uploads, the screen reads "Saving...".
LinoClass confirms with "Capture saved!" and "The capture has been added to the student's portfolio." Two buttons follow: "View portfolio" opens the class grid, with the photo you just took already in it; "Capture again" keeps the same students and returns to the tiles.
On the free plan, "Video" and "Audio"Pro plan only carry a padlock and do not respond. A card under the tiles explains it: "Pro plan feature". "Note" opens the form for a written observation; the page Write an observation describes it.
Start a drawing for a student
"Drawing" opens a blank sheet in the chosen child's name, with the crayon already selected. It is the same canvas you edit an existing drawing in. Nothing is written to the portfolio before your first "Save": a sheet you leave without saving leaves no trace.
- Draw. The "Save" button, at the top right, lights up at the first stroke.
- Tap "Save". The button reads "Saving...", then "Saved". The drawing now exists in the student's portfolio.
- Carry on if you like. Each new "Save" updates the same drawing.
The "Back" arrow, at the top left, leads to the drawing's page if you saved it, and to the capture screen, with the same student still selected, if you did not. If strokes are left unsaved, LinoClass first asks "Leave without saving?" and adds "Your changes will be lost." Tap "Leave" to go without keeping them, or "Cancel" to stay on the sheet.
A drawing belongs to one child. If you selected several students, the tile does not open and LinoClass tells you: "A drawing belongs to one student. Pick a single student to use the canvas."
If saving fails, a band under the header reads "Saving failed. Try again." and the "Save" button stays active. If the band reads "Your class storage is full. The drawing was not saved.", trying again changes nothing: the free plan has reached its storage limit.
The "Portfolios" grid refreshes on its own when you come back to it, including after "View portfolio" and when you return to the tab. If a capture is still missing, reload the page.
Add a photo, a video or a voice to a drawingFree plan: photo only. Pro plan beyond that.
In the toolbar, the last button, a plus sign, opens the "Add to my drawing" panel. In the app on the tablet, the student finds the same tiles you do.
- "Photo" opens the camera. The photo lands on the sheet, with the drawing.
- "Gallery" picks a picture already on the tablet, without going through the camera.
- "Video" records a short video, one minute at most.
- "Voice" records a message.
For "Photo" and "Video", the camera takes the whole screen, in black, with no title bar. The X at the top left, "Cancel", closes the camera without adding anything. The big round button, "Take a photo", takes the picture; the yellow button that replaces it, "Confirm photo", sends it, and "Retake photo" reopens the camera. On an iPad held in landscape, these buttons stand in a column to the right of the picture. The photo keeps what the child saw in the frame, with nothing cut off.
While it uploads, the screen reads "Uploading your photo...". When it is done, it reads "Great!" and "Your photo is saved!", then the drawing comes back on its own. Video and voice confirm the same way, with "Your video is saved!" or "Your message is saved!".
At the foot of the same panel, "My paper" changes the sheet: "Blank", "Sidewalk lines", "Grid" or "Dots". The choice is saved with the drawing, and the thumbnail in the portfolio shows the chosen paper. "My paper" exists only on a free drawing. An activity page is already its own paper.
"Gallery" and "My paper" are in the app on the tablet and in your own capture canvas. In the browser, the student has "Photo", "Video" and "Voice".
When a tile is missing or the add does not go through
On the free plan, "Video" and "Voice" are not in the panel. The tile is absent, not greyed out. "Photo" and "Gallery" stay there on every plan. If no tile is possible, the "Add" button itself does not appear.
If the upload fails, the screen turns to "Oops!" with the cause under it, then two buttons: "Retry" and "Cancel". On the camera screen, a button also opens the gallery. A file that is not an image gives "Please select an image". The other messages are the same as for a capture. They are explained further down this page.
Approve what a student sent
When a student hands in an activity, the bell in LinoClass tells you right away, with the child's first name and the activity's name. Tap the notification to open the work. If you ticked "Get notifications on this device" under "Preferences", your device gets a notification too, even when LinoClass is closed. It names neither the child nor the activity; it leads to the work. No email is sent for handed-in work.
The work arrives marked "Awaiting approval". It stays invisible to parents for as long as it carries that mark. You can approve it in three places.
- On the work's page, tap "Approve".
- In the class feed, under the post, tap "Approve". On a phone, "Comment" and "Tag" are icons, but "Approve" keeps its word.
- In the activity, the student's card carries the "To approve" tag. Tap the card to open it, then tap "Approve".
On the work's page, the yellow "Awaiting approval" strip and its button disappear. In the class feed, LinoClass confirms with "Approved and shared with parents". In the activity's grid, the student's card reads "Approved" and the button is gone. That tap is what publishes it: until you make it, you are the only one who sees the work. The page See where each student is at in an activity describes that board, including the students who handed nothing in.
If approving fails, the work's page shows "Approval failed. Try again." and the submitted work list shows "Could not approve this work. Try again." The work keeps its mark.
In the class feed, tapping the thumbnail of a piece of work opens its page. A sound plays inside the feed: the player reads "Audio recording" with the length, the round yellow button starts playback, and the arrow to the right of the player opens the work's page. A drawing shows its whole page in every grid, with nothing cropped off. A photo you added yourself arrives already approved and does not go to the feed. You find it in the student's portfolio. The page Read and react to a piece of work in the class feed describes the card in detail.
A work's page
On a computer, a work's page has two parts. On the left, the work shown large: the photo, the drawing, the video or the sound. On the right, a panel. On a phone, the top bar stays in place, the work takes the full width, and the panel follows under it, as one column.
The panel reads from top to bottom.
- The child's picture and name, then a grey line with the type, the full date and the person who added the work.
- The "Team work" row, when the work has a team.
- "Developmental domains", with the domain picker, if the class has any.
- The yellow "Awaiting approval" strip with the "Approve" button, while the work waits. Once the work is approved, the strip is gone.
- The "Activity" row with "Send back", for work that answers an activity.
- The heart and the thumbs up, the same as in the class feed.
- The comments, with their number in the heading. The comment box is pinned to the foot of the panel. On a phone, it stays at the bottom of the screen while you read.
On a drawing, the "Edit drawing" button sits in the bottom-right corner of the drawing; the page Draw and edit a drawing on the canvas describes it. A written observation shows as a reading card, with its title, its date and its paragraphs, and "Edit" at the top right if you may correct it.
At the top, "Back" takes you where you came from. On the right, "Download" saves the file to your device and the "Delete" bin removes the work. A written observation has no file, so no "Download".
Leave a voice message for the childPro plan only
You can talk to the child under their work. The child hears your message on their own portfolio page, on the tablet. Voice messages are part of the Pro plan. On the free plan, the microphone and the button do not appear, and the comment box stays a text box.
From the submitted work list, without opening the work's page:
- In the activity, tap the student's card to open it, then tap "Voice message". Recording starts and the button shows the time.
- Tap the button again to stop. A "Voice message ready" chip appears, with a play button to hear yourself back and an X to start over.
- Tap "Send".
LinoClass confirms with "Voice message sent". The button turns into "Another voice message" in case you want to add a second one. A message lasts one minute at most.
On the work's page, the comment box fits on a single row: the microphone on the left, the "Add a comment…" field in the middle, the send arrow on the right. It is the same row as in the app on the tablet.
- Tap the microphone and talk. The field turns into a capsule with a red dot, "Recording…" and the time. The microphone is replaced by an X, and the arrow by a red square.
- Tap the red square to stop. The capsule reads "Voice message ready" with the length. The send arrow comes back. There is no listening back before sending on this row.
- Tap the arrow. Any text typed before the microphone goes along with the message, as its caption. The row turns back into the microphone and the field.
The X, on the left, throws the recording away, during or after. A parent has the same microphone on the work's page, if the class is on the Pro plan.
A comment that carries a voice message shows a small "Voice message" player with its length. On the tablet, the child's page for the work reads "A message for you", or the number of messages, then one big yellow "Listen" button per voice message. The button reads "Stop" while it plays. In their portfolio grid, the work's tile carries a badge with the number of messages. The page What the student sees in their portfolio on the tablet describes their screen.
When the voice message does not go through
If sending fails, LinoClass shows "The voice message could not be sent. Try again." The recording stays in place; you do not have to record it again. If the class is no longer on the Pro plan when you send, the message reads "Voice messages are part of Pro. Written comments stay free."
If recording does not start, the microphone is the cause. "Microphone permission denied. Allow access in your browser settings." and "No microphone detected on this device." say what to check. "The recording captured nothing. Check the microphone and try again." means the microphone stayed silent for the whole recording.
Say who worked together
A piece of work can belong to a team. The child declares it on the tablet; you fix the list before approving. On approval, each teammate gets a copy of the work in their portfolio.
What the child sees
When the child hands in an activity, the tablet asks "Did you work with someone?" and "Tap your friends' names". The child taps the faces, then the yellow button, which counts their friends, for example "All done, with 2 friends!", or taps "No, just me". LinoClass answers "Your work will be in their portfolio too!" The work is already saved before this question; the child cannot lose it by leaving the screen. If the class list takes too long to load, the question is skipped and the work is saved without a team.
Fix the list before approving
The team shows, and can be fixed, where you approve: on the work's page and under its post in the class feed. It can also be fixed in the activity, on the student's card.
On the work's page and in the feed, the "Team work" row shows faces. The author wears a star, "Did the work". A teammate wears a small X and, under their first name, "pending" until their copy exists. The last circle, dashed, is called "Add".
- Tap "Add". The "Edit the team" dialog opens, with the line "Add a student" and the grid of the class's faces: the child's sticker, or their initials on their colour, and their first name. It is the same grid the child taps on the tablet and you tap to give points. The author is not in it.
- Tap a face to add that child to the team. Tap it again to remove them. A chosen face stands out, larger than the others.
- Tap "Save", or "Cancel" to change nothing.
To remove a single teammate, tap their face in the row, without opening the dialog. On the page of a piece of work with no team, a small dashed chip, "Team work", starts the first team.
In the activity, tap the student's card to open it. The open card lists the team's first names under "Team work". A teammate whose copy does not exist yet reads "Waiting for approval". Tap "Edit the team". Here, the dialog shows a checkbox list of the class. Tick or untick the students, then tap "Save".
If you remove a teammate whose copy already exists, LinoClass first asks "Remove a student from this team?" and adds: "Remove {name} from this team? Their copy of the work, and any comments left on it, are deleted permanently." The child's first name replaces {name}. Confirm with "Delete". If saving fails, LinoClass shows "Could not update the team. Please try again." and the list has not changed.
One "Approve" publishes the work and creates the copies for the whole team. On a teammate's copy, one line reads "Team work", or "Team work with" followed by the name of the student who declared the team.
Turn the pages of a book
An activity of several pages lands in the portfolio as one piece of work, with all its pages. In the grid, its tile carries a "4 pages" badge, and the class feed shows one post for the whole book. On the work's page, for you and for the parents, and on the child's page on the tablet, the pages turn by swiping the page itself, like a book.
- A pill in the corner of the page says where you are, for example 2 / 4.
- On a computer, the book carries the same hairline border as the panel on the right, instead of a grey background all around.
- With a mouse, two arrows appear on the edges of the page when the pointer is over it. The keyboard arrows turn the pages too. On a tablet, there are no arrows: a finger is enough.
- Tap the page to enlarge it.
If the child skipped a page in the middle of the book, the pill reads "Page 3" instead of a count, because the book does not have all its pages. A piece of work with a single page has no pill.
To fix a page of the book or add one, tap "Edit drawing"; the page Find your way around the canvas tools describes the book's page bar inside the canvas.
Send an activity back to the child
A student handed in an activity, and you want them to carry on with it. You send it back from the work's page. Their drawing goes with the activity, and the work stays in their portfolio.
- Open the work. In its panel, an "Activity" row shows the activity's name and the "Send back" button.
- Tap "Send back".
- LinoClass asks "Send the activity back to the child?" and explains: "They will find the activity in their list again, with their drawing, and can carry on. This work stays in their portfolio." Confirm with "Send back".
The row is replaced by a line saying the activity is back in the child's list. On their tablet, the activity card reads "Continue", with the number of pages already filled for a book of several pages.
The button exists only on work that answers an activity. A photo you took or a free drawing has none. If sending back fails, LinoClass shows "Could not send it back. Try again." and the work has not moved.
Before sending a book back, you can look at every page in the activity's submitted work, under "All pages". A page the student did not touch is marked "blank".
Approve a comment left on a piece of work
A parent's comment is waiting for your decision. It carries a small clock in its corner. You approve it on the work itself.
- Open the work. The notification about the comment takes you straight there, on the comment.
- Under the comment, tap "Approve" or "Reject".
"Reject" first asks "Reject this comment?", with the sentence "Reject this comment? It will be deleted." A rejected comment is gone; there is no bin.
If the action fails, LinoClass shows "That didn't work. Try again." and the comment keeps its clock.
The parent sees the same clock on their own comment, in the class feed and on the work's page, and nothing else. It goes away when you approve.
If you read "Approve it from the class feed." instead of the two buttons, that comment cannot be handled here. Open the class feed and find it under the work's post.
When saving does not go through
Each of these messages has one precise cause, and none of them means the work is lost.
"Your class storage is full"
The free plan has a storage limit. Photos and drawings stay free, whatever the plan. To lift the storage limit you need the Pro plan.
"Video and audio recording is part of the Pro plan"
Video and sound need the Pro plan. Photos and drawings work on every plan. On the student's side the message is written for them: "Videos and sounds are not available in your class. Ask your teacher. Photos and drawings always work!"
"Parental permission"
This child's parent has not allowed that kind of content, or no answer is on file yet. The message tells you where to look: "Check the parental permissions in Settings, under Parents." Tap "See the permissions" to go straight there.
"This file is too large"
Record a shorter clip. Length, not quality, is almost always the cause.
"The audio recording could not start"
The tablet did not grant microphone access. Check the microphone in the tablet's settings, then try again.
Frequently asked questions
Do parents get a notification?
They see the work once it is approved. Approving is what shares it.
Can one photo be saved to several students?
Yes, on the Pro plan. On the free plan you capture one student at a time.
Can a student delete their own work?
No. What a student sends reaches you and waits for your decision.
Can a student pick up an activity they already handed in?
Yes, if you send it back with "Send back" from the work's page. The activity returns to their list with their drawing. The work already handed in stays in the portfolio.
Can a colleague send an activity back?
Yes. The class teacher and their collaborators all have the "Send back" button.
The bell does not ring when a student hands in work.
The bell inside LinoClass updates on its own. To get a notification on the device when LinoClass is closed, open "Preferences" and tick "Get notifications on this device". That setting applies to this device only. There is no email for handed-in work.
The "Voice message" button is not there.
Voice messages need the Pro plan. On the free plan, the button and the microphone are absent. Written comments stay possible.
The child forgot a friend in their team.
Open the work. In the "Team work" row, tap "Add", tap the friend's face, then tap "Save". The same step exists under the post in the class feed. The team stays editable after approval, but removing a student at that point deletes their copy of the work.
The drawing started from "Quick capture" is not in the portfolio.
It was not saved. A sheet left without "Save" creates nothing, and LinoClass asked with "Leave without saving?". Start the drawing again, then tap "Save" before "Back".
The pages of the book do not turn.
Swipe on the page itself. On a computer, move the mouse over the page to see the arrows, or tap the page then use the keyboard arrows. If no arrow appears when you move the mouse over it, the work has only one page.
Once a piece of work is in the portfolio, the page Browse the class portfolios explains how to find it again, with the filters by student, by type and by date.