This article will cover how to use Bark for Schools as a Reviewer.
We developed Bark for Schools with school officials in mind. As such, it is a simple-to-use but incredibly powerful tool for helping your efforts to keep students safe on school-issued accounts and technology.
Navigation
We'll start from the main dashboard and navigate to other sections from the drop-down menu on the top right of the dashboard page.
Dashboard
The very first page you'll see when you log in to Bark for Schools is the dashboard. This page will provide you with high level statistics around the students and groups that have been assigned to you.
Activities Analyzed
This represents all activity we've seen since Bark for Schools was turned on. The data here will reflect all turned on groups for monitoring - not just the groups that you've been assigned to.
Alerts to Review
This represents any issues outstanding for the groups assigned to you. If there is a number here, there is an alert that has been created but hasn't been looked at by any other Reviewers.
Number of Students Actively Monitored
"Bark is monitoring X students across Y organizational units."
These numbers are based on the groups your Bark Super Admin has enabled for monitoring. If the number seems low, you may need to reach out to your Bark Super Admin to verify the configuration is set up properly.
Reports
The reports section allows you a glimpse of what is occurring across the groups assigned to you, from a statistical standpoint.
In the images above, we've identified some key sections:
Line graph: This area provides an alert count by day and by platform (e.g. Gmail vs Drive). You can drill in by platform by choosing one option from the drop-down menu at the top or filter by date on the top right.
Table: This area provides an alert count for the dates selected and breaks them down by type (e.g. Violence, Bullying, etc) as well as by group or organizational unit (e.g. Class of 2029). You can search by a group, or choose one of the groups displayed. Groups in this section are displayed in descending order of alerts generated. Clicking into one of these group names gives a sub-group level view of the data, which is further broken down by student name.
Review Alerts (Sorting Options)
This page is where you'll be able to review what Bark has identified as inappropriate or potentially harmful for a student. We provide a number of filtering options to allow you to get to data very quickly.
In the image above, we've identified some key sections:
A) Sort by Category -- such as violence, bullying, sexual content, etc.
B) Sort by Groups. If you have more than one group (or class, grade) assigned to you, you can filter out by group.
C) Sort by Student. The student's email, first name, or last name works in this field.
D) Sort by Platform. If on Google Workspace, that will be Gmail, Drive, Chats, and/or Chrome. If on Microsoft 365, that will be Outlook, OneDrive, Teams, and/or Edge Chromium.
E) Sort by Date.
F) Sort by View Status. If an issue has been reviewed by any administrator, the issue can be reviewed by checking the "Reviewed" box. Any viewed issue will have a timestamp and name of the user that reviewed it, as seen in the example below:
G) Sort by Other, which are further detailed below:
- The Saved filter refers to the "Save for later" function within an alert (displayed below). This filter allows you to return to an alert quickly.
- The Severe filter allows you to target any identified severe alert. A severe alert is an issue that has hit a threshold in a category and is more actionable. Severe issues are further identified by a red exclamation mark ❗️, as seen in the example below:
- The Emergencies filter allows you to target any identified emergency alert. An emergency alert is an issue that indicates imminent severe harm to the child. These alerts are also accompanied by a red exclamation mark ❗️.
Reading an Alert
After clicking into an alert on the list, you will see the actual content that triggered the alert. Below we use an example alert to point out some tips on reading alerts. For more example alerts, check out this guide.
In the image above, we've identified some key sections:
A) The name and account email for the student that we detected this activity under, whether they were the sender or the receiver of the worrisome content.
B) The organizational unit structure that the student's account is under. This comes directly from whatever your Google Workspace / Office365 structure is for managing student accounts. The super admin on the account can turn off particular OUs/groups from being monitored by following these steps. They can also assign particular OUs/groups to only certain Reviewers.
C) The platform the activity took place under as well as the participants in the conversation. In the example above, it is a Google Chat between two people.
D) The abuse types we detected from the activity. We alert on many different types worrisome content, including bullying, suicidal ideation, drug/alcohol content, violence, weapons, self-harm and more.
E) The first person who reviewed this alert is included here. To see the timeline of the alert review history, or to put in a note about what action was taken, click on (more...) there. You'll then see something like this:
F) This part of the alert displays the exact worrisome content that we detected.
G) This button allows you to share this particular alert with another Reviewer that also has been assigned this OU/group.
H) This function allows the Reviewer to share this alert with the parent or guardian if they've enabled Parent Portal and the alert hasn't already been sent with them. For more information on Parent Portal, check out our FAQs here.
Video Tutorial
Profile
This page allows you to update first and last name, and emergency contact number. Be sure to click Save after making any changes.
Native App
This provides you with an unique code so you can log into the Bark for Schools application on your smart phone to review alerts on the go! For more information on this feature, please take a look at this information.
To get the Mobile app turned on for your account, please schedule a meeting with our success team here.
Support
This section will allow you to reach out with questions, concerns, suggestions, or anything you need to reach Bark for Schools about.
You can submit a ticket to our team (with team members available 8am-5pm ET, Monday through Friday), schedule a call, and view help articles related to Bark for Schools.
Additionally, you can browse our blog to learn more about topics that can help bolster your student safety efforts.
Refer a school
Want to help us in our mission to protect every student and every school and district in America for free?
This page provides you with an email template that you can send to schools and/or districts that you know could benefit from Bark for Schools.