Webinar Recap: Lightspeed Classroom 2025 Roadmap – What’s New, What’s Coming, and Your Questions Answered

Yesterday, the product team hosted an engaging webinar to share the latest updates, upcoming features, and future plans for Lightspeed Classroom. The session, led by Charlotte Lescroart, Strategic Account Manager, and Mike Ruby, Director of Product Management for Classroom, provided valuable insights into how Lightspeed is addressing challenges in digital learning and empowering educators with innovative tools.

For those who missed it, here’s a summary of the key highlights, exciting upcoming features, and answers to the most pressing questions from the live Q&A. You may also tune in to the recording here.

Lightspeed Classroom 2025 Roadmap Overview 

Charlotte kicked off the session by discussing the challenges educators face in today’s digital classrooms:

1. Digital Distractions: Students face constant online distractions, which can hinder academic performance.
2. Teacher Challenges with New Technology: 65% of teachers find learning new technologies difficult, especially as they adapt to rapidly changing tools.

Lightspeed Classroom directly addresses these barriers by offering tools that help teachers manage their digital classrooms efficiently, foster student engagement, and reduce distractions.

Key Highlights: Recent Enhancements in Lightspeed Classroom

Charlotte provided an overview of major 2024 releases that are already live and available to users:

1. Teaching Team: Enables teachers to directly assign co-teachers such as substitutes and aides to monitor and manage instruction, enabling collaborative instruction without enlisting IT support.
2. Enhanced Thumbnails: Offers better visibility and troubleshooting for teachers with detailed insights into why a student’s screen might not be displaying as expected.
3. Allow and Block List Enhancements: Simplifies the process of creating allow/block lists by enabling URL stripping and automatic formatting for better functionality.

These updates have already been adopted by districts nationwide and are helping teachers manage classrooms more effectively. 

What’s Coming Soon: Exciting New Features

Mike Ruby took the stage to preview several highly anticipated features that will soon be available in Lightspeed Classroom:

1. Student Tab Count 

• Teachers will now see the number of tabs each student has open directly on their dashboard.
• New controls allow teachers to:
  • View a student’s open tabs.
  • Close specific tabs.
  • Close all tabs or all other tabs (the “nuclear option”).
• This feature helps keep students focused and ensures teachers can manage distractions in real-time.

2. Teacher HQ 

• A built-in resource hub within Lightspeed Classroom.
• Offers tailored training materials, guides, and checklists specific to each teacher’s experience level.
• Helps new teachers onboard quickly and supports ongoing learning for experienced users.

3. Hall Monitor

• A new digital hall pass system designed to enhance student safety and reduce class disruptions, integrated directly into Lightspeed Classroom.
• Teachers can issue and track passes for students who need to leave the classroom (e.g., restroom or nurse’s office).
• The system blocks the student’s browser while the pass is in use and logs detailed reports, including time in/out and the teacher who approved the pass.
• Simple and intuitive, Hall Monitor replaces paper passes, offering administrators real-time visibility into student movements.
• Administrators can control whether this feature is enabled for their district.

4. Class Highlights

• A reporting tool that provides actionable insights for teachers, including:
  • The most visited educational and non-educational sites in a session.
  • AI-generated suggestions for allow/block lists based on student activity.
  • Identification of off-task students and recommendations for addressing engagement issues.
• Administrators can control whether this feature and the AI component are enabled for their district.

5. Future Feature: Ad Hoc Class Scheduling

• A streamlined “Start Now” button will make it easier for teachers to launch on-demand classes and set custom durations for sessions. This feature is currently in development.

Live Demo Highlights 

During the webinar, Mike showcased demos of two upcoming features, Hall Monitor and Class Highlights:

• Hall Monitor Demo: Attendees saw how teachers can create and manage hall passes, how students can check themselves back in, and the detailed reporting available for administrators.
• Class Highlights Demo: The AI-driven insights were a standout, offering actionable prompts like identifying off-task students, understanding engagement trends, and suggesting updates to allow/block lists.

What’s Next?

Mike shared that Hall Monitor and Class Highlights are in the final testing stages and will be available for general use in the coming weeks. Districts can also request demos or sign up for early access through their Lightspeed representatives.

Q&A: Your Questions Answered 

The session wrapped up with a lively Q&A where attendees shared their thoughts and questions. Here are some key takeaways:

• Q: Will these new features cost extra?
• A: No, all new features—including Hall Monitor, Class Highlights, Teacher HQ, and Student Tab Count—will be included at no additional cost for Lightspeed Classroom users.

• Q: When will Hall Monitor and Class Highlights be available?
• A: Both features are expected to launch in the next few weeks. Districts can sign up for beta testing or demos now. Please contact your Account Manager to see a demo of these features or sign up for the beta program. Schedule a Lightspeed Classroom demo here.

• Q: Can administrators control access to these features?
• A: Yes, administrators will have full control over enabling/disabling features like Hall Monitor and Class Highlights through Classroom Rules.

• Q: Will there be training and documentation for these updates?
• A: Absolutely! User guides, videos, and detailed documentation will be available for all new features. Additionally, Teacher HQ will provide ongoing training resources directly within the platform.

• Q: Can teachers limit the number of tabs students can open?
• A: While tab limiting is not yet available, it is a feature currently in development, and the Lightspeed team is working on making it available soon.

Get Involved

Lightspeed encourages feedback from educators to shape future updates. Attendees were asked to participate in a poll to share their favorite new features, with Hall Monitor and Class Highlights emerging as the top picks.If you missed the webinar or have additional questions, your Lightspeed representative is available to assist. You can also access training resources and schedule demos to explore these exciting new features firsthand.

Conclusion 

The Lightspeed Classroom Roadmap webinar showcased the incredible strides being made to address digital distractions and empower teachers with tools that make classroom management more effective and intuitive. From enhanced reporting to digital hall passes, these updates promise to make a meaningful impact in classrooms nationwide.

Stay tuned for the release of these features, and don’t hesitate to reach out to your Lightspeed representative to learn more or request a demo. Together, we’re building a brighter future for digital learning!