School Profiles Overview

The concept of Profiles brings together a number of powerful features offered by Mobile Guardian. Once a device has been enrolled successfully then this is seen as the piece that manages the When, Where, Which and What the device is allowed to do.

What is a Profile? 

Quite simply, a Profile is a set of pre-defined configurations. An administrator has the ability to add multiple profiles to a school account and manage each of them according to their school policy needs. Configuring profiles correctly so that they apply to the correct devices at the desired times and locations is very important. The set of configurations extends beyond restrictions and privacy settings. Depending on your choice of device, the administrator can configure network accounts, exchange setting, application to show and hide, home screen layouts, wallpapers, and a whole lot more. 

Mobile Guardian has the concept of a Baseline profile and a Conditional profile which will be explained below and these profile types ensure that your devices and your students (and teachers) are always covered at the right times on the right days under whichever restrictions you would like to setup. 

The Baseline Profile

The Baseline Profile is the profile applied to the device when no other profile is currently being applied. Some refer to it as the safety net Profile. It is fixed at being applied anywhere and anytime but the configurations can be adjusted to make sure that, outside of all other created profiles, the device is adhering to a set of minimum restrictions. 

There is the incorrect understanding that whatever has been configured in the Baseline profile is inherited by all the Conditional profiles that are created subsequently. This is not the case. Mobile Guardian has found that schools like to relax certain restrictions using Conditional profiles and when that profile no longer applies then it will switch to the Baseline profile, ensuring continued restriction control.  

In a Baseline profile, only the "What" can be configured. The "What" refers to what the device is able to do and see. The configurable sections are the same as the Conditional profile view and are shown below: 

The Conditional Profile

The Conditional profile is where the flexibility is built in regarding locations (geo-fencing) and day and time configurations. There is no limit to the number of Conditional profiles that a school administrator can create.

The "Where" can be configured based on coordinates, wifi SSID or Beacon details so that when the device enters the specific geo-fence then that Conditional profile will apply. Examples of these are Classroom beacons, School location coordinates, Science block wifi, etc. and the device will let Mobile Guardian know where it is and then the correct Conditional profile will be applied to the device. 

The "When" determines the date range, which days of the week and what times of the day to apply the Conditional profile. 

The "Which" allows the administrator to determine which devices to apply the Conditional profile to. These can be assigned by Home-owned, School-owned or All filters, or they can be assigned by tags. 

The "What" section shows the same sections which are configurable as shown in the Baseline profile above. The administrator can configure completely different restrictions and settings here and the device will switch in and out of profiles (either Conditional and/or Baseline) based on the configured settings. 

The administrator can view all profiles created from the Profiles section. All profiles are editable and can be changed at any time. Mobile Guardian recommends setting up a defined structure for how to create and manage profiles as, if left unmanaged, they could become difficult to maintain and understand. The simpler the better.