This guide walks you through the full life of a Space: building it, launching it to students, sharing it with colleagues, and ending the session.
New to Spaces? Start with Getting Started with Spaces for an overview.
Step 1: Describe your Space
Select Create a Space in the left menu, or the blue Create a Space button at the top right of the Discover page. Prefer to riff off of someone else's Space? Find a Space that you like in Discover, or in your district’s folder in Organize (if there is one), and select Remix.
On the Create a Space page:
Next to This is a, choose the kind of Space: Student learning, Teacher productivity, or Staff operations. The information below covers Student learning Spaces specifically.
Next to Space for, choose one or more grade levels. Dot uses them to match its language and difficulty to your students. You can change them later in the editor or when you launch.
In the box, describe the learning experience you want, in plain language. Add as many known specifics to the prompt to help you get a Space experience you desire; specify if you want the Space to go through a specific agenda, check for learning outcomes, if you want it to operate according to a specific education standard (use the Standards button) or rubric (use the Files button). The more specifics you add here, the better.
Select Create my Space. SchoolAI will draft the Space for you to review. Save and continue or to make edits, as desired.
Tip: Not sure what to build? Select Brainstorm with Space Designer to talk it through first, or Create from scratch to bypass AI and fill out each field of the Space experience yourself.
Once you get to Step 5, your Space will be auto-saved as a draft, even if you don’t click Save and continue. Your Draft Spaces will appear under Drafts & recent Space creations at the bottom of the Create a Space page, so you can pick up where you left off.
Step 2: Review and edit your Space
The editor shows your Space's settings on the left and a live student preview on the right. Your changes save automatically as a draft.
Section | What's in it |
Space details | Title, subtitle, grade level, and cover image (all required). Select Edit image to change the cover. Learn more about AI images |
Prompt | General instructions (required) tell Dot, your students' AI assistant, what to do and how to respond. The clearer and more specific, the better Dot follows them |
Anytime PowerUps | Tools students can use throughout the Space: Document Editor and Image Generator. Early Access PowerUps, which may change, include Doodleboard, Flashcards, Graphing Calculator, and Mindmap |
Context | Add standards: choose a region, then narrow by grade, subject, and strand, or search. Select the standards you want and select Add. Add files & resources: upload materials Dot should draw on |
Advanced prompting | Select Show advanced prompting to see three more sections (below) |
Publishing details | Helps other educators find and understand your Space; it doesn't change how the Space behaves. Includes Description (required), Participant description, and Visibility (see Step 6). Select Generate to draft them |
Advanced prompting
Section | What it does |
Outcomes (optional) | What students will be able to do by the end. Add your own by clicking Add an outcome, then select Generate, or if you forgot to add Outcomes before you launched a Space, you can click Add outcomes at the top of Mission Control |
Agenda steps (optional) | A sequence for students to work through. Each step needs a Step title and Instructions, and can include its own PowerUp. Select Add step for more. Turn on Make this agenda visible to students in the Space to show students the steps |
Audience & style | Tell Dot who your students are and how it should interact with them, such as "a cheerful guide who makes food science exciting for young learners" |
Test as you go: Chat in the Previewing as a student panel to see how Dot responds. After changing your instructions, select the refresh icon at the top of the preview to start over. Try a few realistic student answers, including wrong ones.
When you're happy with it, select Save and continue.
Step 3: Your Space's detail page
After you select Save and continue, you land on your Space's detail page. This is home base for the Space:
Preview & Launch: Start a session with students (Step 4).
Remix: Make a separate copy of the Space to adapt or edit.
Edit: Go back into the Space editor to make changes.
Add to collection: Save it to a collection in Organize so you can find it later or to add to an org or district collection.
Share: Share the Space with other teachers (Step 6).
The tabs below show the Space's About text, its Prompt, and My sessions, which is a list of each time you've launched the Space.
Step 4: Customize this session and launch
Select Preview & Launch to open the Preview & customize screen. Settings here apply only to this Space session, so you can tailor the Space for today's class without changing the original.
Session name (required): Defaults to the Space title and today's date. Rename as desired if you'll run the Space with several classes.
Grade level (required): Adjust for this group of students, if needed.
Outcomes: Edit any existing outcomes or add new learning goals for this session, or select Generate to have AI draft them.
Additional session instructions: Optional notes for Dot, such as "We're tight on time, skip the warm-up."
Check the student preview on the right, then select how you want to deliver the Space to your students by clicking Launch to class, Send to Google Classroom, Send to Canvas, or Launch to (Step 5).
Step 5: Get students into your Space
Launch to class
Select Launch to class. A join screen opens that you can project for your class:
Students go to schoolai.com/join and enter the code shown (for example, VBRZ-LGRH), or scan the QR code.
Select Copy join link to paste the Space link into an email, chat, or class page instead.
The joined counter at the top shows how many students are in the Space.
When everyone's in, select View Mission Control to watch the session (Step 7). Need the code again later? Select Invite students at the top right of Mission Control.
You may also see options on the Preview & customize screen (depending on your school’s learning management system) to send the Space to Google Classroom, Canvas, or Schoology. For setup help, see Connect Google Classroom to SchoolAI, Launching a Space from SchoolAI to Canvas, or Using SchoolAI in Schoology: A Teacher's Guide.
Rostered classes (Scale plan)
If your district is on the Scale plan with rostering set up, the Space also appears for students under their class at student.schoolai.com, no code needed. Students can then use the join code, join link, or QR code to sign in and join; they can also visit the SchoolAI student portal to find the Space or enter the join code. The join screen shows how many of your rostered students have entered the session (for example, "12/25 joined").
Important: If you use the Rostered class option above, please only share the join code or join link with students, as the students will need to authenticate to join the Space. If you need to share the Space with a fellow colleague or teacher, use the Share link on your Space's detail page; see more below.
Step 6: Share with other teachers
There are two ways to work with colleagues, and they do different things:
| Share your Space | Add a Collaborator |
What they get | A link to your Space that they can view and remix | Access to your live session |
Can they see your students' chats and insights? | No | Yes |
Can they pause and resume your session? | No | Yes |
Can they view your Space’s prompting, files, and standards? | Yes | Yes |
Plan required | Any | Pro |
Share your Space
Open your Space's page.
Select Share and send the link to other teachers.
Who can view your Space depends on its Visibility. Change your Space’s visibility under Publishing details in the Space editor under Publishing details > Visibility, or from the dropdown at the top of your Space's page.
Here are the different Space visibility options and what abilities they give to others:
Visibility | Who can use it |
Private | Only you can view this link. This is helpful if you are in the middle of working on a Space and aren’t ready to share it with others yet |
Anyone with the link | Anyone who has the link can see, use, and remix it |
Public | Anyone can find the Space in Discover and can view, use, and remix it |
Add a Collaborator to a session (Pro)
A Collaborator has the same session permissions that you do as the session owner: they can see student insights and responses, and pause or resume the session. To add a collaborator, they must have an account in your SchoolAI org or district.
To Add a Collaborator:
Open the session in Mission Control.
Select the three dots (⋮) at the top right.
Select Add Collaborators and enter the teacher's email address or find it in the dropdown.
Select Invite
The teacher gets an email and selects Join the Space to get access.
Step 7: Monitor, pause, or end the session
Mission Control is your live view of the session. To view a session later, select Student insights in the app’s left menu, or open your Space's detail page and go to the My sessions tab. Learn more about Mission Control.
Control | What it does |
Pencil icon next to the session name | Rename the session |
Preview space | Try the Space as a student |
Share insights | Share the session's insights with a fellow colleague or teacher (note: the person must have an account in your org) |
End session | Close the session so students can no longer join or chat |
Pause | Stop student activity temporarily; resume when ready by selecting Resume |
Invite students | Show the join code, link, and QR code again |
Smart Groups / List | Switch between students grouped by need and a full list |
Generate session insights | Surface misconceptions and student needs across the class |
Students can keep working until you select End session. Closing your browser does not end it.
To change the Space itself, select Edit on its page. For a change that only applies to one class, use Additional session instructions when you launch.
Frequently asked questions
Why are my students getting a Blocked Domain error? They're most likely using the teacher Share link instead of the join code. Have them go to schoolai.com/join and enter the code, or send the link from “Copy join link.” If they still see the error, ask your school admin or IT team to allow SchoolAI's student domain.
Why don't I see the Invite students, Pause, and End session buttons? The session has probably ended. Students can only join an active session, so select “Preview & Launch” on your Space's page to start a new one.
Who can see my Space? That depends on its visibility: Private (only people you share it with), Anyone with the link, or Public (anyone can find it in Discover). Change it under Publishing details in the editor or at the top of your Space's page.
Can students be graded on their participation? When students join from Google Classroom, their participation is recorded automatically, and the assignment is marked complete when they take part.
What can I use a Space for? Tutors, quizzes, exit tickets, bellringers, role-plays, choose-your-own-adventure stories, and more. Browse the Discover library for ideas.
How do I keep a Space safe and on topic? Add redirect instructions to your AI prompt. Mission Control also flags concerning or off-task messages so you can follow up. Learn more in Student Safety: Critical Alerts & Real-Time Monitoring.