For teachers & students
When a Classroom assignment shares reading activity, students can choose to share how they read: active time, how much of the assigned text was on screen, which passages they came back to, and whether they finished.
Select Share reading activity when you assign a reading. The tracked text runs from the linked sentence to the end of that chapter or scene. Assignments created without it keep working as ordinary reading links.
Anyone signed in with the link can take part. Google class membership isn't checked, and the report lists only readers who started sharing. It can't show who never opened the reading.
Your name, when you started, active reading time, which assigned sentences were on screen, how many bookmarks you added, and whether you reported finishing.
No camera, microphone, images, video, keystrokes or note text. The optional camera signal is separate and off unless you turn it on.
To read it again more carefully, choose Read again after Finished reading. It starts a new attempt with its own figures; your earlier attempt is kept. Opening the reading again after finishing and choosing Start sharing activity also starts a new attempt. Reloading before you finish carries on the same attempt.
Activity saves every few seconds while the tab is open. If you open a new tab or reload, choose Start sharing activity again. If you see Uploads are delayed, keep the tab open until it shows Activity saved.
Go to Classes and choose View reading activity for your assignments, or use View reading activity right after assigning. Pick an assignment to see everyone who shared. Only the teacher who created the assignment can open its report.
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Reader | The student's Austi account name. |
| Opened tracking | When they started sharing. |
| Active time | Time with the page visible and focused, the assigned text on screen, and some interaction in the last three minutes. |
| Sentence exposure | Share of assigned sentences with at least one second of active visibility in total. Rereading never pushes it higher. |
| Bookmark actions | Bookmarks added during the session (counts only, no note text). |
| Finished | Reader reported or Not reported: the student's own Finished reading click. |
| Response | The latest version of the written response turned in from Austi, or revising if the student has unsubmitted in Classroom to change it. |
If students turned on the optional camera, the report also has camera, gaze and (when enabled) reading-pattern sections. See how to read them.
When a student reads the assignment again after finishing, that's a new attempt. The tables show each student's latest attempt, marked “Attempt 2 of 2”. Choose All attempts and responses to see every attempt in order, each with its own time, sentence exposure, camera and gaze figures, and the response version turned in after it. Each attempt also has its own passage detail.
If a student unsubmits in Google Classroom and turns in a changed answer, it becomes a new version. Earlier versions are never replaced. The response link in Classroom always opens the page with every version, newest first.
Choose View passages under a student's name to see their reading paragraph by paragraph, in assigned order, 20 at a time (Show more passages loads the next 20). Filter to all passages, passages with no recorded exposure, or passages they revisited.
Active time with any part of that passage on screen. Several passages can share the same seconds, so don't add them up.
Sentences in the passage with at least one second of active visibility.
When the passage was first on screen during active reading.
Returns after at least two seconds of reading elsewhere. A revisit suggests, but doesn't prove, rereading.
When students switched on the optional camera, extra sections appear below the main table. Each one describes the same active reading time from a different angle, so never add them together. They nest like this:
| Section | Covers | Its columns add up to |
|---|---|---|
| Camera observations, latest attempt | Was a face visible to the camera? | The student's active time in their latest attempt |
| Gaze observations, latest attempt | Was the student facing the screen with eyes open? | The student's active time in their latest attempt |
| Reading-like eye movement | While facing the screen, did the eyes move the way they do when reading? | The student's facing-the-screen time |
Idle and background time are never included, and none of these sections changes active time, sentence exposure or passage times.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Facing the screen, eyes open | Head turned towards the screen, relative to the student's own usual position, with eyes open and not turned far to one side. |
| Not facing the screen, incl. no face in view | Head turned away, eyes closed, or eyes held well to one side for about a second or more, or no face in the camera's view at all. Blinks and quick glances don't count. |
| Uncertain | The camera couldn't give a clear result: more than one face in view, poor lighting, a covered lens, or stale camera frames. Not evidence of looking away. |
| Not sampled | Gaze observations were off. |
| Estimate available | Share of gaze-enabled time with a facing or not-facing result. A measure of how well the camera could see, not of attention. |
This section appears only once your school has it switched on. It's measured only during facing-the-screen time.
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Reading-like movement | The eyes moved along a line and swept back to the start of the next, at least twice in the last 15 seconds. |
| No reading pattern | Face and eyes were clear, but that pattern didn't appear: for example looking at one spot, or around the page. |
| Uncertain | Too few usable camera frames to tell. Common on slower devices and small phone screens. |
Camera observations (face detected, no face detected, unknown, not sampled) are explained on the face observation page.
An illustrative student with 20 minutes of active time and the camera and gaze switched on:
| Section | Result |
|---|---|
| Main table | Active time 20m · Sentence exposure 85% · Finished: Reader reported |
| Camera | Face detected 18m · No face 1m · Unknown 1m |
| Gaze | Facing 16m · Not facing 3m (incl. 1m no face in view) · Uncertain 1m |
| Reading pattern | Reading-like 12m · No pattern 3m · Uncertain 1m (adds up to the 16m facing) |
A fair reading of this row:
A row with high active time but little facing time, or facing time with little reading-like movement, is a reason to talk with the student or look at their response. It isn't evidence on its own.
Earlier versions estimated gaze with a nine-dot setup and saved their results in the same two gaze columns, and activity saved before no face in view was counted as not facing shows that time as uncertain instead. Those totals can't be separated from newer ones. When comparing students, compare activity from the same period, and treat older gaze totals as rougher estimates.
Use the report alongside the student's response and class discussion. It isn't designed as attendance or grading evidence on its own.