Frequently
Asked Questions

Along is a teacher-student connection builder that helps teachers quickly build and maintain the strong ties needed so that their students feel comfortable sharing their classroom experience.

Within the challenging realities of today’s schools, there are many barriers to connection and students being heard. Using research-informed, powerful questions, Along solves the connection gap in the classroom by opening up the avenues of communication between teachers and students.

Educators choose from a collection of pre-vetted questions to understand their students as learners and as individuals. Utilizing these student insights, educators can incorporate or adjust their instruction to fit the needs of their students and classroom.

Along was designed for upper elementary, middle, and high school grade levels.

It can be used only by educators with registered school domain email addresses.

Those educators are required to let their school leaders and their students’ guardians know about their use of Along for the classroom. We provide materials to support educators in sharing this information.

Along provides a dedicated space for educators and students to connect and learn more about one another. Within Along, educators have instant access to practical tips and ready-to-use resources. Educators browse a library of research-informed questions designed to help students open up about their interests and goals, as well as what they need to be engaged and do their best learning. Once an educator selects a question from the Library, or writes their own, they can choose a time that works best for their schedule—even before or after class—to record and share their question with students.

Students are notified via email once they receive a question from their teacher. They then have the choice to respond on their own time and in their own way—over a quick video, audio, or text message, which goes only to their teacher. Educators can easily act on responses by using the insights page, where they are able to see aggregated responses, as well as individual answers. They can then close the loop by following up on the responses students share. Through regular interaction via Along, educators are able to show that they care, and over time, build trusted connections with their students and integrate student insights into their instruction.

Getting started on Along takes just a few quick steps. You can sign up by creating a free account here. Along is currently available on desktop and mobile web. For the best experience, we encourage educators to use the desktop version on Chrome. Students can access Along using desktop or mobile web.

Individuals wishing to explore Along may register with an individual G Suite or Office 365 account, but will need to switch to their school email before using the product with students.

In order to use Along with students, educators must use an email domain tied to a K-12 school in the United States, notify their school leader, and notify parents.

Individual educators from your school or district can create an account and get started immediately. If you’d like to bring Along to multiple educators in your school or district and plan a rollout, please visit our Schools page and provide your contact information. Our team will be in touch to help you plan your rollout.

While educators can share questions with individuals or groups of students, student responses go only to the educator.

Along maintains a record of educator and student communications, which cannot be modified or deleted until students or educators delete their accounts, or the accounts are otherwise deleted per Along’s retention policies. This ensures that everyone can connect to the tool safely and confidently.

Family members who are interested in their child’s experience in Along can either ask their children to show them their communication activity or reach out to educators or school leaders to request access to communication activity. Users and School leaders can contact our Support Team at support@along.org if they wish to delete their account. If a district leader needs access to this record, they can work with the school leader to request access.

To troubleshoot an issue you are having, answer your questions, or for investigation purposes, our team may access your videos and messages. Along promotes a culture of privacy. We restrict access to data on a need to know basis. Our team members who require access to data go through a background check and receive training on Along’s data access policies and best practices.

If users have any concerns with content they see in Along (for example, if certain messages violate our Code of Conduct or User Agreement or otherwise contain concerning content), educators or students can take the following actions:

• Access their communication activity on Along to share directly with their school leader.
• Flag the content directly within Along. A member of our Support Team will review the reported content and may take additional measures like warning or suspending the author if the content is in violation of our Code of Conduct.
• Email report@along.org.

We also believe that keeping the community safe in Along is a shared responsibility. Here are some of the ways we make this easier for educators, students, and guardians:

• Educators and students can easily report concerning content or interactions, or access their communication log so they can share it with a guardian or school leader.
• We work with verified school leaders—and, as appropriate and mandated by law, local authorities such as child protective services—to address any safety concerns.

We’re committed to making Along a safe and trusted environment for educators and students. As always, if you have questions, suggestions, or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our Support Team: support@along.org.

Your safety is important to us. We design our practices with privacy and security in mind, and take steps to safeguard student data, including:

We do not and will never advertise to students, sell student data, or share it with third-party marketers.
We also comply with FERPA and COPPA, as well as the Student Privacy Pledge, which commits us to use student personal information only for educational and school purposes.

Access to Along occurs via encrypted connections, which encrypt all data before it leaves Along’s servers and protects that data as it transits over the internet. We use HTTP Strict Transport Security to ensure that pages are loaded over HTTPS connections and our TLS configuration receives an A+ from Qualys SSL Labs. All personally identifiable information is encrypted at rest using modern encryption algorithms such as AES-256 or stronger. You can learn more about how Along keeps your information secure in our Security Whitepaper.

Educators and students can control their own data in Along.

If students want to delete their account, they can contact their teacher or reach us directly at support@along.org. We will notify the educator and school leader, and the account will be removed from Along upon verification of the student’s request.

If educators want to delete their account, all associated student content will also be deleted. Their school leader and students on Along will be notified.

Account deletion is permanent and cannot be undone. To help educators and schools manage educational records, we will retain student and educator data for up to 30 days after a deletion request has been verified. At the end of that time period, we will delete student and educator data within 30 days. Note that we may retain data beyond these windows and may pause content deletion if specific content has been reported for violating Along or school policies. For more information, please see our Data Privacy Addendum and Privacy Policy.

Along was designed to support educators in building strong relationships with each student and to amplify student voice. We know from decades of research that when students have positive relationships with their educators, they are more likely to feel more motivated and engaged in school, develop positive social and emotional competencies, and perform better academically (Cornelius-White, 2007; Gelbach et al., 2016; Osher et al., 2018; Wentzel, 2012).

Evidence also shows that when students have a say in their learning experiences, they are likely to develop stronger life skills and have an increased sense of autonomy, belonging, and competence (Mager and Nowak, 2012; Conner, Posner, and Nsowaa, 2022).

Along provides an efficient way for educators to hear from students—all while increasing trust and student ownership. Using our research-informed content which is co-created with partners, educators can effectively apply insights to improve instruction.

One of the challenges in education is making strong, research-based practices easier for teachers to access and implement. The partnership between Gradient Learning and CZI aims to help more educators have access to the tools and support they need to bring these practices to life for students.

Gradient Learning and CZI have a strong partnership that pairs the expertise of both organizations — including instructional design, engineering, learning science and student development — to help more teachers meet students’ individual needs and interests. For more information about our partnership, visit our Packages page.

If you have a question about anything that isn’t covered here, don’t hesitate to reach out to our Support Team: support@along.org.