Welcome to Classroom Mode for Minecraft Education. With Classroom Mode, you can access a range of features especially designed to interact with students while hosting a multiplayer game by managing settings from a central user interface.
Classroom Mode is only available to users running the Minecraft Education general availability client. Students do not need to run Classroom Mode. For options on adding additional classroom assistance to teacher’s aides or volunteers during a lesson session in Minecraft, consider granting operator status if appropriate. Classroom Mode is not compatible with Windows 7.
Educators can use Minecraft Education and Classroom at the same time, and students can use their copies of Minecraft Education to connect to a multiplayer game and use Code Builder within it, but educators cannot use all three at the same time.
In the situation that a teacher has several multiplayer worlds in the classroom, he or she can open multiple instances of classroom mode, applying each instance to one of the multiplayer worlds.
This article will cover:
- Installing Classroom Mode
- How to Connect
- Using multiple instances of Classroom Mode
- Things to try with Classroom Mode
- Additional Resources
Install Classroom Mode
Get Classroom Mode for Windows
Get Classroom Mode in the Windows Store
How to Connect
Please note that as of our 1.81 release of Classroom Mode all users will need to use the /connect option to connect Classroom Mode to a game
Using multiple instances Classroom Mode
When using Minecraft in the classroom there are times when students will be in smaller groups. A teacher can use an instance of Classroom Mode for each world his or her students are in and connect each one as outlined in the above video.
- Head to the Start Menu and open an instance of Classroom Mode
- Log in to Classroom Mode
- Ask the host of the world you want to join to enter the given `/connect` command in the slash command bar at the bottom of the screen
- Repeat these steps for each world or student group you would like to use Classroom Mode with
Things to try with Classroom Mode
(Note: The servers tab shown in the above video does not exist in the current version of Classroom Mode)
Manage game options
Classroom Mode for Minecraft supports toggles for various game options that affect the world.
- Pauses game for all players: This allows an educator to pause a game completely for all users. Pausing not only prevents players from interacting but also time does not progress. This means fire will not spread, weather will not change, mobs will not move, and so on. This is off by default.
- Disables chat for all players: When enabled, this allows players in your world to communicate with each other within the world they are in via the client. This is off by default.
- Perfect weather: Need a day with always sunny skies and no rain? Use this switch to turn it on, otherwise your players will experience a usual amount of weather with occasional rain (and other weather effects). This is off by default.
- Allow mobs: This is on by default. Mobs are living, moving creatures found within the Minecraft world. Friendly (creatures like chickens and ocelots) and not so friendly mobs (creatures like creepers) are allowed to appear in the world when this is turned on.
- Allow destructive items: This is on by default. As an example, when enabled, players may use TNT near others. You may also use specialty blocks (allow, deny, border) to help limit potential damage.
- Players can take damage: This is on by default. This means players can take damage from the environment and mobs.
Prohibits world modification: This is off by default. You can also use the “worldbuilder” permission to control individual building permissions within a world. - Allow players to damage each other: This is on by default. When on, players will be able to cause damage to each other, including “friendly fire” and intentional behavior.
Map view and class roster
On the right-hand panel, there are two areas of information. The Player Roster has a color-coded list of players in that particular world. Note that each player will have a unique color given to them. This color is shared on the map, as both their player name and their player icon have the same color.
Below the Player Roster, the Chat window also has these colors applied.
A game world map is available on the left. To navigate the map, you can scroll up and down to zoom the map in and out to gain the right view. Above the map, you will see the X Y Z coordinates where your cursor is on screen. You can also pan the map as needed. Note that large black areas of the map are parts of the world that have not been loaded or discovered yet by players. They will appear once players travel to these locations.
Communicate with students
A teacher can type in both chat and slash commands into the Chat Bar at the bottom of the window to communicate and affect the world. Chat logs can be found locally on your computer here:Documents\Minecraft Education Edition\ChatLogs
Teleport students
Educators can teleport players around a world. You can use the map with right-click (“teleport all here”), drag and drop players, or the teleport command. What you use will depend on what you need to do.
Map with right-click. This option will teleport all players to a specific location on the map. Simply right-click anywhere on the map to get started. You will see a pop-up “Teleport All Here”. Select this item and all players will teleport to those coordinates.
Drag and drop players. Use your mouse to drag and drop a player to a point on the map.
Use the teleport command. Type in the teleport command (/tp) where it says “Type Your Message Here” followed by a destination player name or a destination set of X Y Z coordinates.
Time of Day Indicator
Classroom Mode provides time of day indicator to help educators know whether it is daytime or nighttime in the Minecraft world. When it is night time, the clock will show as black with a moon moving across, and during daytime, the clock will show as light blue with a yellow sun moving across. Please note that Minecraft time does not correspond to real time.
Additional Resources
The following video and corresponding blog post created by Minecraft Global Mentor Katja Borregaard provides an excellent run through the different features of the Classroom Mode application.
Please check out our other existing training materials on this topic for even more information.
If you have any suggestions on Classroom mode and how it can be improved post a thread in the “Feature Request” area of the forums with the title “Classroom Mode Suggestion” (or similar) so we see it right away for consideration.
Need to troubleshoot? You may always contact support if you run into any technical issues, or the issue you are seeing is not covered in our Basic Troubleshooting Knowledge Base article.
