Apple Classroom remote devices

We have a custom MDM solution (we are registered as an MDM vendor) and provision the education payload. This is applied to student and teacher devices based on roster information synced from Apple School Manager.

Both student and teacher devices are signed in with their managed Apple ID's on device and the ID's are configured in the education payload as well for each user.

This is working perfectly for classes where teacher and device are in bluetooth range, but there is no option to send invites to remote students (they appear as offline in the class). What is required to allow teachers to run classes with remote devices?

Replies

You should review the different deployment models for Classroom in the Classroom User Guide.

There are three mutually exclusive options:

  • MDM-synced classes
  • Unmanaged nearby classes
  • Classes synced with Apple School Manager

The education payload only applies to "MDM-synced classes." Support for remote students is only supported for "classes synced with Apple School Manager." In addition, installing an education profile overrides "classes synced with Apple School Manager" and doesn't rely on Managed Apple IDs (the configuration is entirely managed by MDM).