Chrome Extension Development for school's student Monitoring

Student Web Monitoring MVP (Chrome Extension)

A lightweight Chrome extension MVP that helps teachers keep students focused during class on managed Chromebooks.

I worked with a school network to build a simple tool that helps teachers keep students on task during lessons. The goal was clear: create a lightweight Chrome extension that runs on managed Chromebooks and shows when a student drifts off-task while browsing. I built the full MVP, from the extension itself to the small backend that powers it.

Classroom Chromebooks give students the whole web, and that makes it easy to lose focus. The school needed something that:

Worked smoothly on managed Chromebooks without slowing them down

Spotted off-task browsing in real time

Nudged students back to work instead of just blocking everything

Was simple to deploy and test in real classrooms

Could grow later into a bigger system with more automation and reporting

I built the extension to run quietly in the background with a very small footprint. It follows the active tab only, so it stays fast and doesn't get in the way of normal schoolwork.

When a student opens a page, the extension checks its activity with a small backend service. A simple classification workflow decides whether the page is study-related or a distraction.

If a student opens a distracting site, a clean countdown popup appears to remind them to get back on track. As soon as they return to a study page, the popup disappears right away. This keeps the experience friendly while still keeping students focused.

The whole system runs on a small API setup, so the school could roll it out to a few classrooms quickly and test the idea without heavy infrastructure.

Active tab tracking – follows only the tab the student is using right now

Real-time page classification – quickly sorts pages into study or off-task

Countdown popup – a clean, non-intrusive reminder when a student goes off-task

Instant reset – the popup clears the moment the student is back on a study page

Background operation – runs quietly without slowing down Chromebooks

Managed device ready – built to work on school-managed Chromebooks

Simple backend – a small API service that's easy to host and maintain

JavaScript, Chrome Extension APIs (Manifest V3), Node.js backend API, simple page classification workflow.

A working MVP ready to test in real classrooms

Fast, quiet performance on managed Chromebooks

A friendly way to keep students focused without harsh blocking

A clean base to build the next phase with more automation and reporting

The school now has a practical tool to try in real classrooms and see how it helps students stay focused. The MVP proves the concept and sets the team up for the advanced phase, with more automation, teacher reporting and deeper insights.