Monitoring and closing a lab

Follow the activity

Open Monitor from the instructor area while a lab is active. The monitor lets you review conversations as the activity unfolds.

Interpreting participation signals

Open Participation signals from the monitor or dashboard to observe interaction counts and recent activity across active conversations.

Signals for review, not grading inputs

Participation signals should not be used as a direct input for grading. Instead, they serve as an indicator of conversations or participants that instructors may want to review more closely. Participation indicators help instructors identify where attention may be useful; they do not determine effort, learning, leadership, or grades on their own:

• A low-activity signal could mean absence, disengagement, uncertainty, or exclusion—or it could mean careful listening, quiet synthesis, and fewer but higher-quality contributions.
• A high-activity signal could mean leadership and productive facilitation—or it could mean repetition, restlessness, or conversational domination.

The indicator tells the instructor where to look; the surrounding evidence (transcripts and instructor notes) helps explain what actually happened.

Workplace realities and career preparation

While Dialog Lab intentionally avoids using raw activity counts for assessment or ranking, these metrics reflect a reality participants will encounter in their careers: managers and collaborative platforms often judge employees unfairly based on crude activity signals or visible volume.

This gap provides a valuable teaching opportunity. Instructors can use participation dynamics to initiate open, constructive conversations with participants about how a manager's perception of an employee—even when flawed or superficial—can impact their career trajectory and professional opportunities. Coaching participants on both substantive contribution and healthy communication presence prepares them to navigate workplace dynamics intentionally.

Guide the lab

During the activity, you can:

• Post an instructor message or send a nudge to a conversation
• Pause or resume the lab across its conversations
• Pause messaging for an individual participant
• Adjust the maximum participants per conversation or add another conversation
• Rewind and branch a conversation from an earlier message when the conversation needs a fresh path

Content flags are cues for instructor review. They do not automatically determine intent or impose a consequence.

Complete and review

Complete the lab when participants should stop contributing. Completed conversations remain available for instructor review, and participants may be able to view them in read-only mode.

The lab export can include an HTML transcript, a participation-summary CSV, a message-level CSV, or a ZIP bundle. Review exports before sharing them because they contain participant contributions.

Lab and activity immutability lifecycle

Dialog Lab enforces immutability safeguards across active and completed labs to protect participant data integrity and ensure historical fidelity:

Published and active lab safeguards

After a lab is published: - Locked structure: The underlying activity's structural configuration—activity type, conversation visibility, and assigned personas—is locked to avoid desynchronizing running conversations. - Permitted live updates: Instructors can still clarify instructions, scenario briefing context, and role notes in real time if participants need immediate clarification during a lab.

Completed and archived lab freeze

Once a lab is transitioned to closed or archived: - Read-only conversations: New messages, AI responses, and help requests are blocked. - Activity historical lock: Direct edits or deletion of the linked activity and its personas are blocked to preserve the scenario used for past work. Make a copy to revise it for another run.

Adapting activities for future runs

When preparing for a future term or iterating on an activity used in a past lab: - Duplicate Activity: Use the Duplicate action to create an unlinked copy of the activity within your series, allowing you to freely adjust questions or personas for a new term. - Save as Template: Use Save as Template to create a reusable personal library copy of the activity and its personas.