The Workspace tab on the Bloom configuration page controls which side panes appear next to the chat when students open this Bloom. There are four panes available: Canvas, Documents, Quizzes, and the Desmos Calculator. Each one is a toggle, and your choices apply to every student in this Bloom.
Use this tab to keep the student view focused. A creative writing Bloom probably wants the canvas on and Desmos off. A senior maths Bloom probably wants Desmos on and the canvas off. The chat itself is always available, the Workspace tab only affects the panel beside it.
What the Workspace is
In the student view, the Workspace is the panel that opens next to a conversation. Students switch between panes using a row of tabs at the top of that panel. Hiding a pane removes its tab from the student view entirely, students cannot reach a hidden pane through any menu or keyboard shortcut.
A new Bloom starts with Canvas, Documents, and Quizzes turned on, and Desmos turned off. Most educators leave the defaults alone for the first week and adjust once they see how their students actually use the Bloom.
Step 1: Open the Workspace tab
From Manage Blooms, open the Bloom you want to edit. On the configuration page, click the Workspace tab in the top tab bar (it sits between Pedagogy and Sharing). You will see the help text:
Each pane has its own row with an icon, a label, a one-line description, and a switch on the right. Toggling a switch updates the form, and your changes are saved when you click Save at the bottom of the page.
Canvas
Description in the UI: “Rich text editor for writing essays, notes, and getting AI feedback.”
The canvas is a long-form writing space where students draft essays, lab reports, and structured notes directly inside the Bloom. They can highlight a paragraph and ask the AI for targeted feedback without leaving the page. Turn this on for any Bloom that involves writing, reflection, or structured note taking. Turn it off for Blooms that are purely conversational or revision focused.
For the full feature tour, see Canvas overview and getting feedback in the canvas.
Documents
Description in the UI: “Document viewer for PDFs and other uploaded materials.”
The Documents pane lets students open a PDF or slide deck side by side with the chat. When the AI cites a source from the Knowledge Base, the citation becomes a clickable link that jumps to the right page in this pane. Hide this tab if your Bloom has no shareable course materials, or if you want answers grounded in materials without exposing the source files directly.
For details, see Document viewer for students.
Quizzes
Description in the UI: “Student quiz interface for AI-powered formative assessments.”
The Quizzes pane is where students take quizzes you have built for this Bloom. Hiding this tab is useful for Blooms that are purely tutoring focused, or during a teaching period when no quizzes are live. Quizzes themselves still exist in the configuration, students simply cannot open the pane.
See creating quizzes for the educator side, and taking quizzes for what students see.
Desmos Calculator
Description in the UI: “Interactive graphing calculator powered by Desmos. Requires a Desmos API key to be configured in Teaching Space settings.”
Desmos is an interactive graphing calculator that students can use to plot expressions, build sliders, and explore tables of values. The AI can also draw a graph into Desmos as part of its answer, which is handy for trigonometry, calculus, statistics, and physics. This pane is off by default on a new Bloom.
Common issues
I turned a pane on but students still cannot see it
Click Save at the bottom of the configuration page. Workspace toggles do not apply until the form is saved, and students who already have the Bloom open will need to refresh.
The Desmos switch will not turn on
Your Teaching Space does not have a Desmos API key configured. Ask your Space Owner to add one in Teaching Space settings. The Bloom-level toggle will become editable as soon as the key is saved.
Students see a tab I hid
Hard refresh the student view. The list of available tabs is loaded with the Bloom configuration, so students who opened the Bloom before you saved still see the old set until they reload.
I want different panes for different students
Workspace toggles are Bloom-wide, they apply to every student in the Bloom. If you need a different set of panes for a different cohort, create a second Bloom with the same Knowledge Base and configure it independently.
What’s next
- See every configuration tab in one place → Configuration overview
- Tune how the AI behaves in chat → Teaching persona
- Open Bloom and configure a Workspace now → Manage Blooms