StudyStrideCAPTURE CONTROLS
Capture a session
StudyStride records an authorized microphone and selected browser context during a session you explicitly start. These controls determine what is processed, what is retained, and what becomes available for review.
Understand the setup fields
| Control | What it does | Recommended choice |
|---|---|---|
| Session name | Labels the saved session and its artifacts. | Use a specific topic, assignment, class, meeting, or workflow name. |
| Google Doc | Sets the private destination used only if you later publish an approved optional summary. | Choose a document when you want control over the destination. Otherwise StudyStride creates a private session document automatically. |
| Browser source | Uses a presentation-aware capture path for Google Slides/Drive or a general path for ordinary pages. | Match the type of content you will keep active during capture. |
| Microphone | Uses the system default or locks capture to a named input device. | Choose a named device when switching hardware during the session would be disruptive. |
The selected or automatically created Google Doc stays attached to every segment in the continuous session. The screenshot-and-transcript capture report is a separate PDF and does not depend on generating a summary.
Choose capture and storage options
Keep audio
Keep audio is off by default. StudyStride always records temporary complete audio for transcription. When enabled, it preserves the direct microphone input and the processed 16 kHz transcription input for review and can prepare a Notebook-ready WAV. When disabled, temporary audio is deleted after transcription finishes.
Keep key screenshots
Keep key screenshots is on by default. Selected browser states are stored locally before any optional AI operation. You can later include, exclude, download, or delete each image and assemble selected states into a Capture Report PDF. StudyStride records selected states, not continuous browser video.
The storage estimate beneath these options checks whether Chrome has enough local capacity. If capacity is insufficient, delete older retained sessions or turn off the retention option you do not need.
Configure optional AI questions
- Generate questions after capture is the master switch. It is off by default and the remaining controls stay disabled until you select it.
- Context familiarity sets the assumed background: new to the topic, some familiarity, or confident.
- Question limit caps the review output at one to five candidate questions. It does not limit session length.
- Exploration level influences how strongly the AI looks for connections and follow-up ideas.
- Suggestion threshold controls how strong a candidate must be before it is surfaced for review.
Questions are grounded in captured evidence and remain private until you decide what to do with them. To capture without questions, leave the master switch off. Question settings cannot silently turn themselves on during capture.
Grant only the requested permissions
Read What is captured? before consenting. The disclosure distinguishes transcription and local visual-change detection from optional AI questions and summaries.
Select the consent checkbox only after you have any required notice or permission from other people whose voices or material may be captured.
Choose Start capture and respond to Chrome’s microphone and browser-source prompts.
Speak during Checking microphone — speak now…. StudyStride verifies real samples and displays the device Chrome actually opened.
StudyStride authorizes one active tab. It does not collect general browsing history, hidden page content, cookies, or form values. If navigation changes the site, Chrome may pause screenshots rather than silently broadening access. Make the new page active and select the StudyStride toolbar icon once; capture continues and the visual watcher resumes. Audio spoken during the authorization gap remains matched to the last authorized screenshot, so pause narration until the new screenshot count advances when exact pairing matters.
Use the live-session controls
| Control | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Capture visual changes automatically | You want StudyStride to select meaningful browser changes while you work. Pause briefly on important states. After navigating to another site, authorize that page from the toolbar and wait for the screenshot count before continuing narration. |
| Capture current view | The visible state is important but too similar to the previous state to trigger automatic selection. |
| Hide controls | You need more screen space. Capture continues; reopen the panel from the toolbar icon. |
| Stop & review | You reached a checkpoint and want StudyStride to finalize complete audio, transcription, evidence validation, and any explicitly selected questions. |
Watch the elapsed timer, Recording status, microphone source, and saved visual-capture count. Automatic capture checks the selected view roughly every three quarters of a second, waits briefly for the new view to settle, and saves it only when the pixel difference is meaningful. If the microphone track ends, samples stop arriving, or captured evidence does not match elapsed time, StudyStride marks the capture incomplete instead of pretending it succeeded.
Continue one session across multiple captures
After Stop & review, choose Continue capturing to begin another segment. This is useful for lessons, oral assignments with multiple tasks, long research sessions, or meetings with natural checkpoints.
- Every segment remains linked to the same session name and Google Doc.
- Each checkpoint freezes a bounded evidence set for recovery and processing.
- The capture report can use screenshots and timestamped transcript evidence across completed captures in the session.
- An optional final AI summary can use all completed captures only after you request it.
- The question limit applies to the checkpoint output; it is not a time limit.
Cancel, discard, or finish
- Cancel returns the active workflow to a fresh setup after confirmation.
- Discard this session removes the StudyStride session and its local retained evidence.
- Return to capture goes back to the same session after summary review.
- Finish session & choose a new document closes the continuous session and requires a destination choice for the next one.