In addition to building and creating, playing is a proven way to learn and improve social skills. Many experiences on Roblox offer private servers available for a small monthly fee that help to cover the price of the server or even for free.
Creating Private Servers
To see if an experience offers private servers, look for the Private Servers section beneath the game's description. If private servers are offered, there will be a button saying "Create Private Server"
A server's costs, and the number of players it can host is set by the developer of the experience. To learn, go to the Private Servers page on Roblox Support.
Inviting Students
Once you have your server set up, it can be found on the servers tab.
To invite students, click options button in the top right and select Configure. From there, you can either provide your class the link to the server. Alternatively, add their Roblox usernames to the server.
There, you can change the name of the server to help organize groups of students.
Example: JordanHS-Afternoon, HillsdaleMS-2pm
A link can be generated to make sharing with students on PC or Mac easier. Players on mobile devices must be invited directly to the server rather than using the sharing link provided.
For example, the below images shows what to expect on mobile devices.
Examples in the Classroom
Below are some ways our educators have used private servers in the classroom.
- Create a private server for students to explore a historical site.
- Allow students to connect virtually when they may not have the opportunity to do otherwise.
- Graduation and birthday parties.
- If students have created an experience, allow them to create a private server so only members of the class can play.
Tips from an Educator
Bianca Rivera, Librarian at Ruth C. Kinney Elementary in New York, attended the first Roblox webinar in early April and was inspired to organize a private play session for her students shortly afterwards. She wrote to us:
- "I was thrilled to see 50 students actually show up for our Adopt Me private play session! It was so much fun playing as a group with students socializing as they hopped on and off over a 3-hour span. I'm now exploring other games from Roblox's Play Together collection that offer VIP servers and can accommodate large groups at a time and look forward to hosting another gathering soon. We needed this and badly! So even after this crisis is gone, I want to arrange something like this over long school breaks."
- "What I'd recommend to teachers is to look for games that offer large VIP servers (enough for 20+ students). It's very easy to buy some "Robux" to "rent" a VIP server at really reasonable prices for a month and share regular sessions' dates/times with student and their parents to meetup and connect over the game. After the scheduled games are done, they can also let the students know they can go in to the private server any time for the next month to have private games with school friends."
Finding Experience
The Learn & Explore sort, features experience that offer exploration of new places and subjects like history, safety, physics, and natural sciences. Many were created by educators and students.
The Play Together sort is a curated list of experiences that are designed to be played with friends and are currently offering free private servers. This is a great place to start looking for experiences to bring your students together.
Popular Games Offering Servers
Here's just a few of the millions of experiences that can be found on Roblox.
Private Servers for Student Projects
If you or your students have created an experience, you can enable private servers to make it easier for yourself and other educators to use in class. To learn how to turn on private servers go to the Private Servers page on the Roblox Developer Hub.
If you do have students interact online, keep in mind that they will come across "imperfect" conduct online. Being proactive by teaching students how to react to bullies and angry words is a valuable skill. Before starting online play, teach students to use our reporting tools should they encounter inappropriate behavior.
At Roblox, safety is our number one priority. To learn more about how we strive to foster a positive community and use cutting edge moderation to detect inappropriate behaviors, please visit our Parents page.