How do I help my students login quickly?
You are wasting valuable class time waiting for students to login!
Getting students signed into their device can be one of the biggest barriers to using technology in the classroom. It can also waste a tremendous amount of class time. You need a simple way to get them logged in quickly.
It doesn’t matter if you teach kindergartners or high school students (or adults!). Remembering user names and passwords is no fun.
How do I help my students login quickly?
Remembering and entering users names and passwords is the 21st century of “bring a pencil to class.”
You just have to do it.
And practice it.
There are three different ways that students can sign in to their Chromebook:
- Guest Access – no login required.
- Generic class account – every student uses the same username / password
- Individual account – student enters a unique user name and password assigned to them
I do not recommend Guest or generic login. While convenient, these two login solutions eliminate the opportunity to individualize instruction in your classroom. These methods will also eliminate the opportunity to use Google Classroom, Drive, and man other wonderful classroom tools that require individual accounts.
Your students NEED to login using their own account.
Here are four tips and strategies to help you streamline the login process in your classroom.
1. Create Login Cards
You are probably already doing this!
Here are some suggestions for making this time-consuming task a little easier!
- Use this Google Slides template to design your login card
- Enter your student names, email addresses and passwords into this spreadsheet.
- Use AutoCrat (a free add-on for sheets) to merge the data from the spreadsheet into the Google Slide, creating unique cards for each student!
If you have never used AutoCrat before, watch this video.
2. Adopt the Class “Login Challenge”
This simple routine will help your students practice getting started.
- Time how long it takes all students to login.
- Write the time up on the board.
- Try to beat the time every day.
- Keep track of the class login time until you can get everyone signed in in less than 1 min.
Adopt the class “login challenge” to teach the basic skill of getting devices out and ready. Teach your expectations early in the school year to take full advantage of this time-saving habit for the entire school year!
Here’s a graphic you can save to remember the class login challenge! You can even download it as a PDF or a JPG.
ON THE PODCAST: Elementary teacher Jolanda Nederveld shares some AWESOME tips on how to help young students use technology! You can listen to my conversation with her here.
3. Optimize your Chromebooks
There are some simple things that your IT department can do to simplify the login experience on student Chromebooks:
Turn on domain autocomplete
Chromebooks can be configured to automatically include the @myschool.org part of your email address.
This is super helpful for schools with super LOOOOONG domains.
To turn on this feature someone with Google administrative access will need to visit
Device management > Chrome > Device Settings > Sign In Settings
Enable the multi user sign in screen
Chromebooks can save a list of past users. All that is required is a password
If you have a dedicate class-set of Chromebooks, this is a good feature to enable. Students should use the same device every day. Their login picture will be shown and all they need to do is enter their password to sign in.
This feature is NOT recommended if your Chromebooks are shared with the entire school. A Chromebook can only remember 8-10 previous users so this feature isn’t very helpful if dozens of different students use the same device.
To enable this setting
To turn on this feature someone with Google administrative access will need to visit
Device management > Chrome > Device Settings > Sign In Settings
This is what your students will see when they sign in to their Chromebook…
Chromebook login screen with multi users support turned on.
Enable PIN login
If your Chromebooks are assigned to a student, you can consider enabling PIN login to simplify the login process.
PIN login should only be used for assigned devices. If your Chromebooks are in carts, use the multi-user feature described above.
An IT admin must enable PIN login from the admin console.
Path: Devices > Chrome > Settings > User & Browser Settings > Security
Once enabled, students will be prompted to create a six-digit PIN code that they can use to unlock their Chromebook. This pin code can only be use to unlock a device that has been previously used. You will need to enter your password to sign in to a new device.
4. Sign up for Clever Badges
You aren’t the only teacher who is frustrated by the login process. Many teachers share your frustration.
A company called Clever has developed an elegant login solution that eliminates passwords and replaces them with unique QR codes assigned to each students.
The student scans the QR code to sign in.
It works like this
This service is free for schools, but will require that your school sign up for Clever and connect it to our G Suite domain.
To learn more about Clever badges or to sign up, click here.
How do I help my students login?
The sign in process is a necessary barrier to individualized learning.
Yes, it can be annoying.
My advice – adopt as many (all?) of these strategies in your classroom.
Focus on the login process on a daily basis for 1-2 weeks. After this, the majority of your students will be able to login on their own, fairly quickly.
Have students who have mastered the process assist students who continue to struggle.
Let the learning begin!
Which of these four strategies have you implemented in your classroom? How is it going?
Leave a comment with tips and advice for your fellow elementary teachers!
Margie Jo Broene says
John
Welcome to my world!
I’ll try to explain
I’m a part time computer teacher.
Combined classrooms of students
7 th and 8th and etc.
There once a week.
It is a nightmare! It’s a big barrier to my time on task with K 1st and 2 nd graders!
Besides I
get only a planning period and time before students.
Before it was easy to have older and younger
students sit next to each other to but with multiple users this makes seating a nightmare
for each class.
These changes for me have been very difficult!
The Clever scan looks somwhat hopefully for log in but doesn’t solve seating arrangement difficulty because I need the older students to help ! Trying to make transition!
nxtab.co.uk says
A well detailed and useful post. Thanks for sharing,
it’s definitely going to help lots of folks out there.
You always post handy information, some of which I share on Twitter.
John R. Sowash says
Thanks for the encouragement!
Jessica says
Is there a way to do this with a page of logins instead of one slide per student? Trying to save on paper. I can print 4 – 6 slides per page but trying to take it a step further.
John R. Sowash says
Not with my template, but you could use/print the spreadsheet and fit it all on one page.
TechNinja says
Hi John ~ 25 year IT Admin here, the last 12 have been at a large school district. For our K-3rd grade we do the QR cards to allow quick login. Starting in 4th grade we start teaching keyboarding and also memorized their logins. The first few weeks of school we allow them to have their “Daily Schedule” that includes their logins on them. Then once they get them memorized the schedules go away. From that point forward they are good to go for the most part. For some SPED students we continue doing the QR code logins as it’s a better option than the practice of taping the logins to their Chromebooks. I just came across a Middle School SPED teacher doing this very thing for all of her SPED students on her schedule, she’s on maternity leave too. So now when she gets back I get to have that Cybersecurity conversation and assign her to more Cybersecurity training. It’s a policy violation. We have better solutions and she ignored them because it’s just easier. A breach of your network is always the weakest link.