Using School accounts and personal accounts on Chromebooks

[fiza]

We are about to introduce a 1:1 Chromebook scheme for Y7. Currently I have the Admin Console set up so that all chromebooks pick up the school WiFi network and auto-connect. We also restrict users to only being able to login with School Google accounts.

Going forward I want the students to be able to auto-connect to their own home WiFi and when in School Auto-connect to the School WiFi. I also want to utilise the "off-hours" setting in Admin Console to allow users to sign in with personal accounts when at home.

 

Has anyone done this? if so how is it working out for you? I take it that it is best to keep local data rather than erase so the Chromebook remembers the logins but how does that work out when the 32GB hard drive gets full?

[rogerdnixon]

We have used the off hours setting since it came our a few years ago. Its an opt in option for guardians who buy a device (we have loan options as well). So we send out a form on Parentmail and they opt in and then we bung the students Chromebook into the OU that allows off hours and then the whole family can use the device. Never had any issues with it

 

Network wise - make sure you don't have the option enabled to only connect to managed networks and the one to only allow managed network to auto connect and you should be good.

[TwistedHelixis]

The primary i look after all Y6, 5 & 4 are 1-2-1 and can take their Chromebooks home with them.

 

I have all the data auto saved to Google Drive and not the local Chromebook. There is a setting somewhere for this, I would higly recommend setting this up as it also helps with other issues.

 

We dont have any off hours setup but we do push out the schools WiFi / proxy and cert, but this doesn't stop the pupils from entering their own WiFi if they are at home.

 

EDIT - The Chromebooks were so much better to manage and for the pupils to use then the laptops we sent out.

Edited July 2, 2021 by TwistedHelixis

[fiza]

We have used the off hours setting since it came our a few years ago. Its an opt in option for guardians who buy a device (we have loan options as well). So we send out a form on Parentmail and they opt in and then we bung the students Chromebook into the OU that allows off hours and then the whole family can use the device. Never had any issues with it

 

Network wise - make sure you don't have the option enabled to only connect to managed networks and the one to only allow managed network to auto connect and you should be good.

@rogerdnixon - would the settings below work? In school we want it to auto-connect without interaction and at home once set up to auto-connect so they don't have to keep typing it in to connect?

 

[rogerdnixon]

Yep -that will do it.

[simpsonj]

The primary i look after all Y6, 5 & 4 are 1-2-1 and can take their Chromebooks home with them.

 

I have all the data auto saved to Google Drive and not the local Chromebook. There is a setting somewhere for this, I would higly recommend setting this up as it also helps with other issues.

 

We dont have any off hours setup but we do push out the schools WiFi / proxy and cert, but this doesn't stop the pupils from entering their own WiFi if they are at home.

 

EDIT - The Chromebooks were so much better to manage and for the pupils to use then the laptops we sent out.

 

Not seeing that setting, but have found an extension Save to Google Drive is that what you've used?

[fiza]

Not seeing that setting, but have found an extension Save to Google Drive is that what you've used?

 

Try under Devices>Chrome>User and Browser settings

I think that's the one.

 

[TwistedHelixis]

Yep think thats it - force google drive. Its a bit like having a home drive as anything the user downloads or saves will go directly into their own Google drive, not onto the Chromebook itself. It also makes switching to a new device much simpler as all their files are still available.

[fiza]

@rogerdnixon

At the moment we have "Restrict sign in to a list of users" where we user *@ourdomain to restrict users to only logging in with their schools accounts. If we want to use the off hours functionality do we need to remove this restrict option and change it to "Allow any user to sign in"?

Edited September 10, 2021 by fiza

[rogerdnixon]

No you don't. Leave as is.

[simpsonj]

Sorry to raise this thread from the grave, but how do you stop students from logging into their Chromebooks with their personal accounts Sunday evening, and just leaving it logged in all through the week? From my testing, the Chromebook doesn't automatically log the students out when the off hours time expires. I can't see anything on the Device side of things that would enforce a log out Monday morning.

[simpsonj]

Sorry to raise this thread from the grave, but how do you stop students from logging into their Chromebooks with their personal accounts Sunday evening, and just leaving it logged in all through the week? From my testing, the Chromebook doesn't automatically log the students out when the off hours time expires. I can't see anything on the Device side of things that would enforce a log out Monday morning.

 

Ignore me, I set the timers wrong and can see it will automatically sign you out at the end of the time allowed.

[simpsonj]

One question this does raise, how do you ensure web filtering for these devices? As far as I can see, Apps and Chrome extensions are installed on a per user basis, not on a device basis. Therefore if a student logs in with their personal account, no school apps are installed? Or do you put that responsibility onto the parent?

[rogerdnixon]

We have an opt in option for guardians which states that while they are signed in with a private account they take responsibility for all activities on the Chromebook. Only ever an option for ones they own as well.

[fiza]

We have an opt in option for guardians which states that while they are signed in with a private account they take responsibility for all activities on the Chromebook. Only ever an option for ones they own as well.

 

We also let the parents know that when using personal accounts the responsibility lies with them for activities done whilst logged in. We only monitor when student uses school account.

[fiza]

Sorry resurrectiing this one

 

Does anyone know if you set "off hours" to not have restrictions on Chromebooks after school whether Bluetooth can be enabled for home use and disabled during school time?

We tried to set it as disabled and hoped that the restriction would get lifted for the "off hours" but it stayed disabled.