parents logging into chromebooks

[mrstrong]

so just been told parents coming in tonight and will need to be

able to login to chromebooks to access some websites.

This will be after school and they are planning to just borrow

the pupil's chromebooks, maybe 30 to 60 ?!

 

I was thinking of just creating a generic account all parents can login with

eg student. Would that work e.g with 60 parents all logging in as "student@our-google-domain"

on individual chromebooks at the same time ?!

 

What would be the "proper" way to do this ?

[David44]

Are they managed Chromebooks? The quickest way would be to enable Guest sessions (perhaps in a different OU) and then disable guest sessions afterwards. Parents can then just be instructed to click om 'Sign in as a guest'. You can also set up managed Chromebooks to automatically sign in with a guest session.

[Brax]

so just been told parents coming in tonight and will need to be

able to login to chromebooks to access some websites.

This will be after school and they are planning to just borrow

the pupil's chromebooks, maybe 30 to 60 ?!

 

I was thinking of just creating a generic account all parents can login with

eg student. Would that work e.g with 60 parents all logging in as "student@our-google-domain"

on individual chromebooks at the same time ?!

 

What would be the "proper" way to do this ?

They gave you plenty of time then!!! Wish you good luck

[mrstrong]

They gave you plenty of time then!

yeah pretty typical round here

 

yes they are managed, is "enable Guest sessions" a user or device setting, think all chromebook devices are in their

own OU seperate from users OU.

Also these chromebooks will probably be in use tomorrow morning with the kids so don't want them to be logging in as guest!

Do these policies refresh/deploy pretty quick ?

[mrstrong]

looks like there are two places to set up guests under device settings:

 

1) "managed guest sessions"

https://admin.google.com/ac/chrome/settings/guest?hl=en

 

2) "allow guest mode" under "sign in settings" - "Guest Mode" here:

https://admin.google.com/ac/chrome/settings/device?hl=en

 

Option 2) looks easier, basically change that one setting for OU with chromebooks in ?

Do after school when kids left and put back to "disable guest mode" tomorrow morning ?

[DGardiner]

If you do any ssl inspection you will need to use managed guest sessions, SSL inspection certs wont deploy into regular guest sessions

[mrstrong]

yes chromebook default wifi network does https inspection via smoothwall

I've not been given enough time for this, think I'm just gonna say try everyone logging in as student

and maybe have to face the music tomorrow.

[DGardiner]

yes chromebook default wifi network does https inspection via smoothwall

I've not been given enough time for this, think I'm just gonna say try everyone logging in as student

and maybe have to face the music tomorrow.

 

Its not difficult to setup the managed guests to be fair, just a bit more than "enable guests"

[DGardiner]

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/3017014?hl=en#zippy=%2Cstep-configure-managed-guest-session-settings%2Cstep-configure-your-chromeos-devices

[mrstrong]

thanks, does look good but not confident I will have enough time to deploy it ready for tonight and then un-deploy it

tomorrow morning for students!

 

Going to go and find a hard hat ready for tomorrow

[jthompson]

Create a new OU called something like "Parents Event"

Devices > Chrome > Settings > Managed guest sessions > select your new "Parents Event" OU.

Select the "Managed guest session settings" tab. Give a descriptive name for the session (e.g. Parent Guest) and maybe some suitable pages to load on startup if that's helpful for people. You can have the session automatially start and also automatically sign out after a set period of time if that's suitable. Parents won't need any creds to sign into the devices.

 

With the MGS configured, move the relevent devices into that OU. They will pick up the new settings almost instantly and be available for your parent guests to use.

 

After the event, move the devices back to their original OU and they'll revert to their previous setup almost instantly, ready for regular use again.

 

You can then retain the MGS setup for use in the future: just move devices into the relevant OU to make use of it.

[Ditto]

Do you really need any logins? How about running the CB's in kiosk mode just with browser access to some shortcut links for the sites you need? https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/9273974?hl=en

 

*** Edit - as this is so late in the day, that's quite an ask if you're not familiar with kiosk mode, but maybe next time around! ***

Edited March 14, 2023 by Ditto

[mrstrong]

thanks for all the great advice, will be ready for next time

 

feedback from teacher this morning, event went ok, some parents attended with pupils

who knew their logins, others used the generic student login and that worked even with

several logging in at same time

[mrstrong]

just bit of feedback: had another parent event and set up as @jthompson suggested,

worked a treat

 

only slight issue was wifi as had the student wifi assigned to top level ou with automatically connect and

enabled on chromebooks by device

 

then in my new ou for guest chromebooks added the new staff access wifi also enabled on chromebooks

by device and automatically connect, but can't see how to force devices onto this one (ie in priority to students wifi)

 

Fixed by adding the student wifi network to their own chromebooks ou and then remove student wifi from top level