Google User Creator

(Super Admins only)

Problem:

I have to create a Google user account whenever a new student starts at my school but it is a bit tedious doing it manually through the admin console and then emailing the new account details to the teacher every time and teachers email me about new students every week!

Solution:

Assuming your school doesn't have an automated user creator that syncs with your MIS, you probably have to create new accounts one by one. Now you can use a Google form that gets the information from the teacher with a new student, it puts the info into a spreadsheet and the spreadsheet creates the user and emails the information directly to the teacher that requested it.

Make a copy of the spreadsheet here

More detailed instructions below:


Instructions for Google User Creator

Video Demo:

Google User Creator demo.webm

FAQs:

How can staff access the form?

You can get the link to the form from the spreadsheet by going the 'Form' menu and clicking 'Go to live form'. Then if you take that URL, you could either email that to all staff or even better, create a Chrome bookmark for your staff OU so that any staff member can quickly find the link. You may also want to create a template reply if you use Gmail with the link as staff will probably still email you asking you to create them a new account and you can reply with the link.


Can I change/add questions/options to the form?

You can change individual questions EG reword the title, add / edit / remove multiple choice answers. BUT, if you add another question, this might break the rest of the code as it adds more columns to the spreadsheet and causes a lot of issues. So change existing questions but best not to add more questions. It is possible but get in touch if you want specific changes. (luke@eduscripts.uk)


How do I know if I am a superadmin?

Go to admin.google.com and try logging in with your school account. If it doesn't let you in then you do not have admin privileges and will need to ask one of your admins to give you the rights (or get them to do this?). Even if it does let you in, you might not be a superadmin - check your user account admin privileges to check.


What happens if there is already an account with the same name?

It should make an alert letting you know that the user already exists. You can then manually add a number or change the email address however you like to ensure it is unique and then run the 'Add users' code again and hopefully it will work.


How can I change the format from firstname.surname@domain?

There are many ways to do this. You could either edit the code in the script editor or create a formula in the sheet that creates the email address and replaces the original one. EG the formula to get the first letter of a name is =left("A1") then using the & you could build your own style of email address. Get in touch with us if you would like support setting this up and we might be able to help you. (luke@eduscripts.uk)


Can I get it to create the accounts and send the emails automatically?

Yes but it is usually a good idea to check the data that a teacher has sent before uploading it to the admin console. If you are sure you want this to happen automatically, you could add a trigger to run the functions and change the 'createDraft' function to 'sendEmail'. Get in touch if you would like more info (@eduscripts.uk)

Can I change the content of the email that is sent to the teacher?

Yes you can do this from the script editor (Tools). Go to the function called emailDetails() and edit the email body on line 105. You might need to play around with this but that is how you learn :D Make sure you keep any teat inside speech marks " "

Can I use this to add a whole new year group of users?

In theory yes, but for a large group of users you would probably be better using the bulk upload feature and use a CSV file. This is designed to be used for a few accounts at a time.