wikispaces

Create Accounts for Your Students Yourself

December 15th, 2008 by Sarah

For the past 3 years, Wikispaces has offered a service to educators where we would create all the accounts for their students in bulk. We are excited to announce that we have made this process even easier.

Now, for any of our K-12 wikis, you can create accounts for your students without having to send us an e-mail. Simply go to “Manage Wiki,” and then “User Creator.” All you need to begin are the usernames and passwords you want for your students. With the new user creator, you can:

  • create accounts with or without e-mail addresses
  • have passwords generated for you
  • add a suffix or prefix to all the usernames to ease creation
  • and make them members of multiple wikis straight away

Once the accounts are created, you will receive an e-mail with all the usernames and passwords you’ve created for your records.

Enjoy both the ease of use of the new feature and the extra planning time you will have in the morning.

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50 Responses to “Create Accounts for Your Students Yourself”

  1. on 15 Dec 2008 at 3:34 pm1 Nancy Ann

    Thanks for this great update. This will make adding students so easy. Thanks again.

  2. on 16 Dec 2008 at 3:27 am2 Leire

    Thank you very much for this easy tool to create our students accounts. It’s a very important improvement for all the teachers that use Wikispaces with students.

  3. on 16 Dec 2008 at 7:03 am3 jsindorf

    This is exactly what I was looking for help to do- now I can do it myself! Thank you!

  4. on 16 Dec 2008 at 9:16 am4 Darnee

    I tried to do this, but I do not have the “User Creator” button in my Manage Wiki page. Does it matter what type of subscription you have to be able to create these student accounts?

  5. on 16 Dec 2008 at 4:01 pm5 justine

    I totally love Wikispaces

  6. on 17 Dec 2008 at 7:39 am6 Marla Pollack

    I don’t see User Creator

  7. on 17 Dec 2008 at 9:52 am7 Sarah

    Darnee and Maria,

    The User Creator is currently available for wikis on our K-12 plan. If your wiki is used exclusively for K-12 education, but isn’t yet on this plan, you can request an upgrade by going to “Manage Wiki” and “Subscription.” The link is at the bottom of that page.

    Best,
    Sarah

  8. on 18 Dec 2008 at 12:30 am8 Educational Technology and Life » Blog Archive » Links for 12/18/2008

    [...] Wikispaces Blog » Blog Archive » Create Accounts for Your Students Yourself [...]

  9. on 18 Dec 2008 at 6:44 am9 Melissa

    I have the same issue as Darnee and Maria. I did subscribe and request an upgrade. I was just wondering how long this process might take? Thank you!

  10. on 18 Dec 2008 at 9:31 am10 Sarah

    Melissa,

    It usually takes us a day to review upgrade requests. I have approved yours.

    Best,
    Sarah

  11. on 22 Dec 2008 at 10:51 am11 Peter Nelson

    The User Creator should be made available to everyone not just educational sites. This looks like the kind of tool the private wikispace managers could use and build on too.

  12. on 22 Dec 2008 at 3:03 pm12 Gwen Thompson

    Hi,

    Can you please make my account a K-12? I thought mine was, but I do not have the “Manage Wiki” link.

    Thanks,

    Gwen Thompson

  13. on 22 Dec 2008 at 5:51 pm13 Kelly

    I just added 75 students this way. Thanks for making my life easier and headache-free!

  14. on 27 Dec 2008 at 3:01 pm14 Sarah

    Gwen,

    Send us an e-mail to help@wikispaces.com and we’ll help you get your wiki set up on the K-12 plan.

    Best,
    Sarah

  15. on 27 Dec 2008 at 3:02 pm15 Sarah

    Peter,

    Thanks for your suggestion. We are looking into making that a possibility for the future.

    Sarah

  16. on 30 Dec 2008 at 4:58 am16 Charlene

    You guys rock! Thanks for this great feature!

  17. on 30 Dec 2008 at 10:35 am17 John Dickinson

    Sarah,

    I agree with Peter. This feature should be available for non-K-12 wikis, especially for paying customers like me!

    Thanks for the continual upgrades!
    John

  18. on 30 Dec 2008 at 10:48 am18 Traci

    Will this feature also be made available to the Super plan users? We have a constant influx of new staff every year that would be much easier for me to assign their username that it is to ask them to set it up themselves. I constantly have to delete and contact people who create usernames that are unidentifiable (we post senstive material that we only want our current staff to have access to).

  19. on 30 Dec 2008 at 2:16 pm19 Rita

    I have looked at the create accounts page and it tells me that there is a limit to 100 students.

    I teach technology to two schools of students and have 18 classes of 4th and 5th graders that I teach. That is about 450 children that I would like to use this with. Can this be done?

    I was wondering, can I submit them in sections that do not exceed 100?

  20. on 30 Dec 2008 at 9:06 pm20 Lana

    Hi, Sarah.

    When I first started using Wikispaces with my students, Wikispaces created IDs for me in Aug 2007 — a service that saved me a lot of time as I moved all my courses over to Wikispaces.

    Is it possible that these IDs be reused by my next batch of students? Or, should I assume that these become students’ personal accounts?

    Since, the passwords were changed by students that year, I no longer have access to those accounts. Do I, as the originator of the accounts, have permission to change those passwords? If so, how is that done?

    To avoid the above issue in Sep 2008, I decided to have students (high schoolers) create their own accounts.

    In the future, I’m not sure whether I should use this new service, or just have students create their own.

    Thanks for your advice.

  21. on 31 Dec 2008 at 8:40 am21 Jane

    I used the user creater to set up my student’s member accounts and it worked very well! First I created the list and passwords (I did not include emails and so just skipped that column) in word and copied and pasted them into the User Creator. I forgot to add one student and was able to easily go back in and create the additional account. The whole process took me about 5 minutes.

    Thank you so much for all your hard work to make the wiki user friendly and fun to create. My students are having a great time creating our first wiki!

  22. on 31 Dec 2008 at 10:43 pm22 Amy

    I am SOOOO thrilled about this! My students are going to be so excited that they don’t need to have an e-mail address to be a part of my wiki!
    THANK YOU!!!!
    Mrs J

  23. on 01 Jan 2009 at 1:57 am23 Florence

    I am using wikispaces since 2006 for each a my French courses at the University of Las Palmas. It’s the best tool I ever had for teaching. But I am in Spain….How can I have a wiki with all the possibilities of a K-12 account ?

  24. on 01 Jan 2009 at 7:02 am24 monte

    I have used Wikispaces in two graduate level psychology classes in the last year. They have been enthusiastically used by my students. There are appear to be several features available to K-12 educators that I am locked out of. Why can’t these features be made available to those of us in higher education as well?

    MB

  25. on 01 Jan 2009 at 3:05 pm25 Langwitches » links for 2009-01-01

    [...] Create Accounts for Your Students Yourself # create accounts with or without e-mail addresses # have passwords generated for you # add a suffix or prefix to all the usernames to ease creation # and make them members of multiple wikis straight away (tags: wikispaces) [...]

  26. on 02 Jan 2009 at 4:54 am26 Neil Winton

    Thanks for this truly useful feature. Wikispaces is by far the most education friendly of all the wikis out there.

    I’ll be highlighting this feature at the forthcoming National Literacy Conference in Scotland where I’m talking about how I use wiki(spaces) in schools.

    Thanks again!

  27. on 02 Jan 2009 at 4:20 pm27 Sarah

    Rita,

    You can only add up to 100 students at a time. However, as soon as you add one batch of 100 students, you can go run through the user creator again to create more. There is no limit on the total number of accounts you can create.

    Best,
    Sarah

  28. on 02 Jan 2009 at 4:42 pm28 Sarah

    John, Traci, and monte,

    We are looking to make the user creator tool available to other users as well. We wanted to first make sure that it was easy to use, people found it useful, and it wasn’t being abused by spammers. Keep an eye on our blog for information about its larger release.

    Best,
    Sarah

  29. on 02 Jan 2009 at 4:51 pm29 Sarah

    Hi Lana,

    If you want, you can use the accounts over again for the next group of students. Other educators often do this. If the students have changed the passwords for these accounts, however, it can be difficult to reset passwords for them.

    What I’d suggest for the next time around is to use the user creator to create the accounts. This probably would be faster and easier than giving your students instructions for setting up their own accounts. Also, it would be necessary if the students don’t have e-mail addresses. At the end of the process, we’d send you an e-mail to make it easier for you to keep track of the passwords you assign for each account.

    Hope this helps,
    Sarah

  30. on 02 Jan 2009 at 4:54 pm30 Updates to Wikispaces – pafa.net

    [...] Create user accounts on your own: If you have an educator account, you can now enter up to 100 usernames (with or without email addresses) and Wikispaces creates user accounts and passwords for you. Great option for getting your students connected to your wiki in a hurry. [...]

  31. on 02 Jan 2009 at 5:36 pm31 Sarah

    Florence,

    If your wiki is used for primary and secondary education, you can upgrade it by going to “Manage Wiki” and “Subscription.” If your wiki is used for higher education, we are looking to make the user creator available to all users in the near future. Keep an eye on our blog.

    Best,
    Sarah

  32. on 02 Jan 2009 at 6:38 pm32 Veronica

    I agree about access to the features noted for K-12!

  33. on 03 Jan 2009 at 3:32 pm33 Catherine

    I’m real new and want to add students my wiki. Couldn’t find the User Creator in Manage Wiki, so I requested a Complimentary Upgrade in my subscription.

    Will this get me the User Creator?

    Thanks

  34. on 03 Jan 2009 at 6:10 pm34 Catherine

    AAAH! Now I have Google adds! Whay is that?

  35. on 04 Jan 2009 at 10:56 am35 Create wikispaces accounts for your students » Blog Archive » Stuart Meldrum

    [...] with a K12 account can now very easily set up a username, email address, and password for each and every one of their students.Previously anybody who wanted to use the service had to [...]

  36. on 05 Jan 2009 at 1:05 pm36 Sarah

    Catherine,

    Send us an e-mail at help@wikispaces.com and we will help you get your wiki on to our K-12 plan. This will both get rid of ads and enable the User Creator.

    Best,
    Sarah

  37. on 06 Jan 2009 at 8:46 pm37 Dave Brauer

    Folks,

    I am also a private account manager with several spaces. I am planning to use my wiki to publish for my friends and relations. Psychological research shows that most people naturally chose the default option. If the default option is opt-in, and opting-out takes effort, most people will stay in. I want my readers in, so would like to create accounts and passwords for them, then give them a link directly to the pages I want them to start with.

    It sounds like User Creator is what I need, but I need it in the next week or two. Is my best current option to go to the new member registration page, and register each one singly, then send each an invitation?

    Thanks,

    Dave

  38. on 06 Jan 2009 at 8:53 pm38 Dave Brauer

    I see from the help screens on adding users, that you would be happy to create my bulk user names from a list, which I will be happy to send you.

    Many Thanks,

    Dave

  39. on 09 Jan 2009 at 12:40 pm39 Tonya

    I love being able to create my students’ accounts on my own. Is it also possible for us to delete these student accounts in bulk?

  40. on 11 Jan 2009 at 12:42 pm40 Laurie

    This was so much easier to use than the last time I added a class! I didn’t even have to ask for help. : ) I do appreciate all of your friendly assistance replies when I’ve previously asked questions. I now just need more time in the day to work (actually play) on my wiki to prepare for my student’s participation. Any suggestions? Thanks for making wikispaces so user friendly.

  41. on 14 Jan 2009 at 7:41 pm41 Joyce

    I joined Wikispaces today because I will be teaching a course in two weeks. Are there any good examples of successful wiki’s in higher education that I could view as a demo?

  42. on 26 Jan 2009 at 6:21 pm42 Sarah

    Joyce,

    A few wikis used in higher education are below:

    http://ccit205.wikispaces.com
    http://ccit300-f06.wikispaces.com
    http://usefulchem.wikispaces.com

    Best,
    Sarah

  43. on 02 Feb 2009 at 8:27 am43 Jennifer

    When I create user accounts for my students is it possible to limit their access to specific pages on my wiki? Specifically, I teach multiple grades and have a separate page for each grade. Can I limit my students access to only edit the page for their grade?

  44. on 02 Feb 2009 at 1:57 pm44 Jean-Claude Bradley

    Sarah – UsefulChem is a higher ed wiki but is not for a class. For organic chem class I use:
    http://chem241.wikispaces.com
    http://chem242.wikispaces.com
    http://chem243.wikispaces.com

  45. on 21 Feb 2009 at 9:43 pm45 Diana

    Can this feature also be opened up for non-profits (not just K-12)?

    It would be great to be able to set up accounts for colleagues as well — especially since we work from a number of wikis!

  46. on 03 Mar 2009 at 5:59 am46 Wikispaces-create accounts for students w/out emails « Become A Bionic Learner

    [...] March 3, 2009 · No Comments Wikispaces now offers educator accounts which allow you to create student accounts with emails. You can set up the student accounts and customize the privacy settings. This can allow you to create a wikispace site with allowing a student to each have their own “page” on the site. They can edit their own page, but not each others. Here are the instructions. [...]

  47. on 12 Mar 2009 at 12:19 pm47 gillespie7

    The screen for create users does not give me any options. I can’t add my students. The tabs are greyed out.

  48. on 12 Mar 2009 at 4:15 pm48 Sarah

    Hi gillespie7,

    Can you send us an e-mail to help@wikispaces.com with your wiki address and the Internet browser you are using? We will look into what is happening for you.

    Best,
    Sarah

  49. on 29 Aug 2009 at 6:36 pm49 Curry

    I see where I can upload a list of 100 users at one time. What is the maximum number of users I can have on the site?

  50. on 29 Aug 2009 at 6:55 pm50 James

    Hi Curry,

    There’s no limit, you can have as many members in a wiki as you like. We have wikis with thousands of members, and in some cases tens of thousands!

    Let us know if we can help get you started with creating accounts, drop us a note at help@wikispaces.com.

    Best,
    James