Step 4: Create user accounts

After cleaning up the contacts and creating user roles, create user accounts and passwords for families and students to allow them to log on to Aspen.

You can create user accounts in Aspen in two ways:

  • Create user accounts one at a time (which may be useful for a pilot project for the portals); or
  • To be more efficient when setting up the portals, you can mass create multiple user accounts that share similar attributes. The User Account wizard lets you mass create user accounts for all contacts. Or if you're doing a pilot project with the portal, you may want to first create user accounts for all parents of elementary students, or for parents of students in one school.

To mass create user accounts and assign roles to users:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • To mass-create user accounts for students (for the Student portal): Log on to the District or School view, and click the Student tab.
    • To mass-create user accounts for student contacts (for the Family view): Log on to the District view, and click the District tab. Then, click the Contacts side-tab.
  1. Select the people you want to create user accounts and passwords for. You can use a query, a snapshot, or a custom selection. To create custom expressions for the login ID, see Advanced Mass Update with an Expression.
  2. On the Options menu, click Create User Accounts. The Create User Accounts wizard appears.
  3. Select the records you want to include, and click Next. Step 2 of the Create User Accounts wizard appears.
  4. Use the table to determine the login and password information for these people:
  5. Field Description

    Login ID

    Select one of the following to determine how the system creates login IDs:

    • First initial/last name (jsmith)
    • Last name/first initial (smithj)
    • Custom expression (jon_smith)

    Note: If more than one user has the same first initial and last name, the system creates the second account first with the middle initial, if available, or with a sequential number. For example, if four J. Smiths exist and you select to create login IDs using First initial/last name, the system might create the following logins: jsmith, jmsmith, jsmith1, jsmith2.

    If you select Custom expression, the middle initial is not inserted. Therefore, the system would create the following logins: jon_smith, jon_smith2, jon_smith3.

    Password

    Select one of the following to determine how the system creates passwords:

    • Mnemonic (two four-letter words with a 3-digit number in the middle, such as 'gone987book')
    • Numeric (a random number containing the specified number of digits)
    • Constant (for example, 'password')
    Note: Follett does not recommend using constant passwords because it reduces the overall level of security in the system.

    Disabled

    Select this checkbox if you want the accounts you create to be disabled. For example, you might create user accounts in the summer and not want users to access the system until the start of school.

    Account expiration date

    Type a date, or click Select Date icon. to select the date you want these accounts to expire. For example, if you are creating student accounts for seniors, you might enter the date of graduation.

    Password expiration date

    Type a date, or click Select Date icon. to select the date you want the passwords the system generates to expire.

    Enter today's date here to have the password expire right after first login. The system will force the user to enter a new password after the first login. The system does not display this in a pop-up, so new users won't have a problem viewing this message, even if they have their browser set to block pop-ups.

    Allow access from

    If you want these users to access the system from specific places only, enter a comma-delimited list of locations here. Locations can be IP numbers or domain names and can contain wildcards. For example, you can limit teachers to only accessing the system from within the district’s local area network by entering 10.* or 192.*.

    Otherwise, leave this field blank.

    Idle time before timeout

    Type the number of minutes a user can be idle in the system before Aspen automatically logs him or her off. If you type 0, the system uses the value you define in the district preferences for these users.
  1. Click Next. Step 3 of the Create User Accounts wizard appears.
  2. Next to the Roles box, click Add and select one or more security roles you want to assign to these users.
    For a Family account, you would most likely have a Family role to assign to them.
    For a Student account, you would most likely have a Student role to assign to them.
  3. For the School field, leave blank for a family and student account. You do not need to specify schools for users that access the Student or Family views since they may change schools within your district over the years and you want their account to be able to access any school they are enrolled in. And a Family account can have access to their children who may be at different schools within the district.
  4. Click Next. Step 4 of the Create User Accounts wizard appears.
  5. Confirm all of the information is correct, and click Finish. The system displays a progress meter as it creates the accounts, and lists any errors in a text file.