FAQ: Diigo Education Domain (alpha)

Q:  What is Diigo Education Domain?

In a nutshell, Diigo Education Domain supports Google single sign-on but it also recognizes users based on approved school email domain.  So approval of your school domain will enable your school domain users to easily sign in / create special Diigo education accounts (with special edu features) instead of just regular Diigo account.  

If a school uses Google’s Chromebooks for Education,  you can find “Diigo Web” Chrome App as part of Google’s “Chrome Apps Packs for education”.  Through the Chromebook Administrator Management Console, “Diigo Web” can be easily deployed to all school Chromebooks.  

What if your school doesn’t Chromebooks?   That’s ok.  With Diigo Education Domain enabled, non-Chromebook school users can still take advantage of the easy education account creation features for your teachers and students once your school domain is approved.

So,  Diigo Education Domain:

• Makes it easy to sign up for education accounts for your school users
• Supports Google single sign-on but recognizes users based on approved school email domain
• Once approved, all new users with your school domain email who signed up at Diigo will be initially set as Diigo student account automatically
• Teachers / staff in your school can further upgrade their account to Diigo Educator account status with an unique school Master Code that adminstrator set during the application process
• If a teacher already has an existing Diigo educator account, their educator account status remains unaffected  

Q:   Is Diigo Education Domain a full school edition with user management console for the school adminstrator?

No. Once approved, it simply makes it easier to sign up for education accounts for your school users with your school email account.

A full-fledged premium school edition (fee-based) dedicated to each school will be introduced in the future.

Q:   Who can apply?

• Chromebooks for Education school administrator - (*priority approval)
• School or district administrator /IT specialist who has the authority over their school domain apps implementation (domain email and administrator status verification required) and plans to roll out Diigo to your school (district) for students’ and educators’ use only - (*required)
• All participating teachers / students in your school are already provided with your domain email (ie. user@your_domain - (*required)
• Currently Diigo Education Domain is intended for K-12 only
• Diigo Education Domain is free and will only be selectively granted based on suitability. Should there be any abuse, Diigo reserves the right to revoke the access privilege.

Q:  What’s the ideal pilot school qualification?  

• Schools adopting “Chromebooks for Education” - (*ideal, but not required )
• Staff/ students already provided with individual school email account (Google domain email app or regular school email) - (required)
• Staff / students interested in exploring new education technology to help improve their teaching and learning experiences
• Experienced with Google and/or Web Apps roll-out
• Administrator or some teacher in your school already somewhat familiar with Diigo (*ideal, but not required )

Q:  What is “Diigo Web” ~ Google Apps for Education?

“Diigo Web” is Diigo’s Chrome App in Chrome Web Store. Any Chrome browser user can install on their Chrome browser to gain quick access to the Diigo website. User should also install another Diigo’s Chrome extension:   “Diigo: Bookmark, Archive, Highlight and Sticky Note” to enable bookmarking, annotating, and sharing capabilities.

“Diigo Web” is also included among the Chrome Apps Packs for Education, High school Pack, a new Google’s Chromebooks for Education initiative. Each school’s Chromebooks for Education administrator can easily select “Diigo Web” Chrome App in the management console and deploy to its Chromebook users. With the basic version, all users will just be regular Diigo account.  To upgrade to an education edition,  school’s administrator should further submit a “Diigo Education Domain Application request.

Q:   What are Educator vs. Student Accounts? 

As a participating domain school, all your domain user’s account will first be set as a basic student account with more restricted features and user profile.  Teachers can further upgrade theirs with their school’s master code.  To learn more about Educator / Student Account features, please check out  here >> 

Q:  Sounds great.   How do I apply?

Login to your Diigo account.  Then go to www.diigo.com/education  (or click here: http://bit.ly/N2OEWV).    

Select  A) School / IT administrators: qualify your domain as Diigo Education domain here » and fill out the application form.  

Q:  How to get started?

Please check out a separate step-by-step tutorial covering:

• School using Google Chromebooks For Education
• School using Gmail (that have an active Google for Schools domain but not  Chromebooks)
• School using regular school email

Q:   Is there any difference between “Domain Teacher” vs. “Regular Teacher”?  

“Domain Teacher” refers to an educator account for a school that has been approved for Diigo Education Domain, whereas “Regular Teacher” refers to a teacher who is not a school administrator and had submitted his/her own application to have the account upgraded (and their school domain hasn’t been approved yet.)  

At this current release, they both have very similar features, such as access to some premium features for educators and teacher console.  However, domain teachers should be careful not to create duplicate student accounts, and use the recommended methods (see below) for inviting student members into their class group.

For future release(s), additional features may be available for domain teachers.

Q: How do domain teachers get their account upgraded to “Educator Acct”?

Each school administrator chose an unique Master Code for their school during their application process.  Once the domain application is approved, the school’s Diigo Education Domain Administrator should help to distribute the designated Master Code and how-to instruction to your participating teachers through a training workshop or your regular school communication channel.  Only your domain teachers/staff with that designated code will be able to upgrade further their account to “Educator Acct status”, so please handle / distribute the code with discretion.   Should you ever need to change to a different Master Code, please notify us for help.

Q: What if I don’t have the Master Code the first time I login?

If you’re a domain teacher, and you don’t have your school’s Master Code,  Please check with your school’s domain administrator first, or email education@diigo.com if necessary.

Once you have received the designated code for your school, and re-entered the site,  please click  “Resources for Educators” link the upper right hand corner to finish up your educator account upgrade.

Q:  What is Teacher Console?

Teacher Console is where you can create / manage class groups, and manage student accounts that you have created.  

Important reminder:   Although “Create Student Accounts” option is also available to domain teachers to accommodate some special situation, we highly recommend that before you proceed creating new student accounts, domain teachers should make sure that your students DON’T already have existing Diigo account to avoid account duplication. If your students have their own account, only give them the group name /URL or invite them to join your group (see more tips below.)

Q:  How to invite members to a class group (tips for domain teachers):

Because all of your domain users should have their own email / account already, in order to avoid account duplication through another “create new student accounts” process, we recommend that domain teachers should avoid “create new student accounts”, and instead, add members to your group by:

• Option 1(easiest!) : Simply share your class group name /link and ask your students to apply to join this group
• Option 2:  Invite your students and/or colleagues to this group by entering their school email (xxx@domain) 
  

Or , invite members by Search (not applicable to students)

1) Click Username  >>  Invite to a Group

Q:  What if I already have a regular Diigo Educator account and now my school’s domain is approved?

No problem. Your educator account status and all your account data and activities won’t be affected.  However, it’s recommended that your email associated with your account is set to your school email, so that your account will be recognized as a domain teacher (go to Profile >> Setting to change.)  Although it won’t make much of a difference at the current phase, the recognition of domain teacher status will enable you to access additional domain features when introduced later.

Q: What if my students have already registered for their own account and I want have their accounts converted to student accounts ?

No problem. Tell us their usernames, and we will be able to assist you in converting their status from a regular account to a student account.

Q: What if my students have graduated and want to convert to a regular account for their personal use?

No problem. Tell us their usernames / situation, and we will be able to assist you in converting their status from a student account to a regular account.

Q: My question wasn't answered here. Where can I get more help?

The Diigo Education resource center is still a work-in-progress (help welcome! see below.)  You can first check out the previous education help resources (although some require update to reflect new features.)  

You can also join other educators in this educator group user forum, or  send us an email to education [AT] diigo dot com.  We look forward to hearing from you.

With the release of first phase Diigo Education Domain (alpha), we look forward to exploring with leading educators the full potential of Diigo in education.  And as always, we will be working with our education community to define the next phase of Diigo for Education. If you’re an educator, give it a shot. And, as always, let us know what you think!

HELP ! Classroom Usecases / User Testimonials wanted!

We're in the process of organizing and building up classroom ideas and usecases.   If you have some interesting usecases / Diigo user experience,  please contact us!   We'd love to learn more, so that we can share these valuable resources with other educators.  Thanks!