Create user accounts and passwords

In order for administrators, teachers, nurses, students and parents to use Aspen, you must create user accounts and passwords for them.

Create user accounts one at a time, or create multiple accounts that share similar attributes all at once. For example, you can create user accounts for all the teachers in your district at once.

Note: Administrators at an intermediate organization can create, modify, and delete accounts for users associated with their organization.

There are several ways to mass-create user accounts in Aspen:

  • To create user accounts for staff members (including administrators, teachers and nurses), log on to the District, Intermediate Organization or School view, and click the Staff tab.
  • To create user accounts for students (for the Student portalClosed a view in Aspen where authorized parents and students can access student data, including attendance, assignments, conduct incidents, and grades), log on to the District, Intermediate Organization or School view, and click the Student tab.
  • To create user accounts for student contacts (for the Family portal), log on to the District or Intermediate Organization view, and click the associated tab. Then, click the Contacts side-tab.
  • To create users accounts for any type of person, log on to the District or Intermediate Organization view, and click the associated tab. Then, click the People side-tab.

After you log on to the appropriate view and tab, do the following:

  1. Select the people you want to create user accounts and passwords for. You can use a queryClosed a request to find a group of records that match specific criteria at a particular time, a snapshotClosed a static picture of a particular group of records that you can file and easily retrieve or a custom selection. To create custom expressions for the login ID, see Advanced Mass Update with an Expression.
  2. Select Options > Create User Accounts. The Create User Accounts wizardClosed a sequence of dialog boxes which walk a user through a potentially complex task, such as the Build Study Locations wizard appears.
  3. Select the records you want to include, and click Next. Step 2 of the Create User Accounts wizard appears.
  4. Use this table to determine the logon 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.
    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 4-letter words with a 3-digit number in the middle, such as gone987book)
    • Alphanumeric (a random mix of lowercase and uppercase letters and numbers, no symbols)
    • 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.
    Login Status

    Use this drop-down to specify the status of a user's account (enabled or disabled). The drop-down also determines whether the user can re-enable their account using password recovery if they exceed the specified number of login attempts. The options are:

    • Enabled: Account is accessible with the correct Login ID and Password.
    • Disabled but allow re-enable from password recovery: Account was set to Enabled, but the user exceeded the specified number of login attempts. The user can re-enable their account using password recovery.
    • Disabled and locked: Account is disabled, and the user cannot log in unless it is set to Enabled again. For example, you might disable and lock the account of a user who leaves your district.

    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.

    Allow access from

    Type the IP addresses or domain names from which these users can log into Aspen. You can enter:

    Single address Allow Access From filed with single address
    Multiple addresses separated by a comma Allow Access From field with multiple addresses
    Partial IP addresses, and multiple partial IP addresses Allow Access From field with multiple partial addresses

    Users are able to access Aspen from these locations only. When the user logs in and the user's location does not match what is entered here, Aspen displays Invalid login. If you leave this field blank, Aspen uses the value defined in the District Security preferences.

    Note: This value overrides the value defined in the user's security role.

    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 field, click Add and select one or more security roles you want to assign to these users. For example, if you are creating accounts for teachers, you might select the Instructor role.
  3. Next to the School field, click Add to select the schools these users can access within the system.

    4. Note: You do not need to specify schools for users that access the Staff, Student or Family views.
  1. Click Next. Step 4 of the Create User Accounts wizard appears.
  2. 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.
    Note: In most cases, Aspen will display a warning message if your browser is blocking pop-ups. To complete the account creation process and view the number of accounts created (and any errors that occurred), you might need to enable pop-ups.

After you create user accounts, you can manage user accounts in the District or Intermediate Organization view. Select Admin> Users.

Note: You can also set up multi-factor authentication and re-set user passwords.