Every person who accesses the Super Star Online service needs to be set up in the People list. Each person in the list has, at minimum, a First Name, a Last Name, a Login Name, a Password, and a Role. There are also some optional fields that can be filled in for your own tracking purposes, such as Middle Name and Student ID.
Every person at your site must have a unique login name, which they will enter whenever they access the site from school, home, or any other Internet access point. The login name should only contain lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, and dashes. Avoid characters that are difficult to type, such as letters with accent marks over them.
The format for the login names is up to you. Some sites use the Student ID for student login names, and have an alternate format for teachers and administrators. Some sites use the person's first initial and last name. You will want to choose something that is memorable for the students, but not too difficult to type each time they access the system.
Note: Because students can keep the same login name over multiple years and classes, do not base the login name on anything that changes. In particular, avoid using teacher names, grade levels, lab rooms, or anything else in the login name that will not be the same in the next school year. Stick to information that will stay with the person, such as name or student ID.
Passwords are also up to you. Unlike login names, passwords do not need to be unique. Some sites use the same password for all student logins to make it easier for students to log in. Be aware, however, that using a common password makes it easy for students to access each other's logins. You will need to choose passwords that provide an appropriate balance of security and ease of use for your site.
To keep your site passwords secure, we do not store passwords in a readable form in our database. If you forget a password, we are not able to tell you what it is. However, you do have the option of changing the password, either by using the site administration interface, or by asking us to change it for you.
In most cases, you will want to create a letter to send home with your students so that they can access Super Star Online at home. The letter will need to contain your Super Star Online web address, the student's user name, and the student's password. Since only the user names are printable from the site administration interface, if you want to print a list of passwords, you will need to write them down separately or, if you import the data from a file, keep the import file around for reference.
Each person at your site has a role: Student, Teacher, or Site Administrator:
Note that students and teachers must be assigned to classes in order for their logins to be useful. Site Administrators, on the other hand, are not assigned to classes, as they only see the administration interface.
If a teacher at your site is also acting as a site administrator, you will want to set up two logins for that teacher: one that will be used in the classroom (for demonstration and reporting) and one that will be used for the occasional administration. You may wish to use the same login name, but append "-admin" to the end of the administrative login. The teacher should be sure to log out of the administrative account when not using it, as the administrative account can be used to delete student data, and thus has the potential for misuse if left unattended.
Each person can be marked as Active or Inactive by checking or un-checking the "Active?" box. Only the active logins can access the service. Inactive logins do not count against the maximum in your subscription, so you can keep student data in the system without it preventing you from adding new active logins. This can be useful for reporting on students who are no longer at the school, or for maintaining progress and test data for students who are not currently at the school but may be returning in the future.