This article contains the following:
1. Overview
2. Google Setup
3. Optional Settings
Overview
Clever single sign-on (SSO) allows students and teachers to log in using their district email addresses provisioned by Google. This means users will need to use their district-assigned email and password to log in to Clever (not an @gmail.com email address).
Google Setup
Step 1: The first step is to ensure that all district users have a district-provided email address in Clever. To verify this:
- Navigate to the Data Browser to make sure the 'Email' field is populated for district students, teachers and staff.
- Please note: District-provided Google email addresses can be synced to Clever from your student information system (SIS), or side-loaded to Clever bypassing the sync. For more information on side-loading emails, read here.
Step 2: District admins can configure the single sign-on (SSO) settings from the Clever district dashboard > Portal > SSO Settings page:
- Select 'Add Login Method' to the far right.
- Select ‘Google Authentication’ as the Identity Provider.
- Confirm the Google email source.
- Select 'Save'.
Step 3: Testing various users to ensure their login credentials work. To do this:
- Ensure you have the credentials for a few students, teachers or staff.
- Navigate to your district’s Clever login page.
- Enter the credentials of the user you are testing.
- You should be successfully logged into Clever as the user!
Optional Settings
Forcing Google logout when users log out of Clever
If your district is using Google as your identity provider (IDP), you can apply a setting from your Clever SSO Settings page that will automatically log users out of Google when they log out of Clever. This is helpful in situations where multiple users are logging in to Clever on shared devices. When using a shared device, it is important to log the first user out of Google (in addition to Clever) before the next user logs in. Otherwise, some devices will not allow the second user to log in. Districts can help to eliminate this issue by forcing the user's Google logout when they log out of Clever.
To do this:
- Use the 'Edit settings' option for Google.
- Check the 'Force Google logout when users log out of Clever' box.
- Select 'Save'.
For more information about supporting users on shared devices: Troubleshooting: Issues with Shared Devices
Appending the Google domain:
Occasionally, there are situations where districts change their Google district domain, but do not want to update all user email addresses in their SIS to the new domain. In cases like this, district admins can provide Clever with the district's new Google domain, and Clever will update user emails behind the scenes!
- Please note: The email addresses will still show the older domain when viewing a user's profile page in Clever; however, the user will be able to log in using the email address with the new domain. This will only work if users have an email address in Clever, and the username remains the same. For example: JaneSmith@district.org could be appended to JaneSmith@schooldistrict.org by Clever as long as 'JaneSmith' remains the same.
To set this up:
- Navigate to the district dashboard > Portal > SSO Settings page.
- Select 'Edit settings' for Google.
- Select 'Google email addresses are NOT stored in my district's SIS'.
- Enter the additional Google domain.
- Once saved, users will use their email with the district domain you have set here to log in to Clever.
Side-loading emails:
Another option for districts is "side-loading" email addresses directly to Clever by selecting 'I'll manually upload emails'.
- Please note: In order to check this box, you cannot list an email domain in the box on the left.
To do this, please follow the instructions in this article: Manually Uploading (i.e. side-loading) User Emails to Clever.
Please note: Clever does not have access to any Google passwords for district users, so password-related issues will need to be resolved by the district. For troubleshooting tips, please visit: Troubleshooting: Google User Login Issues