Getting Started with Easel Classroom for Teachers

Easel Classroom lets you set up classes, add students, and manage their accounts in one place. This article walks you through the full lifecycle of a class, from applying for your educator account to archiving the class at the end of term.

Important Note: 

Easel Classroom is only currently available to US Schools. We will be looking into extending its availability to other countries in the near future. 

In this article

• Apply for an educator account
• Subscribe to Easel Classroom
• Create a class
• Build your roster
• Share the class code
• When a student can't join
• Reset a student's password
• Archive a class at the end of term

Apply for an Educator Account

Easel Classroom is available to teachers at K-12 schools and districts who have an approved Educator Account. For general information about Educator Accounts, please review this article: Easel Pro Educator Account.

Schools and districts authorize Easel Classroom, not individual teachers, so your application requires your school/districst's sign-off, including specific agreements depending on your state (ex., Data Privacy Agreements).

1. Sign in to the Easel account you'll teach with. If you don't have one, create one first.
2. Go to easel.com/education/apply. 
3. Under Your organization, enter your school name and choose School or School district as the type of organization. Adding your school website is optional, but it's the quickest way for us to verify you.
4. Under School email domains, enter the part after the @ in your school's staff and student email addresses, for example, lincolnschools.org. Students can only join your classes with addresses at these domains.
5. Under You and your class, tell us your role, roughly how many students you'll work with, and what you'll teach with Easel.
6. Make sure to denote your tax-exempt status and include relevant certifications if applicable.
7. Under School sign-off, choose who will accept Easel's documents for your school. It can be you, or someone at your school who can accept legal documents. If you name someone else, we email them a link to accept. Their address must be at one of your school's domains.
8. Submit your application.

We review every application. We'll email you once your school has signed off and your application has been reviewed. To check its status at any time, go back to easel.com/education/apply.

Tip: If the person you named hasn't accepted yet, you can correct their address or send the link again from the same page.

Subscribe to Easel Classroom

Once your application is approved, subscribe from your Account tab. You pay per class, so choose how many classes you need.

1. In Easel, open the Account tab.
2. In the Easel Classroom panel, use the + and – buttons to choose how many classes you need. The panel shows the price per class per year and your total.
3. Select Start 7-day free trial.

The Easel Classroom panel is on the Account tab after subscribing.

Your plan is billed annually. Each class you pay for is a class slot. You can add classes to your plan later from the Account tab.

Create a class

1. Go to your Classes page. From the Account tab, select Manage Classes.
2. Under Create a class, enter a class name, for example, Design Lab – Period 2.
3. Select Create class.

The Classes page. The count on the right shows how many class slots you've used.

Each class uses one class slot. If you've used them all, archive a class you're done with or add a class to your plan.

Build your roster

Only students on your roster can join your class. Open the class and go to the Students tab, then add students in one of two ways.

Paste email addresses

1. Under Add students, paste your students' email addresses, separated by commas or one per line. Names are ignored, so Ada Lovelace <ada@school.org> works too.
2. Select Add students.

Import a CSV

1. Under Add students, select Import a CSV instead.
2. Choose a CSV file with one row per student and a column of email addresses. A header row and other columns, like names, are fine.
3. Select Review addresses.
4. Check the list. Every column holding email addresses is read, so make sure no parent or guardian addresses are included.
5. Confirm to add the students.

Important Subjects to Know:

• A class holds up to 35 students.
• Addresses must be at your school's email domains. To add another domain, email help@easel.com.
• To export from Excel or Google Sheets, choose Save as › CSV or Download › CSV.
• On the roster, each student shows as Joined or Not joined.

The Students tab. The roster shows who has joined and who hasn't. The class code is on the right.

Share the class code

Your class code is on the Students tab, under Class code, and at the top of every class page.

1. Give students the class code, for example by writing it on the board.
2. Ask them to go to easel.com/classroom, enter the code, and select Find my class.

The code identifies your class. It doesn't let anyone in by itself, because only addresses on your roster can join.

• New code: creates a new code. The old one stops working.
• Turn off joining: stops anyone new from joining until you select Turn on joining.

When a student can't join

Easel Classroom only admits students whose email address is on your roster. There's no request to approve. If a student sees "We couldn't add you to that class with this email address":

1. Check the address they're using against your roster. Look for typos and for a personal address instead of a school one.
2. Add the correct address on the Students tab.
3. Ask the student to try again.

Other messages a student might see:

• "There's already an Easel account with that email address": the student should sign in to that account first, then enter the class code.
• "That email address is already used by someone else in this class": another account has joined with that roster entry. Remove the entry and add the address again.
• "This class isn't taking new students right now": joining is turned off, or your school's sign-off needs attention. Check the Class code panel.

Reset a student's password

Many schools block email from outside senders, so Easel gives you the reset link to pass on.

1. Open the class and go to the Students tab.
2. Next to the student, select the ⋮ menu, then Reset password.
3. Select Copy and give the link to the student. It opens a page where they choose a new password.

Copy the link and give it to the student.

The link works once and expires after a while. You can only reset passwords for students who have joined.

Archive a class at the end of term

Archiving closes a class and frees its class slot for your next group.

1. On your Classes page, select Archive next to the class. You can also go to the class's Settings tab and select Archive class.
2. Confirm.

Easel asks you to confirm: "Archive class? Its slot opens for another class. Data of students who aren't in another active class will be automatically deleted within 60 days. They should download any projects they want to keep now. Restoring the class before their data is deleted keeps it."

When a class is archived:

• Students can no longer open the class, and its roster can't be changed.
• Students who aren't in another active class have their accounts and work deleted automatically within 60 days. Before you archive, remind students to download any projects they want to keep.
• The class moves to Archived classes on your Classes page.

To bring a class back, select Restore under Archived classes. This needs a free class slot. Restoring keeps any student work that hasn't been deleted yet, but it can't bring back work that already has been. To remove an archived class for good, select Delete. This can't be undone.

Archived classes appear at the bottom of the Classes page and don't use a class slot.

Need more help?

Share 'Easel Classroom for Students' with your students. For anything else, contact our support team by emailing help@easel.com.