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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.deandesk.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

School-level feature — managed within your school portal at yourschool.deandesk.com. For managing institution-level staff, see Institutions & Schools.
All users — instructors, students, and admins — are created from the same place in the Admin Dashboard. The process is nearly identical for every role; what differs is which roles you assign and which courses you enroll users in at the time of creation. From the Admin Dashboard, click User Creation. You will see sections for creating instructors and students.

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Understanding roles

Every DeanDesk account has one or more roles that control what the user can see and do.
RoleWhat it means
MemberThe base role. Grants access to the platform and the member portal. Assign this to every user.
StudentExtends Member with access to enrolled courses, assignments, and billing history.
TeacherExtends Member with access to course management tools, gradebook, attendance, and the ability to post announcements.
AdminFull platform access, including the Admin Dashboard, user creation, billing configuration, and all settings.
Most users need two roles: Member plus one of Student, Teacher, or Admin. A user without the Member role cannot log in to the platform.

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Create instructor accounts

1

Go to the instructor section

In User Creation, locate the instructor creation form.
2

Enter instructor details

Fill in the instructor’s first name, last name, and email address.
3

Assign roles

Select Teacher and Member. If the instructor also manages the platform, add Admin as well.
4

Customize the welcome email (optional)

Edit the welcome email message. Use {{firstName}} anywhere in the body to automatically insert each recipient’s first name.
Hi {{firstName}}, welcome to the platform! Click below to activate your account.
5

Send

Click Send. Each instructor receives a welcome email with an activation link to set their password.
Consider creating a Teacher Onboarding course in your platform and enrolling new instructors in it on creation. This gives them a guided walkthrough of DeanDesk from the teacher’s perspective before they meet their students.

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Create student accounts

1

Go to the student section

In User Creation, locate the student creation form.
2

Enter student details

Fill in the student’s first name, last name, and email address.
3

Assign roles

Select Student and Member.
4

Assign courses (optional)

Enroll the student in one or more courses directly from this screen. Students will have immediate access to those courses after activating their account.
5

Customize the welcome email (optional)

Personalize the welcome message with {{firstName}} to make it feel less generic.
6

Send

Click Send. The student receives a welcome email with their activation link.

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Bulk creation via CSV upload

To create many users at once, use the CSV upload option available in User Creation.
1

Download the CSV template

Click Download Template to get a spreadsheet with the correct column headers.
2

Fill in the template

Add one row per user. Required columns include first name, last name, and email address.
3

Upload the file

Click Upload CSV, select your file, and confirm. DeanDesk will create all accounts and send welcome emails automatically.
Make sure every email address in your CSV is unique and valid. Duplicate or malformed addresses will cause those rows to be skipped. Review any errors DeanDesk flags before re-uploading.

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Separate child and parent welcome emails

When you bulk-create children alongside their parents, you can configure two distinct welcome email templates — one for the parent and one for the child. Each template supports its own subject and body, with placeholders like {{firstName}}, {{childNames}}, and {{resetUrl}}.

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Parent email status check

Before sending parent welcome emails, DeanDesk can check whether each parent already has an account. The bulk import flow surfaces this parent email status so you can avoid sending activation emails to parents who already have an account.

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Child-to-parent email redirection

Children often don’t have their own email address. When a child record has no email or a parent-only email, DeanDesk redirects the welcome email to the linked parent — with a [For ChildName] subject prefix so the parent knows it’s for their child.

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Admin User Spreadsheet

For high-volume edits, the Admin User Spreadsheet provides a familiar grid-style editor for users.
1

Open the spreadsheet

Go to Admin Dashboard → User Management → Spreadsheet (or the equivalent entry in your nav).
2

Edit cells inline

Edit profile fields, roles, and metadata directly in the grid. Changed cells are highlighted.
3

Save

Submit. Only changed rows are sent to the server.

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Course Distribution canvas

To enroll many students into many courses at once, use the Course Distribution canvas — a drag-and-drop workspace for bulk enrollments.
1

Open Course Distribution

Go to Admin Dashboard → User Management → Course Distribution.
2

Pick courses

Select the set of courses you want to distribute students into. Each course becomes a “bucket” on the canvas.
3

Pick students

Select the pool of students you want to assign. Students appear as draggable tiles.
4

Drag to enroll

Drag students into course buckets to enroll them, and drag them out to unenroll. Use zoom, fullscreen, and search to navigate large rosters.
5

Save

Apply your changes. DeanDesk processes the enrollment/unenrollment changes in bulk.
Course Distribution is much faster than opening each course or each student profile to manage enrollments individually — ideal for the start of a term.

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Resend activation emails

If a user did not receive their welcome email or the activation link expired, you can resend it.
1

Find the user

Go to Admin Dashboard → Role Management (or the user list) and search for the user by name or email.
2

Resend the activation email

Click the user’s name to open their profile, then click Resend Activation Email. DeanDesk sends a fresh email with a new activation link.
Activation links expire after a set period. If a new instructor or student says their link is not working, resending the activation email will resolve the issue.

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Manage and change roles

To check or update a user’s roles after their account is created, go to Admin Dashboard → Role Management. Search for the user, then add or remove roles as needed. Changes take effect immediately — the user does not need to log out and back in.

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Next steps

Create courses

Build courses and assign them to your instructors.

Configure payments

Set up Stripe and create billing plans for your students.