Picture Password or Secret Word Sections
If you are moving forward with Picture Password or Secret Word accounts for your classroom section, you will need to add students to your section manually. During this process, Code.org accounts and their corresponding user names and passwords will be generated for each of your students.
But which one is best for my class section? Picture Passwords are best for ages 4-8; Secret Words are best for ages 9-12
Step 1: Create your section
Find the banner with the text 'Add a new classroom section' in the middle of your homepage:
Click the purple 'Create a section' to pull up the following dialogue box:
Choose the section type you'd like to move forward with (in this case, Picture password or Secret words). This will bring you to the next screen where you will...
- Name your class section
- Choose the grade(s) within your section
- Assign the curriculum for your section
- Add co-teachers
- Turn on advanced settings such as pair programming and lesson extras
When finished, click the purple 'Finish creating sections' button in the bottom right corner:
Step 2: Add students to the section
From your teacher homepage, you will find your newly created section under the Classroom Sections header. Within the row, you will find: 1) The name of your section, 2) The grades selected for your section, 3) The curriculum assigned to the section, 4) Ability to add students, 5) The section-code for your section, and 6) A gear icon with additional section settings.
This step is best for students who don't already have an existing Code.org account. For students with existing Code.org accounts, please check out this article.
Click the 'Add students' button in the 'Students' column.
This will take you to the Manage Students tab of the Teacher Dashboard for your section. The Manage Students tab is the area where you can:
- See and edit the list of students in your classroom section
- Reset student passwords (learn more)
- Get a copy of Code.org's parent letter (learn more)
- Find instructions and supporting resources for getting students signed-in to your section (learn more)
Manage students tab of the Teacher Dashboard
You can add students to your section one-by-one by filling out the sample row at the top of the table and then clicking the 'Add' button on the right side of the row:
Or, you can add multiple students to your section at a time by clicking the 'Add multiple students' button at the top of the table:
To add multiple students...
Type or copy-and-paste student names in to the dialogue that appears, one per row, and hit the purple 'Done' button:
Fill in the age, gender, and sharing selections for all of your students in the table and then press 'Save all' to add all students to your section:
Note: The age you enter for your students will affect what resources they can access on Code.org, outside of the assigned curriculum. More on this here.
All entered students will now have an auto-generated password (either a pair of Secret Words or a Picture Password) and a username assigned to them.
You can tap 'Show picture' or 'Show words to see your student's password:
Tip: Made a typo? You can edit a student's entry in the table by clicking the down arrow in the 'Actions' column for that student:
Note: Display names (shown in purple above) are what are commonly used to identify students across the website and can be changed by both teachers (on the Manage Students tab) and students (on their Account Settings page).
Step 3: Getting students signed in
Each student name on the Manage Students tab now has a username, display name, and a password (either a pair of Secret Words or a Picture Password assigned by Code.org).
To sign in, students will need 3 things:
- Their display name
- Their password
- Their section code OR a direct link to your section's sign-in page
As an example, Hilary's information is as follows:
Hilary's display name is - Hilary
Hilary's username is - hilary7046
Hilary's password is - An image of a purple dragon
Where can I find student login instructions?
Under the 'Login Info' tab: On your homepage, in your 'Classroom Sections' area - click the six-character section-code for the section you'd like the login information for:
This will bring you to a screen that shows login instructions, instructions on resetting student passwords, and the ability to print student login cards. Learn more about login cards here -
How do students sign-in?
Have your students do the following each time they want to sign in to Code.org:
Step 1:Using the information on their printed login card, students will go to the sign-in page (https://studio.code.org/users/sign_in) OR they can go to www.code.org and click the 'Sign in' button in the upper right corner of the screen.
Step 2: Find the box above the 'Continue with Google' sign-in option that says 'Section code (ABCDEF):
Step 3: Either have students click into the box that says 'Section Code (ABCDEF)' and enter their six-character section-code), or have students navigate directly from your login link.
In the below example, we will be entering the section-code for our test section:
After entering the code, click the purple 'Go' button
Step 4: After clicking 'Go' students will see their display names listed on the page. Students will click their name from this list:
Step 5: Students will then either type in their secret words or click their picture password from the list of pictures and hit the orange 'Sign in'
Step 3: Get started!
Once your students have successfully signed in, they will be taken to one of two places:
- If you've assigned a course or unit to the section, students will be taken to that material once they join the section. Learn more about assigning work to your students.
- If you haven't assigned a course or unit to the section yet, students will be taken to their homepage once they join the section and they can pick an activity from there.