Many students, especially younger or in regions without universal email access, don't have a reliable email address to sign up with. ProfDesk solves this by having you create the account: pick a name and roll number, and ProfDesk generates a Student ID and password on the spot, no email required to get a student logging in and submitting work.
Adding students
Open Roster from the teacher navigation and choose Add students. The pop-up has two tabs: Paste a class list for a whole class at once, and One student for a latecomer.
Paste your class list. Copy it from a spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets), a document table or an email, one student per line, and paste it into the box. Each line needs a roll number and a name; an email address is optional.
Check the preview. Every line is marked as you paste:
Ready: it will be added.
Check: it will be added, but the name is already on your roster under another roll number, or appears twice in the list. Remove the line if it is the same person.
Needs fixing, with the reason: a missing roll number or name, a roll number already on your roster or used twice in the list, or an email address that is not valid.
Optionally choose a course under Enroll in a course. Everyone added is enrolled in it while the course has room (on the Free plan, 15 active students per course).
Choose Add. The lines that are ready are added. Lines that need fixing stay in the box, so you can correct them and add them with Add more.
Columns can be in any order when the first line is a header, such as Roll no, First name, Last name, Email. Without a header, ProfDesk reads the column with digits as the roll number, the column with an @ as the email address, and the rest as the name. Names written Last, First are turned round. Up to 100 students can be added at a time.
On the One student tab, type the roll number, first and last name and, if you have one, a recovery email, then press Enter. Add New Student on a course's Manage Enrollment page opens the same pop-up with that course already chosen.
Login details
After adding, the pop-up lists each new student's Student ID and password, with three ways to keep them:
Copy all copies the list so it pastes into a spreadsheet as columns.
Download saves it as a spreadsheet file (CSV).
Print login slips prints one cut-out slip per student with their name, Student ID, password and the address to sign in at.
Students with an email address are also emailed their login details, once the list is on your screen. The email explains how they can create a free ProfDesk account of their own, use the Student workspace and AI study tools, and connect this class account to it.
Passwords are shown only once, and closing the pop-up before you copy, download or print them asks first. These are accounts you manage, so you can give a student a new password anytime with Reset Password on their row. When a valid recovery email is on the account, ProfDesk sends the replacement credentials there before removing the recovery address and any connected-account link as part of the reset.
One account, every course
A student account you create isn't tied to a single course, the same Student ID and password work across every course you teach. Once created, enroll the student into individual courses from Manage Enrollment on each course's dashboard.
Roster: all teacher-managed students, search, and per-student edit, reset, lock and delete actions.
Federated Accounts, Google & Connecting Classes
Students often receive separate Student IDs from different instructors. A student can create one full federated ProfDesk account using form signup or Google, then connect those instructor-issued class records:
Connecting Google SSO: From their student dashboard or My Account, a student can click Connect Google. Once connected, they sign in with one click.
Connecting Multiple Classes: In My Account → Connected Class Accounts, students enter a Student ID and password issued by an instructor. Every connected course appears together in Student mode.
Unlinking / Disconnecting: The student or instructor can disconnect a class record. The teacher-managed account remains intact, live class access and storage billing return to the instructor, and the instructor can issue fresh credentials. The student's independent federated workspace is untouched.
What deletion does
Teacher deletes a connected roster entry, course, or account: the federated account keeps the student's submissions, grades, feedback, annotations, rubric snapshot, and assessment title in Academic Records. These records are read-only. Teacher assessments, questions, solutions, modules, and teaching files are deleted.
Teacher deletes an unconnected class record: its associated student work is deleted.
Student deletes the federated account: its personal workspace and read-only Academic Records are deleted; still-live connected class records return to the relevant instructors.
Managing the roster
The roster table lists every student you've created, with a live search box (filter by name, roll number, or Student ID) and, per student:
Edit, update name, roll number, or recovery email.
Reset password , issue a fresh password if the student forgot theirs. ProfDesk emails the replacement credentials when a valid recovery address exists, then returns the class account to direct Student ID/password access.
Lock / unlock , controls whether the student can edit their own profile details from their portal.
Delete, removes the roster account. If it is connected to a federated account, the student's own work becomes a detached read-only Academic Record; otherwise the associated records and files are deleted.
Enrolling students into a course
From a course dashboard, open Manage Enrollment and add students from your full roster into that specific course. A student can be enrolled in as many of your courses as needed with the single account you created for them.
Test student Pro
Each course can have a test student: a student account for trying the course yourself. Use it to upload work, take quizzes, complete learning modules, post in discussions, see released grades and feedback, and ask for a regrade, exactly as a student would.
Turn it on in Course Settings → Test student. ProfDesk creates the account and keeps its Student ID and password visible there while it is on. Turning it off hides the login details; turning it back on shows them again. You need the password only to sign in on another device, such as a phone. For an older test student, the password becomes visible after you next turn it on or choose New password.
Switch in with one click, no signing out: Enter as test student on the View as Student bar, on the Test student card in Manage Enrollment, or Open as test student in your Student workspace. An amber bar shows while you are the test student; Back to teacher view returns you to the page you came from.
Grade its work like any other. The test student appears last, labelled, in ZenGrader, quiz results and Regrade Requests. Grade it, release, then switch back in to see what a student sees.
Its marks are never counted. It is left out of class averages and statistics, CLO and PLO attainment, the gradebooks and every export, similarity checks, attendance, Course Health and the student limit on your plan.
Students never see it. Its discussion posts and poll votes are visible only to you, your co-instructors and the test student itself. Nothing it does sends an email.
Reset test student deletes everything it did in the course, files included. The account stays, with the same Student ID and password.
Turning it off stops it signing in. You can keep its work for next time or delete it. If the course owner leaves Pro, it pauses and nothing is deleted.
You and your co-instructors share one test student per course. Its work counts toward the course owner's storage until you reset it, and while it has marks, the same protections apply as for a real student's work (for example, a grading type locks once something is marked). Reset lifts them.
