Invite Link for New Users

Administering Pressbooks Networks
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I have an idea for a feature that would make it easier for managing Pressbooks users for large classes. This feature may already exist, but if not…I think it would be helpful to have a standard URL link that could be sent out to invite users to join a book. So, from the Add Users interface, one could generate a stable URL that could be copied and sent out via email (or pasted into a zoom chat for instance when teaching a workshop). That URL would take individuals to a page where they could sign in to Pressbooks and immediately be in the book. Does this already exist? If not it would definitely help me in onboarding students in large classes into a book! Thanks,
Lauren

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Hey Lauren – definitely empathise with you – onboarding lots of students into an book used for open pedagogy projects can be tricky! I don’t think we’re likely to pursue the ‘provision access based on a link’ method because the potential risk of granting permissions to someone who gets access to a link but shouldn’t have it and then wrecks a project is too high. I think your options probably look like this:

  1. Set up SSO for your network using your campus identity system (probably SAML2 based) and Pressbooks’ SSO plugin: Configure SSO for a Single Institution – The Pressbooks Network Manager’s Guide. Set the If the user does not have a pressbooks account setting to Add New User. I think you’ve already done this.
  2. Invite all students in the class to login to your network at the standard URL (in your case it’s Log In ‹ University of Washington Libraries — Pressbooks) and tell them to click the Sign in with UW NetID button
  3. Download a class roster from the LMS or get it from the instructor and get the email addresses for all the students you want to add to the book.
  4. In the book you want to add students to, click the Bulk Add option from the book side nav and paste all the emails for students and pick the role you want them to have: Users – Pressbooks User Guide

If you want, you can do steps 3 and 4 BEFORE you do step 2, but students will receive emails asking them to set their passwords that might be confusing if you end up having them log in via SSO. You can also do the bulk add step without having them create accounts via SSO at all, but if you use this method, the students will have go to their email address and confirm account creation and set a password before they can access the book.

Hope that helps you do what you’re trying to do with less hassle?

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Thanks for this Steel,

Yes, what I have been doing when I work with classes is have the instructor provide a list of UW email addresses for all students in the class. Then after creating the book I bulk add all of the student email addresses. Some students immediately get in (I assume they are clicking a link in their invite email). However, as with the most recent class I worked with, some students log in and get an access denied message (I’m forgetting the error message but it involves something about an access key). I then add them again and they are immediately in the book. I’m understanding now that this may be that they never responded to their email invite and instead log in (via SSO) first and then for some reason get the error message.

In any case, my idea about offering a “provision access based on a link” was because I’m often being asked by multiple students on the spot to get into a book, such as in the middle of teaching a workshop. I understand not wanting to create that tool however, because of the risks you mentioned.

I’ll keep tweaking how I do these steps when working with classes and will follow-up if I have more questions. Thanks again!
Lauren

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