Google SSO for School Login

This article reviews how to use Google SSO for school login.

Overview

School owners on the Basic plan and up can enable Google Single Sign-on (SSO) as a login option for users in their school. When Google SSO is enabled as a login option, students can link their school account to their Google Account—and use their Google Account credentials to log in via a “Log in with Google” button.

Enabling Google SSO can provide your students with a seamless and easy login experience—and can help reduce the risk of forgotten passwords and duplicate accounts, as students no longer need to remember a separate set of credentials just for your school.

In order to use this feature, Teachable serves as the requesting client to Google—this means that students will see mention of “Teachable” as the request organization when authorizing the initial connection to their Google Account. (Learn more about the login experience below).

Once you enable Google SSO for your school, it is up to the individual students in your school to link their Google Account to their school login in order to utilize the “Log in with Google” feature. As a school owner, you can see which of your students have linked their school account to their Google Account via the Information tab of their student profile.

Enable/disable Google SSO for your school

To enable/disable Google SSO for your school login:

1. Navigate to the Settings > General tab of your school.
2. Select the Website tab at the top of the page.
3. Scroll down to the Login & signup settings section.
4. Click Enable to enable Google Accounts, or Disable to disable Google Accounts.
5. Confirm the change in the popup window by clicking Enable or Disable.

Considerations when disabling

If you disable Google Accounts for your school, any student who has linked their school account to a Google Account receives an automated email. This email notifies the student(s) that they can no longer log in to your school with their Google Account. It also contains a link so that they can reset their school account password so they can log in directly to your school with their email and password.

To customize the text of this email, navigate to your Site > Custom Text menu.

The login experience

If a school has enabled Google Accounts in their school, all users will see a “Log in with Google” button on the school login pages. To log in with a Google Account:

1. Navigate to the school’s login page.
   1. Typically, there is a Login button in the top right corner of the school’s homepage, but this can vary based on the design and customization of the school.
   2. Alternatively, your school’s login URL includes the domain of the school (e.g., yourschool.teachable.com) with /sign_in appended to the end. For example, if the school’s domain is yourschool.teachable.com, the login URL would be yourschool.teachable.com/sign_in.
2. Click the Log in with Google button.
3. A popup window from Google will open. In the popup window, you’ll be prompted to select your Google Account. If you are not logged in, you will have to enter in the password for your Google Account. Depending on your Google Account settings, you might need to verify your login via 2-step verification.

Once complete, the user is logged in to the school.

Link your Google Account to your school account

If you have Google Accounts enabled in your school, individual users can connect their account in your school to their Google Account at any time.

If a user’s Google Account email matches the email address of their school account, they can link their Google Account by clicking the Log in with Google button on the school login page. Once they log in with their Google Account for the first time, their school account is linked to their Google Account—no further action is needed.

Alternatively, a user can link their school account to a Google Account at any time from their user profile. Users should first link their Google Account via their user profile if the email address of their Google Account differs from the email address of their school account.

To link to a Google Account from the user profile:

1. From a logged in school account, click the profile icon in the top right corner of the screen.
2. Click the Edit Profile tab from the profile dropdown menu.
3. Scroll to the Linked Accounts section, and click Link next to the Log in with Google option.
4. A popup window from Google will open. In the popup window, you’ll be prompted to select your Google Account. If you are not logged in, you will have to enter in the password for your Google Account.

Unlink your Google Account from your school account

If you have Google Accounts enabled in your school, individual users can disconnect their account in your school from their Google Account at any time.

To disconnect an individual school account from a Google Account:

1. From a logged in school account, click the profile icon in the top right corner of the screen.
2. Click the Edit Profile tab from the profile dropdown menu.
3. Scroll to the Linked Accounts section, and click Unlink next to the Google Account option.
4. In the popup window, set a new password for your school account then click Unlink. (You are required to set a password during this step because once disconnected, you cannot log in or access the school via the Google Account. You must now log in to the school directly with the password set during this step).

When a user unlinks their Google Account, they will receive an automated email notifying them of the change. School owners can customize the text of this email from their Site > Custom Text menu.