Overview

itopia CloudApps Classroom delivers high-performance Windows applications to students and instructors using a Chromium-based browser. Getting your CloudApps environment ready only takes a few minutes, and you can be up and running in no time at all.

📝 Note

Currently, other browsers—such as Firefox and Safari—are not compatible with CloudApps Classroom.

You’ll start from your District Dashboard. This Dashboard provides an overview of your environment and allows you to manage district-wide settings as well as individual schools.

In this article, we’ll review the steps to get started:

Step 1: Configure Roster Sync
Step 2: Create a School
Step 3: Create a Class
Step 4: Test Student Experience
Post-Setup Steps
Configure Google Workspace and single sign-on (optional)

Step 1: Configure Roster Sync

Access to a lab can be granted via Direct Assignment, but itopia also provides the ability to integrate with multiple third-party rostering solutions to make lab assignments a simple task.

📝 Note

Currently, CloudApps Classroom can sync with Google Workspace, Microsoft Azure, and ClassLink. The Canvas integration is coming soon!

From the District Dashboard, locate the Configuration card → click Set Up Now under the Roster Sync section.

Then, follow the prompts to log in to your rostering platform.

You can find more information about syncing with third-party platforms here: Rostering your Classes

Step 2: Create a School

Creating a School is simple. In the District Dashboard, locate the Schools tile → click +New.

Then, give the School a name and assign a primary administrator.

Step 3: Create a Class

Once a School has been created, you can create your first Class.

Classes are the published desktops that students can launch from the Student Portal (labs.itopia.com). Each class can be configured with the following settings:

The desktop image for the Class, which specifies the applications that students can access
Which students can access the Class, using either Google Workspace groups or Google Classroom classes, Office 365 Security Groups or ClassLink courses

Learn more about creating and managing classes here: Creating and managing Classes

Step 4: Test Student Experience

To test the student experience, log into the CloudApps User Portal (labs.itopia.com).

District Administrators and Instructors need to be assigned to a class in order to access the lab; Instructors can launch any classes to which they are assigned.

Post-Setup Steps

Once setup is complete, you will have access to the Admin Console. From here, you can create Schools and Classes as well as assigning access to students and instructors.

Now, students and instructors can access the CloudAps User Portal (labs.itopia.com) to launch Class sessions.

Configure Google Workspace and single sign-on

The Google Workspace single sign-on configuration allows students and instructors the ability to transfer their login session from the student portal (https://labs.itopia.com) to their lab once the session is initiated.

This provides a simpler experience for students and teachers, since they won’t need to authenticate again after their labs session has started. The District Administrator is responsible for configuring Google Workspace and single sign-on (SSO) for their district’s CloudApps environment.

Learn more about configuring SSO here: Single sign-on integration setup

❗️ Heads up

Google Workspace only supports configuring a single external identity provider (IdP) for their SSO integration. If you are already using another third-party IdP platform, you will be unable to add the CloudApps SSO provider and your students will have to authenticate their Google accounts when they access their remote desktops.