Embedded Files
There are lots of settings in this section, many of which aren't particularly relevant in an education environment and can be left as default. We've picked out the most important and given our recommendations below.
There are lots of settings in this section, many of which aren't particularly relevant in an education environment and can be left as default. We've picked out the most important and given our recommendations below.
Apps and Extensions
Apps and Extensions
Force-installed Apps and Extension
Force-installed Apps and Extension
Here you can push out extensions and Chrome apps to all user profiles. We recommend the following:
- Share to Classroom (staff and students)
- Cast for Education (staff)
- Screencastify (staff and students)
- Draftback (staff)
Allow or block extensions
Allow or block extensions
We recommend that you block apps and extensions except ones that you allow for your students. You may wish to allow staff to install their own apps or extensions.
Security
Security
Idle settings
Idle settings
We recommend that if you are using Chromebooks in a shared environment that you change the 'Action on lid close' to 'Logout' for students. This means that all a student has to do to logout is close the lid and return it to the cart.
Settings for students
Settings for students
We recommend the following settings for your student organisation unit:
- Incognito mode - disallow
- Browser history - always save
- Clear browser history - do not allow
- Safe browsing - always enable
- Malicious sites - prevent
Startup
Startup
Pages to load on startup
Pages to load on startup
You can enter as many web addresses as you want in here and these pages will load every time a user signs in. We would recommend pre-loading classroom.google.com for students.
Content
Content
Safe search and Restricted mode
Safe search and Restricted mode
We would recommend enforcing safe search for Google web searches, and enforcing strict restricted mode for YouTube.
URL blocking
URL blocking
It's likely that any malicious sites will be filtered by your school's web filtering. Any site that you blacklist here will be unavailable for staff or students regardless of their web connection whenever they are signed in to Chrome.
Google Drive syncing
Google Drive syncing
If you are using Chromebooks in a shared environment, we would recommend disabling this as it will take up memory space on the device.
Printing
Printing
We recommend keeping these settings as the default. This support article explains how to set up Google Cloud Print. If you want to share a printer with all users, we recommend creating a group called 'everyone@yourschool.com' with yourself as the owner and select the box to add all users in the domain. Then, when you share a printer with the group, you can accept the printer on behalf of the entire group.
User experience
User experience
Managed bookmarks
Managed bookmarks
You can configure different bookmarks folders for your different organisation units. For example, you may want to create a staff bookmark folder and a student bookmark folder. After you've configured these, make sure you enable the bookmark bar in the setting below to make sure that the bookmarks are visible for your users.
Download location
Download location
We recommend selecting 'Force Google Drive' as this means that any files students download from the web will automatically be saved to their Google Drive and not locally on the device, meaning they can access from anywhere.
Multiple sign-in access
Multiple sign-in access
We recommend blocking multiple sign in access for students, although you may want to enable this for staff as they will then be able to switch between personal and work accounts easily when using a Chromebook.
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