What is DoE Chromebook Enrolment?
It's an easy way of making your school's Chromebooks work effectively with the department's Wi-Fi infrastructure and with the DoE Google G Suite service. This is all without the need for local device management.
What DoE Chromebook Enrolment is NOT:
DoE Chromebook Enrolment is NOT a local management platform for Chromebooks. Schools will not have access to the Google Admin Console for their enrolled Chromebooks and will not be able to locally assign their own settings, apps or extensions.
Which Chromebooks can be enrolled in the department's Google domain?
All Chromebooks ordered as part of the annual T4L rollout since Chromebooks were made available include a management licence and are eligible for enrolment. All Chromebooks ordered as discretionary purchase through the department's procurement contracts also include this licence and are eligible. For schools that purchased other models of Chromebooks prior to their availability on DoE contract, we have arranged for additional management licences to be included in our domain to cover these and make them eligible. All future purchases of Chromebooks by schools should be made via the current contract to ensure the appropriate licence is included. Chromebooks that are personally-owned by students or staff must not be enrolled.
Our school recently bought Chromebooks not from the DoE contract because we wanted different specifications. Can we enrol these?
It is always preferable that schools purchase the preferred Chromebooks available through the DoE Online Catalogue. However, it is possible to enrol non-contract Chromebooks now owned by the school, providing the school also purchases a Google Chromebook Management Licence for each of these devices prior to enrolment. Further information on this is available here.
We have using used Neverware CloudReady to convert some of our older devices into "Chromebooks". Can we enrol these?
Yes. Please refer to the Neverware CloudReady QRG.
We didn't update ChromeOS before enrolling and now it won't auto-update. How can we update it manually?
1. Click your account photo. 2. Click Settings. 3. Click the bar menu icon and choose About Chrome OS. 4. Under "Google Chrome OS", click Check for Updates. 5. If there is an update, it will start to download and install it.
Once logged on, how do you logoff a Chromebook?
At the bottom-right, just click the red Sign out button. Alternatively, click your profile pic in the bottom-right corner then click Sign out at the top-right of the pop-up menu.
How does a different user login to a Chromebook?
Turn on the Chromebook (or have the current user sign out) and at the normal DoE portal sign-on screen, enter the new user's DoE account ID as first.last and enter the account password then click Log in. A Welcome screen will appear which can be closed and the Chromebook will be ready for use for that user.
How do you choose a photograph as a profile pic?
It's very handy having a photo of each user of the Chromebook appear after the user logs in. The best way to achieve this is to attach a photo to your Google profile. Logon to your department Google account on the Chromebook, click on your current pic in the bottom-right corner then click the Gear icon. Click on the pic next to your name and there'll be an option to change the picture. You'll be able to upload a JPG photo file or even capture a new photo using the webcam. Practise this process then show others how they can do it too. Then that photo will be used for all users after they sign on to the Chromebook.
How many separate profiles should be saved on a Chromebook?
It's always best to limit the number of different users that logon to a Chromebook to keep access and startup quick for all users. Ideally, you'll want to keep no more than around 30 profiles per Chromebook.
How can we clean up user profiles from Chromebooks?
There is really no need. Google have advised that once a device starts filling the local storage, it will automatically start deleting older unused profiles. If a refresh of the device is needed, just follow the wipe and re-enrol process.
What's a good way of managing shared Chromebooks?
If you have a set of Chromebooks in a trolley and they are shared between classes, it's best to prominently number each Chromebook and advise all students to always use the same numbered Chromebook. If you do this, it will limit the amount of storage used by local profiles and the settings saved by users will be automatically there when they regularly use the same Chromebook.
How can we see the Asset ID we set when enrolling the Chromebook on the device?
Turn on the Chromebook, click NEXT on the splash screen and while at the DoE portal sign on screen, press Alt-V on the keyboard. This will display the Asset ID in the top-right corner.
What's the Coda extension on my enrolled device?
The Google Admin Console used by the department contains many thousands of enrolled Chromebooks from many hundreds of schools. To assist schools with asset tracking for their fleet of Chromebook devices and easier centralised management, an in-house developed extension called Coda is automatically installed. This is a device agent for NSW Department of Education-enrolled Chromebooks which helps by providing information not available in the Google Admin Console. Items such as Device Name, Device Serial, IP address, Memory Info, CPU, Model info as well as Last login details will soon be made available for schools to be able to monitor their fleet of Chromebooks. More information will be provided about this service once launched.
How can we run the NAPLAN Locked-down browser on our DoE enrolled Chromebooks?
To support the NAPLAN Online schools readiness test, all DoE-enrolled Chromebooks have the NAPLAN Locked-down browser (LDB) deployed automatically. Users can choose whether to logon normally, or go into the LDB in kiosk mode when they start up the Chromebook. To go into the LDB, at the startup screen where you normally click NEXT to sign in, click the Apps menu at the bottom left and choose NAPLAN Locked-down browser. It will launch and be ready for use with the NAPLAN Online test. To quit the LDB, click the X in the bottom-right corner. You may need to use the scroll-bar to see it at the bottom. This will restart the Chromebook and re-display the startup screen.
How do you logon to an enrolled Chromebook at home?
From time to time, staff members may want to take their school-owned department-enrolled Chromebook home to work on it. To do that, the staff member will need to have WiFi internet access at home and will need to connect the Chromebook to it. After connecting to their home WiFi, they will also need to change the proxy setting for that WiFi to either Automatic or No proxy. When the Chromebook is brought back to school, they will connect to WiFi automatically and the proxy setting will be reset as needed.
How do you print from a Chromebook at school?
At present, printing from the Chromebook is not configured within NSW Public Schools. This is a function being centrally investigated and further advice will be provided as this progresses. As an alternative, students and staff can save their work in Google Drive (or MS OneDrive if they are using Office 365) and then logon to their account from a school Windows or Mac computer, open the file they were working with on the Chromebook and print it from the computer to the desired network printer.
How do you access files on the eT4L shares?
There are apps available from the Chrome web store such as Network File Share for accessing eT4L file shares using Chromebooks. Without such an add-on, if there is a need to work on a file that is located in an eT4L file share or home folder, it's best to save a copy of that file into the user's Google Drive or Office 365 OneDrive and then work on it using the appropriate cloud app on the Chromebook.
What happens with ChromeOS updates?
All DoE-enrolled Chromebooks have ChromeOS updates centrally managed. The do not get updated whenever Google releases new versions. The updates are first tested by ITD for compatibility. We plan to only deploy even-numbered updates. Once cleared, each update is announced then released as a streamlined distribution, to avoid bandwidth congestion. Each Chromebook will automatically download the update from Google and then install the update. This occurs in the background with no impact on the use of the Chromebook. Once fully updated, a small arrow icon will appear in the notification tray that will be a signal to restart the Chromebook to apply the update. Alternatively, the Chromebook will reboot automatically after the last user signs out and it has finished its background update. The reboot process takes less than a minute to complete and then the Chromebook should be updated and ready to use.
Is it possible to centrally deploy Chrome apps to all of our enrolled Chromebooks?
ITD are currently working with Google to provide access to a curated Chrome Store which only contains whitelisted apps. We will be working directly with schools to identify which apps should be in the department's Chrome Store and also determine if there are any apps that should be provided as default to all Chromebooks. Further advice will be provided as this progresses.
How do we un-enrol a Chromebook from the department's domain in the case of theft, replacement or disposal?
It is very important that Chromebooks that will no longer be used at school are un-enrolled from the department's Google domain. To do this, please log a service desk call with EDConnect on 1300 32 32 32 and quote your school code and the serial number of the Chromebook. This will allow the Chromebook to be reused as a personal device, or enrolled into a different Google domain.
If our school doesn't want to enrol our Chromebooks in the department's Google domain, can we use the Chromebook Management Licence for our own Google domain?
Since 2016, the Department’s procurement contract for Chromebooks includes a Chromebook Management licence for use with the department’s Google domain (education.nsw.gov.au). To consume these licences, the Chromebook must be enrolled in the department’s Google domain by following the instructions. This offers the benefit of streamlined logon to the department’s G Suite service for students and staff. Schools can decide against enrolling their Chromebooks in the department’s Google domain and leaving them unmanaged. Schools that currently have their own Google domain and fully manage their own fleet of Chromebooks, are responsible for taking on all associated support. In this instance, these schools will need to order a subsequent Chromebook Management licence for each Chromebook separately, that is tied to the school’s private Google domain.