With powerful tools from Apple supporting each step of your deployment, you can quickly create accounts, wirelessly set up devices, distribute content, and enable teachers in the classroom.
Apple School Manager is a simple, web-based portal for IT administrators to manage people, devices, and content all from one place. We’ve recently made big improvements so that it’s ready to go for schools everywhere. There is a redesigned user interface, more powerful ways to manage bulk activities, and greater control over accounts and classes.
When you’re using the full range of Apple services, your students and staff will need Apple IDs. Using Apple School Manager, you can quickly create accounts to give students access to learning content, while meeting the privacy needs of schools and districts.
Managed Apple IDs are created automatically when you connect Apple School Manager to your school’s roster data, and they give students access to iCloud, iTunes U, and Shared iPad. If you’re not using these services you can even deploy iPad without an Apple ID. Students simply turn on the device and get to work, no sign-in is required. If your school’s needs change, you can create Managed Apple IDs and distribute them to students later.
The best way to get your school’s roster data into Apple School Manager is through a direct connection with your Student Information System (SIS). Apple School Manager integrates directly with popular SIS providers including SunGard, Infinite Campus, and PowerSchool. You can also import data from CSV files uploaded to Apple School Manager via SFTP.
Learn how to use SFTP to upload data to Apple School Manager
With a simple plug-in, Apple School Manager integrates directly with PowerSchool so you can automate the creation of accounts for your students, teachers, and staff. This new integration will import any roster data you have in PowerSchool so that classes are automatically setup.
Apple will never track, share, or sell student information for advertising or marketing purposes. We build powerful safeguards into all of our devices, operating systems, apps, and services — including Managed Apple IDs, which are kept under the administration of your district. So the security, privacy, confidentiality, and integrity of student information is always protected.
With Apple School Manager and your mobile device management (MDM) solution, you can automate device setup for both one-to-one and Shared iPad environments.* Wirelessly configure settings and restrictions according to your school’s requirements, then easily assign devices to students, teachers, or class groups.
From Apple School Manager you can assign school devices to your MDM server so they are enrolled and automatically configured during setup. MDM also makes it simple to manage your devices and settings throughout the year. You can wirelessly reconfigure Home screen layouts, show or hide certain apps, schedule overnight software updates, and use MDM Lost Mode to find misplaced devices.
MDM solutions are available from a wide range of vendors, whether your school is better suited for a cloud-hosted environment or an on-premise server. MDM solutions come with different features and pricing, so you have flexibility in deciding how to bring Apple devices into your school. These MDM solutions support education features in iOS 9.3 and beyond.
Shared iPad* enables schools to share devices between students, while still providing a personalized experience. Before class begins, teachers can assign any student any shared iPad. Students know which devices to use because their pictures are on the Lock screens and they can access their personal content using a password or easy-to-remember four-digit PIN. Because a local copy of their data is stored on this device, after students log in, their homework, apps, and assignments are exactly as they left them. So teachers and technology managers won’t lose time backing up or wiping data between classes.
Shared iPad will allow our district to transform a cart of shared devices into a personalized learning experience for each student.
The App Store and iBooks Store feature thousands of resources for education. And because all of your accounts, devices, and content are in sync, it’s easy to provide classrooms with the right learning materials in time for the first day of class.
When you purchase apps for iPad and Mac through Apple School Manager, your education volume discount is applied automatically. Schools can also buy Volume Purchase Program Credit (VPP Credit) with a purchase order for use by teachers or administrators.
As soon as you make a purchase, you can use MDM to push apps directly to specific devices. You can revoke and reassign apps to different devices and users so that your organization retains full ownership and control of purchases. You can also purchase books in volume and distribute to users with MDM.
Purchasing content is straightforward, and deploying it to the necessary groups is simple. Having one central place, instead of navigating across a multitude of logins and tabs, is a timesaver.
iPad is an approved device for securely administering summative exams, including state standardized tests from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), and ACT Aspire. With Automatic Assessment Configuration in iOS 9.3.2 and later, assessment apps can automatically lock and configure iPad for testing.
With devices in the hands of students, it’s important to set teachers up with the right tools to create great learning experiences. The new Classroom app and Apple TV help your teachers independently transform their classrooms into dynamic and interactive learning environments.
With the new Classroom app for iPad, you now have two simple ways to setup your teachers—you can use Apple School Manager and MDM to automatically configure classes, or teachers can setup classes on the fly with no MDM required. Classroom helps teachers launch a specific app, website, or textbook page on any iPad in the classroom. Teachers can even see which apps students are working in and view their screen. They can also send and receive documents with their class and share student work on a TV or monitor using Apple TV.
Teachers can create classes on the fly. To accommodate impromptu group projects and students who bring their own devices, teachers can create classes within Classroom and invite students to join.
Classes can share files easily. Using AirDrop with Classroom, teachers can send documents to the class in one tap and students can send documents back to the teacher just as easily.
We feel that IT should be as hands-off as possible. Teachers need control, and now with Classroom they have more power to manage their technology which reduces support from our IT staff.
New management features in tvOS make it simple to configure an Apple TV for education. Apple School Manager or Apple Configurator 2 can enroll Apple TV in MDM and fully configure it simply by plugging in power and Ethernet. There are additional management features including the ability to supervise Apple TV and set the name, network, and Conference Room Display Mode with a custom message.
iOS Deployment Reference
Apple School Manager Help
macOS Deployment Reference
Classroom Help
Profile Manager Help
Getting Started with Classroom 2.0
Apple Configurator 2 Help