Whether class is happening at school or online, iPad and Mac integrate seamlessly into every learning and teaching environment.
In this Apple Professional Learning Live session, we learned more about successfully deploying and managing Apple devices and how tools like Apple School Manager can help your IT team save time.
Here’s a recap of each of the experiences and some resources for you to take your learning further.
Apple School Manager
Signing up for Apple School Manager should be your institution's first step in preparing to deploy Apple devices.
Apple School Manager is a free web-based portal that allows IT administrators to deploy Apple devices. The devices you purchase from Apple or authorised resellers appear in your portal and can be automatically assigned to your MDM server. When your devices are unboxed and activated, this portal will instruct the users to enrol in your MDM using the enrolment settings you’ve defined.
Learn more here:
Sign up for Apple School Manager
Apple School Manager User Guide
Apps & Book Deployment
Within Apple School Manager, IT teams can also purchase apps and books in volume to distribute to their users and can create Managed Apple Accounts.
You can purchase licenses for Apple apps like Numbers and Final Cut, third-party App Store apps, books from Apple Books, and custom apps.
For institution-owned devices, you should use device-based app distribution. Once you acquire the licenses, you use MDM to assign and distribute apps directly to a device. This doesn’t require you to configure an Apple ID on each device or send an invitation to each user. You maintain full ownership of the app licenses and can revoke them from the device and reassign them to different devices.
Learn more here:
Buy apps and books in Apple School Manager
Learn about Custom Apps in Apple School Manager
Wi-Fi Network Design
One of the most important concepts to understand when planning your Wi-Fi network is the difference between designing a network for coverage and designing a network for capacity. While they’re both very important, they’re also very different.
The goal of designing a network based on coverage is to ensure that a good Wi-Fi signal reaches all areas where Wi-Fi will be used. The number of devices used in any given area is not a concern. This is how a Wi-Fi network for a typical school might be designed.
However, a design focused only on coverage would probably not work in a school with 30 wireless devices in each classroom. There simply wouldn’t be enough Wi-Fi network capacity for that density of users. A design model based on capacity might include one access point for each classroom. The power output of each access point would need to be reduced to prevent the Wi-Fi signal of one access point from crossing into multiple classrooms.
Learn more here:
Plan your network infrastructure
Use Apple products on enterprise networks
Automated Device Enrolment
Zero-touch deployment, or Automated Device Enrolment, is the best way for IT to deploy Apple devices directly to users. It automatically enrols institution-owned devices into your MDM solution, so you don’t have to physically provision them before handing them out to your users. This ultimately saves time getting users up and running, whether the class is happening at school or online.
If you need to manually add devices that are not in your Apple School Manager institution, you can use the Apple Configurator for iPhone app. Simply scan the device within Setup Assistant to add the missing devices.
IT teams can now require Mac and iPad to be on a specific OS version prior to enrollment. This ensures the latest software is running before the student or teacher starts using their device. And IT can enforce FileVault within the Setup Assistant on Mac.
Learn more here:
Installing and enforcing software updates for Apple devices
Add an iPhone or iPad using Apple Configurator for iPhone
Shared iPad
Shared iPad offers an elegant solution for sharing devices when one-to-one isn’t possible. Students can quickly log into any iPad with their Managed Apple Account and make it their own. This enables multiple users to use the same iPad while ensuring an individualised experience.
Students simply sign in with an institution-provided Managed Apple Account and password.
iPad then becomes the student's own while they use it. The students have their own photos, files, assignments, and apps.
Data for the user is stored in iCloud, so students can sign in to any Shared iPad belonging to the institution. The data is also cached on the device, so students can choose from a list of recent users to quickly access their homework, documents, and content exactly as they left them.
There is also a temporary session that allows users to sign in without an account. When they sign out, their data is erased.
Learn more here:
Managed Apple Accounts
Managed Apple Accounts (formerly Managed Apple IDs) are owned by an institution and provide access to various Apple services.
To keep school and personal passwords separate, Managed Apple Accounts provide users with 200GB of free iCloud storage and access to many Apple services, including iCloud, Apple Wallet, Continuity features, and iCloud Keychain.
One benefit of a separate iCloud Keychain is the ability to go passwordless with passkeys in institutional environments. Passkeys are stored in the iCloud Keychain of a Managed Apple Account and synced across all a user’s devices.
Access management controls in Apple School Manager allow an institution to define which devices users can log in to with their Managed Apple Account and which iCloud services are available to them.
Learn more here:
Use Managed Apple Accounts in Apple School Manager
Domain Management
Since Managed Apple Accounts are associated with an email address, creating them with the end-user’s institution email is best.
In order to do so, IT teams need to verify their institution’s domain. Domain verification can easily be done using Apple School Manager and ensures that your institution—and no one else—can use the domain you entered to create Managed Apple Accounts.
Once the domain is verified, institutions may also want to ensure that ALL accounts associated with it are managed. Using Apple School Manager, IT can block the creation of new personal accounts or initiate Domain Capture to capture any existing personal accounts using the school’s domain.
Learn more here:
Capture a domain in Apple School Manager
Apple Classroom
Classroom is an app that allows educators to hold classes with their students, whether at school, remotely, or through a combination of nearby and remote locations. The app allows educators to view student screens, quickly get resources out to everyone, and even lock students into a specific app.
When IT sets up classes in Apple School Manager, they’re available in Classroom as soon as teachers sign in with their Managed Apple Account. Teachers can also create their own classes right within the Classroom app. Class details can be shown on a large screen via AirPlay to a projector or with Apple TV to make it easy for students to join teacher-created classes.
In iPadOS 17.4 and macOS 14.4 or later, instructors with Managed Apple Accounts can create and use unmanaged nearby classes in Classroom with Nearby ad-hoc classes instead of Apple School Manager classes.
Classroom can manage iPad and Mac, and educators can use it on either device without losing valuable instructional time.
Learn more here:
Getting started with Apple Classroom
Assessment Mode
Assessment Mode allows developers to configure their apps to disable certain hardware and software features at launch to create a secure testing environment. As of iPadOS 17.6, we’re now excited to bring Multi-App Mode for iPad.
To make sure that the new Calculator app on iPad can be customised for classrooms and is test-ready for standardised and high-stakes exams, Assessment Mode and MDM can configure settings over the air, such as the ability to turn off Scientific mode or Math Notes.
Learn more here:
Set up iPad and Mac to give tests and assessments
Maths and Calculator app declarative configuration for Apple devices
Continue your Learning:
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