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Spark Help Center

Supporting Your Students

Most of your time in Spark goes into teaching. The rest goes into the small set of things that keep students able to get in and work: how they sign in, what device they use, and what to do when one of them can’t. This page collects those in one place.

What Your Students Need

  • A device of their own for the session. Spark work is one student per device. Students don’t share a screen the way they might for a group activity.
  • A way to sign in. Most students sign in with a Spark access token you hand them. Schools that use Clever, ClassLink, or Google can sign in that way instead. See the next section.
  • You, signed in and on the session. Your Dashboard is where the session starts. See Step 4: Join the Session.

Choosing How Your Students Sign In

Students don’t get a Spark password of their own. Spark issues each student an access token, and that token is how most students sign in. Schools that already run a single sign-on provider can use that provider instead.

1. Student access tokens

This is the main sign-in method, and it needs no setup from you. Spark creates a token for each student as soon as the student is rostered, and the student signs in with it.

To get the tokens for a group:

  1. Open Groups and select the group.
  2. On the Students card, click Student Logins.
  3. Print or save the downloaded list, and hand each student their own token.

School and district staff can also read one student’s token from the Access Token column on the Students page. Tokens are masked there until you click the eye icon.

Treat a token the way you would treat a password. Give a student their own token and no one else’s, and don’t post the downloaded list where other classes can see it.

2. Sign in with Clever

Students sign in with their Clever account, the same way they get into other school apps. Rostering and sign-in both run through Clever.

3. Sign in with Google

Students sign in with their school Google account. A personal Gmail address won’t match the roster.

Students sign in from their ClassLink launchpad or with their ClassLink account. Schools that run ClassLink for the rest of their apps can run Spark the same way.

Your school administrator picks which of these your school uses, and that choice applies to everyone at the school. You don’t set it per student or per group, and you can’t switch a single student to another method. If you aren’t sure what your students should be using, ask your school administrator before class rather than guessing on the spot - a student trying the wrong provider looks identical to a student with a broken account.

You sign in through the same providers yourself, plus email and password. See Signing In for the First Time.

What Students See After They Sign In

Each student lands on their own student Dashboard. It shows their work, not yours - they don’t see your schedule, your other students, or your notes. What you can see about them is covered in What Student Data You Can See.

When a Student Can’t Sign In

Work through these in order before you escalate:

  1. Re-check the token. Tokens are easy to mistype and easy to swap between students. Download Student Logins again from the group and read the token back with the student.
  2. Confirm they’re using the right provider. Clever, ClassLink, and Google are different buttons. A student clicking the one your school doesn’t use will fail every time.
  3. Confirm they’re using their school account. A personal Gmail address won’t match the roster.
  4. Check whether it’s one student or the whole group. One student points at that student’s account or roster record. The whole group points at something school-wide, and it’s worth telling your administrator right away.
  5. Keep teaching. Pair the student with you or move them onto the non-device part of the lesson rather than spending the period on the login screen.
  6. Escalate. A roster or account problem is fixed by your school administrator, not by you. See Contacting Your Braintrust Team.

Before the First Session

Check the devices and the network before you need them to work under time pressure. Spark Technology Requirements lists what a device needs, and Check Your Technology tests it live from the device you are on.