In order for students to utilize the social networking features of BuddyPress, they will need registered user accounts. If using a multisite network to create a network of student sites, our students will already have accounts and we may proceed past this step.
In the event that students need to be registered as new users, we may either individually add students ourselves or enable student self-registration.
As the site administrator, we can add new student user accounts individually. While time consuming, this provides us with the greatest amount of control over the registration process.
- Within WordPress, hover over Users, choose Add New.
- In the Add New User portion of the screen, enter a username and an e-mail address.
- Leave the user role as Subscriber. This will allow the student to interact with our site, but not make changes and edits to the site content.
- Click on the Add New User button.
- Repeat these steps for each student account needed.
As you can imagine, individually registering student accounts can be quite an arduous task. An efficient way of creating accounts is to temporarily enable new user self-registration. This will provide students with a brief window of opportunity to create accounts themselves. Once the time period has elapsed, we can disable new account creation to prevent non-students from registering.
To enable student self-registration:
- Access the WordPress General Settings page by hovering over Settings in the WordPress sidebar and choosing General.
- Check the Anyone can register box to allow new user registration.
- Click on the Save Changes button.
- Direct students to the registration page (http://example.org/register/) to complete the signup form.
- Once all students have registered, disable new user registration by returning to the WordPress General Settings screen, un-checking the Anyone can register box and clicking on the Save Changes button.