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Getting started with SMART amp

SMART amp software is an easy-to-use cloud-based application that enables teachers and students to collaborate in real time. SMART amp integrates with Google™ Drive and Google Apps for Education, which simplifies deployment and account management for your school.

Setting up your account

Before teachers and students in your school can use SMART amp, the Google domain super administrator or the Google Apps administrator for your school or district need to perform the steps below.

ClosedTo set up as a Google domain super administrator

  1. Get your software license key

    • If you purchased a subscription for SMART amp, your reseller emailed important information about the purchase as well as a license key. If you weren’t the person who purchased the software, ask the purchaser to forward the email to you.

    • If you're a SMART Notebook Advantage customer or you've purchased SMART Learning Suite, you can use the license keys from either of those products to activate SMART amp software.

    • Keep the license key somewhere safe, because you’ll need it after you sign up for and configure Google Apps for Education, as well as provide the license key to the Google Apps administrator for the school or district.

      See Using license keys with your SMART amp subscription.

    Important 

    You must be the Google Apps administrator for your school or schools in order to have the access to set up SMART amp correctly. If you aren’t the Google Apps administrator, send the license key to that person to complete the SMART amp setup. See Determining whether you're the domain administrator.

  2. Sign up with Google Apps for Education

    You must have a Google Apps account set up for your school or schools in order to use SMART amp.

    Note 

    If your school doesn’t already have a domain, you can purchase one during the sign-up process. Google Apps domains are free for schools.

    See Creating a Google Apps for Education account.

  3. Configure your domain in Google Apps for Education

    You need to enable API access on your domain, to turn on Google Drive and to confirm other Google Apps configuration settings so that users can sign in to SMART amp.

    See Configuring the Google Apps domain.

  4. Add single sign-on for Discovery Education (optional)

    If you have signed up for Discovery Education and SMART amp with the same Google ID, enable single sign-on.

    See Integrating Discovery Education Streaming Plus with SMART amp.

ClosedTo set up as a Google app administrator

  1. If you don't have one already, ask the Google domain super administrator for a license key.

    Notes 

    • You can use a SMART amp software, Notebook software, or Learning Suite license key to activate SMART amp software.
    • Valid keys for SMART amp software are always 22 characters long. Valid keys for SMART Notebook software or SMART Learning Suite are 26 characters long.

    See Using license keys with your SMART amp subscription.

  2. Add your license key

    You need to add your license key to activate your SMART amp software. You can add in a single license key or you can add multiple license keys to a single subscription.

    See Entering your SMART amp license key.

  3. Add users to your domain

    Only students and teachers who have been added to your Google Apps domain can access SMART amp.

    See Adding users to your Google Apps domain.

  4. Sign in to admin.smartamp.com to activate your SMART amp account

    1. Confirm the domain associated with your subscription by selecting the check box.

      If you need to add another domain, see Setting up allowed domains.

    2. Enter your license key.

    3. Accept the terms by selecting the check box.

    4. Tap Activate Subscription.

  5. Complete the setup

    1. Add teachers individually or import teacher groups from Google Apps so they’ll be able to access all the teacher-specific functionality of SMART amp.

      See Adding teachers to SMART amp.

    2. Manage teacher accounts.

      See Managing teacher accounts.

  6. Create Google Groups for your teachers (optional)

    If you have a lot of teachers, using Google Groups makes it easy to import them into SMART amp and to update the group later. If you’re starting with fewer teachers, you can skip this step.

    See Creating Google Groups for teachers.

Once all the set up steps are completed, students and teachers can connect to SMART amp and start creating and joining classes from their devices.

For a list of the devices, browsers and operating systems that work best with SMART amp, as well as URLs you need to whitelist, see Device, browser, operating system and network recommendations.

Watch our series of Tech2Tech training videos on setting up SMART amp.

Having problems with any of these steps? See Troubleshooting setup issues.