Went through a multi-back-and-forth with Amplify last night trying to solve the issue of students not being able to authenticate and being blocked from participating in Activities. The advice I got was quick, so that was good, but not terribly clear or sensible, so not so good.
Trouble is… i had been following that process and that’s where students got blocked. I’m going to try again tomorrow but this if this doesn’t work I think we’re going to have to move away from Desmos Activities.
The instructions provided by Amplify I started this thread with failed spectactularly. Amplify subsequently gave me some way of quasi trouble shoothing this, but frankly as teachers we do not have the time to go and fix this on our own.
I happen to be the Math Department head for a school in what is the largest school board in North America and my advice to teachers is to move away from Desmos Activities until this is resolved. It’s simply too much to ask of teachers to figure out.
Hi Mike, this is Elise from Amplify. We are very sorry for the frustration with students not being able to log in.
If your students are being blocked from authenticating with Google, your district may need to approve the Amplify Google app. Those steps are included in this FAQ, under the header “How can I ensure my organization has approved single-sign-on with Google”. Our Support team will also follow up with you directly. Thank you again for your patience; it is important to us to make sure things are working for you and your students.
Why Google SSO? Is there something against Google Classroom, and just assigning the class and activities through there? That’s why my school uses to assign me my homework.
My students weren’t able to sign in with Google either. First, make sure your classroom code hasn’t expired or been deactivated. For example, if you wrote down your class code and posted it on your website or syllabus at the start of August, it’s probably expired by now. Go to the Manage Classrooms tab and check that your classroom code doesn’t say “Deactivated.”
Second, when my students signed up with Amplify using their personal email address, the problem was fixed. Don’t tell them to “Sign in with Google” because that feature doesn’t always work properly. Instead, always have them sign in through Amplify on the Log In to Join This Class page.
Also, don’t tell them to bookmark the Amplify sign-in page—they may just keep seeing the page that says “Enter the Class Code” and never be able to log in. They should always start at Desmos, then click I’m a Student each day.
Here are the steps to get each student in the first time:
Go to Desmos
Click I’m a Student
Enter the Class Code
Click Join (this button only appears if they enter an active and correct classroom code)
Enter their Name, Personal Email (not school email), Password, and Confirm Password
After this, they’ll see the “Hi there!” screen with the backpack and the option to enter the classroom code again. Tell them not to enter the code again—just click Log In to Amplify
Click Sign in with Amplify
Ask the browser to remember the password
Key points:
Students must use a personal email address, not their school email.
They must sign up with Amplify or they won’t be able to get in consistently.
They must always start from Desmos.
I created a YouTube video that explains this. Search for “How To Sign In to Desmos (Amplify) Classroom in 2025.” I hope this solves your problem. Good luck!
The other confusion that I have is, as a staff I CAN SSO with google but why can’t the students? If it is an approval thing, in theory I shouldn’t be able to SSO as well??
I have spoken with a tech person at my board office and she has said that their approval process is waiting for something from Amplify before they can proceed. I use D2L/Brightspace so I don’t link through google classroom but still have my students sign in with google.
I’m using single session codes “without logging in” as an option right now but I don’t like it as it is totally dependent on if the student chooses to type the correct name in as a way of being identified.
I am terrified that if my board doesn’t approve it (Amplify), all the amazing activities that I have been using for YEARS are not going to be able to be used. I’m in Ontario and we don’t purchase the curriculum so I’m worried that the board isn’t going to see its benefit. We were hacked a few years ago and now they are VERY cautious to approve new technology.
Please @Elise_Amplify help fix the “SSO with Google” issue. That is the main issue that I’ve been hearing about.
The crux of this is that students DO in fact authenticate through their board-provided account - not only should their pesronal emails not be required, it is not good practice and not something we can support across our school board. It is also something we have had no issues with in the past.
SSO through Google is the critical issue that needs fixing.
Thanks Caitlin, this summarizes the situation nicely and I think the ball is now in Amplify’s court. And I think this is far from unique a single case of a single school board considering what I’m hearing and seeing posted about here on the CL forum.
@Elise_Amplify could you please confirm that Amplify has yet to complete the required steps for approval with our school board. Caitlin and I share the same school board.
Thanks for clarifying. It sounds like your board has different requirements and practices than what we’re experiencing in our district. For us, having students sign up with personal emails was the only reliable workaround when SSO through Google wasn’t working.
I agree with you—if your board requires authentication through school accounts, then the Google SSO issue itself is what needs to be addressed. Hopefully Amplify/Desmos can provide a direct fix for your setup soon. I just wanted to share what worked for my students in case it helped someone else who was stuck like we were.
Thank you, yes a very temporary bandaid is to just let them use Activities without any authentication whatsoever. Not tenable long term and we’re putting ourselves at risk in so doing, it’s not something I can counsel our teachers to do.
Maybe it will help some other people while we wait
But it’s not blocked. Under our school domain I can edit, create, etc and even participate authenticated as a student through Google, as per what Caitlin also said.
I really don’t have the time to be solving this issue quite frankly. Why this is happening now is clearly an Amplify issue becuase it was never a problem before the change.
Unfortunately, issues at the SSO level are infrastructure-level problems that only the Amplify/Desmos engineers can address — they aren’t something that can realistically be solved in a public forum like this.
In the meantime, people here usually share classroom-level workarounds for activity builders, Computation Layer related issues, or share new activities and ideas. Wishing you and your students a great school year!
I think the discussions here including notably Amplify themselves can be very helpful in ascertaining major problems and hopefully solutions for others implementing these Activities.
We’ve already had concrete steps shared by @Elise_Amplify that can possibly help others, so I don’t agree that this isn’t the place for this or that solutions can’t be solved here.
Doesn’t matter how amazing Activities can be if you can’t run them. This might be more important that any one other thread.
Hi @CAITLIN_MOLE - thank you for sharing this. Could you please message me directly with the name of your district so that we can review the request? In most cases, there should not be an additional approval step for Google SSO from Amplify’s side. We will look into this further to determine if there may be a specific district requirement and what further information is needed.
We appreciate your patience and want to make sure the Google SSO issue gets resolved for you and your district!
Hi @40Something and @Mike_Gleeson - thank you both for sharing further information about the issues you are running into, and the workarounds you have been able to develop. We want to ensure that students can authenticate with their school emails, and that they do not have to use their personal emails.
You mentioned that educators are able to sign in using Google SSO, but students are still blocked. (This may also be relevant for @caitlin_mole’s comment). Are students receiving the error message “Access blocked: Your institution’s admin needs to review this app” when trying to log in?
I’ve learned that usually school filtering/blocking applications use a certificate to go “incognito” mode, so regular internet access isn’t possible = filtering. Maybe Amplify doesn’t support such ticket?
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