UPDATE: If you'd like to directly use one of our free classroom Discord templates, just click here and you’ll move through the Discord account signup process and automatically get your own classroom space setup.
Welcome to Discord 101!
If you're setting up a classroom for the first time, we’ve pulled together a simple, step-by-step guide for to get your class up and running online!
- Creating a Classroom Server
- Setting up Teacher and Student Permissions
- Setting up New Classroom Channels
- Sharing the Invite to all Students
- Assigning Roles to Classroom Participants
- Share your Lesson on Screen with Go-Live
Please note that you must be at least 13 years old to use Discord, so younger students will not be able to use the service.
Getting started
You can download Discord for free on desktop, plus on iOS and Android for phones and tablets. Or if you prefer, you can also access Discord from your web browser
You'll then go through the sign-up flow to create a Discord account and then you can officially claim and verify your Discord account through your email address!
- To learn how to change your username and avatar, check out this article on how to customize your account further!
Now let’s dive into some basics:
Creating a Classroom Server
Discord is organized into private communities known as servers, and these will act as your home base -- think of it as your classroom.
Each server also has individual channels, and each channel within a server can represent a subject, lesson or homework discussion within your classroom that you can utilize to chat with your students or peers.
Now, let’s learn how to build a server for your class!
1. To create a server, click the "+" button on the left-hand column
2. The next window that appears will give you two options: "Create" or "Join."
Since we're making a new server for our classroom, we're going to choose "Create."
3. Now you can enter in the server name to the name of your classroom, and press "Change Icon" to choose a new server icon by locating the image you’d like within your files.
4. Then click "Create" and now you've created your first server for your classroom!
Setting up Role Permissions
Now it’s time to learn how to setup permissions and roles for your students and classroom server!
The Discord permission system is based on roles that you assign to your students. Permissions can be assigned per role on both the server level and channel level.
You can create any custom role your classroom server requires, such as @professor, @teacheraid, @math101, etc. Multiple roles can be assigned to a single student. Roles contain a name, a set of permissions and a set of students.
To create, delete or assign permissions to roles click on the 'Roles' tab in the Server Settings menu.
- Click on the Server Name in the upper left hand corner.
- Click on 'Server Settings'
- Click on 'Roles'
To create a new role click on the '+'. Once you have created a role, you can:
- Change the Role Name
- Choose the Color of the Role
- Choose whether you'd like the roles to appear within a separate groups in the Members List
- Assign specific server-wide permissions for that role by toggling the buttons.
- And once you have multiple roles, you can select the Role Hierarchy!
For more information on Role Management, check out this article here!
You can make as many roles as you’d like and tailor each role to your needs.
Classroom Role Examples -
- @Teachers Aides role - In order to make sure your Teacher Aides have the power to help manage and moderate the server, you can give them "Administrator" permissions (which will allow them to have all of the permissions in the permissions list)! With great power comes great responsibility, so make sure to choose wisely when deciding who you give this permission to!
- @Student role - On the other hand, in order to make sure that your students aren't editing the channels as well, make sure to remove all Management related permissions (especially the dangerous "Administrator permission), and only enable the general Text and Voice permissions that you'd like!
- @Team Leader role - If your students are working together as a team on a project, and you want to be able to directly notify the team leader on updates for the group, you can also create a separate role and enable the "Allow anyone to @mention this role" permission! This way you can easily type @Team Leader within the chat to get their attention!
Setting up New Channels
Your students now have a place to chat, but the next step is to set up some channels in order to give lectures, conduct study groups, provide office hours and a place for students to talk to one another.
To set up a new channel, click on the server’s name on the top-left and you’ll see the option to “Create Channel.” Hit that, and from here, you can select either a Text Channel or a Voice Channel.
- A Text Channel will allow anyone to post messages, upload files and share images for others to read at any time.
- A Voice Channel lets your students get together, talk and Go Live so others can share their screens and collaborate together.
Sharing the Invite
Once you’ve got everything set up, it’s time to invite your students!
Click on your Server Name (in the upper left hand corner), and then select Invite People!
You'll then see this menu pop up where you can copy that invite link by pressing the "Copy" button and send that invite out through a different platform!
Once you've copied the link, you can share the link through your school's email system!
If you've already started a direct message/have become friends with your Teacher's Aides and Students, you can also directly invite that individual by searching for their name, and pressing the 'Invite' button!
Assigning Roles in the Server
Now to give permissions to all your classroom members joining the server, you can do so in two different ways!
Assigning Roles in the Members Tab
- Head into the Server Settings!
- Select Members (under User Management in the left hand side bar)
- Click on the '+' button right beside the server member you'd like to assign a role to
- Select the Role that you'd like to give the server member in the drop down menu!
Note: If you have a lot of roles, you can also search for the role by typing the Role name by the "ADD:"
Assigning Roles in the Server
- Right-click on the Server Member that you'd like to give the role to
- Press on the '+' button right under the Roles header
- Click on the '+' button right beside the server member you'd like to assign a role to
- Select the Role that you'd like to give the server member in the drop down menu!
Note: If you have a lot of roles, you can also search for the role by typing the Role name by the "ADD:"
Share your screen with Go-Live
If you want to share your screen with your class, you can utilize our Go Live - Screen Share feature to broadcast your screen to up to 50 people in your Discord
- Join a
voice channel in your Discord.
- Press the
Go Live streaming icon in the voice status panel (near the bottom left corner) and a new window will pop out
- Select an individual application window to share, or select an entire screen to share.
- Press the "Go Live" button at the bottom of the window when you are ready to share your screen.
Eager to Learn More?
Hopefully this article helped in getting your classroom up and running on Discord, but if you're curious on learning more information, check out these other Discord Basics articles below!