Manual Authentication

HEIs that do not use Shibboleth, OpenAthens or EZProzy can use a manual authentication method to give their students access to DCS links. This is particularly useful for smaller institutions who do not have a federated system, but who want to use the DCS. 

This authentication method will authenticate your students based on their email addresses, which you will be able to add to the DCS in bulk. Once onboarded, you can add all your required student emails to the DCS. Students can then access the links by setting up their own password as a first-time user - see below for a step-to-step guide on how to do this. Each session lasts 12 hours, so the students will not have to continuously re-login. We recommend that they enable cookies to be saved, as their login details will then be saved in their browser. 

The authentication works for everyone added to the DCS - not just students. This means that DCS users and lecturers added to the DCS will also be able to access the links. It is up to each institution how they want to give lecturers access to the links - you may choose to add them as students instead of lecturers for example if you are not using the academic request form. If your lecturers are using the academic request form, you should add them as lecturers which will give them access both to using the academic request form and to the DCS links as authenticated users. 

To get this authentication method setup, please get in touch with our support team. All you need to do is let us know that you want to setup manual authentication and we will let you know once you can upload your student emails. Please note that manual authentication cannot be used in conjunction with other authentication methods, except for IP ranges. 

Adding your students to the DCS
To add your student emails, you should go to the 'Users’ page of the DCS and select the 'Students' tab. From here you can click ‘Add new’. To add a new student, you need to ensure you choose 'student' as the user type. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
How to Bulk update Students on DCS
We recommend that you bulk update your student cohort once a year and use the above manual method to add single students whenever necessary. The bulk update function can be used to delete as well as add email addresses. 

To bulk update your students, you can download a template to which you can add all of your required student emails, or you can generate a CSV pre-filled with current information - this is useful when you want to add or remove students from the DCS. Once you've done this, save your template and click 'Bulk Update'. 

Adding new students in bulk

To bulk add students, click 'Download template' and add all your required emails: 

Updating existing students in bulk
To bulk update your students, navigate to the Users section and click More Actions which will bring up a drop-down option for ‘Download Current Data.’ You will then be able to view all your student metadata. 

You will then be able to view all of your currently added users, and add, amend or remove as required. Please note that when doing a bulk update, any student that is not in the updated CSV will be deleted from the DCS.

 

 
 
 
Once you have saved your CSV, you should click 'bulk update' and upload the file. Note that before any students are deleted you will see a message queuing your request to update the file.  
 

Let this upload, and as it says in the message, you can leave the page and return to see updates.  If successful it should have the status of ‘Completed.’ 

If a student is deleted by mistake, please add them again and they should be able to log straight back in using their original password. If you need to bulk upload deleted students remember to bulk upload all students that require access, any student left off the bulk upload will be removed.

First-time authentication for Students
Student users are only created when Manual Authentication is enabled and they are only prompted authenticate when clicking a DCS content link.

When student clicks a DCS link for the first time: 
1. They select New user on the login screen. 
2. They enter their email address (which must already be added to the DCS). 
3. An email is sent to them with a link to set a password. 
4. They follow the link, create a password, and sign in.

Once signed in, the student is taken directly to the link they originally clicked, without needing to return to their reading list or VLE. 

Students remain authenticated for up to 12 hours and can access other DCS links during that time without logging in again, provided they stay in the same browser session. 
 

First-time users will see this screen when clicking on a DCS link:

Then they will be sent the following email and are asked to follow the instructions: