Changes to Teacher Accounts in 2022

Preceden previously offered special teacher accounts that could be configured to let students create timelines of their own. Due to low adoption and the complexity these accounts added to the codebase, we made the difficult decision to stop offering them.

When do the changes take effect?

We announced the changes in June 2021 with a prominent banner shown on all teacher accounts and to any students logged into them.

On January 4, 2022, we removed the student sub-accounts.

Who does this impact?

For teachers: If you originally signed up and specified that you were using Preceden for Teaching, then your account was impacted and your dashboard displayed "Teacher Dashboard":

The retired Teacher Dashboard, with a Teacher Dashboard link in the navigation bar and a Getting Started for Teachers panel below the heading

For students: If you signed into your teacher's account with a Student Access Password, you can no longer log in that way or reach the timelines you created there.

What happens to student accounts and timelines?

Timelines created by students while logged into their teacher's account are no longer accessible in Preceden as of January 4, 2022.

Can I still get access to the student timelines?

No. For a while after the change we could still produce CSV exports of student timelines on request, but those timelines are no longer in our database and we have no way to recover them. There is nothing left for us to export, so emailing us will not get a copy back.

If you saved one of those exports while we were still offering them, you can import it back into Preceden at any time.

What about teacher timelines?

The timelines the teacher created (the ones listed under "Your Timelines" on your dashboard) were not impacted.

The Your Timelines section of the retired Teacher Dashboard, with a Create a New Timeline button above the teacher's own timeline card

Can my students continue using Preceden?

Yes. Students sign up for their own free accounts, and there is nothing to set up at a school or classroom level. A free account can create an unlimited number of timelines with up to 10 events on each one, customize how they look, share them with a link, and embed them on another site.

If you are running a class project, two approaches work well:

One timeline per student. Each student builds a timeline in their own account and hands in a link to it or an exported file. Files exported from a free account carry a small Preceden logo.
One timeline for the whole class. On our Pro plan you can invite students as collaborators on a timeline you own. They edit it for free whatever plan they are on, and your plan's limit on events applies to that timeline rather than theirs.

Our plans cover what each one includes.

I have more questions. Who can I ask?

If you have any questions, you can reach us at [email protected].