This post is a short guide to creating and using user accounts in instaGrok.

Why have a user account?

There are several benefits to creating a (free) user account in instaGrok.

• Search history – you can see the history of your past queries, and go back to a previous search.
• Journals – users that are logged in are able to create journals in instaGrok, which can contain your notes, “bookmarked websites”, images, videos, etc.
• Personalized graph – logged-in users are also able to “pin” excerpts/websites/images/videos to their graph, creating a persistent and personalized learning artifact.
• Student tracking – in a school setting, teachers can see student’s work (such as journals and search history), and comment on their work.
• Personalization – instaGrok will  better refine and personalize your results, based on your past searches and preferences.

How to create a user account

Your free user account can be created at any time. One way is to do it directly from the home page, by clicking on the Login link in the upper-right corner.

This brings up the create/login user dialog box:

1. Create a unique user id and password (both are case-sensitive!).
2. Enter your role. You have 3 choices:
1. General - for most users
2. Teacher – teachers that wish to have a class using instaGrok. If you select this option, you will also be prompted to create and enter a unique class code for your class (e.g. “mrs_jones_class1” – case-sensitive!). Please write down this code.
3. Student – students that are part of the class. You will be asked to enter your teacher’s class code.
3. Enter your email address (unless you’re a student).
4. Click “Create User” button.

You should now see your user name in the upper-left menu (which is also what you would see every time you log in).

At this point you can either do a new search from the homepage, or go to your old searches by clicking on your username. Clicking on the Logout will log you out of instaGrok.

If you are logged in, you will see the history menu in the upper-right corner of the application screen:

Clicking on an item in that menu allows you to go back to a past search, and the journal/graph associated with it.

Now that you are logged in, you can use the “Pin” buttons to add items to your graph and journal, as well as edit your journal by hand. All edits in your journal are saved automatically.