Workspace Basics for Admins: sharing and security

01

Who is the admin? Account types and admin roles

In simple words

In a school, the teacher decides some rules for the whole class. In Google Workspace, the admin is that teacher. With a personal account, nobody is above you, so you make every rule yourself.

Before this course: Workspace Productivity: collaboration (course 13.7.2). You should already know smart chips, filter views, protected ranges, share expiration, Meet access types, host controls and recording rules.

Key facts

A Workspace organization is managed in the Google Admin console. Admins get powers through admin roles.
Google's prebuilt roles include:

Role	What it is for
Super Admin	Full control of the Admin console, including managing other admins
User Management Admin	Manages non-admin user accounts in assigned organizational units
Help Desk Admin	Resets passwords for non-admin users and views user profiles
Groups Admin	Manages Google Groups, membership and access settings
Services Admin	Controls service settings such as Calendar, Drive and Docs
Storage Admin	Monitors storage use and sets storage limits

At least one user must be a super admin, and Google recommends at least two, so one can reset the other's password.
Only super admins can create and assign admin roles, manage other admins, and restore deleted users, among other tasks.
Personal accounts: there is no admin. You set your own sharing and security (course 13.7, lesson 2).
Work or school accounts: if a menu item is missing, an admin may have turned it off for you.

Step by step

Write down every Google account you use and mark it personal or work/school.
For a work or school account, find out who your admin is (your IT help page or teacher).
Make a table of five common admin jobs: reset a password, add a user, change Drive settings, manage groups, check storage.
Next to each job, write the smallest prebuilt role from the table that can do it.
Mark which jobs truly need a super admin.
Check: only a few jobs need super admin, and every other job has a smaller role.

Watch on YouTube

How to assign or revoke admin rolesGoogle Workspace · YouTube · youtube.com

Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.

LESSON 01Who is the admin? Account types and admin roles

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00

Voice

Read the video script

[Host] "Who can change the rules in your Google account? It depends on the account."
[Text on screen: Personal = you. Work or school = admin] "Personal account: you. School or work account: an administrator."
[Screen: list of prebuilt admin roles] "Admins get roles. Help Desk resets passwords. Groups Admin manages groups. Super Admin can do everything."
[Host] "Give people the smallest role that does the job."

Try it now

Make the five-job table and choose the smallest role for each. Write one sentence on why a help desk helper should not be a super admin.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Workspace Basics for Admins: sharing and security" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "Who is the admin? Account types and admin roles".

What the lesson teaches:
- A Workspace organization is managed in the Google Admin console. Admins get powers through admin roles.
- Google's prebuilt roles include:
- Role - What it is for
- Super Admin - Full control of the Admin console, including managing other admins
- User Management Admin - Manages non-admin user accounts in assigned organizational units
- Help Desk Admin - Resets passwords for non-admin users and views user profiles
- Groups Admin - Manages Google Groups, membership and access settings

The exercise I'm working on:
Make the five-job table and choose the smallest role for each. Write one sentence on why a help desk helper should not be a super admin.

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "Who is the admin? Account types and admin roles" from the course "Workspace Basics for Admins: sharing and security".

Here's what the lesson says:
In a school, the teacher decides some rules for the whole class. In Google Workspace, the admin is that teacher. With a personal account, nobody is above you, so you make every rule yourself.

The activity:
Make the five-job table and choose the smallest role for each. Write one sentence on why a help desk helper should not be a super admin.

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

Sources

Google Workspace Admin Help, Prebuilt administrator roles: knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/users/prebuilt-administrator-role

My notes

I learned this

02