@lamagnifica yes they do need an account **to be added as a beta tester**. Reread the note you wrote:

If the beta test starts before the **Enrollment Start Date**, testers cannot enroll themselves. To streamline this process, ask the beta testers to register and activate their accounts. Then, you can enroll the beta testers and select the **Auto Enroll** and **Notify students by email** options. See :ref:`Enrollment`.

In this note you are talking about **enrollment** not beta testing, and students DO NOT need to register and activate their account before they use the batch enrollment box to Auto Enroll the students, as you suggest they must.