Those are two very common issues that we've tried to address with Classroom for GitHub.
You no longer need to collect usernames, just distribute an invitation URL and have your students include their student number or name in the repository description or README.md.
Forking is intended as a collaboration tool, so it makes sense that every member of the network can see all forks in the network. In a classroom setting, however, this might not make sense. Classroom for GitHub doesn't utilize forking, instead it creates independent repositories and pushes the starter code without using forks.
You no longer need to collect usernames, just distribute an invitation URL and have your students include their student number or name in the repository description or README.md.
Forking is intended as a collaboration tool, so it makes sense that every member of the network can see all forks in the network. In a classroom setting, however, this might not make sense. Classroom for GitHub doesn't utilize forking, instead it creates independent repositories and pushes the starter code without using forks.