We know that educators have go-to digital tools to make their lessons more engaging. But with that comes the challenges of managing multiple accounts and passwords, helping students navigate other websites, and handling grading on different platforms. Now, educators will be able to easily find, add, use and grade content from popular EdTech tools, right within Google Classroom. Add-ons provide a better end-to-end experience to not only save time for educators, but also simplify the digital classroom experience for students, too.
Use popular education tools, right within Classroom
To make EdTech tools work better together, we partnered with 18 partners to offer add-ons for Classroom. You can do things like assign a trivia game from Kahoot!, browse content from IXL’s repository by subject or grade level, and make it easy for students to access interactive Pear Deck presentations, all within Classroom. With the content and activities of these educational partners accessible within Classroom, we hope it’s even easier to diversify your lessons and help students learn in new ways.
Animation showing that students can find a Pear Deck presentation from within Classroom, interact with it, then turn it in.
With just a few clicks, students can access, and turn in, interactive Pear Deck presentations from within Classroom.
Animation showing that an educator can use add-ons to create an assignment, browse skills in the IXL add-on by subject or grade level, then add it to an assignment within Classroom.)
The IXL add-on allows you to browse IXL skills by subject or grade level before adding it to a Classroom Assignment or Stream, and even assign skills to a specific student.
Animation showing that teachers can search for kahoots that they have made or save, all within Classroom.
With the Kahoot! add-on, teachers can access kahoots they made or saved, and make them easy for students to use, all without leaving Classroom.
To start, we’ll have add-ons from Adobe Express for Education, BookWidgets, CK-12, Edpuzzle, Formative, Genially, Google Arts & Culture, Google Play Books, IXL, Kahoot!, Nearpod, Newsela, PBS LearningMedia, Pear Deck, SAFARI Montage, Sora from OverDrive Education, WeVideo and Wordwall. If you don’t see a particular add-on within Classroom, email your admin to ask if your district can set up that add-on, or give feedback within Classroom to request new add-ons partners that aren’t on this list.
Simplify your grading workflows
To make grading easier for educators, many of the add-ons have integrated time-saving features like auto-grading, insights and grade syncing. Various add-ons also provide the opportunity to grade right within Classroom and include personalized feedback when sharing a grade back with students. All add-ons sync with the Classroom gradebook, too.
Animation showing the CK-12 add-on and how it enables teachers to view insights and actionable recommendations related to students).
The CK-12 add-on lets you create interactive assignments, track class performance across assignments, see auto-graded results and view insights that show concept-level performance patterns and actionable recommendations for each student.
Animation depicting the Nearpod add-on and how educators can see how much students participated in a lesson and how well they scored on assignments.)
With the Nearpod add-on, teachers can assign lessons to their class or individual students, review reports of student engagement and activity, and record grades directly within Google Classroom.
Animation of the Edpuzzle add-on and how a quiz can be auto-graded because it uses multiple choice questions.)
Edpuzzle makes it easy to find or create video lessons, measure progress with real-time information on student engagement and comprehension and save time with auto-grading for certain question types.
Editor’s Note: Join us for Google for Education’s product launch event,The Anywhere School 2022, to find out about the latest features to help students pursue their personal potential.
For educators, there are always a few top of mind questions: how can they optimize their time and find ways to help each student learn effectively? With Classroom, we’re working to help solve these problems so educators can focus more on teaching and students can experience new approaches to make learning more personal.
We’re announcing new features to help tackle complex challenges, like supporting individualized learning at scale. We’re also developing deeper integrations with key tools that educators and administrators use on a day-to-day basis, making everyday tasks, like grading, creating assignments, and managing class lists easier.
Practice makes progress
Built with adaptive learning technology, practice sets is a new feature in Google Classroom that enables teachers to transform their existing content into interactive assignments. When working on an assignment, students receive instant feedback on their answers, and real-time support through visual explainers and videos if they get stuck along the way. For teachers, once they set up their initial questions, practice sets provide automated grading and insights to help them quickly identify gaps in students’ understanding so they can shape future lessons. Practice sets will be globally available in beta, and in English only, for Google Workspace for Education customers with Education Plus or the Teaching and Learning Upgrade. If you’re interested in trying out the beta, express interest here.
Create interactive lessons and simplify grading with your favorite EdTech tools (coming soon)
With Classroom add-ons, teachers and students can soon access custom learning and grading experiences from more than 15 EdTech favorites including IXL, Pear Deck, Kahoot! and Nearpod. They can sign into Classroom and each add-on with the same login, removing the need to remember multiple passwords or to navigate to multiple websites to access classwork. Teachers can more easily review student work with the Classroom grader view and grades will automatically transfer to the Classroom gradebook.
In the coming months, we’ll be rolling out this feature to Classroom users with Google for Education Plus or the Teaching and Learning Upgrade. Admins will be able to choose which add-ons they enable for their schools. Subscribe to the Google for Education newsletter to get notified when this feature is available.
With the IXL add-on, browse content by skill level or subject, then preview the skill before attaching to an assignment.
Set up classes automatically with expanded SIS syncing
Last year, in partnership with Clever, we added the ability to sync the rosters from your student information system (SIS) to Classroom, so classes could be automatically created and updated. Soon, we’ll be expanding to 15 more countries with the help of SIS integration expert, Elevate Data Sync. Admins can sync class lists and timetables directly with most major student information systems, removing the need for teachers to set up their courses manually. Now, they can just click “accept” when their course is created. Schools with Education Plus that are interested in trying this out with Elevate Data Sync can sign up for the beta today.
Admins can sync class lists directly with most major student information systems. Teachers can just click “accept” when their course is created
Prioritizing your top requests
We spend a lot of time with teachers and schools to make sure we’re developing new features and products that help with what they need most. We read every piece of feedback that is shared, anduse that information to prioritize top feature requests. Here are some of the latest improvements:
YouTube in Google Classroom: It’s now easier to find, evaluate, and add YouTube videos into your lessons from Classroom with larger thumbnail images and the ability to filter videos by duration. And when you or your students are watching a video, you’ll see a larger video player.
Grade export: We’ve added action-oriented messages that guide teachers as they sync grades with their SIS.
Notifications: Our notification emails are getting a refresh, so teachers and students can quickly scan emails and find key information. Later this year, teachers will even be able to reply to students from within their email notifications in Gmail. And for those of you who access Google Classroom on your mobile device, we're adding email settings functionality – so that everyone can now tailor notification settings for both email and push notifications.
Reply to students' comments, right from within Gmail.
In interviews with dozens of education leaders, we’ve heard three main themes: You need better visibility, deeper insights, and ways to support teachers at scale. We’re working on several new features, built specifically for education leaders, that will address these needs. Stay tuned for the chance to join our alpha and beta pilots, and expect lots more updates about how we’re empowering education leaders to achieve their goals and drive instructional impact.
We know that training helps build confidence when using new tools in the Classroom. Whether you’re just starting out or exploring advanced features, we have three new video-based trainings covering features that help simplify class management and accelerate grading, and lessons for students too. You can easily find all of these new lessons (available in English), and more training and instructional resources, on the Applied Digital Skills website (available now) or the Teacher Center (available later this month).
Ready to shape the future of our products? Sign up for our Google for Education Pilot Program, which is available globally.
Editor’s Note: Join us for Google for Education’s product launch event,The Anywhere School 2022, to find out about the latest features to help students pursue their personal potential.
Each year, my team and I speak with thousands of educators around the world to better understand how students and teachers are using technology in the classroom. We do this to help educators amplify their efforts and, most importantly, help students pursue their personal potential. Today, we’re sharing new updates to Chromebooks, Google Classroom and Google Meet to set up teachers and students for success ahead of the next school year.
Create screencasts and cast to a big screen with Chromebooks
From sharing devices to 1:1, to teachers using Chromebooks alongside students, we’re constantly evolving our features to meet the needs of the classroom. We’re adding new features like the Screencast app, built into Chrome OS in M103, where you can record, trim, share and view transcribed screencasts — and create a custom library of videos automatically saved in Google Drive. Cast moderator is a new mode coming to select devices with Google TV that enables both educators and students to wirelessly share their Chromebook screen to a class display using an access code, so that only folks in the same classroom as the display are able to cast. To get notified on availability of cast moderator hardware, express interest in this form. And for more on what’s new for Chromebooks, read our blog.
Adaptive learning enhancements in Google Classroom
We’re rolling out newintegrations and tools to improve teachers’ day-to-day tasks and help students grow their skills. Practice sets lean into adaptive learning by giving students instant feedback on their answers and real-time support if they get stuck — providing automated insights for teachers to identify potential gaps in students’ understanding. Practice sets are now globally available in beta, and in English only, for Google Workspace for Education customers with the Education Plus or the Teaching and Learning Editions. Sign up here to get access. With add-ons, we’re making it possible for students and teachers to access more than 15 EdTech tools, like Kahoot! and Pear Deck, all with a single login. Teachers can create engaging assignments and see new grading experiences, while students don’t have to worry about remembering extra passwords and navigating external websites. Add-ons will be available with the Education Plus or Teaching and Learning Edition. And to get ready for the new school year or semester, we’re expanding our roster import feature in Google Workspace for Education Plus to an additional 15 countries, in partnership with Elevate Data Sync, so class lists can automatically be synced with student information systems. Sign up here for the beta. For more on what’s new with Classroom, read our blog.
Better interconnectivity and efficiency with Google Meet
For those using the Google Workspace for Education Teaching & Learning and Plus editions, we’re adding features focused on increasing interconnectivity, control and efficiency in the classroom to Google Meet. Now, Meet calls can be auto-transcribed directly into a Google Doc for easy lesson reviews and the ability to search for keywords and concepts. Ever wished you could keep tabs on your class and present from another tab? Now you can, with Picture in Picture in Meet, where you can navigate other tabs in Chrome while viewing 4 tiles of students in a Meet call. And to keep your class engaged and regularly check for understanding, you can now add polls and Q&A to Live-streams, and live-stream directly to YouTube. For more on what’s new with Google Meet, read our blog.
Building for the future of more personal learning experiences
We want to continue developing products and features that meet the needs of students and teachers today, and in the future. The magic happens when tech is put in the hands of teachers who know how to engage students, to challenge them and instill that love of learning. Education is not one size fits all — and neither is the technology that powers education.
Everyone learns in their own way — but we do share a few patterns in common. We all learn more effectively when we practice, and even more so when we get specific feedback.
But with large classes of students at different skill levels, teachers can have trouble supporting individual journeys and learning styles. So we spoke with educators around the world to see how we could help them become more effective in the classroom. Time and again, they said they wanted to spend less time on tedious tasks like grading, and more time focused on their students’ unique needs.
So today, we’re announcing an upcoming feature in Google Classroom to help them do just that. Practice sets will give teachers the time and tools to better support their students — from more interactive lessons to faster and more personal feedback.
Supercharge teaching content and get class insights
With practice sets, educators can easily transform their own teaching content into interactive assignments and use the autograding tool to cut down on manual grading time. Practice sets also help teachers figure out which concepts need more instruction time and who could use extra support, giving them quick performance insights to shape future lesson plans.
Boost student confidence and celebrate their progress
Students get real-time feedback as they complete practice sets, so they know whether they’re on the right track. When they’re struggling to solve a problem, they can get hints through visual explainers and videos. And when they get an answer correct, practice sets will celebrate their success with fun animations and confetti.
One fifth-grade teacher, who used practice sets in a recent trial, saw the benefits in action: “The kids were calling it ‘Google magic’ because of the hints, pop-ups and instant feedback they received. That’s what makes practice sets a real game changer for their learning experience.” They also liked the focused support: “Practice sets also helped meet students’ needs when I couldn’t meet with them at that moment.”
Student experience in practice sets, getting a hint from resources when they are stuck
Students get real time feedback and hints when they get stuck, like video resources
Educator experience when creating a practice set
Educators can use existing content or create a practice set from scratch
Educator view of insights dashboard in practice sets
Educators can view automated insights of assignment performance trends in Classroom grader view
Twelve years ago, Shantanu Sinha left his job to join his long-time friend Sal Khan’s new venture. At the time, Sal was spending his days making educational YouTube videos. It was an unusual career choice for both of them. But they saw what was possible when students had more agency over their learning and how technology could play a role. Together they started the online education platform Khan Academy, and Shantanu worked there for five years.
Today, Shantanu is the head of Google for Education. His team works to improve teaching and learning with technology, and one promising area is their work with adaptive learning technology. This emerging, AI-driven technology supports tailored learning experiences for students and helps amplify teacher instruction.
To get a crash course on adaptive learning technology and what it means for students and teachers, we talked to Shantanu.
What exactly is adaptive learning technology?
The concept of adaptive learning has been around for decades. It refers to a type of learning where students are given customized resources and activities to address their unique learning needs. For example, if a student struggles with adding fractions, a teacher might offer 1:1 tutoring or additional practice problems. You can see the concept of adaptive learning play out in gaming. When I was a kid I remember playing Carmen Sandiego and noticing how the system was tailored to me and changed whenever I got something wrong.
What’s new is applying recent AI advances to this concept, which opens up a whole new set of possibilities to transform the future of school into a personal learning experience.
Can you share an example of what this might look like?
Imagine you’re a student stuck on a math problem. With 25 other students in your class, you can't always get immediate help, leaving you frustrated and diminishing your confidence to complete future problems. Now imagine a different scenario. You’re stuck on a problem, but instead of growing frustrated, you receive a helpful hint or video that gives you exactly what you need to unblock you. You realize what you need to do differently, complete the math problem correctly and feel more confident in your ability to learn.
Early attempts at adaptive learning worked only for very specific content and curricula. With recent AI advances in language models and video understanding, we can now apply adaptive learning technology to almost any type of class assignment or lesson at an unprecedented scale. When students receive individualized, in-the-moment support, the results can be magical.
Tell us about the magic.
We recently talked to an educator who is testing out a new adaptive learning feature that we’re developing called practice sets in Google Classroom. The feature allows teachers to create interactive assignments and provides students with real-time feedback. He said the instant feedback that kids received was like having a teaching assistant in the classroom at all times. The technology helped give students 1:1 attention and validation — so they knew right away whether they got a problem correct or incorrect — and drove students’ intrinsic motivation and engagement through the roof.
I saw a similar phenomenon back when I was part of Khan Academy. Over time, students not only became more proficient with subject matter content, but also in their ability to learn new material. They learned how to learn.
How does adaptive learning technology help teachers?
Adaptive learning technology saves teachers time and provides data to help them understand students’ learning processes and patterns. For example, with practice sets, teachers can quickly see a student’s attempts at a given problem, so they know where a student got stuck and can identify areas for improvement. Since assignments are auto-graded, teachers can devote more time to making sure that each student gets the instruction and practice they need to succeed.
So is the future of education more personal?
Learning is inherently personal. Education should feel personal too, but there are time and resource constraints. As we build toward a more personal future for education, adaptive learning technology can help us get there faster. Our goal is to power the pursuit of personal potential — for both teachers and students — in and out of the classroom.
Over these past two years, technology has influenced where people can learn, but has it changed the way people learn?
When I look back to the start of my career and where the world is now, it’s clear that having immediate access to information has fundamentally transformed how, when and where we learn. Today, learning is a muscle we flex easily and often. At Google, we see this play out each day: 85% of U.S. YouTube viewers surveyed say they learn or improve their skills on the platform1 and more than a billion people turn to Search each day to discover something new.
As we think about the evolution of learning, what role can Google play?
We aim to be a learning company — for school, for work and for life. Last year, we launched a site all about our ongoing commitment to help everyone in the world learn anything in the world. Learning is personal. I’m excited to continue working with our partners to build toward a more personal future of education. When we apply the right technology to the process of teaching and learning, exciting things start to happen.
The past two years have seen a rapid rise in the use of educational tools by teachers and students everywhere – driven primarily by the need for distance learning. Now that educators and schools have experienced the benefits of these tools, their use continues to grow, even as many schools return to in-person and hybrid learning.
While this industry-wide shift to more hours online can be an opportunity for many, it can also be a challenge for some teachers and students, especially in places where communities rely heavily on mobile phones or because of limited internet connectivity.
Google Classroom and other Google Workspace for Education tools are designed to be used anytime, anywhere and on any device. In many countries around the world, the investments we’ve made in our mobile apps have already helped tens of millions of students keep learning remotely by using personal or shared phones.
With this in mind, we’ve launched three new features to improve access to Classroom in mobile-first and limited internet conditions.
Use Classroom when you’re offline
With the Classroom Android app, students can now continue to work and learn,, even when offline or when faced with spotty internet connections. Now students have the option – when they are online – to download assignment attachments to their phone for viewing and editing later when they are offline.
Although the ability to submit and download assignments, or pose questions and get answers, still requires an internet connection, offline mode gives students the flexibility to take schoolwork anywhere and keep learning on the go.
Scan and upload multiple pictures with ease
Many more students today are taking and submitting photos of assignments that are easier and more ideal to complete by hand — like math or science homework.
The Classroom Android app now has a handy scan feature, which students can use to capture and combine multiple pictures into a single file. The upload action in the app now allows for easy selection and submission of multiple different types of files in a single step.
These improvements will help students submit their assignments more efficiently, even if they’re in a rush to meet a deadline.
Easier grading on mobile for teachers
For teachers who are primarily using a phone, we’ve made big updates to the experience of viewing and grading assignments on the Classroom Android app.
Teachers can now seamlessly swipe between students and assignments and add grades on the app. Teachers can also give feedback to students by enabling comments on individual files, even if there are multiple files in an assignment. They can comment on a file or highlight specific passages to leave more targeted feedback pinpointing improvement areas for students.
The vast majority of people who are new to the internet today use phones rather than computers. With these new Classroom Android app features, we’re providing students and teachers everywhere with a better mobile experience.
We are fully committed to investing in helping educators and schools spark learning and close equity gaps with more supportive, inclusive, and productive educational tools
As a former director at the largest school district in the United States, I’ve witnessed the challenges of preparing for the back-to-school season. It can be daunting to equip your districts, educators, students and families with the educational resources they need to go back to school with confidence.
We recently sat down with a group of school administrators from around the world to get a sense of what they’re thinking about when using digital tools to overcome challenges for back to school in 2021. Although the term “going back to school” looks different across different schools, states and countries, here are a few of the top things administrators are thinking about to help guide you when going back to the classroom, regardless of whether you’ll be in-person, virtual or a hybrid of the two. To find more tips for how to use Google tools this upcoming school year, check out our Back to School Guide for school leaders.
Tools to enhance teaching and learning
Ruth Yeh, a teacher and technology advisor at Taipei First Girls High School, said she’s thinking a lot about how different it continues to be “to conduct classes the way we used to, and making sure all students are given the attention they need to learn and grow.” Ruth said that using Google tools, educators have been able to connect with students in real time using Google Meet, or do daily check-ins on mood with Google Forms or Google Classroom. Nothing can replace being in person – but tech tools can help bridge the gap in the meantime.
We’ve seen educators using Jamboard to have class brainstorms and discussions (all within a Google Meet!), where students can share ideas by writing and adding images in real time on a digital whiteboard. And for checking for understanding, Google Forms make conducting and grading quizzes easier – and can also be used for student check-ins. Educators are using Forms now to reach out to students with an emotional-health questionnaire and ask simple questions about how they are feeling… and then can set up time to talk to them afterwards.
Supporting students and families beyond the classroom
“Parents and guardians are trying to help their kids with their schoolwork, but sometimes don’t understand the tools and devices,” says Femi Aina, Executive Director of IT at Atlanta Public Schools. The biggest issue: They had trouble finding Meet links for their children’s virtual classes. Atlanta Public School teachers and principals resolved this problem by providing the support and resources guardians needed to understand how to use Google Classroom and other Google for Education tools, including the Tech Toolkit for Families and Guardians video series.
Providing students and families with supplemental resources beyond the classroom curriculum can help them understand how they can use Google for Education tools to support their education. Guardians can learn how to support their children’s education through Google resources like GoogleFamilies, Guardian’s Guides to Google for Education Tools and this information on setting up Classroom email summaries for guardians. For more support resources, check out our Help Center.
Google’s commitment to data privacy and security
Chin Song, Director of Technology at Milpitas Unified, told us that he’s planning on updating policies in Google Admin Console to ensure a safe learning environment, like the new age-based access setting, and making sure all of the district’s Chromebooks are updated to the latest operating system. And Ron Caroll, Manager of Instructional Technology at Chicago Public Schools, said in addition to customizing policies to protect students’ online learning experiences, it’s equally important to bring parents and guardians along during the process.
To inform guardians about their children’s use of Google Workspace for Education tools and how these tools protect their security online, Chicago Public Schools is planning on sharing information to help them learn more about Google’s privacy and security policies, like these frequently asked questions.
Stay up-to-date with your Google for Education products
Mark Garrison, Chief Academic & Innovation Officer at Breck School, said his previous team typically spent summers focused on Chromebook deployment, helping schools set up and manage their devices. And Chin Song said his district has a secretary that logs every single Chromebook in a consolidated spreadsheet when deploying devices, to keep inventory management efficient. This year, they’re focusing on not only getting devices ready for in school learning, but also preparing them to go home, too.
Setting up and deploying Chromebooks ahead of the back-to-school season can help the return to the classroom be more seamless. For tips on how to set up new user accounts or pre-installing apps and extensions, check out the Chrome Device deployment guide for step-by-step instructions and this guide for sending Chromebooks home.
Regardless of how your school setup will look this year, our team is working to make digital tools easier and more helpful for everyone. For more best practices on heading back to school with Google for Education tools, check out Teaching Resources and our Google for Education Back-to-School Guide.
Today at The Anywhere School, we shared great new ways to use Google Classroom, Google Workspace for Education, Google Meet, and Chrome OS - all focused on helping teachers and school leaders continue to do the amazing work they do.
Classroom is adapting for the future of learning and teaching
Classroom strives to be the simplest, easiest to use learning platform, but we’re continuously making improvements to make it even better. Roster Import will enable admins to set up classes at scale (and save a significant amount of time!) while Classroom add-ons will give educators a simple way to integrate their favorite content and activities. And the new student activity dashboard, the ability to schedule assignments across multiple classes and improvements to the Meet and Classroom integration will make it far easier to engage with students. Learn more in the Classroom blog.
Google Workspace for Education improves collaboration and security
Smart canvas makes Docs, Sheets and Slides more interactive and intelligent. With features like smart chips, checklists, table templates and assisted analysis, smart canvas enables stronger collaboration with anyone, from anywhere. We’re also strengthening the security of all Google Workspace for Education editions with Drive security improvements and additional advanced security for Education Plus and Education Standard customers. Learn more in the Workspace blog.
Google Meet is getting more secure, easy to use and engaging
Google Meet is adding features to continue supporting the evolving needs of school communities. Moderators and admins will have new controls, like the ability to force breakout room participants back into the main meeting and end any meeting from the investigation tool. Meet will also be easier to use now that it supports multiple moderators and the ability to pin multiple presenters at the same time. Video calls will be more engaging and inclusive with public live streaming to YouTube, hand-raising improvements and live translated captions. Learn more in the Meet blog.
Chromebooks get more personalized
As schools transition from shared Chromebook carts to assigned devices, they are also getting much easier to use and manage. Signing in securely is now a breeze with PIN logins. Admins can now easily see when Automatic Update Expiration dates are reached across their fleet with Chrome Insights Reports. And with new built-in accessibility features like Point Scanning mode with Switch Access, and the new panning method for the full-screen magnifier, teachers and students alike can present and access information in a way that works for them. Learn more in the Chromebook blog.
We are constantly humbled by the amazing ways educators use our tools to better collaborate, manage classes, and create safe learning environments. Whether you’re about to wrap up your school year or still have a few months left, we hope that by sharing these updates now, we can help you be better prepared to use these tools in your institution. To get regular product updates, please sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Twitter.
Over the last year, the use of education technology skyrocketed as schools hustled to keep students learning. As some students return to their classrooms and others continue learning from home, we’re optimistic about the role education technology can play to help teachers and school leaders as they make up for lost time.
We saw Classroom become a center for teaching and learning for millions of teachers and students this year, with many schools now using Classroom as their learning management system (LMS). This was only possible thanks to the support and feedback of teachers around the world. We were amazed by how quickly they learned the tools and put them into practice.
Change in education is inevitable. As the needs of institutions evolve, Classroom will keep pace. Today, we’re sharing some important updates to features we previously shared on our roadmap as well as some new ones we developed with input from teachers and education leaders:
Roster import:Starting this summer, U.S. districts with Google Workspace for Education Plus will be able to automatically set up classes and keep rosters in sync with their Student Information System, powered by Clever. IT admins will be able to create and populate classes via Clever, saving teachers valuable prep time.
Classroom add-ons:Coming to beta later this year for districts with the Teaching and Learning Upgrade or Education Plus, Classroom add-ons allow you to bring your favorite content and activities from top edtech tools right inside Classroom. Admins will be able to pre-install add-ons for multiple teachers or groups at once.
We’re starting with nine partners including Adobe Spark for Education, BookWidgets, CK-12 Foundation, Edpuzzle, IXL, Kahoot!, Nearpod, Newsela and SAFARI Montage, with plans to expand to many more. Here's an example of how Bookwidgets is using add-ons to make it easier for teachers to assign an activity and students to complete it, without ever leaving Classroom.
Scheduling assignments across multiple classes:Coming later this year, this top-requested feature will help teachers and co-teachers easily schedule assignments to multiple classes.
Offline capabilities: Coming to the Classroom Android app in a few months, offline mode will allow students to start their work offline, review their assignments and attachments as well as write assignments in Google Docs — all without an internet connection.
Student engagement activity: Later this year, teachers will easily be able to see when a student was last active, including when they last submitted work or participated in the class through comments with a student engagement activity dashboard.
Google Meet in Classroom: In the coming months you’ll see updates to how teachers can use Google Meet in Classroom, making it easier, safer and more secure. First, all co-teachers in a class will also automatically be co-hosts in the meeting, and only students listed in the Classroom roster will be able to join the Meet. Next, students will have to sit in a “waiting room” until a teacher has joined the meeting link. And finally, guests outside the class roster will have to “ask to join” so no unwanted participants get into meetings.
Educators' feedback makes Classroom better every year. With your feedback and insights, we’ll keep working together to make sure teaching and learning are possible for every teacher and student from every device anywhere in the world.
Every day, more than a billion people come to Google to find answers or discover something new. Our Learning & Education team works to fuel that curiosity and help people build knowledge by connecting them to great learning experiences through our products — whether it's Search or YouTube, Google Classroom or Chromebooks.
During the pandemic, people turned to technology more than ever to help them learn and teach from anywhere, and this accelerated our desire to do even more with our technology to help. Just this past year, COVID-19 led school closures disrupted the continuity of education for over 320 million students across India. This past year, the education community has inspired us with their creativity and resilience -- this ability to learn, and teach, from anywhere is more important now than ever, and won’t end when the pandemic does. During these months, we have been honored to launch several initiatives to help educators and students to better make this transition, and are glad to recap a few key milestones.
After launching our Teach from Anywhere hub in April last year, we have since extended it to eight Indian languages (including English,) and it has helped more than 9 Lakh people to get started with remote teaching. Apart from these web-based training resources, we also believed it important to help impart hands-on training. So when CBSE, Kendriya Vidyalaya and the education ministries of Maharashtra and Delhi State Governments embarked on large-scale digital capacity building efforts, we worked with them to provide knowledge and access to Google for Education tools like Google Classroom, Google Meet and more. Till date, over 5 lakh teachers have attended these webinars that teach the use of digital tools for pedagogy and skills development.
But nothing has been more heartening than seeing teachers from rural areas reporting higher levels of satisfaction, peer recognition, and comfort with technology after these training sessions. One such example is Azmat, an English teacher from Shirdi Urdu High School in Maharashtra, among the many schools that had to shut down in-person teaching last year. Watch the inspiring story of how he and his students continued to keep the education momentum going, even in these challenging times.
The next era of our education products
Today, during our Learning with Google event, we shared our commitment to this community and provided a glimpse into some of the 50+ new, upcoming features across our education products that we hope will support even more learning. We want to enable every leader to bring innovation to their schools and universities, and give them the peace of mind that they’re investing in products that are secure and flexible to their needs.
We are glad to announce the next era of G Suite for Education — Google Workspace for Education – which offers educators and teachers even more choice and control. Google Workspace for Education includes all the products you already use, like Classroom, Meet, Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and many more. Our free edition G Suite for Education will be renamed to Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals. If you’re currently using this edition, you won't see any changes besides a new name and new features.
More than 170 million students and educators worldwide rely on our suite of tools, and we are bringing many new helpful features to Google Classroom and Google Meet. Let’s take a look at some of these:
Google Classroom
Offline mode: We’re making the Classroom Android app work offline, or with intermittent connections. Students will be able to start their work offline, review their assignments, open Drive attachments, and write assignments in Google Docs — all without an internet connection.
Improved mobile grading: We're improving how educators can grade in the Classroom Android app. We’ve seen more and more teachers around the world using mobile devices for giving feedback on the go, and these improvements will make it much easier for instructors to switch between student submissions, grade work while viewing an assignment, and share feedback.
Classroom add-ons: Having tools that work well together is so important. Coming later this year to teachers using Education Plus or Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Classroom add-ons let teachers integrate their favourite third-party EdTech tools and content directly into the Classroom interface, all without any extra log-ins.
Google Meet
Multiple moderators: Later this year, meetings will support multiple hosts, making it easier to partner with others helping facilitate the class. All hosts will have access to moderation controls, so they can share the load of managing who can join, controlling who can use the chat or present their screen, and more.
End meeting for all: Teachers will have the option to "End meeting for all", so they have complete control, and can prevent students from staying on a call after the teacher has left — including in breakout rooms.
Mute all: To make it easier to teach without interruption, educators will be able to easily mute all participants at once, and decide whether students can unmute themselves or not.
These and many other features will be rolling out in the coming months and over the course of this year. To get the full scoop on these announcements, check out Learning with Google, our global event that streamed in 15 languages, where you can hear a lot more directly from our team. For more details also see the new tools coming to Classroom and the new features coming to Meet.
Despite unforeseen obstacles, teaching and learning continued over the past year, all thanks to the heroic dedication of teachers like Azmat, of education leaders, as well as students and their families. We look forward to working together to reimagine learning and push the boundaries of what is possible, so that everyone has access to the quality learning experiences they deserve.
Posted by Bani Dhawan, Head of Education - South Asia
