Tag Archives: Education

Introducing over 50 helpful new product features for students and educators

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. 


For institutions that require more powerful security tools or want to expand the teaching and learning tools available to their instructors, we are introducing three new paid editions: Google Workspace for Education Standard, The Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Google Workspace for Education Plus (formerly G Suite Enterprise for Education).


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

How Cloud Solutions support students and schools

The past year was a challenging one for educators, but the good news is that we’ve discovered solutions that will continue making learning more effective — whether schools operate in-person, in a hybrid model or continue remotely. This year, more K-12 and Higher Ed schools turned to Cloud solutions to understand and drive student success while expanding access to learning and support affordably.

Student success through real-time insights

Google Cloud tools make it possible for institutions to make sense of billions of data sets from across hundreds of data systems. Google Cloud Student Success Services can help schools at every academic level improve the student experience, from matriculation to graduation.

Mesquite Independent School District (ISD) in Texas has an ambitious vision to support the individual needs of all its students. To do this, they wanted to understand their students better, which required cross referencing thousands of types of data from various places. Using Student Success Services, they were able to pull data from their learning management system, their Student Information System, Google Workspace, survey data and direct input from students and teachers, among other  sources. Using the Google Cloud tool BigQuery, they were able to quickly pull data and draw insights in order to better serve their students’ specific needs.  

Better access to learning and support 

Virtualization tools and virtual agents are two powerful technologies that provide access to students and staff anytime, anywhere while physical campuses are shut down or restricting access.

Virtual desktops can connect students, teachers and researchers to equipment they need even when they can’t be on site. For example, students can run high-performance applications like Photoshop and AutoCAD natively from a Chromebook using virtual labs powered by Google Cloud.

And plenty of organizations are turning to virtual agents to offer more support to their communities by adding  support assistants to their webpages. Like most schools, Upper Grand District School Board in Canada pivoted to an online learning program last year. With many families and students new to distance learning, Upper Grand received an unprecedented number of inquiries for reliable information and instructions. The schools’ administration had to handle technical queries manually, and limited staff availability led to longer response times. Thankfully, within three weeks we were able to work with them to build a virtual agent trained on queries related to online safety and technical support for online learning programs. The online tool handles some thousand queries every day with about 92% accuracy and a less than one second response time. 

The Advising team at Penn State World Campus also used this tool. They reviewed their top queries from the college’s 20,000 learners, and discovered that staff consistently fielded the same questions over and over, often spending 15 to 30 minutes collecting information for the answers. So they decided tolaunch a virtual agent powered by Google Cloud. Now the majority of student questions can now be answered in seconds, freeing up precious advisor time to spend with the students who need it most.

If you’re interested in learning more about Google Cloud solutions for education or if you want to chat with us directly, reach out to our team by completing the Contact Form. 

New safety and engagement features in Google Meet

Over the past year, video conferencing became an essential tool for teaching, learning and staying connected. As part of our commitment to building products and programs to expand learning for everyone, we're bringing new features to Meet to help educators keep virtual classes secure and students engaged. 

Helping teachers keep virtual classes safe 

Our first priority with Google Meet is to make sure meetings are safe and secure. Last year we launched a number of tools to help with this, including security controls so only intended participants are let into meetings and advanced safety locks to block anonymous users and let teachers control who can chat and present within a meeting. In the coming months, we’ll be adding to that list.

Teachers will soon have the option to end meetings for everyone on the call, preventing students from staying on after the teacher has left — including in breakout rooms. 

End meeting for all in Google Meet

Getting everyone’s attention when class is deep in discussion can be tough, so we're also giving teachers an easy way to mute all participants at once. Rolling out over the next few weeks, “mute all” will help educators keep class on track. And since sometimes it's important to teach without interruption, launching in the coming months, meeting hosts will be able to control when students can unmute themselves.

Gif of muting all in Google Meet

In the coming months, educators using tablets or mobile phones to teach will also have access to key moderation controls, like who can join their meetings or use the chat or share their screen, directly from their iOS or Android devices. 

Moderator controls on mobile with Google Meet

For many teachers, Google Classroom is an essential tool for managing class. Later this year, Classroom and Meet will work together even better, so every meeting created from Classroom is even safer by default. When meetings are generated from Classroom, students won’t be able to join before the teacher. Meet will also know who’s on the Classroom roster, so only students and teachers in the class will be able to join. And every teacher in Classroom will be a meeting host by default, so if there are multiple teachers, they’ll be able to share the load of managing the class. And later this year, meetings that aren’t started from Classroom will also support multiple hosts, making it easier to partner with others helping facilitate the class.

Classroom integrations with Google Meet

Greater visibility and control for admins 

In the coming months, we’ll be launching new settings in the Admin console so school leaders can set policies for who can join their school’s video calls, and whether people from their school can join video calls from other schools. This will make it easier to facilitate things like student-to-student connections across districts, professional development opportunities for educators and external speakers visiting a class. 

Admin controls in Google Meet

The Google Meet audit log is also now available in the Admin console. In the coming months, we’ll be adding more information to these logs — like an external participant's email address — so admins can better understand how people are using Meet at their school. For educators with  Education Standard or Education Plus licenses, we’re also making improvements to the investigation tool. Admins can now access Meet logs in the investigation tool, so they can identify, triage and take action on security and privacy issues. And later this year, admins will be able to end any meeting within their school from the investigation tool as well. 

Engagement and inclusivity in Meet

Over the past six months, we've launched features like breakout rooms, hand raising, digital whiteboards and customized backgrounds. Later this year, students will be able to more easily engage and express themselves with emoji reactions in Meet. They’ll be able to pick emoji skin tones to best represent them, and react in class in a lightweight, non-disruptive way. Teachers and admins will have full control over when reactions can be used.

Emoji reactions in Google Meet

Because unreliable internet connections can make remote teaching and learning more challenging, we're also improving Meet to work better if you have low bandwidth. Rolling out in the coming months, this can help keep class on track when internet connections are weaker. 

We’ve also made significant improvements to the performance of Meet on Chromebooks. These include audio, video and reliability optimizations, better performance while multitasking and more. 

Gif of Google Meet on a Chromebook

We’re also making additional improvements for educators with Teaching and Learning Upgrade or Education Plus licenses. Rolling out over the next few months, educators will be able to set up breakout rooms ahead of time in Google Calendar. This will make it easier for teachers to prepare for differentiated learning, be thoughtful about group dynamics and avoid losing valuable time setting up breakout rooms during class. 

Breakout rooms in Google Meet

And to help students who weren’t able to attend class stay up to date, later this year educators will be able to receive meeting transcripts. They’ll be able to easily share transcripts with students, review what was discussed during class or maintain a record for future reference. 

Meeting transcripts in Google Meet

Whether by expanding professional development opportunities, livestreaming events or facilitating live-translated parent-teacher conferences, Meet can help your community stay connected. And while many recent improvements to Meet are focused on making distance learning possible, we're also dedicated to making it the best tool for school communities — now, and into the future.

More options for learning with Google Workspace for Education

During the 15 years we’ve been building tools for educators, we’ve seen the needs of instructors, education leaders and students evolve. We’ve learned that a one-size-fits all approach isn't what educators need from tools like G Suite for Education. Whether you're in a rural elementary school, urban university or homeschool setting, our technology and tools should adapt so you can focus on what matters most: teaching and learning. That's why we're making a few changes to provide you greater choice and flexibility in selecting the best tools to empower your institution.

Introducing Google Workspace for Education

Today we’re introducing the next era of G Suite for Education: Google Workspace for Education. Google Workspace for Education includes all the products you already use, like Classroom, Meet, Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and many more. More than 170 million students and educators worldwide rely on our suite of tools. Everything you need to teach, learn, connect and share will remain all in one place, accessible from anywhere on any device. To meet the diverse needs of institutions around the globe, from Pre-K to PhD,  it will now be available in four distinct editions instead of just two.

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. We'll keep building new solutions for this free version by listening closely to educators and their needs.

Institutions that need more powerful security tools or that want to expand the teaching and learning tools available to their instructors can extend the capabilities of Education Fundamentals to meet their specific needs with one of our paid editions: 

  • Google Workspace for Education Standard builds on Education Fundamentals to provide institutions with enhanced security through Security Center, greater visibility with tools such as advanced audit logs and more controls like advanced mobile management to make online learning even more secure.

  • The Teaching and Learning Upgrade builds on Education Fundamentals or Education Standard to enhance educators’ instructional impact by providing advanced video communication capabilities in Google Meet, features to enrich class experiences in Classroom and tools that guide critical thinking and academic integrity with originality reports.

  • Google Workspace for Education Plus (formerly G Suite Enterprise for Education) builds on Education Fundamentals, Education Standard and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade. This is the ultimate edition for a comprehensive solution with advanced security and analytics, teaching and learning capabilities and more.

Education Fundamentals and Education Plus are already available today and institutions will be able to purchase Education Standard and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade starting  April 14, 2021. Institutions that already purchased G Suite for Enterprise for Education will start to see the new edition name, Education Plus, in their admin console and will automatically get all the features of Education Plus.

For a complete comparison of our Google Workspace for Education editions, visit our website. We’re always expanding the capabilities of all our offerings. In the last year alone, we’ve added dozens of free features such as hand-raising in Google Meet, rubrics in Classroom and grammar suggestions in Docs. And we’ve continued to heavily invest in our premium offerings by launching over 25 new features in 2020 to expand our advanced security controls and enhanced collaboration tools.

Introducing a new storage policy

Google has traditionally offered unlimited storage to qualifying schools and universities for free. However, as we’ve grown to serve more schools and universities each year, storage consumption has also rapidly accelerated. Storage is not being consumed equitably across —  nor within — institutions, and school leaders often don't have the tools they need to manage this. To support schools into the future and ensure fair distribution of this valuable resource, we will be implementing a new pooled storage model and helping admins and school leaders manage their storage. Nothing is changing today and we expect that more than 99% of institutions will be within the pooled storage provided by the new policy.


We remain committed to providing all institutions around the world with a best-in-class experience, including ample free storage to support quality educational experiences. The new storage model will provide schools and universities with a baseline of 100TB of pooled cloud storage shared across all of your users — more than enough storage for over 100 million docs, 8 million presentations or 400,000 hours of video. This policy will go into effect across all Google Workspace for Education editions for existing customers in July 2022 and will be effective for new customers signing up in 2022. To empower admins to adapt to this model and optimize their storage, we will provide tools to identify and manage how storage is used and allocated far in advance of the policy going into effect.

We will contact impacted institutions directly in the coming weeks to discuss a range of options for getting the storage they need. Large institutions will be provided supplemental storage later this year and all schools can gain additional storage through Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade. For details on how to prepare for this upcoming change or to learn more about how you’ll be able to increase the storage pool for your institution, please visit our Help Center. 

What’s next for Google Workspace for Education

We’re investing even further in Google Workspace for Education with dozens of new features on the way to support the needs of institutions. For example, saved drafts in Google Forms are coming to Education Fundamentals and Google Meet meeting transcripts are coming to the Teaching and Learning Upgrade. Education Plus will get both these features, as well as Classroom roster syncing. Stay tuned for more news throughout 2021.

Choice, flexibility and simplicity will continue to be guiding pillars for Google Workspace for Education, now and in the future. Whichever edition is right for you, we hope our tools keep empowering your school community to better collaborate and manage classes efficiently and securely.

Our commitment to learning and 50+ new education features

Learning is at the heart of what Google does. 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.

After spending more than 20 years building Search, I recently started leading this team and working alongside Avni Shah, a 17-year Google veteran who leads Google for Education.  Google for Education is all about bringing the best of Google to education — a goal we’ve been focused on for over 15 years. During the pandemic, people turned to technology more than ever to help them learn and teach from anywhere. While this hasn’t changed our mission, it’s accelerated our desire to do even more with our technology to help. 

Over the past year, the education community has inspired us with their creativity and resilience, while always remaining focused on their students. Today, we’d like to share our commitments to this community and a glimpse into some of the 50+ new features across our education products that we hope will support even more learning. To get the full scoop on these announcements, tune in to Learning with Google, our global event streaming in 15 languages where you’ll hear a lot more directly from our team. 

YouTube video of learning
10:25

First, 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. 

  • The next era of G Suite for Education, Google Workspace for Education, offers leaders more choice and control. 

  • New tools are coming to Classroom, including advanced analytics to help admins better understand usage and roster sync to save them time setting up classes. 

  • New features coming to Meet give educators more visibility and control, including the ability to set policies for who can join their school’s video calls.

  • In Chrome OS, we’re debuting more than 40 new Chromebook models built for education, with information on how to choose the right ones for each schools’ unique needs, and over 500 Admin Console policies that will help manage and optimize Chromebook fleets. 

  • For schools looking to understand student needs and scale support across digital and in-person learning, Google Cloud Student Success Services provides a range of options. 

Secondly, we’re committed to building technology that empowers every educator. With simple, assistive tools, teachers can focus on what they do best: helping students reach their full potential. 

  • Classroom add-ons, which are coming later this year, let teachers integrate their favorite third-party tools and content directly into the Classroom interface. They’ll also have easier access to engagement tracking to better understand how students interact with class and see who is falling behind. 

  • We’re giving teachers more control over their virtual classrooms with new Google Meet features, including the ability to end meetings for everyone and the option to quickly mute everyone all at once.  

  • We’re building a screen recording tool right into Chrome OS so teachers and students can capture instruction in real-time in the classroom and at-home. 

We also strive to equip every student with the tools and skills they need to be successful. This means focusing on inclusivity and accessibility, so we can meet students wherever they are. 

  • Later this year, we’ll add features for uploading pictures of paper assignments as well as making the Classroom Android app work offline so students can download their assignments and complete them without relying on a steady connection.

  • Emoji reactions in Meet are coming this year, giving students lightweight, non-disruptive ways to engage. Meet will also work better if you have low bandwidth, so students with weaker internet connections can stay on track. 

  • Plus new accessibility features, like color cursors on Chromebooks and Switch access, let students learn with tools that suit their needs. 

And finally, we commit to evolve every daythrough listening to and learning from the experts: the people that use our products. Yesterday’s magic quickly becomes today’s expectation. So as technology advances and improves, we’ll make sure it’s reflected in the tools we build for education.

Despite unforeseen obstacles and unknowns, teaching and learning continued over the past year. That’s all thanks to the heroic efforts of the education community — from teachers and education leaders to 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. 

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Chromebooks get an education refresh

Chromebooks — which last year were largely used as classroom tools for writing reports and working on projects — are now the main way many students go to school. As distance learning takes place around the world, educators and students have had to quickly adapt to teaching and learning through Chromebooks. And along the way we’ve updated features and tools to make learning from anywhere easier. 

This year, we have 40 new devices and accessibility improvements coming so that every student can learn the way they want to. 

Tools to help educators teach from anywhere 

Teachers have long recorded lessons to help students do homework and study for tests, but in the past year it’s become downright critical for virtual learning. Which is why we’ve built a screen recording tool right into Chrome OS that is coming in the latest Chromebook update in March. With this tool, teachers and students can record lessons and reports in the classroom and at home. 

Screen recorder for Chrome OS

Easier ways for leaders to manage technology

Chrome Education Upgrade unlocks access to Google Admin Console, making it possible for schools to centrally manage massive fleets of Chromebooks. Now, there are over 500 Chrome policies in Google Admin Console, including new ones like Zero Touch Enrollment, which make it easier to deploy and manage Chromebooks at scale — even remotely.

As schools buy hundreds or even thousands of Chromebooks for teachers and students, it’s overwhelming to find the best device to purchase. To make it easier we’ve created a resource to help you find the right Chromebook for whatever you’re looking for — whether it’s in-class learning, virtual learning or devices for faculty and staff.

Video of Google Admin Console
10:25

Updates that equip every student, everywhere  

We’re launching over 40 new Chromebooks. Many of them include convertible Chromebooks that function like a laptop and a tablet, and come with a  stylus, touchscreen, and dual-cameras for students to take notes, edit videos, create podcasts, draw, publish digital books and record screencasts. Every new Chromebook is equipped to deliver exceptional Google Meet and Zoom experiences — right out of the box. We also have devices that can better support students with limited access to the internet, or in countries with strong mobile broadband networks. These devices, called Always Connected devices, have an LTE connectivity option that allows you to connect via your preferred cellular network.

Making education products that work for all students, also means creating accessibility features. And it turns out these features are helpful to everyone — including people with disabilities. ChromeVox, our full-featured screen reader, has new features including improved tutorials, the ability to search ChromeVox menus, and smooth voice switching that automatically changes the screen reader’s voice based on the language of the text. 

We are also making significant audio, video and reliability improvements to Meet on Chromebooks so it continues to work smoothly for everyone. 

Gif of switch access on Chromebooks

How we’re setting the bar higher

As many students are learning from home, it has become even more important for parents and guardians to help support their child’s learning, while also making sure they’re safe online. We’re making it possible for families to add a Google Workspace for Education account to their child’s personal Google Account managed with Family Link. This lets children still log into the apps and websites they need with a school account, while making sure parents can still set guidelines for device and app usage. 

Video of Family Link on Chromebooks
10:25

We’ll continue to listen and evolve Google for Education products so they benefit educators, leaders and students. To learn more about all of the upcoming improvements to Chromebooks and Chrome OS, subscribe to our Chrome Enterprise Release notes.

A peek at what’s next for Google Classroom

Over the last year, the education community had to quickly adapt to challenges, and Google Classroom evolved with them. Today, Google Classroom helps more than 150 million students, educators and school leaders around the world teach and learn — up from 40 million last year. 

We first built Classroom to simplify and improve teaching and learning. We wanted to help teachers build stronger connections with students and give them back time to focus on the things that made them want to teach in the first place. As more teachers use Classroom as their “hub” of learning during the pandemic, many schools are treating it as their learning management system (LMS).

While we didn’t set out to create an LMS, Classroom is committed to meeting the evolving needs of schools. We'll continue to put the people who use our products first and listen to your feedback to address your top priorities. And we’ll always make sure Classroom retains the simplicity and ease-of-use that’s made it so helpful to teachers, students, and school leaders around the world.

Here’s a sneak peek into new features coming to Classroom over the next year — from the ability to use Classroom with other tools and more controls to features that help students learn from anywhere, as well as a simplified workflow for teachers. 

Better together: Use Classroom with other tools

Use your favorite EdTech tools and content with Classroom (coming later this year)

School leaders, teachers and students often use multiple educational tools each day and need them to work together. Soon, for teachers using Google Workspace for Education Plus or Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Classroom add-ons will let them choose their favorite EdTech tools and content from a marketplace and assign it to students directly inside Classroom — all without extra log-ins. Admins will also be able to install add-ons for teachers in their domains.

Integrate your favorite edtech tools and content with Classroom add-ons.

Integrate your favorite edtech tools and content with Classroom add-ons.

Set up classes in advance with SIS roster syncing (coming later this year)

Provisioning classes for an entire school system can be time consuming. Later this year, admins using Education Plus will be able to create classes and populate and sync rosters directly to Classroom from their Student Information System (SIS).

Streamline grade entry (coming later this year)

Grade Export, which is available to eligible Skyward and Infinite Campus customers, is coming to Aspen SIS. This will allow teachers to track grades and push them from Classroom’s Gradebook to their SIS, eliminating the need to put grades in two places.

This is for you, admins

Get deeper insights with Classroom audit logs (coming soon)

With audit logs, admins can get to the root of Classroom-related issues and pinpoint instigating events, such as who removed a student from a class or archived a class on a specific date. Classroom audit information will soon be available directly in the Admin Console.

Analyze Classroom activity logs (coming soon)

Admins using Education Standard or Education Plus can soon get deeper insights about Classroom adoption and engagement. Admins will be able to easily schedule exports of Classroom audit logs to BigQuery, where they can get adoption and engagement insights. We're also building a customizable Data Studio template to help admins visualize Classroom data.

A better hybrid learning environment for teachers and students

Track student engagement (coming later this year)

To give teachers visibility into which students are engaged and which are falling behind, we’re launching student engagement tracking. Educators will be able to see relevant stats about  how students interact with Classroom, such as which students submitted an assignment or commented on a post on a particular day.

Keep learning happening while offline (coming later this year)

We’re updating the Classroom Android app to work offline or with intermittent connections. Students will be able to start their work offline, review assignments, open Drive attachments, and write assignments in Google Docs — all without an internet connection.

Submit better pictures of homework (coming later this year)

We’ve seen an increase in the number of images uploaded to Classroom — especially from students taking photos of paper assignments. We’re making it easier to attach and submit photos in the Classroom Android app and for teachers to review. Students will be able to combine photos into a single document, crop or rotate images, and adjust lighting.

Seamlessly scan, edit and attach images of paper assignments with the Classroom Android app.

Seamlessly scan, edit and attach images of paper assignments with the Classroom Android app.

A simple workflow for educators 

Improved grading on mobile (coming later this year)

More teachers are using mobile devices to give feedback on the go. We’re improving how you use Classroom to grade on Android, including the ability to switch between student submissions, grade while viewing an assignment, and share feedback.

Rich text formatting (coming soon)

Teachers and students (on web, iOS and Android) will soon be able to customize Classroom assignments and posts using rich text formatting — including bold, italics, underline and bullets.

Use rich text formatting in Classroom posts or assignments.

Use rich text formatting in Classroom posts or assignments. 

Originality reports in new languages (coming soon)

Originality reports help students turn in their best work, while making it easy for instructors to detect potential plagiarism. Soon they'll be available in 15 languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, French, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese,  Finnish, German, Korean and Danish, Malay and Hindi.

CS First integration (now available)

CS First is our free, introductory computer science curriculum. You can now import student rosters from Classroom into a new CS First class and students can sign in using a Google account.

Many of these features were based on your feedback — so keep it coming! We hope these features improve your experience as they become available. If you want to know about upcoming updates, subscribe to our Workspace Updates blog.

Learn with Google Arts & Culture

As students, families and educators increasingly rely on tools to support a hybrid approach to education, they depend on accessing helpful online resources to bring their curriculum to life. 


Google Arts & Culture, in collaboration with more than 2000 cultural institutions, has long offered a range of tools and experiences to inspire those teaching virtually and everyone looking to learn online. To improve the experience and reflect how we’re all learning, today we’re launching Learn with Google Arts & Culture, a dedicated gateway for teachers, parents and students that brings together the stories, knowledge and treasures from cultural institutions around the world. 


This includes downloadable lesson plans crafted by educational experts, with topics like dinosaurs, Space exploration, Black history and culture and Hispanic heritage. Want to learn about the Big Bang? Dive into physics and find out what happens at CERN — or take a 3D look at prehistoric animals and NASA’s latest Mars Rover Perseverance. Need a fresh take for an art lesson? Introduce your students to Frida Kahlo by visiting her atelier or Lee Ungno by zooming into his masterpieces in ultra high resolution, and art movements such as Impressionism or the Harlem Renaissance. 


Learn with Google Arts & Culture covers a broad range of themes, including History, Computing, Music, Literature, Chemistry, Biology & Natural History and Geography, with plenty of interactive tools to help make learning more immersive, playful and exciting:
  • AR

    Augmented Reality features such as Art Projector bring cultural artifacts — from artworks to ancient animals — into students’ homes for close observation. You can even explore the Apollo 11 command module or prehistoric cave paintings.


  • VR

    Virtual Reality videos take learners on a 360-degree tour to discover the Space Shuttle Discovery or dinosaurs brought back to life.

  • 3D

    3D models and 360-degree imagery bring your students up close to artworks, priceless artefacts and along paths through heritage sites such as Mayan temples, the Acropolis, the Great Pyramids and the Taj Mahal.

  • Play

    Playful learning is best achieved with features such as Art Selfie, Puzzle Party, Cultural Crosswords and Art Coloring Books which offer playful access to art, culture, history and heritage from around the world.

  • Page

    Your own collections, featuring your favorite objects and stories, are a starting point for an exciting journey guided by information from the experts.

This is a first step for Google Arts & Culture and we hope it will complement the many resources that our cultural partners have developed and made available over time. 


Make sure to check our tips for teachers for getting the most out of Google Arts & Culture. And stay tuned for new lesson plans and materials, which will come online as new museums join the platform and share their treasures.

Learn with Google Arts & Culture

As students, families and educators increasingly rely on tools to support a hybrid approach to education, they depend on accessing helpful online resources to bring their curriculum to life. 


Google Arts & Culture, in collaboration with more than 2000 cultural institutions, has long offered a range of tools and experiences to inspire those teaching virtually and everyone looking to learn online. To improve the experience and reflect how we’re all learning, today we’re launching Learn with Google Arts & Culture, a dedicated gateway for teachers, parents and students that brings together the stories, knowledge and treasures from cultural institutions around the world. 


This includes downloadable lesson plans crafted by educational experts, with topics like dinosaurs, Space exploration, Black history and culture and Hispanic heritage. Want to learn about the Big Bang? Dive into physics and find out what happens at CERN — or take a 3D look at prehistoric animals and NASA’s latest Mars Rover Perseverance. Need a fresh take for an art lesson? Introduce your students to Frida Kahlo by visiting her atelier or Lee Ungno by zooming into his masterpieces in ultra high resolution, and art movements such as Impressionism or the Harlem Renaissance. 


Learn with Google Arts & Culture covers a broad range of themes, including History, Computing, Music, Literature, Chemistry, Biology & Natural History and Geography, with plenty of interactive tools to help make learning more immersive, playful and exciting:
  • AR

    Augmented Reality features such as Art Projector bring cultural artifacts — from artworks to ancient animals — into students’ homes for close observation. You can even explore the Apollo 11 command module or prehistoric cave paintings.


  • VR

    Virtual Reality videos take learners on a 360-degree tour to discover the Space Shuttle Discovery or dinosaurs brought back to life.

  • 3D

    3D models and 360-degree imagery bring your students up close to artworks, priceless artefacts and along paths through heritage sites such as Mayan temples, the Acropolis, the Great Pyramids and the Taj Mahal.

  • Play

    Playful learning is best achieved with features such as Art Selfie, Puzzle Party, Cultural Crosswords and Art Coloring Books which offer playful access to art, culture, history and heritage from around the world.

  • Page

    Your own collections, featuring your favorite objects and stories, are a starting point for an exciting journey guided by information from the experts.

This is a first step for Google Arts & Culture and we hope it will complement the many resources that our cultural partners have developed and made available over time. 


Make sure to check our tips for teachers for getting the most out of Google Arts & Culture. And stay tuned for new lesson plans and materials, which will come online as new museums join the platform and share their treasures.