Tag Archives: Google Classroom

Google Classroom now supports roster import from SIS partners

What’s changing

Educators can now easily import students from their student information system (SIS) to Google Classroom using OneRoster. This integration saves educators time and helps make class setup much quicker. 


Getting started 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade 

Resources 

Make more informed decisions using Classroom analytics

What’s changing

We’re introducing analytics in Google Classroom, providing a centralized view of Classroom data and insights for educators and education leaders. 


Designated education leaders and support staff now have direct visibility into student performance and engagement in the classroom, including if assignments are being completed, how grades are trending, and how Classroom features are being adopted. Education leaders will see a bird’s eye view of insights, with the ability to easily drill down further to identify which students, classes, and schools may need support. 
class page
Educators will also be able to see the same type of data for the classes they teach, providing them with a centralized snapshot of how each student in their class is trending. For example, if an educator sees that a student has low assignment completion this month, they can drill down to the list of missing assignments and follow up to see how to best support this student. 
student view

Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why it matters 

This feature provides relevant insights that are immediately actionable, so education leaders and educators can make informed decisions around how to best support student success. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: Super Admins automatically have access to Classroom analytics and must enable Classroom analytics for designated education leaders to access data on the entire organization or limited to specific organizational units. Educators will automatically be able to see class-level analytics for their classes. 
  • End users: 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

Resources 

Changes to YouTube player embedded within Google Workspace for Education services

What’s changing

In June, we introduced updates to the embeddable YouTube player within Google Workspace for Education services. This included a new URL (www.youtubeeducation.com) for the YouTube player to serve embedded content within Google Workspace for Education services. 


As a result of this change, if your organization allowed or blocked YouTube videos within Google Workspace for Education services, you were asked to add “www.youtubeeducation.com” to these allowlists or blocklists. This preserved the way your organization used YouTube videos within Google Workspace for Education services, such as Google Classroom or Slides.


We are removing this feature while we evaluate performance and quality. As an immediate next step, if you updated your allowlist or blocklist to include "www.youtube.com", you’ll need to revert your allowlist/blocklist to include "www.youtube.com" as soon as possible to preserve the way your organization uses YouTube videos within Google Workspace for Education services. If you do not revert your allowlist/blocklist to include www.youtube.com as soon as possible, this could change your organization’s access to YouTube videos.

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

  • This change is now in effect for Classroom services. 
  • This change will be in effect for Slides, Sites, and Forms starting on October 30th, 2023. 

Availability 

  • This impacts Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade 

Resources 

Expanding grading systems in Google Classroom

What’s changing

Currently, teachers can set up grading systems in Google Classroom using points, grade categories, or grading periods. These options are numerical-based, meaning they correlate to points or percentages. 

In order to support other forms of grading, such as letter grades or proficiency ratings (ex. unsatisfactory to excellent), we’re introducing customizable grading scales so that a school’s or teacher’s grading preferences are better reflected in Google Classroom. With this update, teachers will have the option to select from numerical, letter grade, proficiency, four-point grading scales, or set up their own scale. 

Once the grading scale is selected and personalized (if the teacher chooses to do so), teachers can create assignments right away and any existing assignments will automatically have their newly selected grading scale. When grading assignments, teachers can enter either the grade with the points value or the level from the grading scale and Classroom will automatically display both to teachers and to students once a grade is returned.
Expanding grading systems in Google Classroom

Who’s impacted 

End users 


Why you’d use it 

This feature gives teachers more flexibility in deciding which grading scales to use for assignments and classwork. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: 
    • To configure grading scales including accessing grading scale templates, go to Class settings > scroll down to the Grading Scales settings > click Add. From there you can either choose a pre-set grading scale or create your own scale. 
      • Teachers also have the option to copy other classes once they have grading scales set up. 
      • Any new classes created will have the grading scale from the last edited class. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about grading & returning assignments. 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade 

Resources 

Review suggested hints, add your own resources, and more for practice sets in Google Classroom

What’s changing

Earlier this year, practice sets became generally available, allowing educators to transform new and existing content into engaging and interactive assignments. With autograding built in, teachers can receive performance insights and snapshots into student progress, and students get real-time feedback as they complete practice sets. 

Currently in practice sets, when a teacher selects a skill for a problem, resources are activated for the student. The students see a lightbulb next to that problem and a resource tray for “extra help” appears. 

To improve upon this experience, we’re excited to announce an update that gives teachers more control over the resources for students in practice sets. Specially, teachers can now: 
  • More easily review the resources before they assign to their students 
  • Add built-in support for their students by removing or adding their own resources 
  • Include text-based hints and YouTube videos that are tailored to their students’ needs 
  • Control the order in which resources are provided to their students (what appears first, second, and third) 

Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 

Why it matters 

This update gives teachers more control over student resources and enables teachers to tailor the support their students receive within practice sets.

Getting started 

  • Admins: Practice sets are enabled by default, but admins need to add teachers to the verified teacher group in order for them to receive a shared practice set from other teachers in their Google Workspace. 
  • End users: 
    • For teachers to access practice sets, go to Google Classroom > Practice sets > Create (or practicesets.classroom.google.com). 
    • To manage light bulb resources for students in a practice set, navigate to the bottom of the problem > enter a skill or select a suggested skill > select the drop down button for resources on the right > click the "+" symbol and select text hint > enter text hint > save the text hint. 
      • Rearrange the order of the resources by moving the boxes around. 
      • Remove a resource by clicking the “X” in the upper right corner. 
    • To manage extra help resources for students in a practice set, navigate to the top right corner of the page > click on extra help > click to "+" symbol to add resources or rearrange/delete suggested resources that may have been added based on the skills you selected. 
    • For students to access a practice set, they need to be assigned a practice set by a teacher. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about Practice sets. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to Google Workspace for Education Plus and Google Workspace for Education Teaching and Learning Upgrade 

Resources 

Simplify lesson planning with shareable class templates and classwork with new Google Classroom beta

What’s changing

Previously, curriculum leaders and educators had to add permanent co-teachers in order to share or distribute curricula. This could result in access issues, unnecessary notifications and homepage clutter. 

To improve this experience, we’re excited to announce a Google Classroom beta that will simplify lesson planning with others and make classroom materials more accessible. Through the beta, curriculum leads and verified teachers can share links to high-quality classes and class templates so other educators in their organization can preview and import classwork to an existing class or to a new class. This will provide educators with ideas for instructional design and enable them stay up-to-date with the best materials. 

This beta will be globally available for Google Workspace for Education Plus customers in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. Google Workspace admins can use this sign-up form to apply for the beta from now until September 1, 2023. 
shareable class templates and classwork with new Google Classroom beta

Who’s impacted 

End users 

Why you’d use it 

This feature enables curriculum leads and teachers to easily distribute standardized curricula or classroom content to others in their organization. As a result, fellow educators can easily preview, select, and import high-quality classwork into their classes. 
export coursework and share with others

Additional details 

  • Student information, such as assignment submissions, comments, and grades, will not be visible when previewing a shared class. 
  • Imported class materials will be saved in draft mode for the selected classes. 

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature, however, Admins should make sure the following is set up for end users: 
    • In order to share classes, educators must have a Google Workspace for Education Plus license assigned to them. 
    • To preview and import classwork from shared classes, educators must be verified teachers. 
    • Use this sign-up form to apply for the beta from now until September 1, 2023. 
  • End users: 
    • To share a class, click the “Share classwork” button on the Classwork page. 
    • After receiving a class link, open it in your browser. When previewing the shared class, select the classwork items you want to export to a class. 
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about sharing class templates and classwork. 

Availability 

  • Available to Education Plus 

Resources 

Google Classroom now supports grade export to Skyward Qmlativ

What’s changing 

Google Classroom teachers can now export their grades to Skyward Qmlativ, a third-party Student Information System (SIS) that helps education teams simplify student and business data management, and complete administrative tasks faster. 

Grade export allows admins to establish a connection between their district SIS and Google Classroom, which enables them to configure export settings that apply to Google Classroom teachers. The tool also gives teachers the ability to manually link new or existing Google Classroom classes to their SIS, and send assignments and grades from Google Classroom to their SIS. 


Who’s impacted

Admins and end users 


Why it matters 

This feature expands the interoperability between Google Classroom and Skyward Qmlativ SIS. Grade export ultimately saves teachers time and reduces duplicative work by keeping their SIS in sync with fewer manual steps. 

Getting started 

Rollout pace 

Availability 

  • Available to Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade 

Resources 

Bringing Collaborations in Canvas to Google Assignments

What’s changing

Google Assignments Learning Tool Interoperability (LTI) 1.3 is an integrated application that gives educators who use Canvas a faster, simpler way to distribute, analyze, and grade student work. It brings the collaborative power of Google Workspace for Education to Canvas. 

Today, we’re introducing a new feature exclusively for Canvas that allows users to create a Drive item and collaborate on it with other users in the course. Teachers and students can now work together on a variety of Google Drive items, including Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites, Forms, Jamboards, and Drawing.
Bringing Collaborations in Canvas to Google Assignments

Getting started 

  • Admins: To enable users to access this feature, Assignments must be turned ON. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning a service on or off for Google Workspace users. 
  • End users: 
    • Use the following steps to create a collaboration in Canvas: 
      • Sign in to Canvas > open the course > in the sidebar, click Collaborations > click + Collaboration > Google Drive (LTI 1.3). If you’re not signed in, sign in to your Google Workspace for Education account. Enter a title for your assignment > (optional) enter a description > under file type, select a Drive file type > under invite people to collaborate with you, select any LMS users for which to share the collaboration Drive file > click Create > in the opened pop-up, confirm your changes, and click Create. 
    • Use the following steps to open a collaboration in Canvas: 
      • Sign in to Canvas > open the course > in the sidebar, click Collaborations > click the title link for the collaboration you wish to open. Note: You can only view a collaboration if you are an instructor or were added as a collaborator. In the new tab that is opened: 
        • Sign in to your Google Workspace for Education or Google account
        • If this is the first time you’re opening the collaboration, click Join
    • Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Assignments with Canvas and creating, editing, opening and deleting collaborations. 

Rollout pace 

  • This feature is now available.

Availability 

  • Available to Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade 

Resources 

Disable submissions after a due date in Google Classroom

What’s changing

Following the recent announcement of grading periods in Google Classroom, we’re introducing another feature that enables teachers to customize grading in Classroom. The new option to disable submissions after a due date allows teachers to stop accepting submissions for an assignment past the due date. 

When creating a new assignment, teachers can decide whether or not to require a strict due date. By default, the assignments tool will still allow submissions after the due date. 

This feature also allows teachers to choose to stop submissions for an assignment at any point, regardless of the strictness or presence of a due date. For example, a teacher could allow submissions for any assignment during the semester or year, but turn off submissions once the period is completed. 

We hope this highly requested feature gives teachers more control over their workflow by allowing them to set their own level of flexibility for accepting assignments. 
Disable submissions after a due date in Google Classroom

Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: Visit the Help Center to learn more about creating an assignment.

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts 

Resources 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – June 16, 2023

4 New updates

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are fully launched or in the process of rolling out (rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete), launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time (if not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete), and available to all Google Workspace customers.



Get more granular views of Google Slides with new zoom settings 
You can now customize your views in Google Slides with new custom zoom settings that give you the ability to input your desired zoom percent or use the preset zoom percentages in the drop-down menu at the top of your presentation. | Learn more about zooming or changing your document view. 
Get more granular views of Google Slides with new zoom settings

Expanding Google Drive log events to additional Google Workspace editions 
Drive log events, a feature that enables admins to access an audit and investigation page to run searches related to Drive log events, is now available for Google Workspace Business Starter and Essentials Starter editions. | Learn more about Drive log events. 

Expanding originality reports in Google Classroom to Microsoft Word files 
Educators can now run Google Classroom originality reports on Microsoft Word files (.docx) to check their students' work for authenticity. The tool will identify uncited content and plagiarism by comparing a file against webpages and books on the internet. | Learn more about turning on originality reports.

Adding rich text formatting to comments in Google Classroom 
Rich text formatting is now available for class and private comments in Google Classroom, enabling teachers and students to customize and add emphasis to their content. This highly requested feature includes bolding, underlining, italicizing, and bulleted lists. | Learn more about bold, italicize, and underline text. 
Adding rich text formatting to comments in Google Classroom


Previous announcements

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.



Experience better collaboration in conference rooms with new support for whiteboard cameras on Google Meet Hardware 
To improve upon the whiteboarding experience, provide better meeting inclusion, and foster greater collaboration, we’re excited to announce support for whiteboard cameras on Google Meet Hardware, with Logitech Scribe as the first supported camera. | Learn more about support for whiteboard cameras on Google Meet Hardware. 

Use Directory Sync to replace the domain name for synced users 
Using Directory Sync, admins can automatically replace the domain name for synced users and groups in their Google Cloud directory. This means synced Google users and groups can have a different domain name than the domain used in the external directory following a sync. | Learn more about replacing the domain name for synced users. 

Add or remove client-side encryption from a Google Sheets and Google Slides files 
You can now simply add or remove client-side encryption to existing spreadsheets in Google Sheets or presentations in Google Slides. This update gives you the flexibility to control encryption as your documents and projects evolve and progress. This feature is already available for Google Docs. | Available to Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Standard and Education Plus customers only. | Learn more about client-side encryption in Sheets and Slides. 

Improving table placements in Google Docs 
We improved table positioning options for documents set in pages format. These features add more flexibility and control over the layout of text with tables in Docs. Learn more about table placements in Google Docs. 

View more insights and take quick action via the Chrome Browser Cloud Management home card in the Admin console 
In addition to the existing cards in the Admin console landing page such as “Users” or “Billing”, we’ve added a card for Chrome Browser Cloud Management. Here you can see quick stats, such as the number of enrolled browsers, and directly perform actions such as enrolling new browsers or managing Chrome extensions. | Learn more about the Chrome Browser Cloud Management home card. 

Pull rich data from apps directly into Google Docs with third-party smart chips 
We’re excited to share that third-party smart chips in Docs are now generally available for all users. Since introducing third-party smart chips, developers have been able to build app integrations. Several partners have already created smart chips so users can start embedding content from those apps directly into Docs. | Learn more about third-party smart chips in Google Docs.


Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog post for additional details.


Rapid Release Domains: