About
Google Classroom is a product offering from Google focused on the education market. It integrates a number of Google products and services: Google Drive for assignment creation and management, Google Sheets, Docs, and Slides for writing and projects, Gmail for communicating, and Google Calendar for scheduling.
Google Classroom is a platform that helps teachers assign and manage student coursework. With Classroom, educators can create classes, distribute assignments, grade and send feedback, and access course information through the platform. Google Classroom also integrates with legacy learning management tools.
Educators can access Classroom for free when they sign up for G Suite for Education and the platform can be accessed from computers and mobile devices.
The software is used in K-12 school systems and by higher education institutions as well.
Features
Google Products
Other Google products are integrated into the platform, including Google Docs and Gmail. Google Classroom integrates with G Suite for Education.
Comment Bank
Educators can give feedback to students using the comment bank.
People Page
Manage and view guardians, students, and co-teachers.
Classwork Page
Materials and coursework can be organized and stored.
Locked mode
Quizzes can be given in locked mode to avoid distractions.
Originality Reports
Scan students work for matching text on the web.
Integrate Apps
Other apps can be integrated in Classroom including BrainPOP, Classcraft, and Quizlet.
Timeline
Course Kit is rebranded to Google Assignments, adds Originality Reports
Course Kit was the infrastructure that allowed schools to use Google Classroom functionality within an external learning management system (LMS).
Google Classroom for web is updated with Google's Material Theme in a redesign.
Google Classroom made available for enterprise G Suite accounts
Google Classroom gains new "Classwork" view, Stream redesign, and locked Chromebook quizzes.
Google also centralized the settings menu in Google Classroom with this release.
Personal Google accounts are allowed to create classes in Google Classroom
Google Classroom gains annotations & email summaries, Forms adds support for images
Google updates the Google Classroom mobile apps to let teachers grade assignments on the go.
Google announced several updates to Google Classroom, including the ability to add more than one teacher to a Classroom class, and new automatically-saving drafts for class announcements and assignments
Google releases Classroom mobile apps for Android and iOS -
Google announced that it's releasing mobile apps for its Google Classroom service for both Android and iOS devices.
Google integrates its Groups functionality into Google Classroom, as well as other teacher-focused classroom management tools.
The release included "Groups integration: Ability to pre-populate classes using existing Google Groups. If your school uses tools like School Directory Sync, admins can sync class rosters from the student information system (SIS) into Groups." The release also allowed teachers to sort students by first or last name and to set permissions for whether or not their class can post or comment in the classroom feed. Other new features included the ability to export grading and allowing students to mark their submitted assignments as done.
People
Further reading
Google Classroom: 8 answers to common questions
Andy Wolber
Web
April 16, 2020
How Google Took Over the Classroom
Natasha Singer
Web
May 13, 2017
This is everything you need to know about Google Classroom
Rhona Shennan
Web
April 21, 2020
