Google Classroom is organized in four areas

STREAM: Teachers can post announcements and links to lessons

CLASSWORK: Teachers can create and organize lessons on the Classwork page. The organizational structure of lessons needs to be shared with students as this starts as a blank slate. Each teacher has their own ways of framing and organizing information which may not be clear to the student.

PEOPLE: This page includes the class list with links to parents. Clicking on the student an individual student view of incomplete work and assessment

GRADES: Teachers have the choice to create cumulative grades or use the grading feature as summative feedback. Teachers can choose percentage or points and also create personalized grading systems like levels of achievement.

Collaborate in groups through a shared document where individual students can collaborate and contribute to the final product.

Critical thinking and active learning through integrated online tools foster communication and higher order thinking.

Meet student needs and preferences in communication offering written, oral, visual and media formats.

Google provides extensions and add-ons to support student engagement. Example Pear Deck is an extension for Google Slides that allows individual students to interact and communicate synchronously or asynchronously.

Google provides a comprehensive suite of tools to help students

• Organize and manage their time

• Communicate and express themselves in different formats 

• Collaborate

Active and Personalized Learning in Google Classroom      

The Google Classroom LMS can accommodate individual student needs, preferences and interests. Online tools such as video, social media, and game-based learning can be integrated into the LMS.

Online Features in the Google Classroom LMS

• Video and voice conferencing

• Meet link in Google Classroom LMS

• Privacy controls, restrict access

• Control features to respond to student behaviour

• See participants, cap of 49 participants

• Record meetings

• Present and Share Docs, Sheets, Slides

• Live captions and translated captions

• Hand raise

• Digital whiteboard

• Blur or customize background

• Break out rooms

• Polls

Google Classroom supports different learning formats

• online 

• in-person

• blended learning

• hybrid learning

• flipped classroom approach

• synchronous

• asynchronous

• e-learning

• Distance Education

Support for Teachers - Google provides comprehensive online training videos and materials to help teachers implement Google Classroom to its full capacity. The extent of accessible resources outside of Google in social media makes Google Classroom easy to use in fun and engaging ways for learners. 

Google for Education - Google invests in the educational needs of teachers and students. Google uses teacher feedback and hires educators to improve their product for education and learning

Accessibility - Google addresses accessibility, individual needs of students, subject specific learning

Reporting - Google Classroom will not write grades back to the Board’s SIS 

Student Progress in a Course - Teacher’s cannot see if students have viewed material or the length of engagement with material or the platform.