Google Sites for Education

How teachers can use Google Sites

Google Sites is just one of the many apps in Google Workspace at the disposal of teachers. The web format lends itself to many exciting ways of presenting information. Creative educators have been using Google Sites for years and we want to highlight some examples.

Class and Classroom websites

Google Sites can serve as the single source of truth and information regarding a particular class. The nature of Sites as hub for resources, references and Google Docs is a great asset for all in the classroom. Students can immediately use devices like Chromebooks to log on and use Sites in conjunction with Google Classroom. Build a wiki with your syllabus, answer class FAQs, share your class code and QR code, post the link to your site in the stream.

Teacher bio sites

Sometimes teachers are allowed to build personal sites to link to the school directory. Google Sites' easy drop and drop web building interface helps teachers pull together a nice teacher profile or bio site. There, they can post a resume, classes being taught and other activities they are a part of.

Lesson plans

Thinking beyond Google Slides or a boring Powerpoint by creating a lesson plan on Google Sites. You can even embed Figjam for a live whiteboard experience. Hide and show daily lessons plans, or control when you publish updates. There's a free lesson plan template here for download.

Public facing communications

Depending on the Google Workspace admin settings for sharing Google Drive files outsides the organization, teachers can publish and share Google Sites. These can be great avenue for keeping all updated when it comes to clubs, field trips, sports teams and other extracurricular activities. So if you have an after school program in place that you are sponsoring, consider launching a free site to accompany it and keep everyone in the loop.

Workspace classroom student activities

Learn web design and create student profiles

Since Google Sites is one of the easiest no code site builders out there, students can make a lot of progress in one class period on developing a student profile. Brainstorm what items students can place in their class profile and then have fun sharing in show and tell fashion. This is also a nice ice breaker for introductory tech classes.

Work portfolios

The integrations with Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and other apps makes it very efficient to share work. The multimedia aspect makes these work portfolios more engaging of an activity.

Project websites

If there is a major project for presentation at the end of the semester, why not let students create a project website to accompany their research. The live collaboration feature of Google Sites shows what pages and page sections each child is working on. This makes it a fantastic group project.

Teaching web design

The WYSIWYG Google Sites editing interface is a wonderful start to teaching general web design best practices and UX/UI principles. Jump into the preview mode to get the most accurate visitor-facing version of your site.

Website ideas for schools publishing Google Sites

• Initiatives, resolutions, policies, community engagement

• Events

• School Websites, alternative to Finalsite and Edlio

• PTA, Parent Teacher groups, Guardians

• Informative site for co-teachers, substitute teachers

• Staff directory

• Committee sites

• School board

• Administrators

• Educator Templates

• School district intranet

• Team sites

Example of School RFP and Google Sites Intranet Solution Proposal

Solutions

• No software outside of Google Workspace or vetted Google Workspace Marketplace Add-ons

• Google Workspace

  • Google Sites, Google Groups, Google Apps Script, Google Sheets, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Spaces, Google Forms

    • Hardware Requirements: N/A

    • Describe the integration with Google Workspace: N/A

    • Security framework: N/A

    • Data encryption and compliance with IT security standards: N/A

    • Minimum Technical/Functional Requirements: N/A

  • Awesome Table (Google Workspace Marketplace Google Sheets Add-on)

    • Purpose: Display spreadsheet data nicely embedded into websites, leverage native Google Sheet permissions, Add interactive filters and search.

    • Hardware Requirements: Browser

    • Integration with Google Workspace: Google Sheets Add-on Tool using Google Apps Script

    • Security Framework: “Awesome Table is GDPR compliant as we process your personal data according to our Data Processing Agreement.We store and process your user and usage data in Firebase, the Google cloud-hosted database (refer to article: Data stored by Awesome Table). Firebase is managed by Google and its servers are located primarily in the United States (refer to Firebase’s Privacy Policy for more information). The physical storage of Awesome Table data and processing is protected under Data Processing and Security Terms of Google Cloud Platform.“

    • Data encryption and compliance with IT security standards: “Your credentials used to connect to external sources are never used directly by the add-on, are kept server side, and can only be accessed by the user they belong to. API Keys, OAuth tokens, Basic auth information are stored in Cloud Datastore in a secure and encrypted container (StoredCredentials). Stored credentials are also never shared or logged.” 

      • https://awesome-table.com/connectors/help/data-security/overview 

    • Minimum Technical/Functional Requirements: N/A

Technical/Functional Requirements 

Awesome Table

1. Staff Directory

2. Org Chart

3. Optional - Marketplace

Update Data with Forms for Skills/Interest: https://support.awesome-table.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001156125-Allow-users-to-update-your-app-s-data-with-Google-Forms 

Required Technical and Functional Features 

• Easily usable via mainstream mobile device browsers including Android and  iOS.

• Easily usable via mainstream desktop device browsers including Chrome, Edge  and Firefox.

• Pages leverage responsive design for optimal use on a wide range of screen  sizes and aspect ratios.

  • Review for responsive design actively.

• The platform has flexible design functions allowing for branding in-line with  corporate design guidelines.

  • Custom Theme: Entirely built on Google Sites and hosted within our Google Workspace domain  on the Google Cloud infrastructure. Separate hosting will not be permitted.

  • Google Sites, Google Drive, Google Sheets, Google Groups for Business, Google Chat (Spaces)

• Ability for authorized staff to edit web page content using an easy browser  based on “What you see if what you get” (WYSIWYG) interface similar to or the  same as Google Sites.

• A staff directory and organization chart feature which is dynamically driven by  user attributes in Google Workspace. The interface must be searchable, provide  a useful organizational structure and layout, and provide a means of determining  and limiting which branch of the organization to display depending on the page  upon which it is presented.

  • Staff Directory powered by Google Workspace Active Directory, Using Google Sheets, Google Apps Script, Visualized via Awesome Table.

  • Org Chart powered powered by Google Workspace Active Directory, Using Google Sheets, Visualized via Awesome Table.

  • All Searchable, Sortable, Filterable

• A skills or tags feature so that staff may self-identify with areas of expertise or  interests and methods to find staff based on this information.

  • Google Forms, Verifying Email, Data Integrated into the Staff Directory Sheet using Formulas.

• An interface to display Google Drive documents based on the native  permissions of Google Drive. The ability to limit the scope of the documents  displayed not only based on permissions, but by curating the documents  displayed. This could be accomplished through the use of special Shared  Drives. The use of Shared Drives and My Drive must be supported.

  • Google Drive Embed, Shared Drives, Folders, Docs and Shortcuts.

  • Alt: Awesome Table for Google Drive Folder

• A news feed system with a customizable number of feeds which may be  delegated to authorized users in departments in order to publish articles relevant  to different groups of users, making use of Google Groups. Content must be  displayed in a modern, clean and attractive manner via the web. The system  must have the ability to send individual emails per posted article or daily digest  emails at the recipient’s discretion.

  • Google Groups for Business with emails/digests

  • Alt: Google Chat Spaces with Notifications

• The news feed and article features must offer the ability to allow eligible users to  post comments in reply, and at the operator’s discretion, to disable the ability for  any users to post comments such that the articles are announcement only in  nature.

  • Google Groups for Business, Permissions, Moderation, Threaded Replies

• Ability to flag a news article as ‘sticky’ in order to force it to remain at the top of  the news feed.

  • Announcement and “Display at Top” posts

• Ability to set start and ending publication dates for an article.

  • Schedule a Send via Gmail to Google Group

• A calendar integration which combines multiple child calendars into a common  display so that a user may experience a single view calendar of all of the dates  that are relevant to themselves.

  • Google Calendar Embed

• All data must be stored internally within Google Workspace. No data may exist  outside of the Google Workspace platform. This includes images, page content,  templates, databases, metadata, indexes, directories, configuration information,  files, attachments and all other data. Links and embeds from external web  sources, which are the product of Richland Two employees who create content,  are excluded from the above.

  • Awesome Table interprets data only.

• The District must own all data.

  • Yes. All in Google Workspace.

• The District must be able to access and manage the system, tools, content and  other data via the provided interfaces, even if the software manufacturer is no  longer a functional entity.

  • Yes. All in Google Workspace.

• Optional Technical and Functional Features 

• Ability to track and report on clicks or views of news articles in order to  understand the effectiveness of the communication.

  • Post View Count Available

• Ability to require an article to be read such that the operator may review a list of  users who have and have not viewed the article, and automatically and/or  manually send reminder emails to the users who have not viewed the content.

  • Google Classroom

• Analytics to demonstrate the overall usage and effectiveness of the solution.

  • Google Analytics

• Polling, voting and/or rating options.

  • Google Forms

• A marketplace feature for the promotion of shared interests, or products for sale  or donation.

  • Google Form, Sheets, Awesome Table?

Additional Technical Information

• Possible Usage of “Awesome Table” in conjunction with Google Sheets or Google Forms:

  • Directories

  • Org Charts

  • Google Drive Files Displays

  • Marketplaces

4.  Approach and Methodology

Transition and Implementation Plan (Estimated)

• Planning and Discovery (1-2 days)

• Custom Sites Theme (1 week)

• Content Migration from Happeo to Google Sites (3 weeks)

• Google Workspace and Other Google Workspace Apps/Add-ons Configuration (2 weeks)

• Google Sites and Integrated Apps Training (1-3 days)

Training

• Google Sites Training

  • Live online classes (recorded for those unable to attend and for future reference)

• Google Workspace Integrations Training

  • Live online tutorials for administrators on integrations such as Google Drive, Google Groups, Google Sheets, etc.

Training Materials and Release Notes for Updates/Upgrades

• Google Workspace Updates

  • Relevant articles and instructions forwarded to administrators and content managers along with rollout timeline and impact assessment to solution as soon as they become available

• Awesome Table Updates

  • Relevant articles and instructions forwarded to administrators and content managers along with rollout timeline and impact assessment to solution as soon as they become available

District Resources and Efforts

• Occasional assistance of 1 Google Workspace admin to install Apps Script if required and adjust settings related to Google Sites, Google Drive and possibly other integrated Google applications.

• KWD recommends at least 1 intranet administrator to receive specialized training on site management and moderation.

5.  Value Added Information

Google Workspace Centric Solutions

• We specialize in Google Workspace centric solutions, meaning we leverage Google applications as much as possible. For example, our Teach for America intranet project was built on pure Google Sites as the platform and included more than 400 web pages.

• Since we build lightweight solutions built almost exclusively with Google Workspace applications. Therefore, we provide a contrast to licensed intranet packaged solutions like Happeo. We build Google Sites to client specifications and requirements, although we also enjoy being creative when appropriate.