Classroom is a tool that helps teachers and students to manage the setting and handing in of assignments through Google Drive. It features a simple resource and forum function, as well as powerful GSuite management.
What can I do with Classroom?
You can create an online classroom with announcements, resources and a basic chat forum. You can also set assignments and tasks for your class, collect their assignments, grade and mark their work and manage the sharing and copying of Google Docs and other files.
Go to classroom.google.com using your school Google account.
If this is your first time, you will be asked to confirm if you a teacher or a student. Teachers have the ability to create classrooms, while students can only join existing classrooms.
You school Google Admin may need to approve you before you can create a classroom.
Click + to join or create a classroom
The first page in Classroom is the Stream. On this pages, students will see any assignments you have set, as well as notices and messages. They will also be able to post messages, or respond to your messages.
Across the top of the screen, you will see four tabs: Stream, Classwork, People and Marks.
You can personalise the classroom by uploading a cover photo and selecting a colour theme.
From the Classwork tab, teachers can create and set assignments and tasks for students.
Google Classroom automatically creates a Google Calendar and a folder on the teacher's Google Drive to manage all the assignments and documents. These can be accessed from this page.
Click on the + Create button to create: an assignment, quiz, question, material or a new topic.
A standard assignment is a task which is created for students to complete.
To set an assignment:
Give the assignment a title
Add instructions for the students
Add a file or create a file
Choose whether students:
can read the file
can all edit the same file
receive an individual copy of the file
Click Assign
Assignments can be...
set for certain students, groups of students or the whole class
set for multiple classrooms
marked or graded
time limited
organised into topics
scheduled for release in future (click the arrow next to assign for scheduling)
Assignments will appear in the Stream, as well as classroom's Google calendar. Any files created or added will be stored in the Classroom folder on Google Drive.
When students have completed an assignment, they should hand in the work. This is done from the assignment page.
When students hand in work, ownership of the document reverts from the student to the teacher. Students will not be able to edit this work until it is returned to them by the teacher.
On the classwork page, all the assignments set by the teacher will be listed.
By clicking on an assignment, you will be able to see:
the assignment itself,
how many students it has been assigned
how many students have handed it in
Click either one of these to bring up the grid view.
Grid View
On the grid view, you will see a list of all the students in the class, and a grid of their assignments:
You can manage multiple students on the left hand side of the page, or click on individual students in the right hand window.
Students and can be sorted by their status of their assignment - assigned (but not done), handed in or marked.
Clicking an individual student will bring up their assignment - regardless of its status.
Assignment View
On the assignment view, you will see each students assignment. Here you can comment or suggest improvements, Give a grade, add private comments and return the assignment to the students.
Clicking on the < or > will show the assignment of the previous, or next student in the class. Using the assignment view is a quick way of seeing work and giving feedback to multiple students.
From the People tab, teachers can add and manage access to the classroom by co-teachers and students.
Students can be added, muted, emailed or removed from the classroom.
Students can be added to the classroom via email invitation through the people tab, or by providing them with a class code. The class code is shown on the Stream and can be reset, hidden or disabled by clicking on the cog in the top right hand corner of the screen.
By clicking on the marks tab, teachers can see an overview of students and the marks awarded for each assignment
From the main classroom page, select the three lines from the top left corner and choose settings.
From Settings, you can manage your profile and email notifications.
Google Classroom, by default, sends many email notifications. If you are a teacher or member of multiple classes this can be overwhelming. You can manage both personal and student notifications here.
If your Google Administrator has enabled Parent/Guardian Summaries, you can turn email summaries off by clicking on the settings cog. Parents must have a GMail account to be able to receive these summaries.
See the Google Classroom Help from Google at https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/?hl=en#topic=6020277