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Google Classroom FAQ
What is Google Classroom?
Google Classroom is a collaboration tool for educators and students.
Google Classroom provides a live “class stream” where educators can make announcements and post assignments. The platform automatically creates Drive folders for each assignment, class, and student. It keeps everyone organized and frees up your time.
Google Classroom's time-saving features include:
One-click copies—make a copy of a Google Doc for every student in your class;
Assignment and grade management —assign due dates and return grades;
Progress monitoring—check which students have completed an assignment at a glance;
Instant feedback—comment directly on shared documents and student posts to provide timely feedback.
If you have G Suite for Education, but can’t access Classroom, ask your admin to enable it!
What is G Suite for Education?
G Suite for Education is a cloud-based service that brings together many products that promote collaboration among students and educators. Students can work together, in class or at home, to complete assignments and group projects.
These tools can be used for free in the browser. The shareable documents auto-save, and students can even edit them without WiFi.
Google Classroom: A digital classroom space.
Google Docs: A word processor with smart editing and styling tools. You can create documents that integrate links, images, drawings, and tables.
Google Sheets: A spreadsheet application for analyzing, visualizing, and charting data.
Google Slides: A presentation tool that makes it easy to tell stories with text and images.
Google Forms: A quick & easy web-based survey and quiz creator. The information automatically appears in a spreadsheet
Google Drawings: A simple graphics editor. You can create diagrams and flowcharts with shapes, text, and images.
How is Ocean School integrated with Google Classroom?
Ocean School activities take advantage of Google Classroom’s suite of collaboration and productivity tools. Each Crew (group of students) can collaborate on documents, presentations, and more. Educators can assign activities that use Google Education apps, and students’ work is saved in Drive.
When an educator creates an Ocean School classroom, they get their own copy of the Ocean School content in Google Drive.
With Ocean School only one teacher can manage a class. Classes are not transferable to other teachers.
We do not store any student or educator work on the Ocean School platform.
Is Google Classroom available in multiple languages?
Yes, Google Classroom is available in 42 languages.
To use Google Classroom in your preferred language, you will need to change the language setting for your Google Account.
Please follow the instructions available in the Google Account Help website to select your preferred language.
What if I don’t have Google Classroom but want to have it?
If your school doesn’t have G Suite for Education, don’t worry. It’s free!
Your administrator can visit this website to get started with G Suite.
Where can I get help for Google Classroom?
The Google Classroom Help Center is the best place to look for reliable step-by-step how-to guides. It is also a great webpage to bookmark in your Chrome browser for easy access (Create, view & edit bookmarks).
Visit the Google for Education Help Forum. The Help Forum is a place for educators to ask and answer questions related to the use of Google for Education tools. You can read and respond to other educators’ questions as well as create a new topic with a question of your own.
To participate, sign in with your Google account. It’s best to start off by entering your question in the search box. Often, other educators have asked the same question before!
What if I want to use Ocean School without Google Classroom?
You and your students can still access the content on the platform. Here’s what you need to know:
You and each of your students will need to create an NFB account. An email address is required.
In the educator space, you can download a zipped folder of activities formatted as PowerPoint presentation files (.pptx) and Word documents (.docx). The activities and reflections will still be integrated with the platform, but your students will receive them as read-only Google Docs. Students can then download the activities in a variety of formats.