Introduction

Google Classroom is a learning management system developed by Google. It was made publicly available to all users on August 12, 2014. Google Classroom was created as a space for teachers to grade assignments and communicate with students and parents by integrating a collection of tools. Google Classroom incorporates other Google products such as Google Calendar, Slides, Sheets, Docs, Gmail, and Calendar to enhance learning, communication, and assessment. Google Classroom saw a sharp increase in use in 2020 with the pandemic, and Google responded by adding several features including 10 additional languages, better integration with lms, smart correct and auto-compose, and better integration for Google Meet for remote classes (Beal, 2021).

As of October 2023, there are four editions of Google Classroom: Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus. Education Fundamentals is a free service available to all Google users; the other three versions are paid subscriptions, which offer more services as the price goes up. All editions, however, allow teachers to create multiple classes, create assignments and assessments, grade assessments and view student grades, schedule events and online meetings, and communicate with students via the class stream.

Sharing

In order to create a Google Classroom for a class of students at a physical school (as opposed to private/small-scale use like tutoring or homeschooling), the school must have Google Workspace for Education. According to Google's FAQ page, "Google Workspace for Education lets schools decide which Google services their students can use, and provides additional privacy and security protections that are important in a school setting. Students cannot use Google Classroom at a school with personal accounts." Google Workspace for Education is free for most schools, though there are paid versions with premium features.

Once a school has signed up for Google Workspace for Educators, a Google account is created for each teacher and student at the school. A teacher can use that account to set up a Google Classroom, and invite students to the class with an invite link or class code sent to each student's school Gmail account.

Once a teacher creates a class on Google Classroom, that teacher is the "class owner." However, that teacher can also invite other teachers to have access to the class. Those teachers can do everything the owner can, except delete the class. The owner can also transfer ownership to the coteachers or remove the from the class.

Thus, multiple teachers can have access to multiple classes. Teachers can also post the same assignment, announcement, or assessment to multiple classes at once by selecting multiple classes when creating the post.

Any content that is posted to the Classroom can be shared with anyone with a Google account. Whiel teachers that are part of the class can see it whenever they enter the Classroom, in theory, any of this material could be shared with other teachers or schools via Gmail, as long as they have Google accounts.

Parent/Teacher Communication

Privacy laws do not enable parents and guardians to directly access student assignments. However, teachers can link each student account with one or more guardians. Guardians do not need to have Gmail accounts to accept this invitation.

The teacher can then turn on daily or weekly notifications for guardians. If these notifications are turned on, students' guardians will receive regular summaries of any announcements or assignments the teacher makes, as well as due dates. If a student has not turned in an assignment and it is past the due date, the date will be marked in red.

Assessment

Google Classroom features a Classwork feature where the teacher can choose from several options to create:

Any classwork the teacher creates can be assigned to the entire class or select students. The teacher can attach files, or link material from Google Drive, Youtube, or elsewhere on the internet.

Assignments, quiz assignments, questions, and material can be organized by topic.

Assignments, quiz assignments, and questions can be given due dates as well as point values, which the teacher can use for grading.

Assignments and assessments are automatically entered into the Grades section of the Classroom once the student has turned it in and the teacher has graded it. However, the teacher can manually create other assessments and enter them into the grade chart (e.g. putting in grades from a Blooket set or Redmenta test).

Pros and Cons

It's hard for me to see Google Classroom as working very well for younger students, as parents are not granted full access to the platform and students need to be able to maintain and access email accounts, create digital material and submit it on the platform, keep track of passwords, have digitial citizenship skills, and generally be able to navigate the internet. I currently teach IT to fourth graders, and can't imagine them using Google Classroom independently, so I would recommend this only to higher level students, in middle and high school. I think it can be a useful tool if the teacher already uses Google products regularly; it's essentially a collection of Google tools, so if a teacher is comfortable and familiar with these tools already, it's quite easy to learn how to use Google Classroom. However, it is a bit more limited than many other lms systems, which is fine if the teacher wants something lighter, but might not suite the purposes of a class that has a stronger digital presence. Its free price tag is a very attractive selling point, though the fact that the school using it must have Google Workspace for Education is a barrier that teachers may come across, especially if their schools are reluctant to implement it.

References

Adegbenro, T. (2021, December 31). An overview of Google classroom. Innovation Village | Technology, Product Reviews, Business. https://innovation-village.com/an-overview-of-google-classroom/

Beal, V. (2021, December 1). Google classroom. Webopedia. https://www.webopedia.com/definitions/google-classroom/

Classroom management tools & resources. (n.d.). Google for Education. https://edu.google.com/workspace-for-education/classroom/

Google classroom software reviews, pros and cons - 2023 software advice. (2023, October 11). Business Software Reviews from Software Advice®. https://www.softwareadvice.com/lms/google-classroom-profile/reviews/

Google for Education. (2023). Google Classroom User Guide For Teachers. Google. https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/google_classroom_user_guide.pdf

Logically Answered. (2023, June 21). Schools Have Had It With Google [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FjFg_5st8w

Ramin, S. (2016, November 30). Everything you need to know about guardian summaries in Google classroom — Hello, teacher lady. Hello, Teacher Lady. https://www.helloteacherlady.com/blog/2016/12/guardian-summaries-in-google-classroo.html

Siu, A. (2019, June 27). A timeline of Google classroom’s march to replace learning management systems. EdSurge. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-09-27-a-timeline-of-google-classroom-s-march-to-replace-learning-management-systems

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