Google Classroom Review

Google
Product:
Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:
Google Classroom
Google
2014
Mountain View, CA
Ownership:
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:
Public
150+ million
Cloud
Yes
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Google Classroom At A Glance

Good: Strong collaborative focus, easy to set up classes and assignments, virtual classes with Google Meet.
Bad: Accounts for parents aren't offered.
Bottom Line: Learning management solution intended for schools in virtual or hybrid environments.

Product Overview

Google Classroom is part of the Google Workspace for Education package that includes Gmail, Google Drive, Google Calendar and other apps. It’s targeted to teachers and students in both K-12 and higher education markets.

One of the biggest benefits of Google Classroom is it’s simple to use and encourages collaboration between students and teachers. Teachers can create a class and list educational apps, such as assignments, in a few clicks. They can add students by name or send them a code to join. Students can then see what assignments are due, participate in discussion forums or message the teacher (either in private or via group chat).

Google Classroom integrates with many student information systems, along with other third-party applications, such as instructional tools, digital literacy solutions and coding software.

Google Classroom is also available as a mobile app for iPhone and Android devices.

Features

Here are some of the key features of Google Classroom:

  • Set Classroom themes with school colors or logo
  • Reuse assignments, tests or other course content in future classes
  • Add content to assignments, such as video, PDFs, Google Docs or Google Forms survey
  • Share videos, links or images from other websites with students
  • View assignments, announcements and other resources on a class resource page
  • Draft assignments or announcements and schedule them to post on a later date
  • Use Google Calendar to track assignment due dates
  • Export grades to Google Sheets or a .CSV file
  • Set permissions on whether students can make posts or comments (or mute individual students)
  • Set permissions on which teachers can create and manage classrooms, or which schools within a district can use Google Classroom
  • Hosting virtual classes with Google Meet
  • Originality reports, which lets students scan their work for potential plagiarism
  • Image capturing, where students can take a picture of their written homework and send it

We also want to note that the Assignments feature is not only built into Google Classroom, but it can be add-on to an institution’s current LMS software. It allows learners to complete their assignments in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides or other apps, and send them to their teacher for grading and feedback.

Target Market

Google Classroom is targeted to K-12 and higher education markets. Below, we’ve listed 10 schools that currently use it:

  • Amherst Central Schools
  • Arizona State University
  • Bloomington Public Schools
  • Boise State Universtiy
  • Brown University
  • Chicago Public Schools
  • Maine Township High School District
  • North Carolina State University
  • University of Michigan
  • Vanderbilt University

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Implementation/Integration

Google Classroom accounts for teachers and students are free, but schools must register for the Google Workspace for Education platform first.

Google provides a variety of training options for educators and IT administrators. They are:

  • The Teacher Center, which includes basic or advanced self-paced training on Google Classroom and professional development opportunities for teachers
  • Train the Trainer course for people interested in training others on Google tools
  • Certified Educator and Certified Trainer programs
  • Google Cloud Certified Google Workspace Administrator program for IT administrators

Customer Service & Support

Users can access support for Google Classroom in the following ways:

  • The Help Center provides resources about various Google Classroom topics. There’s also a troubleshooting section with solutions to common issues
  • There’s a product forum where users can receive help from other Google Classroom users and Google Classroom staff
  • There are dedicated IT guides for schools’ IT administrators

Google Classroom also provides monthly updates with new features and other product upgrades.

Pricing

The Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals platform is free for qualifying institutions and includes features such as Google collaboration tools (e.g., Docs, Sheets, Slides), communication tools (e.g., Meet, Gmail, Chat), data loss prevention for Google Drive and Gmail, and compliance with GDPR, FERPA and COPPA.

There are three paid plans:

  • Google Workspace for Education Standard – This plan costs $3 per student, per year and includes all of the features of the Fundamentals platform, plus a security center, advanced device and app management features, Gmail and Classroom logs for export into BigQuery, and audit logs.
  • Teaching and Learning Upgrade – This plan costs $4 per license, per month and includes all of the features of the Google Workspace for Education Standard, plus advanced Google Meet features (e.g., meetings with up to 250 participants, interactive Q&As, breakout rooms), unlimited originality reports and the ability to check for peer matches across a private repository.
  • Google Workspace for Education Plus – This plan costs $5 per student, per year and includes all of the features of the other plans, plus live streams with up to 100,000 in-domain viewers, syncing rosters from SISs to Google Classroom, personalized cloud search and prioritized support.

Shortcomings

Unlike other school-based LMSs, Google Classroom doesn’t offer accounts for parents. Instead, parents can sign up to receive an email summary of their children’s work and grades.

Screenshots

Google Screenshot 1
Google Screenshot 2
Google Screenshot 3

About

Google Classroom had a remarkable launch in 2014, rapidly growing to be one of the most frequently used tools in use in K-12 schools.  Available in 42 languages, this free classroom tool enables educators to streamline assignments, boost collaboration, and foster seamless communication, leveraging Google’s set of productivity tools.

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