Google Classroom is designed to bring a digital classroom to students all-in-one place. It is part of the Google for Education toolkit.
Google Classroom is a natural extension of your in-person classroom. A gathering place for folders with documents for students, teacher tools, a fun class activity, class schedules, assignments for students, quizzes, tests, and more.
Students can upload their homework to be graded, participate in collaborative projects with other students, and see their daily schedule or due dates. It's also an easy tool to facilitate quick communication from students.
Google Classroom is meant to house your students’ educational journey and help them study, collaborate, and communicate with you and other students. No more turning in tedious paper homework!
Google Classroom operates seamlessly with other Google Apps for Education and Google Products.
Cost of Google Classroom
The basic version of Google Classroom is free as part of Google for Education. It is accessible to eligible education institutes, including elementary, middle, and high schools.
If you do not work for an eligible educational institute, it’s still possible to use Google Classroom with individualized plans and prices available by contacting Google’s customer service or by using the free version.
There are four tiers to access Google Classroom and additional features. The tiers are Education Fundamentals (free), Education Standard, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus. The three upper tiers are priced upon request and size of educational communities and provide new options for teachers. The paid options provide a range of classroom upgrades.
How to use Google Classroom for teachers
If your school uses Google Classroom and Google Workspace for Education Fundamental, be sure to get any login information from the school district or school community. Having this information ensures you have access to all of the tools from your school district.
When you’re ready to set up your classes, it is possible to set up your classroom in minutes. Just log in with your teaching email and password, and you can create as many classes as you’d like. Each class has a unique class code. An easy way to assign students to the correct class is to share the invite link generated for that class or email the classroom rosters the class code link. Students will join the class and have access to the digital classroom you have created.
Now you are ready to use use the learning tools at your fingertips!
After creating a class, you can use Google Classrooms’ other features. You can start small by assigning student homework in the desired classroom and class period. Or you can input all of the students' study materials and assignments for the semester. Think of each classroom as the "command center" for a class period.
Students can only see documents, due dates, and other materials when they are made available by you. You can post assignments immediately with Google Docs or schedule them to appear later.
Google Classroom works seamlessly with other Google Products and Applications. So don’t hesitate to attach Google Docs, Google Sheets, arrange meetings with Google Hangouts or Meet, and share student calendars within each classroom.
If you're ready to make Google Classroom your central destination, be sure to check out the Classroom User Guide to access all of the educational resources and teaching tools.
Best Google Classroom features for teachers
Google Classroom provides you with online teaching tools. It helps teachers keep learning materials all-in-one place.
When teachers give classroom access to students, they should see anything you have made available. You can always update the classroom and add any additional documents to the classroom.
Best teacher tips for Google Classroom
- With the integrated feature of Google Calendar, students can easily see due dates for homework, quizzes, and tests.
- Google Drive is a great place to store assignments, quizzes, or any material you’d like to share with students. When you’re ready to share it to a specific Google Classroom class, you add it from Google Drive.
- One of the best features is using collaboration tools and engaging students in collaborative feedback in real-time.
- For offline access, students need to download the provided content before turning off their internet access.
- When items are on Google Drive or Google Classroom it is easy to share files between teachers. Simply click the "share" button!
Here is another small list of tools that can make a dramatic impact in a classroom: the ability to flag potential plagiarism, export scores, two-way communication, cloud storage such as Google Drive, Google Docs and Sheets, Google Slides, direct, real-time feedback when working on collaborative projects, and other free-to-use Google tools. You can also provide rich feedback to students on their submitted documents and tests!
Why do teachers use Google Classroom?
Google Classroom is a versatile tool that brings school to them an all-in-one place. They can communicate with other students or teachers, submit homework, or find class-specific study materials.
It can also ease the burden off of teachers to supply printed materials in every class.
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