Back-to-School with New Google Classroom Features

Mr. Will Phan, an engineer at Google overlooking the Classroom platform, explained that the new feature gives teachers the power to grade discussions on articles and even videos that are posted on the platform.

TO HELP KICK OFF THE NEW YEAR, Google announced several updates to the Google Classroom platform early on August 24, to be rolled out gradually throughout the week.

Google Form links can be added to posts.

Then there are other new features in the Classroom as an ability to bump old posts up, the ability to make due dates optional, as there will soon be an integration with Google Forms in order to make tests, quizzes, as well as surveys. Teachers will also have the ability to manually add class events such as field trips or guest speakers to the class calendar. The free service is available to anyone with a Google Apps for Education account; it integrates with apps like Google Docs and Google Drive.

Assignments can now be given without due dates.

And when students see those assignments, they may just turn out to be reused assignments from other years, because Google Classroom now lets teachers more easily reuse assignments, announcements and questions from other classes they have taught.

Teachers will also be able to post questions to their class, and encourage discussions by allowing students to respond in threaded comments to each other’s answers. When Google launched a number of updates to Classroom in May of this year, the company said students had already turned in more than 70 million assignments. The calendar will be accessible through either Classroom or Google Calendar itself.