The tech giant Google has rolled out over 50 new features across its learning and education products that include Classroom, Meet, Chromebook and G Suite for Education that has been rebranded to Workplace for Education to support more virtual learning. The pandemic has taught a new way of learning as well as schooling, therefore, forcing students, educators and teachers to opt for video conferencing platforms. Also, the Google classroom evolved with more than 150 million students, educators and school leaders took to Google’s platform for teaching and learning.
Soon Google will roll out more than 50 features to Classroom and other Google products that you will see over the coming months. New features will be added to Classroom including advanced analytics to help admins better understand usage and roster sync to save them time setting up classes. Soon, for teachers using Google Workspace for Education Plus or Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Classroom add-ons will let them choose their favorite EdTech tools and content from a marketplace and assign it to students directly inside Classroom — all without extra log-ins. Admins will also be able to install add-ons for teachers in their domains.
Later this year admins will be able to use Education Plus to create classes and populate and sync rosters directly to Classroom from their Student Information System (SIS). Grade Export will soon be expanded to Aspen SIS which was earlier available to Skyward and Infinite Campus customers letting teachers track grades and push them from Classroom’s Gradebook to their SIS, eliminating the need to put grades in two places.
For the admins with the Classroom audit logs, you can now root out Classroom-related issues such as who removed a student from a class or archived a class on a specific date. Classroom audit information will soon be available directly in the Admin Console. Using Education Standard or Education Plus soon admins can get deeper insights about Classroom adoption and engagement. You will be able to schedule exports of Classroom audit logs to BigQuery, where they can get adoption and engagement insights.
Apart from this Google Classroom will also be getting student engagement tracking features allowing educators to see relevant stats about how students interact with Classroom, such as which students submitted an assignment or commented on a post on a particular day. In addition to this, the company is also updating the Classroom Android app to work offline or with intermittent connections. Students will now be able to start their work offline, review assignments, open Drive attachments, and write assignments in Google Docs — all without an internet connection. It will also be easier for the students to attach and submit photos of their paper assignments using the app for teachers to review. They can also combine photos into a single document, crop or rotate images, and adjust the lighting.
Soon teachers as well as students on the web, iOS and Android will be able to customize Classroom assignments and posts using bold, italics, underline and bullets. While the original reports for instructors to detect potential plagiarism will soon be available in 15 languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, French, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Finnish, German, Korean and Danish, Malay and Hindi.
Google G Suite for Education has also been rebranded to Google Workspace for Education to offer more choices and control. This will include Classroom, Meet, Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and many more. And to meet the diverse needs of institutions around the globe, from Pre-K to Ph.D., it will now be available in four distinct editions instead of just two.
The free edition of G Suite for Education that has been rebranded to Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals will not receive any changes besides a new name and new features.
While the standard edition will provide institutions with enhanced security through the Security Center, greater visibility with tools such as advanced audit logs and more controls like advanced mobile management to make online learning even more secure.
The teaching and learning upgrade will provide video communication capabilities in Google Meet, features to enrich class experiences in Classroom and tools that guide critical thinking and academic integrity with originality reports to enhance educators’ instructional impact.
Google Workspace for Education Plus that was formerly known as G Suite Enterprise for Education will be delivering comprehensive solutions with advanced security and analytics, teaching and learning capabilities and more. According to the company Education, Fundamentals and Education Plus are already available and institutions will be able to purchase Education Standard and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade starting April 14, 2021. Whereas institutions who have already purchased G Suite for Enterprise for Education will start to see the new edition name, Education Plus, in their admin console and will automatically get all the features of Education Plus.
For Google Meet soon educators will get more visibility and control, including the ability to set policies for who can join their school’s video calls. Emoji reactions in Meet are coming this year, giving students lightweight, non-disruptive ways to engage.
This year Google Chrome OS will be getting over 40 new Chromebook models built for education, with information on how to choose the right ones for each schools’ unique needs, and over 500 Admin Console policies that will help manage and optimize Chromebook fleets. New accessibility features, like color cursors on Chromebooks and Switch access, let students learn with tools that suit their needs.
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