Google is an internet giant but with the advent of the coronavirus coupled with people’s interest in seeking innovative ways to do things, technology-enabled solutions like online learning became prominent and in high demand. Google has announced that it is adding new tools to assist teachers and students in their online learning experience. The company has announced that it is adding fifty features to its Google Classroom and GMeet. The following are some of the features the company is including in its Classroom and GMeet;
Google Classroom’s Android app will be able to allow students to combine pictures of their assignments into a single document for easy submission. Cropping, rotation and adjustment of image’s lighting would also be possible for student to carry out before turning their assignments in. This promises to make sharing pictures of assignments easier and less stressful.
Another note-worthy feature that has been added is the ability for teachers to add third-party Education Technology tools without new login. Henceforth, teachers using Education Plus or Teaching and Learning Upgrade will be able to add tools directly into the interface of Google’s Classroom.
Google has also added new tools to detect plagiarism. Students will also be able to add originality reports in fifteen languages including English, Hindi, Japanese, Swedish, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Norwegian, French, Indonesian, Finnish, Danish, Malay and Korean.
Google is also including offline mode on the Classroom Android app. This way, students will be able to review their assignments, open Drive attachments and write assignments in Google Docs while offline.
Google is also including a new engagement tracking feature that will enable teachers be able to see relevant statistics about students’ interaction in the Classroom. This engagement tracking feature will include the ability to see which student(s) turned in assignments or contributed in class. This way, the teacher knows who is and who is not following.
Teachers will get the option of bringing a meeting or meetings to an end. This feature will allow the teacher to end the call so that there are no students staying on while the teacher is no longer there.
Apart from the teacher’s ability to control the Classroom more effectively, Google is enabling a feature that will allow for multiple moderators or hosts. Teachers will be able to partner with other people (other teachers, guests, etc.), or enable a selected student to help with managing the Classroom. Moderators have access to moderation controls like deciding who can join, etc.
Teachers will get the power to mute every other person at once during classes on GMeet and gets to decide if students can unmute themselves or not.
The new tools that Google is including promise to give teachers and students an improved online learning environment and experience.
