Google Classroom & Meet Updates: 50+ New Features

Google Enhances Online Education Tools with Over 50 New Features

Today, Google announced a comprehensive set of updates for its suite of online education tools. The development and adoption of these tools – including Google Classroom, Google Meet, and Google Workspace for Education (formerly G Suite for Education) – have been significantly accelerated by recent global events. Google is introducing more than 50 new features designed to address the evolving needs of educators, administrators, and students alike.

The Evolution of Google Classroom

Initially, Google Classroom wasn’t conceived as a full-fledged Learning Management System (LMS). However, the company observed a shift during the COVID-19 pandemic, with educators increasingly utilizing Classroom as a central hub for their online instruction. Currently, the platform supports over 150 million users – students, teachers, and school administrators – a substantial increase from the 40 million users reported last year.

Responding to this increased usage and valuable user feedback, Google is rolling out a series of new features for Classroom throughout the year, with staggered release dates.

To further solidify Classroom’s role as a central learning hub, a new marketplace of Classroom “add-ons” will be introduced later this year. This will allow teachers to easily integrate their preferred edtech tools and content directly into assignments, eliminating the need for multiple logins. Administrators will also have the capability to install these add-ons for teachers across their institutions.

Enhanced Administrative Capabilities

Administrators will also benefit from new features arriving later in the year. Class rosters can be pre-populated using Student Information System (SIS) synchronization. Furthermore, for select SIS customers, student grades from Classroom will be directly exportable to the SIS. Improved logging capabilities, including Classroom audit logs (tracking actions like student removals or class archiving) and activity logs (monitoring adoption and engagement), will soon be available.

Monitoring Student Engagement

Teachers can readily identify students who are struggling in a traditional classroom setting. A new feature within Classroom aims to replicate this ability in virtual learning environments. The student engagement tracking feature will provide teachers with insights into student interaction with Classroom, such as assignment submissions and participation in discussions.

Addressing Connectivity Challenges

Recognizing the challenges posed by unreliable or absent internet access, particularly for students from low-income backgrounds, Google is enhancing the Classroom Android app. Students will now be able to begin their work offline, review assignments, access Drive attachments, and compose documents in Google Docs without an active internet connection. Work will automatically synchronize when connectivity is restored.

Improvements to photo uploads are also planned, allowing students to combine multiple photos into a single document, crop and rotate images, and adjust lighting.

Support for rich text formatting – including bold, italics, underlining, and bullet points – will be added across web, iOS, and Android platforms.

Originality reports, designed to detect plagiarism, will soon be available in 15 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, French, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Finnish, German, Korean, Danish, Malaysian, and Hindi.

Google’s free introductory computer science curriculum, CS First, is now directly accessible within Classroom.

Google Meet Updates for Educators

Beyond Classroom, Google Meet is also receiving updates tailored to the needs of educators.

A crucial new feature, rolling out in the coming weeks, is a “mute all” button, granting teachers greater control over classroom audio. In April, teachers will gain the ability to control when students can unmute themselves.

Additional moderation controls will be implemented throughout the year, including controls over meeting access, chat functionality, and screen sharing from iOS and Android devices. Administrators will be able to establish policies regarding who can join video calls, accommodating scenarios such as student-to-student connections, professional development, and guest speakers. Students will be prevented from joining Meets generated from Classroom until the teacher is present. Multiple teachers can now be designated as meeting hosts to share class management responsibilities.

To enhance engagement and inclusivity, students will be able to select emoji skin tones and react in class using emojis, with teacher oversight.

Introducing Google Workspace for Education

G Suite for Education is being rebranded as Google Workspace for Education. The core tools – Classroom, Meet, Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides – remain unchanged. However, the offering will now be available in four editions to better cater to diverse needs.

The free version will be known as Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals. The paid version will be offered in three tiers: Google Workspace for Education Standard, Google Workspace for Education Plus, and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade (available as an add-on to Fundamentals or Standard).

Standard includes all features of Fundamentals, plus enhanced security features. Plus provides everything in the other tiers, along with advanced security, analytics, and teaching/learning capabilities.

Fundamentals and Plus are available now, while the others will launch on April 14, 2021. Existing G Suite for Enterprise for Education customers will be upgraded to Education Plus.

Storage Updates

Google is also updating its storage model to a pooled storage system, designed to optimize resource allocation. Institutions will receive a baseline of 100 TB of pooled storage, shared across all users. This change will take effect for current customers in July 2022 and for new customers in 2022. Google estimates that less than 1% of institutions will be affected by this update.

Further updates to Google Workspace for Education are planned, including saved drafts in Google Forms and meeting transcripts in Google Meet.

New Chromebooks and Accessibility Improvements

Google is launching over 40 new Chromebooks, including models with built-in LTE connectivity. ChromeVox, Chrome’s screen reader, has been improved with new tutorials, menu search functionality, and voice switching based on text language.

Parents can now link their child’s Google Workspace for Education account to their personal account using Family Link, allowing them to monitor device usage and ensure a focused learning environment.