The Google Classroom Review to Read in 2022

Google Classroom is a powerful yet straightforward learning management system that can help anyone transition to remote learning. 

Used by 150 million people, it makes digital education simpler and more effective for all stakeholders.Learn about every aspect of this platform in the Google Classroom review below.

What is Google Classroom Good for?

Google Classroom is a platform for teachers and students to interact, share classwork and assignments online. It is not a site that allows you to create and sell your course, like Teachable or Podia, nor an authoring tool, such as Elucidat or Articulate.

What it does is facilitate the teaching, learning and assessment process, leaving teachers to focus more on coursework. This makes it a valuable tool for any educator, whether it’s online or in-person classes, coaching sessions or company training programs.

Google Classroom Features

From adjusting settings so that learners can study in the language and method they are most comfortable with to adding cool elements to your virtual classroom, Google Classroom for education is flexible and super easy to use. 

On top of that, it has other standout features that most educators will love.   

Let’s take a look below.

Ease of use

Google Classroom is one of the easiest LMS to use mainly because most of us are already familiar with Google Tools, like Docs, Sheets and Slides. This combined with a user-friendly interface enables teachers to manage several courses at once, easily switching from class to assignments and student details.

Once Google Classroom users login, they can create a class with a few clicks. Classes are distinguished with colours and banners so that you can keep track of each one, while each class can have several topics—ideal if you want to keep broad subjects in one Classroom. 

The dashboard itself is quite straightforward. The Stream page shows all announcements and discussion questions, People is dedicated to all the participants in the class, while Classwork hosts reference materials like links, videos and other documents that teachers upload. Finally, the Grades tab is a chart that displays assignments and allows teachers to enter corresponding marks. 

A To-Do feature was recently added so that students and teachers can stay on track with due dates and missing work. This is integrated with Google Calendar which means you get automatic notifications about assignments, students performance and deadlines. 

Teachers can control students’ interactions, limiting them to commenting only on certain announcements, which is great for setting boundaries. It also works very well if you have more than one educator in the class as Classroom lets you add other teachers, either in a team-teaching scenario or for extra help and feedback. 

That said, those used to working with traditional LMSs might be disappointed with the lack of customisation options. 

Grading 

The evaluation process is considerably simplified with Google Classroom. 

The gradebook is accessible through the dashboard, allowing you to view students’ submissions, grades and return work. You can also use rubrics, up to 50 criteria per rubric, to keep grading consistent, and check for potential plagiarism by comparing students’ assignments against a database of past students’ work. 

There is no standard grading system, giving you the opportunity to create various categories, like homework, projects, classwork, and have each one contribute differently to the final grade.

Finally, you can export grades to your school’s student information system (SIS). Classroom is now integrated with Infinite Campus, Skyward 2.0 and Follett Aspen, making the platform even more appealing to teachers. 

Extra resources

Teachers have the option to create announcements, assignments and questions.

Announcements are articles that do not contain any learning tasks but instead serve as reminders to students about upcoming deadlines, assessments, or other classwork. You can schedule announcements and manage the responses and comments on each posting.

Assignments, which can be sent to the whole class or individual students, come with attachments (Youtube videos, Google Form polls, or documents from Google Drive), topics, due dates, while some even incorporate games. 

The Questions section offers both short answers or multiple choice quizzes and although useful, it somewhat falls short to what other LMSs offer. 

One of the best things about Google Classroom, though, is the possibility to reuse a post, such as a quiz, assignment or announcement, in an active class. You can also copy a class (including subjects, topics, classwork and grading system) and use it again at a later date. Both features are invaluable when it comes to saving time and effort on class preparations. 

Video meetings

You can set up video meetings in Classroom through Google Meet, Google Calendar and Gmail (although you would need the admin to create the meeting). Even better news is that you are now able to use all upgrades to Meet, such as hand-raising, Q&A, and polls, making live classes more engaging, which is bound to come in handy, particularly when planning end-of-year activities. 

Managing classes

With Google Classroom you can access audit logs to check performance, as well as look into specific issues, like which student got the assignment.  You can also export Classroom logs to BigQuery, further facilitating management. 

Security

Google Classroom offers top-notch security features, starting from separate accounts for students (they are not allowed to use their personal accounts) to limiting class activities to class members only. 

There are no ads and Google assures that students’ profiles will not be used for ad targeting. To top it all off, the platform is audited by third-party organisations, so no worries on the security front. 

Accessibility

Classroom is available on all devices, so you could get Google Classroom for Mac, Windows, Android or iPhone (the Google Classroom app is the third most downloaded education app on the Apple App Store in the UK). 

It also integrates with hundreds of apps, allowing for seamless communication between the platform and your favourite applications.  

Customer support 

Google has an extensive help centre and online community. You could find answers to any issue you might have about the platform, join a forum, or contact an expert in your area to help with training. 

There is also a Google Classroom feedback feature, where every user can leave a comment regarding the platform, helping the company make improvements. 

Still, it never hurts to have an actual company representative address your issues, so if live chat and email support is a must for you, look into LearnUpon or Looop LMS.

Google Classroom Pricing 

Google Classroom is part of Google Workspace for Education Tools. 

The basic edition, Education Fundamentals, is free for qualifying institutions. It is one of the best options for remote learning out there as it offers the basics tools in Google’s ecosystem, such as Classroom, Docs, Gmail and many others.

There are paid editions available, although to get the exact price you would need to contact the company directly.

However, according to online Google Classroom reviews, the pricing plans go from $3 per user annually for the Google Workspace for Education Standard to about $5 a year for the Google Workspace for Education Plus plan. 

Bottom Line 

Google Classroom is a ready-made platform that is incredibly user-friendly, runs on almost all devices and integrates with the most popular tools. It is also one of the easiest ways to transition from physical classrooms to online teaching for both students and educators. 

It may not be a fully-fledged LMS like TalentLMS or Docebo, but it is on track to getting there. Seeing as how its popularity skyrocketed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there is no doubt that it will soon offer more features and options to compete with the biggest names in the eLearning world.