What's new in Classroom
We add new features to Classroom frequently. This page provides a description of each new feature and a link to more information on using it in Classroom. Check this page each month to see what we added.
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January 2019
New features:
- New look—Fresh new design and lots of new themes.
- Drag-and-drop classwork—Quickly organize entire topics or individual posts on the Classwork page.
- Quickly see and share a class code—Class codes now at the top of the Stream page for each class.
- Swipe for options—Quickly delete or edit posts by swiping left on your mobile screen (iOS only).
December 2018
November 2018
New features:
Classroom’s Gradebook beta launched! With Gradebook beta, teachers can:
- View and edit all student grades from a new Grades page.
- See overall grades and share them with students.
-
Create weighted grade categories for overall grade calculations.
Gradebook beta is available on the web, Android, and iOS. Some features, like the Grades page, are available only on the web.
If you would like to participate in the beta program, you can learn how to sign up.
New feature:
- Classroom now available as an additional service for all G Suite accounts—G Suite domains (Basic, Business, and Enterprise) can use Classroom as an additional service.
New features:
- To-do page restored—On the web, teachers can get an overview of student work for all classes on the To-do page. On all platforms, students can see assigned and completed work across all classes.
- Edit class details—Teachers can edit the class description, section, subject, and room on the Settings page on all platforms
New Android features:
- Student selector—Teachers can randomly select students in their classes.
- Bottom tab navigation—Users can navigate between the Stream, Classwork, and People pages with a bottom navigation bar.
New feature:
- Materials on the Classwork page—Teachers can add materials to the Classwork page.
- Classwork page for existing classes—Teachers can add the Classwork page to existing classes or classes they’ve previously removed the page from.
- Easier posting on the Stream page—Teachers and students have an easier way to post in the Stream.
- Edit the room, subject, and section during course creation and in Settings page—Teachers can edit the room, subject, and section when creating or editing a course or in the Settings page.
- Teachers can edit the room and subject when creating or editing a course.
New iOS features:
- Bottom tab navigation—On iOS, users can navigate between the Stream, Classwork, and People pages with a bottom navigation bar.
- Guardians—On iOS, verified teachers can view student guardians.
August 2018
New features:
- New Classwork page—Teachers and students have a new Classwork page. Teachers can post assignments and questions on the page, as well as group them into modules with topics.
- New grading tool in Classroom—Teachers have a new grading tool where they can switch between grades, student submissions, and comments while grading and save common feedback in a comment bank to use later.
- New People page—Teachers can view class member information on the People page. Teachers can also invite and remove students, co-teachers, and guardians on the page.
- New Settings page—Teachers can edit the class description, change the class code, manage guardian summaries, and control Stream settings on a consolidated Settings page.
- Copy a class—Teachers can copy classwork and topics from an existing class to new class.
- Control notifications by class—Teachers and students can turn notifications off for any class.
- Change grades—Teachers can change grade point values when creating or editing assignments or questions.
- See updates—Teachers and students can see updated labels (Assigned, Turned In, and Graded) for the status of a student’s work.
For more information on the new features, see Back to School 2018 FAQ.
New API features:
- Third-party applications can programmatically receive notifications of changes to assignments and posts in a class.
New Android features:
- Teachers can attach files to classwork without permission to share those files. Students can add files that they don't own to posts. Classroom makes a copy of the material for sharing.
- Teachers can invite guardians to sign up for email summaries to keep up with their students’ progress.
- Teachers can email a list of all work by a student in a class to the student and their guardian. The list shows the status of the student’s work (for example, assigned or turned in) and grades, when work is graded.
- Teachers and students can attach and annotate new PDF files while creating and editing a post.
New feature:
- Grade and return questions—Teachers can grade answers to questions and return them to students.
New features:
- Rename a class—On iOS, teachers can change the class name and section.
- Email a single view of a student’s work—Teachers can now email a list of all work by a student in a class to the student and their guardian. The list shows the status of the student’s work—assigned, turned in, and grades when work is graded.
New feature:
- Classroom for Google Accounts managed with Family Link—Children can use Classroom with an account that is created by a parent or guardian, and managed using Family Link.
- Classroom data export—Users can export data from Classroom classes from the Google Download your data page.
New feature:
New feature:
- Import Google Forms quiz grades—Teachers can assign a Google Forms quiz and automatically import grades to the Student Work page.
New API features:
- Notifications for changes to class rosters—Applications can subscribe to push notifications for changes to class information.
- Create individualized posts—Applications can create and update individualized posts.
- Create announcements—Applications can post announcements.
New features:
- See a single view of a student’s work—Teachers can now get a list of all work by a student in a class. Students can see a list of all their work for a class in one place. Teachers and students can filter the list by assignment status or grade.
- Reorder class cards—Teachers and students can reorder their classes on the Classroom home page.
- Decimal grades—Teachers can use decimal grades for grading.
- Display the class code—When inviting students to a class, teachers can display the class code in full screen.
- Transfer class ownership—Administrators and teachers can transfer ownership of classes to another teacher.
- Use the Google bar— Users can easily switch between Classroom and other G Suite tools, and access Classroom directly from the App launcher.
New API features:
- Schedule coursework—Applications can schedule coursework to post at a later date/time by setting the scheduledTime field of coursework
- View class calendar—Applications can access the calendarId of a course to build integrations with Classroom and the Google Calendar API
- Identify verified teachers—Applications can now identify if a given user is a verified teacher
New features:
- Email notification control—Teachers and students can specify which email notifications they receive.
- Returned work—Teachers can see the number and names of students they’ve returned work to.
- Invite users easily with Google Groups—Teachers who use Groups can invite a group of students and co-teachers to a class.
New features:
- Classroom available for personal Google Accounts—Homeschoolers, tutoring programs, lifelong learners, and others who aren’t associated with a school can now use Classroom with a personal Google Account.
- Invite students by email—Teachers can invite students and co-teachers by email to join a class.
New features:
- Notification controls—Teachers and students can specify which mobile notifications they receive.
- Student notification—Students can receive email and mobile notifications when they have unsubmitted work that's due within 24 hours.
New features:
- Individual assignments—Teachers can post work and announcements to individual students in a class.
- New teacher notifications—Teachers receive email and mobile notifications when a student submits late work or resubmits work.
- Classroom user metrics—Administrators can view Classroom usage reports in the Admin console.
- Coursework improvements for third-party developers—Third-party applications can programmatically create questions, modify coursework, and add materials to coursework.
New Android feature:
- Teachers can edit the class description and add materials to the About tab.
Guardians can receive email summaries with any email address, without creating or signing in to a Google Account.
New Android features:
- Teachers can schedule assignments, questions, or announcements to post at a later date. The post is then automatically published to the class stream at the scheduled date and time.
- On devices with Android 7.0 Nougat, teachers and students can drag and drop materials into Classroom from another app when the two apps are open in split screen mode.
New web and Android feature:
- Teachers can add topics to the class stream without creating posts.
New Android feature:
New Apple® iOS® features:
- Teachers and students can add content from other apps to new posts in Classroom.
- Students can create a new blank PDF file, write notes or draw images on it, and save it as an attachment to their assignment.
New web feature:
- Teachers can view the history of changes to a student’s grades in submission history.
New Android features:
- Teachers can rename, archive, and delete classes.
- Students can create a new blank PDF file, write notes or draw images on it, and save it as an attachment to their assignment.
- Guardian summaries: Teachers and administrators can invite guardians to sign up for email summaries to keep up with their students. Guardians can choose how often to get a summary—daily or weekly—and can unsubscribe at any time. Summaries include a student’s missing or upcoming work as well as new announcements and questions posted by teachers in the class stream.
- Topics for stream organization: Teachers can organize the class stream by adding topics to posts. Teachers and students can filter the stream by topic.
- Teachers and students can preview materials attached to assignments or posts.
- Teachers and students can view email notifications by class using Inbox by Gmail. Important updates from recent emails are highlighted in each bundle.
- Teachers can add a subject when creating a class.
New mobile app features:
- Mobile annotations: Teachers and students can draw on, highlight, and write notes on documents and PDFs in the Classroom mobile app.
- Teachers can poll their students using multiple-choice questions and allow students to see a summary of their classmates' answers.
- On Apple® iOS®, teachers can post to multiple classes.
Updated mobile app features:
- On Android, teachers can create assignments or questions without a due date.
- On iOS, teachers can mute students directly from the student's comment.
Updated iOS features:
- Teachers can invite students and co-teachers to join their classes.
- Teachers can mute students.
- Teachers can create or schedule assignments or questions without a due date.
- Coursework in the Classroom API: Third-party applications can create assignments in the class stream, turn in work for students, and send grades back to Classroom.
- Additional course metadata in the Classroom API: Third-party applications can view course Drive folders and course groups.
- Teachers can schedule assignments, questions, or announcements to post at a later date. The post is then automatically published to the class stream at the scheduled date and time.
Updated Android features:
- Users can easily share content from other mobile apps to create posts in Classroom.
- Teachers can invite or remove students and co-teachers.
- Teachers can mute students.
Updated iOS features:
- Teachers can schedule assignments, questions, or announcements to post at a later date.
- Teachers can remove students and co-teachers from a class.
- Teachers can poll their students using multiple-choice questions and allow students to see a summary of their classmates answers.
Updated iOS features:
- Teachers can draft any type of post—assignment, question, and announcement—and save for posting at a later date.
- Teachers can reuse existing posts—assignments, questions, and announcements—from a current or previous class.
Updated Android features:
- Teachers can draft any type of post—assignment, question, and announcement—and save for posting at a later date. Teachers can attach YouTube videos and post to multiple classes.
- On Android, teachers and students can configure notifications to immediately see any new notifications they have—a little red circle on the Classroom menu indicates that there are new notifications.
- Personalized upcoming work: Students only see their unfinished assignments in the upcoming work list for a class. Upcoming work is visible on a class card and in the class stream.
- Copy grades to Google Sheets: Teachers can copy all assignment and question grades for a class to Sheets. The spreadsheet includes average grades for individual students and for the class.
- Sort students by name: In addition to completion status, teachers can sort students by first and last name on the grading page.
- Add private comments when returning work: Teachers can add private comments when returning graded work to students.
Updated mobile app features:
- Teachers can create short answer questions in their class streams and allow students to edit their answers as well as see and reply to classmates’ answers.
- Google Forms: Teachers can easily attach a form to posts and open any responses.
- On Android, teachers can reuse existing posts (announcements, assignments, and questions) from a current or previous class.
- Google Forms: Teachers can easily attach Google Forms to posts and open responses from Classroom. When teachers attach a form to an assignment and there is no other work, the assignment is automatically marked as done when students complete the form.
- Google Calendar: Each class has a calendar, and work with a due date is automatically added to the calendar. Teachers and students can view the calendar in Classroom, or in Google Calendar on their computers and mobile devices.
- Share to Classroom with Chrome: Students and teachers can use the Share to Classroom Chrome extension to share web content to to their classes. Teachers can use the extension to instantly push web pages to all students in a class, or create an assignment or announcement in Classroom.
- Ask and answer a question: Teachers can post a short answer question to students in the class stream at any time, with options to allow students to edit their own answer, and to see and reply to classmates’ answers. Students answer the question in the class stream, and teachers have the option to grade answers.
- Reuse a post: Teachers can reuse existing posts (announcements, assignments, questions) from a current or previous class.
- Move a post to the top of the class stream: Teachers can change the order of posts in the class stream by moving any item to the top of the stream to give it priority.
- Visual refresh: Classroom has a new simplified design for creating and posting assignments, announcements, and questions and for viewing assignment details. The design updates enable quick and easy access for teachers and students.
- Whitelisted domains: Now you can whitelist other G Suite for Education domains so students, teachers or staff in different domains can effectively work together in Drive and Classroom.
- Mobile notifications: Students can see immediately when a teacher creates a new assignment or announcement, comments on a student’s post, or grades or returns an assignment. Teachers can see immediately when a student comments on a post or sends the teacher a private note and when the teacher is invited to teach a class.
- Classroom share button: Teachers and students can share links, videos, and images from other websites or products to Classroom.
- Classroom API: Allows administrators to provision and manage classes at scale, and lets developers integrate their applications with Classroom.
- Set Classroom data access: Administrators can decide if users in a domain can grant access to their Classroom data to other applications.
- Mobile notifications: In the next few weeks, mobile notifications for iOS and Android apps will allow students to immediately see when they get a new assignment or grade or a comment from another student or teacher.
Updated mobile app features:
- Teachers can create assignments.
- Teachers can review student work and provide grades.
- Additional teachers can view and take action in their classes.
- Support for multiple teachers: Teachers can invite other teachers to join their classes.
- Draft posts and assignments: Teachers can save their work on an announcement or assignment and post it later once it is ready to go.
- Draft grades: Teachers can save grades for an assignment and return the graded assignments to their students later.
- Email notifications: Teachers and students can receive email and mobile notifications when someone creates a private comment for them.
- Upload your own class theme: Teachers can use their own photo or other image as the theme for their class in Classroom.
- Updated mobile apps:
- iOS: Students can view the class resource page and share images/pdf/videos to Classroom assignment submissions.
- Android: Students can view the class resource page. Teachers can add attachments to new announcements and view the number of turned-in assignments in the class stream.
- Mobile app for Android and iOS: The Classroom mobile app allows students to do their work anytime and anywhere. It is designed for schools with iPads or Android tablets, schools with BYOD policies, and students' personal devices. Here are a few of the mobile-specific features available through the app:
- Photos: Students can attach photos to assignments or posts, sharing them with the teacher or the whole class.
- Share from other apps: Students can also easily attach images, PDFs and web pages from other apps to their assignments.
- Offline: With offline caching students will be able to access their to do list even when they don’t have an internet connection.
- Archive a class: At the end of the school year or a semester, you may want to archive a class to preserve the class materials, any assignments, and any postings to the class stream.
- Assignments page for Teachers: On the Assignments page, teachers can review student work for any assignments as well as any grades or previous comments.
- Attach multiple Drive files: Teachers can attach multiple Drive files to an assignment.
- Profile pic in Settings: Teachers and students can easily set their profile pictures in Classroom.
- Teachers are editors: Teachers are added as editors to Drive files attached to student assignments, so they can see revision history and provide feedback before assignments are turned-in and after they’re returned.
- +Mentions: You can +mention classmates or your teacher in comments and posts.
- Invite students more easily with Groups: If you already have a Google Group set up for your class, you can now use that group to invite students to Classroom.
- Mark assignments as “done”: Not all assignments require students to submit work online — like reading a chapter or conducting an experiment — so students can simply mark assignments as "done" if there's nothing to turn in.
- Stream controls for teachers: Teachers can set permissions for whether or not their class can post or comment in the stream, mute individual students from posting or commenting, and view previously deleted items in the stream.
- Export all grades: Teachers can download grades for all assignments for a class at once, making it easier to export assignments to a gradebook.
- Sort by first or last name: Teachers can also choose to sort students by first or last name, depending on their needs.
Classroom launch: Classroom is designed to help teachers create and collect assignments paperlessly, including time-saving features like the ability to automatically make a copy of a Google document for each student.