Head back to school with new features in Google Classroom

Google Apps update alerts

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Head back to school with new features in Google Classroom Posted: 24 Aug 2015 11:51 AM PDT As teachers gear up for the new school year, we're adding a number of new features in Google Classroom to help them save time, engage with students, and keep everyone organized. Most of these features are rolling out this week, with others coming soon. Keep students engaged with question-driven discussions Since Classroom launched last year, teachers have been using their class stream to host student debates, Q&A, and discussions. Starting today, they'll be able to do this in a more collaborative way. They can post questions to their class and allow students to have discussions by responding to each other's answers (or not, depending on the setting chosen). For example, teachers could post a video and ask students to answer a question about it, or post an article and ask them to write a paragraph in response.  Reuse posts Teachers can now reuse assignments, announcements or questions from any one of their classes — or any class they co-teach, whether it's from last year or last week. Once they choose what to copy, they'll also be able to make changes before posting or assigning it. Calendar Integration In the next month, Classroom will automatically create a calendar for each class in Google Calendar. All assignments with a due date will be automatically added to class calendars and kept up to date. Teachers will be able to view their calendar from within Classroom or on Google Calendar, where they can manually add class events like field trips or guest speakers.  And a few more improvements based on teacher feedback: Bump a post: When teachers want to make sure an older item is easy for students to find, they can now move any post to the top of the stream.  Due dates optional: For long-term projects or student-driven assignments, teachers will have the option to create assignments that don't have due dates.  Attach a Google Form to a post: Many teachers have been using Google Forms as an easy way to assign a test, quiz or survey to the class. Coming in the next few weeks, teachers and students will soon be able to attach Google Forms from Drive to posts and assignments, and get a link in Classroom to easily view the answers.  Launch Details Release track:  Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release this week, with the exception of Calendar integration and attaching a Google Form, which are planned for the coming weeks Rollout pace:  Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) Impact:  All end users (teachers/students) Action:  Change management suggested/FYI More Information Help Center: Post a question Help Center: Reuse a post Help Center: Move posts Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted Launch release calendar Launch detail categories Get these product update alerts by email Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

Hover over Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides Share button to see warning if sharing settings are invalid Posted: 24 Aug 2015 11:50 AM PDT In July, we launched notifications in the Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides sharing dialogues that warn users when they attempt to share files with others but cannot do so due to their own or the recipient's domain-wide sharing settings. Starting today, a similar warning will appear when a user hovers over the Share button in a Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides file if that user is allowed to edit that file's permissions. As with the sharing dialogue, this warning will appear when: a file is shared with a person outside of the sharing employee's domain, but sharing outside of that employee's domain is disabled, a file is shared with a person outside of the sharing employee's domain, but sharing into the receiving person's domain is disabled, and/or a file is shared using one of the "anyone" options, but sharing or publishing outside of the sharing employee's domain is disabled. This feature was specifically requested following the July launch and gives your employees increased visibility into how their files are being shared. Launch Details Release track: Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release Rollout pace: Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility) Impact: All end users Action: Change management suggested/FYI More Information Help Center Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted Launch release calendar Launch detail categories Get these product update alerts by email Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

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