Since the last Workspace updates post I shared here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning a few weeks ago, new interesting features and functionalities have been added to different Google Workspace products including Classroom, Calendar, Docs, Google Chat, and more. I went through these updates and compiled for you the list below containing what I believe are the most relevant new features for us in education. Click on any of the headings below to learn more about the feature in question.
Classroom is adding "an Admin console setting which will enable admins to control whether students can unenroll from classes. If turned on, it will prevent students from unenrolling themselves from classes. A teacher or admin would have to unenroll them from the class instead."
With this new feature you will be able to view more details about people within your organization. These include contact information, office and desk location, whether you received emails from them or not, and more. Besides Gmail, this feature is now available on the following Workspace products: Google Chat, Slides, Docs, Sheets, and Calendar.
The new features that are added to Google Meet in Classroom include:
- "The Class Meet link is now accessible on the side of the class stream, so students can easily join and teachers can manage the link from the stream.
- Students will be directed to a waiting room until a teacher has officially joined the class Meet link.
- Guests not on the class roster will have to “ask to join” and be admitted by the teacher before they can participate, so no unintended participants join the meetings.
- All designated co-teachers for a class will automatically be co-hosts in the meeting. This moderation tool will enable co-hosts to start the meeting with the same Meet link without the class teacher needing to be present. "
Users are now able to create and share a meeting notes document for their Calendar events. "Creating a notes document from Calendar will automatically populate the document with the event information and attach the document to the event. You can also add this same meeting notes template into any doc by typing “@” in the doc and using the drop-down menu."
To stay updated about future updates, check out Google Workspace Updates blog.
