Teaching with Google Classroom - GSP982

Overview

Classroom is your all-in-one place for teaching and learning. As part of Google Workspace for Education, Classroom is intuitive, easy to use, and gets you started in minutes. This lab shows how you, as a teacher, can use Classroom to set up a class, including how to set up communication using the class page, Gmail, and Google Meet; create assignments; and use Calendar to keep the class on schedule and your students aware of deadlines.

What you'll do

• Create a class landing page

• Add students to a class

• Generate a Google Meet link

• Create an assignment

• View Classroom as a student

Classroom

Classroom is a free tool within Google Workspace for Education and integrates Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Drive, Slides and other Google Workspace apps. With Classroom, educators can distribute and collect assignments, give personalized feedback and grades, and see students' work in one place. Schools use Classroom to make teaching more productive and meaningful by streamlining assignments, boosting collaboration, and fostering communication.

Setup and requirements

Before you click the Start Lab button

Read these instructions. Labs are timed and you cannot pause them. The timer, which starts when you click Start Lab, shows how long Google Cloud resources are made available to you.

This hands-on lab lets you do the lab activities in a real cloud environment, not in a simulation or demo environment. It does so by giving you new, temporary credentials you use to sign in and access Google Cloud for the duration of the lab.

To complete this lab, you need:

• Access to a standard internet browser (Chrome browser recommended).

Note: Use an Incognito (recommended) or private browser window to run this lab. This prevents conflicts between your personal account and the student account, which may cause extra charges incurred to your personal account.

• Time to complete the lab—remember, once you start, you cannot pause a lab.

Note: Use only the student account for this lab. If you use a different Google Cloud account, you may incur charges to that account.

Start your lab

When you are ready, click Start Lab in the upper left.

Sign in to the Google Workspace Admin Console

To access the Google Workspace Admin Console, you must find your credentials and then sign in.

Find your lab's User Email and Password

To access the resources and console for this lab, locate the User Email and Password in the Lab Details panel. This panel is on the left or at the top, depending on the width of the browser window. Use these credentials to log in to the Google Workspace Admin Console.

If your lab requires other resource identifiers or connection-related information, they appear on this panel as well.

Sign in to the Admin Console

1. Click Open Google Workspace Admin Console.

Tip: Open the tabs in separate windows, side-by-side.

Note: If you see the Verify your account dialog:

• Click Next.

• Click the prefilled user.

• Click Use another account.

1. On the Sign in page, log in using the User Email and Password details provided.

2. When prompted, click I understand and ACCEPT TERMS OF SERVICE to accept all terms and conditions.

3. Click Get set up to continue.

After a few seconds, the Admin Console opens.

1. Right-click Verify in the red box at the top or right-click on Verify domain on the red box in the Domains card, and select Open link in new tab.

   Note: To complete this step in a real-life scenario, you'd need to add an actual DNS record.

2. Click the new tab, called Domain setup, to complete the Google Workspace domain verification steps.

3. On the Let's set up your domain page, click Get Started.

4. On the Choose how to verify your domain page, click Other verification options.

5. From the Domain host dropdown, select Other as a domain host and then click Continue.

6. At the bottom of the Add verification code page, select the Come back here and confirm once you have updated the code on your domain host checkbox, and then click Confirm.

7. Wait until it says Your domain is verified! and then close the Domain setup tab.

   Note: Do not click Activate Gmail.

8. Return to the Admin Console tab and refresh the page.

This lab provides a temporary Google Workspace Enterprise account. There are a number of differences between the Enterprise and Education versions of Workspace, so the options in the Admin console may slightly differ from the Education version. For example, the Education version allows services to be restricted based on age. This feature is not available in this lab's version of the admin console. For more information, see what's in the Google Workspace for Education editions.

Task 1. Set up the domain

Before users can access the apps and services in this domain, the Workspace admin must add them to the domain. In this section, you as admin:

• Create a small role-oriented structure by adding 2 child OUs called Teachers and Students to the top-level domain called Google Workspace Labs.

• Add at least one user to each OU.

Create Teacher and Student OUs

1. In the Google Admin Home page, in the Main menu

   

   , click Directory

   

   > Organizational units. The Organizational units window opens and shows one organization unit: the Google Workspace Labs unit.

2. Click Create organizational unit to create a new OU.

3. In the Create organizational unit dialog:

   • Name the organizational unit Teachers.

   • (Optional) Enter a description.

   • Click Create.

The new OU Teachers is now listed under the Google Workspace Labs unit. You may have to refresh the browser tab to see the Teachers OU.

1. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to create another OU named Students.

You now have 2 new OUs, Teachers and Students, listed under the top-level OU, Google Workspace Labs.

Add users

To add users to your workspace:

1. In the Main menu

   

   , click Directory

   

   > Users.

2. Click Add new user from the top menu. The Add new user dialog opens.

3. Type Maria for First name and Kearns for Last name. Leave all other fields at their default, and click on continue.

4. When the Adding Users dialog opens, record the Username and Password to log into the classroom as a teacher later in the lab.

5. Click Dismiss.

6. Select Maria Kearns, click on More Options > Change Organizational unit field, and then click Teachers > Continue > Change.

7. Type Alex for First name and Miller for Last name, and then click Continue.

8. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to copy the Username and Password to log into the classroom as a teacher later in the lab.

9. Select Alex Miller, click on More Options > Change Organizational unit field, and then click Students > Continue > Change.

10. Click Directory

    

    > Users to see the users you added.

Task 2. Launch Classroom

In the last section, you used the admin role to set up the organizational structure and add users. From this section on you step through the steps as a domain user, either a teacher or student.

• From Google Apps

  

  in the upper right, click Classroom. Classroom opens.

Note: Be sure to click the Google Apps in the upper right, not the Main menu

, and then click Directory

> Additional Google services.

Sign in as a Teacher

1. Click Switch Account next to Workspace User to open the Choose an account dialog.

2. Click Use another account. The Sign in page opens.

3. In the Email or phone field, enter the username for Maria Kearns that you previously recorded. Click Next.

4. Enter the password you previously recorded for Maria Kearns.

5. Accept Terms as needed.

6. Create a new password, maybe something like “luv2Teach”.

7. Click Continue to confirm you’re Maria Kearns. The Pick your role dialog opens.

8. Choose I’m a teacher. The Classroom page opens. If you don't see the Create class button, reload the browser tab.

Note: When users sign in to Classroom for the first time, they identify as teachers or students. Once teachers sign in, they are automatically added to the Classroom teachers group for Admin approval.

Note: For the lab, Classroom is configured to allow unverified teachers to create and manage a class. If only verified teacher had that permission, you would have to wait for the admin to verify you to continue.

Click Check my progress to verify the objective.

Launch classroom

Task 3. Create a class

To create a class:

1. In Classroom, click Create class.

2. In the Create class dialog:

   • Name your classroom "History".

   • Ignore all other fields.

   • Click Create.

Classroom opens the Class page. Notice the Stream, Classwork, People, and Grades tabs.

Tab	Description
Stream	Class landing page:

• Provides the codes or links needed to attend class sessions

• Where you post announcements

• Where you manage class details

Classwork

Class assignments:

• Where you post assignments, quizzes and questions

• Where you make available class resources

People	Where you see everyone in the class, send emails, and invite people to join the class.
Grades	Where you view and manage grades

Note: It can sometimes take a few minutes for this check to verify.

Click Check my progress to verify the objective.

Create a class

Set up your class landing page

Notice when you created the History class, the History class page opened on the Stream tab. The Stream tab is the landing page for any class you create. In this section, you generate a Meet link for class sessions, post a welcome announcement to your students, and configure what students can view .

Generate a Meet link

To create a Meet link to use for class sessions, do the following:

1. Still in the Stream tab, in the Meet card, click Generate link. The Manage Meet link dialog opens.

2. Notice by default, the link is visible to students. Click Save.

Notice a Join button is now displayed in the Meet card.

Since the link is visible to students, it’s visible in the student view of the class stream.

Stream settings

Use Stream settings to manage communications. In this section you configure the Stream settings to let students:

• Post comments on your announcements

• View grades

To set Stream settings:

1. In This is where you can talk to your class card, click Stream settings.

2. In the General section, set Stream to Students can only comment.

3. In the Grading section:

   • Set Overall grade calculation to Total points.

   • Slide to turn on Show overall grade to students.

4. Click Save in the upper right.

Post an announcement

The class landing page is ready for your students. Create your first message, which will post to the students page and send an email to all students in the History class:

1. Click New announcement. The card expands.

2. Complete these fields:

Field	Set to...
For

• Select History

• Select All Students

Announce something to your class	Create a message, something like “Welcome to History!”
Post	Select Post to post the announcement to the Class page.

1. View your announcement on the Class page.

Task 4. Invite students

To invite students to enroll in your class.

1. In your Classroom, in the People tab and then click Invite students

   

   inline with Students. The Invite students dialog opens.

2. Start typing the email of the user Alex, and click on the name when it appears in the search results.

Note: You can also retrieve the email by navigating to Directory

> Users on the Google Admin Home page.

1. (Optional) If you previously added more users to the Student OU, repeat step 2 to invite them to History class.

2. Click Invite.

In the Student list, you will see that Alex Miller, and any other users you invited, listed with “(invited)” after their name. When the student signs into Classroom, they’ll see the invitation to join the class.

Task 5. Email students

You can email one or all students. In this section, you email a student for them to pick up their textbook:

1. Refresh the People tab, and then select the checkbox next to the student you want to email.

2. Click Actions > Email Students. Gmail opens a New Message window. Notice Classroom prefills the student email in the Address field.

3. Fill in the Subject field, for example “Are you ready?”

4. Compose your message, for example “Test next week. I'll post the time of the Extra Help session to the Class page."

5. Click Send.

Task 6. Create an assignment

The Classwork tab is where you find assignments and class resources. To create an assignment:

1. In the Classwork tab, click Create > Assignment. The Assignment dialog opens.

2. Type a title and instructions. For example, “Read Chapter 3” and “Read the Chapter 3 and be ready to discuss causation.”

3. In the right pane, set the following fields and leave all others at their default value:

Field	Values
For

• History

• All students

Due	Pick a date
Topic	Click Create topic and then type “Reading”

1. In the top right, click Assign.

Notice the assignment is now listed in the Classwork list under the Reading topic. Switch to the Stream tab and notice the assignment is also listed on the Upcoming card as an announcement.

Task 7. The student view

See what the invited student sees. To sign in to the student account:

1. In Classroom, in the upper right, click the user avatar and click Add another account. The Sign in dialog opens.

2. Enter the username you previously recorded for Alex Miller and click Next.

3. Create a new password, something like “luv2Learn”.

4. Click Continue to confirm you’re Alex Miller. The Pick your role dialog opens.

5. Click I’m a student. The Classroom home page opens and lists your classes. Notice what’s provided:

   • Class name, History

   • Instructor name, Maria Kearns

   • The options to Join or Decline the History class.

6. Click Join. The History class page opens.

Note: It can sometimes take a few minutes for this check to verify.

Click Check my progress to verify the objective.

Join the class

Explore the class

1. In the Stream tab, notice the Meet card and the Upcoming card.

2. In the Announcements card, click the Reading assignment. The Reading assignment opens.

3. Add a comment in Class comments:

   • Click Add a class comment.

   • Add a comment.

   • Click Post

     

     after adding the comment.

4. In the Classwork tab, you can see the Assignment, Read Chapter 3 and the comment.

5. Click Google Calendar at the top. Google Calendar opens in a new browser tab. Notice the assignment due date has been added to your Calendar.

6. Return back to the browser tab with History class page.

7. In the Stream tab, notice the change in the Upcoming card and the comment you added in the class comment section.

Task 8. Test your knowledge

After you create a class, invite students, and post your first announcement, the Google Workspace admin no longer can change the class configuration

• True

• False

As a teacher, you can do the following (choose all that apply):

• Add potential students outside your domain as Google Workspace users

• Create a class

• Configure what student see on their class landing page

• Put assignments into student Calendars

When a teacher generates a Link for Google Meet for a class, that link is also assigned to other classes being taught by the teacher.

• True

• False

If a student forgets their password, the teacher cannot reset it.

• True

• False

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Solution of Lab

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM-Asa327mM

Google Classroom for Teachers — Quick Lab Solution

This guide includes only the steps required to complete the Check my progress objectives.

Use an Incognito or private browser window and sign in only with the temporary lab credentials.

Progress Checklist

Objective	Required action
Launch Classroom	Sign in as Maria and select the teacher role
Create a class	Create a class named History
Join the class	Invite Alex, sign in as Alex, and join History

Prerequisite 1: Verify the Workspace Domain

1. Click Start Lab and open Google Workspace Admin Console.

2. Sign in with the lab-provided User Email and Password.

3. Accept the Terms of Service and click Get set up.

4. Right-click Verify or Verify domain, then select Open link in new tab.

5. Click Get Started → Other verification options.

6. Select Other as the domain host, then click Continue.

7. Select Come back here and confirm once you have updated the code on your domain host.

8. Click Confirm and wait for Your domain is verified!

9. Close the verification tab and refresh the Admin Console.

Do not click Activate Gmail.

Prerequisite 2: Create the Required OUs and Users

Create the Organizational Units

Go to:

Admin Console → Directory → Organizational units

Create these two organizational units directly under Google Workspace Labs:

• Teachers

• Students

The required structure is:

Google Workspace Labs
├── Teachers
└── Students

Create Maria Kearns

Go to:

Admin Console → Directory → Users → Add new user

Create the user:

Field	Value
First name	Maria
Last name	Kearns

1. Click Continue.

2. Save Maria's generated email address and password.

3. Click Dismiss.

4. Select Maria Kearns.

5. Click More options → Change organizational unit.

6. Select Teachers, then click Continue → Change.

Create Alex Miller

Create another user:

Field	Value
First name	Alex
Last name	Miller

1. Click Continue.

2. Save Alex's generated email address and password.

3. Click Dismiss.

4. Select Alex Miller.

5. Click More options → Change organizational unit.

6. Select Students, then click Continue → Change.

Verify the final assignment:

User	Organizational unit	Classroom role
Maria Kearns	Teachers	Teacher
Alex Miller	Students	Student

Task 1: Launch Classroom as Maria

1. Click the Google Apps icon in the upper-right corner.

2. Open Classroom.

3. Click Switch account → Use another account.

4. Sign in using Maria's saved email address and password.

5. Accept the Terms of Service if prompted.

6. Create a new password if required.

7. Click Continue.

8. On the role selection screen, choose:

   I'm a teacher
   

9. Refresh Classroom if the Create class button does not appear.

Click Check my progress for Launch classroom.

Task 2: Create the History Class

While signed in as Maria:

1. Click Create class.

2. Enter the exact class name:

   History
   

3. Leave the other fields empty.

4. Click Create.

Click Check my progress for Create a class.

The progress checker may take a few minutes to detect the new class.

Prerequisite 3: Invite Alex to History

While still signed in as Maria:

1. Open the History class.

2. Open the People tab.

3. Next to Students, click Invite students.

4. Search for Alex using Alex's saved email address.

5. Select Alex Miller.

6. Click Invite.

7. Confirm that Alex appears with the Invited status.

Task 3: Join the Class as Alex

1. Click Maria's profile avatar in the upper-right corner.

2. Select Add another account.

3. Sign in using Alex's saved email address and password.

4. Accept the Terms of Service if prompted.

5. Create a new password if required.

6. Click Continue.

7. On the role selection screen, choose:

   I'm a student
   

8. Find the History class invitation.

9. Click Join.

10. Wait for the History class page to open.

Click Check my progress for Join the class.

The progress checker may take a few minutes to detect that Alex joined the class.