How teachers and students helped bring Google Classroom to life

Sep 17, 2024

[[read-time]] min read

Joel Meares

Contributor, The Keyword

Nicole Marinello had conscionable started her acquisition profession erstwhile she joined the first aviator of Google Classroom successful October 2013. Teaching English astatine a prep schoolhouse successful Brooklyn, New York, she utilized to lug 3 dense bags of paper, books and folders to schoolhouse each morning, and walk 45 minutes each time printing and collating much worldly to lug backmost location — if she could get an opening. “The transcript instrumentality is difficult to get clip connected successful the morning,” she told the Classroom squad astatine the time.

Nicole was 1 of 3 teachers and astir 100 students successful the pilot. Her guidance to our Classroom prototype — designed to streamline really teachers administer and people students’ activity utilizing Workspace devices — was typical. It was a awesome time-saver, and the expertise for students to taxable papers electronically to Drive was peculiarly exciting. “I don’t do this now because I’ll get 80 emails astatine erstwhile from students!” she said.

Throughout the pilot, the squad interviewed teachers and students for feedback, but immoderate of their biggest learnings came from conscionable observing. “I noticed a group of students connected their phones successful Nicole’s people and thought, they’re decidedly not paying attention,” says Jennifer Holland, a programme head connected the Classroom squad astatine the time. “We didn’t person an app and our prototype wasn’t mobile responsive, truthful we didn’t moreover see they’d beryllium doing their in-class assignment. Sure enough, they were accessing Classroom successful their mobile browsers doing conscionable that.”

When she asked why they weren’t utilizing 1 of the galore laptops successful the room, 1 student told her, “I tin swipe a batch faster than I tin type.” “We instantly knew we had to prioritize getting a mobile app connected the roadmap,” Jennifer says.

Google Classroom officially launched successful August 2014 — an app would travel a fewer months later — arsenic portion of our Google Apps for Education suite, now Workspace for Education. In the 10 years since, it has grown from an duty distribution strategy designed to prevention teachers’ clip to a robust, AI-powered level that lets them much easy create and administer classwork, prosecute straight pinch students, support parents and guardians abreast of advancement and more. Along the way, the squad has continued to activity pinch schools astir the world via the Google for Education Pilot Program to proceed evolving arsenic educators’ needs person changed. Today, much than 100 cardinal teachers and students usage Classroom globally.

It was listening to teachers and students that brought Classroom to life successful the first place.

In the early 2010s, the squad saw accrued liking from higher-education and K-12 institutions successful Workspace apps — and vexation that the apps didn’t activity good together successful a schoolhouse setting. Teachers were having to move betwixt apps and manually create individual docs for students’ assignments; students struggled done multi-step processes to taxable their work. “We needed to create the ‘glue’ that would bring these devices together into a cohesive and user-friendly level that supports school and learning,” says Jennifer, now head of Program Management for Google for Education.

By mid 2013, an engineering squad was assembled. Work towards the alpha and eventual motorboat began. What they delivered wove together Docs, Drive and Gmail to thief teachers create and cod assignments paperlessly, way students’ work, supply real-time feedback and springiness students ways to enactment organized.

The cardinal trading constituent for Classroom was its simplicity. Jennie Magiera joined Google arsenic the Global Head of Education Impact successful 2020, but successful 2014 she was a mathematics coach and instructional coach successful Chicago Public Schools who helped get 32 sites — including her ain — into an early Classroom pilot. “A batch of learning guidance systems tin beryllium daunting, particularly for those who don’t person overmuch acquisition pinch technology, but Google Classroom had this equilibrium of being really intuitive and really powerful,” Jennie says. “Classroom was truthful easy that 2nd graders could do it. Some were pre-literate. The truth they could do it without unafraid reference skills was game-changing.”

Some of the biggest changes to Classroom and the Workspace for Education suite came astatine the astir trying clip for the team: the commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic. As lessons went virtual, the squad released a slew of adjuvant caller features, launched successful 10 caller languages to meet the world infinitesimal and integrated Meet into Classroom. They took feedback from teachers to the Meet team, who developed caller functionality to thief pinch classes, for illustration attendance taking, manus raising and in-meeting polls for easy popular quizzes.

“It was a reliable clip but besides a reminder of our intent and why we activity connected this team,” Jennifer says. “We had to do things we hadn’t done earlier — but it was a gift.”

In caller years, Classroom has evolved moreover further pinch AI-powered features for much personalized learning and impactful teaching. In 2022, the squad introduced believe sets, a instrumentality that enables teachers to create interactive assignments from existing contented aliases from scratch, and provides real-time guidance and suggested resources arsenic students activity done their questions. “The kids were calling it ‘Google magic’ because of the hints, pop-ups and instant feedback they received,” a coach piloting the characteristic said.

Last November, the squad piloted a characteristic that provides AI-suggested questions for definite science-related YouTube videos, reducing the clip it takes to create interactive video activities. And successful August, they announced student groups, allowing teachers to build tailored contented for clusters of students wrong their classes.

“In the beginning, our mantra was ‘more teaching, little tech-ing,’ which is still existent but successful a very different sense,” says Classroom Group Product Manager Brit Mennuti. “Back then, it was really astir automating administrative tasks truthful that teachers tin get backmost to the things a quality coach tin do, for illustration processing relationships pinch students and intervening erstwhile they request support. We’re now astatine the constituent pinch generative AI wherever we’re not conscionable redeeming teachers time, but amplifying the effect they tin have.”

The Classroom squad continues to research pinch ways AI tin thief summation that impact. They precocious invited schools to motion up to aviator caller capabilities informed by LearnLM, a family of models fine-tuned for learning, based connected Gemini, and grounded successful acquisition research.

“We're successful yet different paradigm displacement successful education," Jennifer says. "With these AI features, I’m excited to spot really teachers and students will push the boundaries of what's imaginable pinch Classroom, conscionable for illustration those students successful Brooklyn a decade agone redefined learning successful Classroom pinch their mobile phones.”