Learning Management Systems

Google Classroom Update: New User and Developer Tools

• By Leila Meyer
• 07/08/15

Google's Classroom platform for creating, sharing and grading assignments is gaining integration tools for administrators and developers, as well as other new features requested by teachers.

The company is offering a developer preview of Classroom's new application programming interface (API) until the end of July. According to the company, the API will let administrators "provision and populate classes on behalf of their teachers, set up tools to sync their Student Information Systems with Classroom, and get basic visibility into which classes are being taught in their domain." Developers can use the API to integrate their applications with Classroom, and developers from New Visions CloudLab, Alma and Pear Deck have already used the API to integrate their apps. Beginning in August, Google will let all Apps for Education domains use the API unless the administrator has restricted access.

Google has also introduced a share button for Classroom, which lets developers use JavaScript to add a share button to their interface. Teachers or students can click the share button to post links, videos or images to Classroom. According to Google, more than 20 educational content and tool providers plan to add the share button to their interfaces, including PBS, Quizlet, American Museum of Natural History, Discovery Education, Duolingo and TIME Edge.

Other features rolling out in the next few weeks include the following:

• Support for whitelisted domains in Google Apps for Education to allow students, teachers and staff in different domains to collaborate in Drive and Classroom;
• mobile notifications in the iOS and Android apps, so students can receive notifications when they get a new assignment, grade or note; and
• the ability for teachers to reuse assignments and posts from past classes in Classroom.

For more information on Google's updates to Classroom, visit the Google for Education blog.