Google Classroom is a web service created by Google that is well-known among employees and students. The service aims to improve and maximize the efficiency of file sharing between teachers and their students or pupils.

Google Classroom unites:

• Google Drive to distribute training materials;
• Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for creating tasks;
• Gmail for communication between participants in the educational process;
• Google Calendar for the training schedule.

Each student can be invited to the Class with a private code. In this case, a separate folder is created on the respective user’s Google Drive, where the work to be evaluated by the teacher is submitted.

Where can I find the Google Classroom app?

Finding the app is quite easy. To do this, you need to open the Google Chrome browser, then go to the applications offered by the company. There you find the appropriate icon and click on it to get to the Class.

Structure of a distance course on the Google Classroom platform

When a course in a particular subject has already been created, teachers and students will have access to four main tabs:

• Stream. It displays all the information about the course, including training materials, announcements, assignments, and comments.
• Objectives. In this tab, course instructors add learning materials and categorize them into topics according to their calendar and topic planning.
• People. This is a list of students and teachers who have been added to the Class using a personal code or manually.
• Assessments. This is an opportunity to evaluate students’ learning achievements by checking their work added to the course.

Stream or Feed of information

This tab displays the following:

• announcements of various kinds from the teacher;
• Important information about the training materials and trainees;
• Objectives;
• if you activate additional features, you will see announcements from students.

When creating an Announcement, the user, namely the teacher, can create it by adding text, files on his or her personal storage device, or select a document from those on his or her Google Drive, attaching links to various video and audio materials, didactic games, tests, etc. Students can view the ads and comment on them. To add Announcements, click on“Share with class…”.

Objectives.

To publish a task, click the Create icon in the corresponding tab.

Here, teachers can:

• group by topic and create tasks and questions;
• add various types of learning materials that are relevant to the lesson topic and links to scheduled online meetings using Google Meet.

Tasks can take different forms. This can be any printed or presentation material added from a PC or cloud storage; external links to other resources with additional tasks, tests, videos, didactic games, or master classes.

Now it is possible to create tests and quizzes in the appropriate form, Google Form, which the service offers to use.

Google Forms are very multifunctional and make it easy to create multiple-choice tests, open-ended tasks, tasks with pictures and videos, etc. You can set a deadline for tasks. When students complete the tasks, the information is automatically sent to the teacher. To view the submitted assignments, the teacher goes to the FRIENDLY section, then clicks All Assignments. The teacher gets information about submitted/missing papers. The teacher can check students’ assignments, assign grades, and comment on students’ answers.

Advantages of Google Classroom

• Convenient and easy-to-use interface.
• This app is free to use, with no distracting ads.
• There are versions for both PC and mobile applications.
• Offline access to information, meaning that even if a teacher or student has temporary problems with the availability and stability of an Internet connection, they can still familiarize themselves with the attached materials.
• The service is very convenient and functional, as it offers the ability to create, store, and exchange information.
• The ability to communicate: between the teacher and students, between students. Students can review assignments, leave comments, and ask questions to the teacher.

Disadvantages of Google Classroom

• The version of the service that is currently available does not have the “Class Journal” feature.
• There is no room for online classes, but each teacher can use Google Meet and invite students to the lesson by adding a link.
• The number of people who can be added to the course is limited.

So, Google Classroom is an easy-to-use platform for remote learning. It can be used to organize classroom work, especially if this is your first time with distance learning.