Google Classroom

The free interactive Google Classroom platform is explicitly designed for educational purposes and combines Google services such as Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail, and Calendar. It is great for use in schools, universities and training courses. 

Interface 8/10

The Google Classroom visual style and its interface mostly repeat the design of other services from Google. If you have already used one of them, it will not be difficult for you to understand the Classroom no matter which version you use — mobile or web. The teacher account interface has a much wider range of functions than the student. If needed, you can slightly change the design of each class. 

Features 9/10

The functionality of Google Classroom can be divided into two main parts: features available to teachers, and features available to students. Teachers can create different classes (up to 30 classes daily), manage them, invite students (up to 250 people), assign and check assignments. If necessary, the teacher can invite another teacher (up to 20 people) and add extra materials from other Google services to the class. The Classroom platform makes it easy to plan your lessons for a few days in advance. You can create draft assignments, announcements, or questions and set the time for their publication. 

After creating the class, students will receive a special code and can independently join the lesson. They can track assignments and class materials, ask the teacher questions in the feed or via email, discuss topics of interest with classmates, and work together on tasks. If there are any difficulties, the student can share his screen with the teacher and solve the problem together. 

As a teacher, you can also add student representatives (parents or guardians) to Google Classroom. Through daily or weekly emails, they can monitor their child’s progress. 

Usability 7/10 

The teacher account interface looks more intuitive and complete than the student. It is worth noting that to use the Classroom platform, a student should have a Google account. It can create some difficulties for primary school students (under 14 years old). 

Also, the system crashes sometimes. For example, when many students send assignments at the same time, or when a teacher does a mass mailing to students. 

Google Classroom has some partner apps that offer additional tools for teachers, and with which you can integrate this platform. However, this list is quite limited. In general, the disadvantages of the Classroom include the practically absent support of third-party files or services. 

Compatibility 9/10 

Google Classroom can be used as a web version in any browser (Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox), and as a mobile app. It is compatible with iOS 11.0+ devices (iPod touch, iPad, and iPhone) and Android 4.4+ devices (phones and tablets).

Verdict 

The Google Classroom service offers a wide range of tools to help optimize the learning process and make it paperless. Despite a number of shortcomings and some limited capabilities of personal accounts, this is an excellent option for creating a comfortable learning process for both students and teachers.