Google Classroom, Meet get much-needed new features, 10 more languages support

Search engine giant Google, earlier in the year, announced several free services in its Google for Education initiative for schools around the world, which got closed due to the Covid-19 outbreak and had to start online classes to cover the syllabus for the academic year.

After taking feedback from the clients and users, Google plans to help the schools, which are now gearing to commence the new academic year with 'The Anywhere School' initiative.
In that order, Google is introducing 50 new features across its broad G Suite services including Google Meet, and Classroom, in addition, to support for multiple Indian languages.

Here are key features coming to Google Classroom:
1) Google Classroom gets the new to-do widget on the Classes page to help students see what’s coming up, what’s missing, and what’s been graded.
2) Now, teachers can share a link to invite students to their class, which makes joining the Google Classroom much easier.
3) Google Classroom will be available in 10 additional languages including Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, and Urdu in India. Soon Classroom will support over 54 languages globally; with even more coming in the future.
4) Smart Compose and Auto Correct in Docs features for both the teachers and students. This will help them compose high-quality content faster by cutting back on repetitive writing while reducing the chance of spelling and grammatical errors (admins can disable both SmartCompose and Auto Correct if they choose).
5) Breakout rooms and attendance tracking will also be launching for all Google Enterprise for Education customers 6) Google is also bringing Assignments, an application for learning management system (LMS). This helps both the teachers a faster, simpler way to distribute, analyze and grade student work. "This time-saving application helps educators automatically create and distribute personalized copies of classwork to each student's Google Drive folder, quickly provide feedback, and keep grading consistent and transparent with originality reports," the company said.

Also, Google has confirmed to roll hand-raising for all customers and Q&A and polling for G Suite Enterprise for Education customers in the coming weeks.

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Here are key improvement coming to Google Meet:
1) Google Meet will get a new larger tiled view of up to 49 people and an integrated Jamboard whiteboard for collaboration. It is coming in September
2) In October, Google Meet will get custom and blurred backgrounds to provide some extra privacy

Various governments around the world are unlikely to commence schools for children unless, there is a slow down in coronavirus infections or the vaccine gets ready. Until then, education institutes will likely continue with online classes. Google has revealed that the company intends to bring new features based on feedback in the coming months.

"There’s so much more to share with you about what’s coming to Google for Education, and we encourage you to take some time to watch the keynote sessions from The Anywhere School event for all the updates," said Avni Shah, VP of Education, Google.

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