Google Classroom help!!

[fiza]

We have just started using Google Classroom and have come across an issue, which hopefully is easy to solve.

 

Teacher gives students an assignment with a template document for them to complete. Each student gets their own copy. When students open the document the Teacher gets an email notification (we have worked out how to switch off email notifications). Teacher also seems to get a copy of the document back in their Google Drive when the student opens their copy. This clutters up the teachers drive. Is this behaviour by design or is there a tick box somewhere?

[fiza]

*bump*

 

is it just us experiencing this?

[rdk]

This is not the way things should work - what might have happened is that the teacher is using the "shared with me" folder (now called incoming) as their main Drive folder rather than having a folder structure within Drive, or they have moved Classroom folders around within their Drive

 

Classroom is designed to do everything from within Classroom and to ignore the folders that are created.

[fiza]

@rdk - As far as I know the teacher is sharing the document from within Classroom.

[fiza]

@rdk - Could you please test the following scenario for me? This is what happens with us.

 

 

Teacher A creates a classroom "test" and Student B enrols. Teacher A in classroom "test" clicks on "assignment", gives it a name and a description. Gives it a due date and time. Clicks on the "Drive" icon and attaches File C. Chooses to give each student their own copy.

 

Student B logs into classroom and can see that for Classroom "test" there is one assignment due. clicks on the name of the assignment (hasnt actually opened the attached document). Teacher A gets a new entry in their Google Drive under "incoming" showing the name of Student A and the name of File C.

 

This is then replicated for all 30 students in the class!!!

[HC_Netman]

I would suggest that this was by design (although I haven't really used Google Classroom yet).

 

If the teacher chooses the option to give each student their own copy - this implies the teacher wants the student to edit that document in some way - Google therefore adds these documents to the teachers folder so that he/she can see the work the student has done. I know our teachers would love this feature!

 

If the students are not expected to change the document in anyway but use as more of a resource then I would suggest not choosing the option to give them all their own copy?

 

**Edit**

 

I can also now confirm that I have just tested your scenario and ended up with the same result as you.

 

The documents are well organised though and only appear in the Classroom folder within the teachers drive - where they are sorted into further folders by class name and then assignment name.

 

Unless your problem is that they are not saving into the Classroom folder then I definitely think this is by design.

Edited November 21, 2014 by HC_Netman
Additional Info

[fiza]

@HC_Netman - Thing is that the students need to manipulate the document in some way but the problem is that the thing shows up in teachers google drive without the students even opening the file let alone adding anything to it. Why does the teacher need basically a carbon copy of the document they just shared with the student back in their own Google drive as soon as the student looks at the assignment? I could understand it if the students had amended the document and submitted it.

[HC_Netman]

Google is just creating the document ready for each student to use - it stores it in the teachers drive as they will need to see it eventually. The teacher shouldn't need to view the documents in his/her drive - they could just ignore the classroom folder all together. If they do this then they only need to view the assignments when they are submitted.

 

I think it is just a case of explaining to the teachers that if they do everything within the classroom app it will work as they expect. If they look in the folder that is in their drive then they will see all the documents whether or not the student has worked on them. This shouldn't really clutter up the drive as it is only effectively one folder and they have unlimited storage anyway.

[rdk]

[MENTION=8261]

............Teacher A gets a new entry in their Google Drive under "incoming" showing the name of Student A and the name of File C.

 

I think your problem is that the teacher is using "incoming" in a way it is not designed - this folder will have everything that is shared and I believe that 99.9% of the time for 99.9% of teachers it should be ignored as in a school situation as it rapidly become too unwieldy, as you have discovered.

 

Users should create a proper folder structure within My Drive. If something is shared that is important the sharer should have the "send email" box ticked so the receiver gets an email and can choose to move the document to My Drive, or the sharer can copy the link and paste into a normal email.

 

If you have lots of documents that are shared on a "just in case" basis I suggest doing one of two things:

- have a website with links to the shared documents that users can click on if they wish, moving any documents into My Drive. Sites can have embedded folders that work the same way

- set up shared folders (ie faculty folders) that teachers can save documents into. Users need to be taught to move the shared faculty folder into My Drive and then when teachers save/move files into the folder all faculty members will have access to the files.

 

In schools that actively use Google Apps it is inevitable that the incoming folder will contain hundreds or thousands of documents, without structure, and will be unusable whether you want it to be or not - just think of people sharing documents with a mailing list "just in case".

 

As an aside, we use Hapara Teacher Dashboard as a method of having class folders created automatically for teachers and thoroughly recommend it. Classroom is similar but not as functional, IMO.

[fiza]

@rdk - I understand what you are saying and if the document had been shared with the teacher I would expect it to appear in "incoming" but if its shared within Classroom by the teacher why does it appear in "incoming" for the teacher. Surely it should appear, if anywhere, within the classroom folder of Drive?

[rdk]

@rdk - I understand what you are saying and if the document had been shared with the teacher I would expect it to appear in "incoming" but if its shared within Classroom by the teacher why does it appear in "incoming" for the teacher.

 

1. Teacher creates a document

2. Through Classroom, teacher "gives" a copy of each document to each student

3. In the background, Classroom makes individual copies of the document, placing each one in the students' classroom folders

4. Classroom folders have been automatically set up so that the teacher has access to the contents - the new files are thus automatically shared

5. As there are multiple new shared files, each of these appears in incoming

[fiza]

@rdk - What you say makes sense. It would make more sense if Google placed all those files in the Teacher classroom folder rather than in incoming but I get that incoming is for all incoming files/folders that have been shared with the person.

[rdk]

I think the files will also appear in the Classroom folder, but Classroom has been designed so that the management and assessment of assignments etc is done through the Classroom app, not through Drive. If your teachers would like to remain Drive-centric but have the functionality of Classroom then you should investigate Doctopus and/or gclass folders which set up shared folder structures for teachers and students.

 

And again - for the most part incoming should be ignored unless there is a specific reason a user is looking for a file that they know has been shared with them and has no other way of finding it. And once the file or folder is found it should be dragged into My Drive.