Google Classroom Hangout/Meet Advice

[BFCIT]

Hi all,

 

With the current 'Coronavirus' situation, as a school we are investigating the potential use of Google Hangouts/Meet to remotely deliver lessons to students should the need arise. We currently use Google Classroom and classes are set up manually by our teaching staff.

 

I have activated hangouts for the entire school, and this has provided me with a 'chat' icon in the waffle. Excuse my ignorance as this is not something I have much experience with, when I open Google Chat, and attempt to "add people and bots", I have to manually select students. On trying to search for an existing class it does not appear in the list. Does this mean that our teaching staff would essentially need to re-create their classes and add all of the students into each class in the Google Chat section? From Google chat can we effectively deliver a lesson via webcam to 30+ students at a time?

 

Any advice greatly received.

 

Thanks

[paulkerton]

You wouldn't need Hangouts Chat for this.

They can create a Hangouts Meet (either directly on meet.google.com or through scheduling in their calendar) and then post the Meet URL into their classroom for students to access the link.

 

Also go to Apps > G Suite > Google Hangouts > Meet settings > Choose your student OU and turn off "Video calling - Lets users place video and voice calls"

As long as Hangouts is on for the student, they'll be able to join a Meet but won't be able to create their own.

Edited March 4, 2020 by paulkerton

[BFCIT]

Hi Paul,

 

Thanks for your brilliant advice. On this basis do I only need to actually turn 'hangouts chat' for our staff users and disable it for students? Would the above still work?

 

Thank you

[paulkerton]

Hi Paul,Thanks for your brilliant advice. On this basis do I only need to actually turn 'hangouts chat' for our staff users and disable it for students? Would the above still work?

Thank you

 

Yes. If you want staff to have messaging and chat capability, do that.

[RLR]

Just to confirm, can students still use Meet with staff if we disable the Google Hangouts service in the admin console?

[paulkerton]

Just to confirm, can students still use Meet with staff if we disable the Google Hangouts service in the admin console?

No! No no no.

"Google Hangouts" and "Hangouts Chat" are two distinct services. Google Hangouts is the one that currently handles the Meet capabilities, and will probably be renamed once they finally retire the old Hangouts.

 

You can disable "Hangouts Chat" for students, because that is literally for the Hangouts Chat instant messaging/Slack like tool and chat facilities.

 

Meet is still part of the "Google Hangouts" service.

 

So make sure Google Hangouts is ON for everyone

Then goto:

 

Apps > G Suite > Google Hangouts > Meet Settings

Select the Student OU and turn off Video Calling for the Student OU

 

Video calling - Let users place video and voice calls - OFF

 

This means students will be able to access the Meet service at meet.google.com, but won't be able to create their own meets, just join existing ones.

If you turn off "Google Hangouts" for students entirely they'll get the "You can't access this service" message when going to meet.google.com

So it needs to be on, but the video calling function needs to be off.

[mavhc]

Some new options are available now https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2020/03/hangouts-meet-edu-updates.html

[Sohailahmad]

Hi All

 

In the same situation, I have disabled the same as suggested above, however, if I log in as a test student, I can still open the hangouts app which then lets students send messages to each other directly which we want to turn off, but still allow teachers to create meets for students to join, is this possible?

[fiza]

Hi All

 

In the same situation, I have disabled the same as suggested above, however, if I log in as a test student, I can still open the hangouts app which then lets students send messages to each other directly which we want to turn off, but still allow teachers to create meets for students to join, is this possible?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]57487[/ATTACH]

Is your test user in the correct OU where you have placed the restrictions?

[Sohailahmad]

Hi Fiza

 

Yes, because call and video restrictions are in place on my test user, but the message function is still enabled and can't be disabled.

The Video button takes them to meet where it tells the user they can only join and not create.

The Phone button says the call feature isn't available.

The Message button still allows users to search user, send messages and create message groups.....

[fiza]

@Sohailahmad - Have you actually tested trying to create a hangout? I have just tried when logged in as a test student account and although I can search for others I cannot actually start a chat.

 

[Sohailahmad]

Hi Fiza, I tested it and unfortunately the test student can still send messages, any idea on which specific setting you used to block chat? Thanks

[mavhc]

Hangouts Chat, off for Students

[RLR]

Hangouts Chat, off for Students

 

I'm getting the same behaviour. People in this thread are seeing the same:

 

There are some suggestions on blocking certain address bus this will only work if the devices are communicating back to the schools wifi.

 

Also, this page says: https://support.google.com/a/answer/9784550?hl=en

 

Q: Can I turn on Hangouts Meet but disable classic Hangouts (chat)?

A: No. For more information, go to Classic Hangouts to Meet FAQ.

 

The issue seems to be with the 2 difference services being merged but seperated.

 

hangouts.google.com is the old one which allows everyone to send messages.

chat.google.com is the new one which doesn't work if you have hangouts chat turned off.

 

Or so it seems to be from my testing.

Edited April 3, 2020 by RLR

[paulkerton]

Just tested it, and got the same thing happening.

 

I've turned off Google Hangouts entirely for students, and staff are directed to use Live Streams instead of Hangouts Meet anyway.

[mavhc]

Well, that is very silly Google. I guess only thing to do is force chat history to be on, and then warn them you can see everything they type, and then they can continue to use discord to talk to their friends without being monitored

[paulkerton]

Well, that is very silly Google. I guess only thing to do is force chat history to be on, and then warn them you can see everything they type, and then they can continue to use discord to talk to their friends without being monitored

And this is the very interesting balancing act we're all having, isn't it?

Part of you doesn't want to offer a platform for them to send nasty messages to each other, but part of you thinks "Well, if it's on our platform at least we can evidence it and it isn't happening on WhatsApp or Telegram." But the chances are, if they know you're evidencing it, they're not going to be using it anyway...

 

It makes my head spin. It's certainly worth a discussion inside our various organisations!

[Sohailahmad]

Still wondering How Fiza got that message without turning off Hangouts as a whole.

[fiza]

Still wondering How Fiza got that message without turning off Hangouts as a whole.

I will take a look later and see if I can do some screenshots.

[fiza]

So in the Admin Console I have Google Hangouts enabled for some (Year 10 & Year 11 students and Staff so far). Video calling is disabled for Students but enabled for Staff.

 

Hangouts Chat is disabled for all.

 

Is it because you have Hangouts Chat enabled?

 

 

[Sohailahmad]

So in the Admin Console I have Google Hangouts enabled for some (Year 10 & Year 11 students and Staff so far). Video calling is disabled for Students but enabled for Staff.

 

Hangouts Chat is disabled for all.

 

Is it because you have Hangouts Chat enabled?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]57504[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]57505[/ATTACH]

 

Hi Fiza

 

That's exactly how mine is set up too, Staff have all enabled but for students chat is off, hangout meets and google hangouts (under one app section) is on but settings like external access, making calls and video meets is all turned off.

 

Weird, i'll post some pics of my settings too.

[fiza]

Does anyone know if you can have a Google Meet with Teacher on video but students on audio only? So students can see the teacher but teacher cannot see students only hear them?

[paulkerton]

Does anyone know if you can have a Google Meet with Teacher on video but students on audio only? So students can see the teacher but teacher cannot see students only hear them?

Not at the moment. Students would have to turn off their webcams themselves.

Google have a massive list of "todos" from schools off the back of this though, so I'm expecting a lot of new features to come along before too long.

[Arthur]

Does anyone know if you can have a Google Meet with Teacher on video but students on audio only? So students can see the teacher but teacher cannot see students only hear them?

The only thing you can do at the moment is to set the default video quality to "Audio Only" to turn off video by default, but this only applies to users connecting via PCs/Macs and they can just turn it back on.

 

An English teacher at my school asked exactly the same question.

 

 

For an enterprise-class product, Hangouts Meet is very poor in terms of features and configurability. Even with the Premium features currently available for free, there's no way to enforce recording for all meetings, blur/customize backgrounds, display a grid view of all participants (without a third-party extension) or disable video and only allow audio like you mentioned.

 

Google have a massive list of "todos" from schools off the back of this though, so I'm expecting a lot of new features to come along before too long.

No doubt we'll see these new features implemented after 1st July when schools would have to pay for G Suite Enterprise for Education licenses. I hope I am not being too cynical?

Edited April 9, 2020 by Arthur

[paulkerton]

No doubt we'll see these new features implemented after 1st July when schools would have to pay for G Suite Enterprise for Education licenses. I hope I am not being too cynical?

 

Development time is development time. Some of these features have been in the pipeline for a while. Google, I know, were surveying customers about Meet management tools in January, but ultimately they can't help being caught out by Covid-19.

 

They're also learning lessons about safeguarding here too. I'm hoping that all EDU accounts get a "record to Vault for safeguarding" function for all Meets in the near future, and then Enterprise have the "Record to Drive" option for end users. I'm speculating on that, but I know Google are aware that safeguarding is a blind spot with Meet.