Google Classroom

[Cazale]

One of our schools started using this and it's something I've never really come across before...

 

Has anyone else had problems with it? All the teachers (and I do mean ALL of them, not just one or two) are saying that work is randomly disappearing and they regularly can't access it (usually the iOS app won't load, but sometimes even the website).

 

We've had Google Support onto it, and whilst I usually find them to be excellent, more than one person has said they can't help with Classroom because there's a lack of logging and tools on their side for Classroom

 

The iOS app gets absolutely slated on the App Store, so I'm just wondering if the entire platform is wobbly and if we're better off moving elsewhere ASAP? Or are we having unique problems?

[localzuk]

We've got 100 teachers using it and have no issues like that.

[rogerdnixon]

Pretty solid with 17k users on our Trusts domain. Mainly Chromebooks/Windows - not iOS. I have vaguely heard of issues with the iOS app - but never actually experienced any.

[dhicks]

(usually the iOS app won't load, but sometimes even the website).

 

The iOS app does seem a bit flaky - we have around 400 pupils (or their parents) and 60-ish teaching staff using Google Classroom, we've had some parents (3 or 4) have issues with the iOS app. A uninstall and reinstall seems to fix the issue easily enough, though. No teachers have reported issues. We've had at least one pupil use "Google Classroom ate my homework" as an excuse for them not having done the work, so if pupils have got wind of a ruse believed by teachers then that might explain the sudden flurry of reports.

 

The app, as far as I can make out, doesn't actually do anything that the web page doesn't, it's just there because iOS users are used to installing apps. The web page seems to work just fine on iOS.

 

they can't help with Classroom because there's a lack of logging and tools on their side for Classroom

 

Indeed - Classroom doesn't seem to be a central component of GSuite's database model. There's nothing in the reports you can get from the API (via GAM) that point to Classroom items, you only get reports that feature Classroom IDs that point to other GSuite components. Classroom seems to have been someone's Google 20% project that made it big, and suddenly there's several million people relying on it on a daily basis. I think Google are, understandably, cuatious about fiddling too much - it mostly works, tinkering with any major underlying functionality is going to cause more trouble than it would fix at the moment.

[TwistedHelixis]

Whenever something from G Suite has gone wobbly it has nearly always been a firewall / port or filtering issue. We even realised that the autocomplete was not working for adding users to a shared drives (not a folder shared from Drive), and we were having to type in the full email address for each user we anted added to the shared drive, even though autocomplete worked fine in email, calendar Google Drive etc. EDIT - Turns out here is even a port for this.

 

Although we don't use Classroom at my schools yet, I know schools that have said how solid it is.

[Brimstone]

If you are using Google Classroom on iOS I would ensure that this is managed app in the MDM so any updates get applied immediately, it can fail when you have different versions in the same class.

[paulkerton]

The iOS app gets absolutely slated on the App Store

Children leaving bad ratings for an app that is for school use? Couldn't imagine they'd do such a thing!

 

We've had reports that children can't see the attachments, but a quick investigation in the G Suite Admin Console shows us that not only can they see the attachment, but they've opened and looked at it. You'll get kids trying it on.

 

Make sure everyone is on the latest version of the app. Can go a bit wonky otherwise.

Edited June 5, 2020 by paulkerton

[seustice]

There was some myth that if enough 1-star reviews were given that it would be removed from the platform's App Store. This spread like wildfire and kids all around the world theorised that they then wouldn't have to do any work if they couldn't use the App any more.

[smurfomatic]

We've been having significant issues over the last few days with Classroom and Meet. Staff and students having trouble connecting to Meet calls (morning staff meeting today was farcical, the Head left the call to try and sort out the issue and couldn't get back in!), freezing, blank images instead of camera feeds etc. Also one teacher had a Meet recording vanish from their Google Drive and others having issues marking and retunrning work on Classroom.

 

I know Google updated some things on Monday so can only assume this it the source of the problems - had no issues last week. Is anyone else having the same problem(s)?

[Bev]

We have periodic issues with the app not showing the teachers completed work, even though I can see it in a browser

A delete and reinstall of the app seems to resolve it.

[smurfomatic]

We have periodic issues with the app not showing the teachers completed work, even though I can see it in a browser

A delete and reinstall of the app seems to resolve it.

 

Thanks @Bev, this seems to be happening on PCs rather than the app, which is all the more puzzling!

[jthompson]

We've been having significant issues over the last few days with Classroom and Meet. Staff and students having trouble connecting to Meet calls (morning staff meeting today was farcical, the Head left the call to try and sort out the issue and couldn't get back in!), freezing, blank images instead of camera feeds etc. Also one teacher had a Meet recording vanish from their Google Drive and others having issues marking and retunrning work on Classroom.

 

I know Google updated some things on Monday so can only assume this it the source of the problems - had no issues last week. Is anyone else having the same problem(s)?

 

We've not ever noticed any such problems with Classroom but we had to update our web filtering yesterday to add meet.google.com as a trusted domain as users on our student filter weren't able to join Meet meetings. I'm assuming some resources for the web app were moved to that domain as part of the Hangouts/Meet separation that Google introduced from Monday.

 

I find Classroom issues quite difficult to unpick, though. They're often just user mistakes, but as an admin who doesn't teach, seeing what the users see, or even just determining which specific class it is that they're having the issue with, can be a bit of a fiddle.

[TwistedHelixis]

We've been having significant issues over the last few days with Classroom and Meet.

 

The last round of Windows updates are apparently causing issues with Chrome, along with printing issues and a few other app based issues, might be this.

[paulkerton]

I find Classroom issues quite difficult to unpick, though. They're often just user mistakes, but as an admin who doesn't teach, seeing what the users see, or even just determining which specific class it is that they're having the issue with, can be a bit of a fiddle.

This is why, when working for a Google Partner I always recommended the techies also do the Teacher Level qualifications for Google, as it really does help you in regards to seeing what the user sees. I also run my own classrooms with test student logins to play with the system and test these things.

[dhicks]

Staff and students having trouble connecting to Meet calls

 

We've had some similar reports this morning, although they're a bit vauge on details. Any idea what version of Chrome everyone is running? The very latest version, released on Monday, is 83.0.4103.106 - I'm wondering if amking sure everyone is on that same version might sort some connection issues?

[smurfomatic]

We've not ever noticed any such problems with Classroom but we had to update our web filtering yesterday to add meet.google.com as a trusted domain as users on our student filter weren't able to join Meet meetings. I'm assuming some resources for the web app were moved to that domain as part of the Hangouts/Meet separation that Google introduced from Monday.

 

I find Classroom issues quite difficult to unpick, though. They're often just user mistakes, but as an admin who doesn't teach, seeing what the users see, or even just determining which specific class it is that they're having the issue with, can be a bit of a fiddle.

 

I raised the Hangouts/Meet separation with Google earlier this week, as it's supposed to allow us to disable Hangouts in Gmail without affecting Meet. I tried this and disabling Hangout still caused problems, so re-enabled it.

 

Possibly user error in some cases. The one who is losing recordings has now had it twice - with the same class each time, other classes recording fine. It's annoying that he won't respond in more than one word replies, or share his "Meet recordings" folder with me.

 

We've had some similar reports this morning, although they're a bit vauge on details. Any idea what version of Chrome everyone is running? The very latest version, released on Monday, is 83.0.4103.106 - I'm wondering if amking sure everyone is on that same version might sort some connection issues?

 

Will check to see if they're up to date, worth a try as I can't think of anything else that can cause this!