Google Classroom/Meet issues

[Starbug1]

We've had a few queries about oddities which I wonder if anyone else has seen occur; these are all with Gsuites accounts using Google Meets from within Google Classroom

 

1 Unable to blur their background on Meets

I understand that in the bottom right of the screen they should get a three dots icon and then be able to click the blur background icon, but they say they do not see this icon. They say they have tried two different web browsers and applies to all of their meets.

 

2 Unable to pin themselves to the screen

I understand they should see a pin icon next to the word "you" which should pin their own camera image to their screen so they can see themselves, but they say they do not see a pin icon. Again they say they have tried two different web browsers. I also asked them to try clicking on the 3 dots and change the layout; they say they have tried all different layouts and it still won't work.

 

3) A teacher lost all their host controls for a class

A teacher lost all host controls; the lesson had ended but a student was still in the meet and they were unable to boot them off. Fortunately the student then left. I have advised that if this happens again they could login using another web browser, join the meet again and hopefully the additional instance should have controls. I suspect this was just a web browser glitch, but has anyone seen the before? It's not happened since, so big issue.

 

If anyone has seen any of these issues before, or has any ideas, it would be great to hear from you. Many thanks in advance

Edited January 11, 2021 by Starbug1

[Paid_Peanuts]

Certainly had issues 1 + 3.

Just put it down to Google capacity/demand issues. We have ruled everything out onsite.

[dhicks]

Unable to blur their background on Meets

 

Background blur does seem to need a reasonable amount of client-side processing power, it's possible Meet is not showing the option if it has some way of telling it won't have the processing power to support it.

[Sonic007]

With issue 3 just make sure your students group don't have ability to place or make calls.

Theyll be able to join but not launch meetings themselves hence when the host leaves, they cant take over as host.

 

You can set this in Meet settings. Then Video settings.

https://admin.google.com/ac/appsettings/725740718362

[Theblacksheep]

Background blur does seem to need a reasonable amount of client-side processing power, it's possible Meet is not showing the option if it has some way of telling it won't have the processing power to support it.

 

requires chrome to detect certain chipset features too, some older processors even though powerful still cant blur the background

[k-strider]

Blur background requires 4 cores even some of our 7th gen HP probooks only have 2 physical cores and its not an option to those teachers

https://support.google.com/meet/answer/10058482?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en#zippy=%2Cwhy-dont-i-have-the-option-to-change-background

[Starbug1]

thanks all for your replies; very helpful

 

This morning we have more issues. Several teachers say they are unable to assign work to students in some classes (while other classes are fine)

There seems to be a problem with google classroom in that it won't let me assign any work. It just says error not saved. Is this a problem for everyone this morning or just me?

I have tried several times now, thinking that it would suddenly just right itself, as the material for the other 3 periods I have today have gone on as usual, with no issues.

 

At the top (right hand corner) when I click ASSIGN, it pauses slightly and then "not saved" appears. And in the bottom left a notification comes up to say "There was an error. Please try again".

 

A boy in my Y9 group has emailed this morning to say that he is unable to send work to me because of a domain problem.

 

Are they linked? Three lessons have saved without problem though. Any advice on how to get around it?

I can't start a meeting with the class either.

Anyone got any ideas? Edited January 20, 2021 by Starbug1

[jthompson]

We've had a few queries about oddities which I wonder if anyone else has seen occur; these are all with Gsuites accounts using Google Meets from within Google Classroom

3) A teacher lost all their host controls for a class[/b]

A teacher lost all host controls; the lesson had ended but a student was still in the meet and they were unable to boot them off. Fortunately the student then left. I have advised that if this happens again they could login using another web browser, join the meet again and hopefully the additional instance should have controls. I suspect this was just a web browser glitch, but has anyone seen the before? It's not happened since, so big issue.

 

If anyone has seen any of these issues before, or has any ideas, it would be great to hear from you. Many thanks in advance

 

We've encountered this in Meet lessons where there is more than one member of staff. The host controls are given only to the meeting organiser, which is the first person to arrive at the meeting, not the first person to join. The difference between 'arrive' and 'join' is an important one.

 

A teaching assistant using the meeting link and being the first staff member to reach the ready screen will become the meeting organiser, even if a teacher who 'arrives' at the ready screen after them is the first person to enter the meeting. We've therfore had to advise that TA's or other staff to wait before opening a meeting link until they are confident that the teacher who is to deliver the lesson has already started.

[jthompson]

Further to this, I've noticed in testing that the organiser role for a Classroom linked meeting isn't 'released' until about a minute or so after the first staff arrival closes the ready screen without joining. If a TA turns up for the meeting and it shows "No one else is here", they need to close that tab and then there needs to be a gap of about a minute or so before a teacher can then arrive at the ready screen and assume the role of meeting organiser.

[TMBS]

We've had a few queries about oddities which I wonder if anyone else has seen occur; these are all with Gsuites accounts using Google Meets from within Google Classroom

1 Unable to blur their background on Meets

I understand that in the bottom right of the screen they should get a three dots icon and then be able to click the blur background icon, but they say they do not see this icon. They say they have tried two different web browsers and applies to all of their meets.

2 Unable to pin themselves to the screen

I understand they should see a pin icon next to the word "you" which should pin their own camera image to their screen so they can see themselves, but they say they do not see a pin icon. Again they say they have tried two different web browsers. I also asked them to try clicking on the 3 dots and change the layout; they say they have tried all different layouts and it still won't work.

3) A teacher lost all their host controls for a class

A teacher lost all host controls; the lesson had ended but a student was still in the meet and they were unable to boot them off. Fortunately the student then left. I have advised that if this happens again they could login using another web browser, join the meet again and hopefully the additional instance should have controls. I suspect this was just a web browser glitch, but has anyone seen the before? It's not happened since, so big issue.

If anyone has seen any of these issues before, or has any ideas, it would be great to hear from you. Many thanks in advance

1. If you can’t view the Background blur option, you may not meet the following requirements:

• A supported browser version:
  
  • Chrome version M84 or above on Windows, Mac or Linux. Learn how to check your browser version.
    
  • Version M86 or above on Chrome OS. Learn how to upgrade your Chromebook.
    
  • 32-bit Chrome on Windows is not supported
    

   

  [*]Chrome Hardware acceleration must be enabled.

  [*]Browser must support WebGL 2.0.

[h=3]Enable Hardware Acceleration[/h]Turn on hardware acceleration on Windows or Mac:

 

1. On the top right of a Chrome window, click Menu Click Settings.
   
2. On the left, next to Advanced, click Down .
   
3. Click System .
   
4. Turn on Use hardware acceleration when available.
   
5. Restart Chrome.
   

It also doesn't seem to like two monitors but I've not been able to work out why yet!

 

2. Not sure but could be because they're not the host?

 

3. Sounds like they're not the host of the Meet. A student has got in there first! I always advise to create/use Meets from Google Classroom as it won't let students join before the teacher- so they are always the host!

[TMBS]

thanks all for your replies; very helpful

This morning we have more issues. Several teachers say they are unable to assign work to students in some classes (while other classes are fine)

Anyone got any ideas?

This happened to me last week when trying to set work that was save in a Shared Drive in GDrive. If you've set Shared Drives up for departments you have to tick the 'People who aren't shared drive members can be added to files' option in the Shared Drive settings.

You don't have permission to change this setting

[Starbug1]

Regarding the issue with the missing Meet links, that appears to have been caused by the classes not having an owner! Not sure how that happened

 

If a teacher leaves and a new teacher takes their place, or if two teachers swapped classes, should the ownership of the classes be transferred automatically? We use Wonde to transfer SIMS data into Google Classroom.

[smurfomatic]

We're having issues with pupils unable to join Meets through the link in Classroom, errors like "There's a problem joining this video call" or "You can't join this video call". Can't seem to find any cause of this, happens randomly to different pupils in different classes.

[JATSO]

So today Teacher can host a Meet but unable to see any remote learners tested it myself with the same teacher to see if it may have been a pupil issue not having their camera on, but it the same for me as well.

 

The teacher can be seen though which is one thing but ideally it needs to works both ways.

 

Any ideas as to why? it was working fine the other day.

[jthompson]

We're having issues with pupils unable to join Meets through the link in Classroom, errors like "There's a problem joining this video call" or "You can't join this video call". Can't seem to find any cause of this, happens randomly to different pupils in different classes.

 

We had a bit of that reecntly as well, but it seemed to coincide with when Google were reporting Meet issues on their status dashboard, so I didn't dig too much into it.

[Starbug1]

A further update to what caused our latest issue:

 

It seems that when the timetable changed on SIMS, ownership was not transferred

 

it just removes the owner and add the new teacher but does not transfer the ownership from the old teacher to the new one.

We have reported this to Wonde

Edited January 20, 2021 by Starbug1

[smurfomatic]

We had a bit of that reecntly as well, but it seemed to coincide with when Google were reporting Meet issues on their status dashboard, so I didn't dig too much into it.

 

There have been issues with Meet reported, but this is happening almost every day. Also problems with recordings - the "focus" doesn't change back to the teacher once a pupil stops talking. One teacher recorded registration, a ten minute session, about seven minutes of one child being recorded, who was silent after their initial "here"!