Google Classroom - Delete old classes in bulk

[Sonic007]

Hi everyone,

 

We use GSuite (Google for Education) and have several Google Classroom classes where the teachers have not archived the old classes or the teachers have now left.

 

I would like to find a way to delete these old classes as students are using them as chat rooms and to post irrelevant content.

 

Is there a way to do this?

 

 

Thankyou.

[jthompson]

I suspect GAM will be the way forward there, making use of its CSV batch commands.

 

https://gamcheatsheet.com/GAM%20Cheat%20Sheet%20A3.pdf

 

You'll need to run some commands in order to gather the course IDs that you will then need to list in a CSV file to archive or delete them.

 

With a list of target course IDs in a CSV file with a column named "courseID", you'd run the following to archive them all:

 

gam csv coursesToArchive.csv gam update course ~courseID status ARCHIVED

Edited May 23, 2024 by jthompson

[timbo343]

So going through around 600 classes manually adding #{year} to the beginning of each class isn't the best way? [emoji854]

[Sonic007]

@jthompson Thankyou. I will definately look in to this.

[DavR]

I can't find a copy of it online now, but not being very au fait with GAM, I use Alice Keeler's Google Classroom "List classes" management scripts. They're built into a Google Sheet and run as add ins.

 

It's made administering our Google Classrooms so much easier, I don't have to be an admin in each class to do things, just an admin in our Workspace tenant.

[highsky]

Gam if it's your thing.

 

ClassRight was quite handy for bulk tasks, free:

https://www.goldyarora.com/guides/classright

 

And he has more for workspace:

https://www.goldyarora.com/apps

[timbo343]

gam print courses teacher [email protected] state active todrive

 

> this outputs the list to a Google Sheet

 

I download the google sheet to my machine and add a new column, NewName to the end of the columns.

 

Save the document and run

 

gam csv C:\gam\Rename2023_24courses.csv gam user [email protected] update drivefile "~teacherFolder.id" newfilename "~NewName"

 

> for gam to tell me "ERROR: 1k1rtg4ks4j3ulitj-8vwp8r2iwrsqa784vnqmpwyohqqm7m6x2ojgi4bqm8f3mklow9mhyf is not a valid argument for "gam update drivefile" "

- what's this error all about?

Edited May 24, 2024 by timbo343

[jthompson]

I can't work out what you're trying to do there. Your first gam command makes sense (fetching a list of active courses owned by a particular teacher). What are the other two attempting to do?

[timbo343]

I can't work out what you're trying to do there. Your first gam command makes sense (fetching a list of active courses owned by a particular teacher). What are the other two attempting to do?

 

I'm trying to rename classes in bulk and Gam is peeing me off!

 

After i've downloaded the courses i would take a copy of the Google Sheet and make a new column called NewName.

 

I got this sample from a Google Group:

 

Sample:

$ gam print courses teacher [email protected] >courses.csv

Add a new column, NewName, to tscourses.csv

$ gam csv courses.csv gam user "~ownerId" update drivefile "~teacherFolder.id" newfilename "~NewName"

 

But i cannot work out how to change the classname.

[timbo343]

Sorted it!

 

gam csv "path to csv on local computer" gam update course "~id" name "~NewName"

 

 

Used this to help me out: https://sites.google.com/jis.edu.bn/gam-commands/services/classroom#h.lbrsab3c0kgj

[jthompson]

That looks better, yep. Pretty much everything Classroom related will rely on you giving it a course ID to work with.

 

The cheat sheet I linked to earlier is handy for determining what commands and parameters you need to put together.

[jthompson]

Also, as an aside, I'd recommend installing gam into Google Cloud Shell and running it from there. You're not then having Google Workspace superadmin credentials sitting in a JSON file on your computer!

[Primus]

Also, as an aside, I'd recommend installing gam into Google Cloud Shell and running it from there. You're not then having Google Workspace superadmin credentials sitting in a JSON file on your computer!

 

This is the way.

[timbo343]

Also, as an aside, I'd recommend installing gam into Google Cloud Shell and running it from there. You're not then having Google Workspace superadmin credentials sitting in a JSON file on your computer!

 

I looked at trying to do that but i gave up - is it actually easy to do as it would make life so much easier?

[jthompson]

I used this guide originally, and just dropped my existing JSON/credentials bits into place.

 

https://basuta.com/posts/installing-google-apps-manager-gam-on-google-cloud-shell/

[timbo343]

I used this guide originally, and just dropped my existing JSON/credentials bits into place.

 

https://basuta.com/posts/installing-google-apps-manager-gam-on-google-cloud-shell/

 

Ta, will take a look.

[jthompson]

Just noticed that it's from 2018, so quite a few years ago, and I'm running GAMADV-XTD3. I think a more up to date guide might actually be this one - https://taming.tech/installing-gamadv-xtd3-on-google-cloud-shell/

 

They also describe a nice one-line method to upgrade the isntalled version GAMADV-XTD3 to the latest - https://taming.tech/upgrading-gamadv-xtd3-macos-linux-cloud-shell-windows-easily/