Google releases preview of free teacher program 'Classroom'

Teachers spend a lot of time outside of class time creating tests, assignments, grading tests, etc. Google has released a preview version of Classroom , a free educational program that simplifies the work of busy teachers and professors and saves them time.

Official Google Blog: Previewing a new Classroom

http://googleblog.blogspot.jp/2014/05/previewing-new-classroom.html

Introducing Google Apps for Education's Classroom service
http://www.google.com/edu/classroom/

In honor of Teachers' Day in the United States, Google has released a preview of Classroom, a new service within Google Apps for Education, a web-based educational tool.

Classroom's features are as follows:

Easy to set up
Teachers can add students directly or share a code with students to join the class.
- Time saving
Teachers can create, review, and grade assignments all in one place with a simple, paperless workflow.
・Efficient management
Students can see all their assignments on the Assignments page, and all materials are automatically saved to Google Drive.
・Improved communication
Teachers can use Classroom Streams to send announcements and ask questions to their class, and students can contribute to the Stream and help their classmates.
Affordable and safe
Classroom is completely free, has no ads, and student data is not used for ads. Students can only be members of classes within their school's Google Apps for Education domain, and activity in Classroom is restricted to class members.

For example, teachers can share assignments and tests created in Google Docs with all or selected students, and students can submit assignments directly from Classroom or Google Docs. This allows assignments to be collected quickly and paperlessly, and feedback and grading can be managed in one place, simplifying teachers' workload and saving them time. All assignments and materials are also automatically saved in the background to Google Drive, so there's no need to worry about them getting lost.

It was previously reported that Google had stopped scanning student Gmail accounts for ads , but this appears to have been a prelude to Classroom, which does not have ad-supported features.

If you are already using Google Apps for Education, you can apply for the Classroom early preview version for free from the following page. In addition, if your school does not have a Google Apps for Education account and you would like to use the Classroom preview version, applications are being accepted from your organization's IT administrator.

Classroom by Google
https://classroom.google.com/signup