Google as Workspace

 Taking your class online can be exiting if you know, how to incorporate all the features of live class online. Many instructors are using the Zoom as platform to conduct online classes, but there must be a platform to incorporate all of the features of live class to make the online class effective.

For example, you take attendance, you assign assignments, there are quizzes and tests, there are presentations, discussion, you may show a video in the classroom, you may conduct assessment and grade the students based on the performance. So, all of these need to be incorporated into the online class.

Google has the best of ecosystems to personalize the learning experience and manage it in a more effective way. In this blog I will be explaining the various app, tools and add-ons that are available in Google to organize your TLM and access the resources in an efficient way.

Google is a reliable and a powerful company which is constantly updating its features, it has also integrated Google classroom with Meet in its recent updates. Google classroom - a easy to use tool which is available for free. It allows teachers and students to share and view the resources, materials, and assignments, have discussion and much more.

G Suite for Education

This is a free suite for communication and collaboration of learning anywhere,  anytime, on any devices. It has secure, flexible and easy to use tools for education.

For Storing and access 

Google Drive

To store and access docs on and offline without losing any data or resources. Back up all of your content and resources to the cloud and access your files anytime and anywhere. You can easily share the documents from drive with others.

Google photos

You can store Photos of events happening in class in Google Photos

For resource sharing

Google Docs

An Editable documents similar to MS Word which help you easily format text and paragraphs.

Google Sheets

A spread sheet similar to MS Excel to make your data with meaning full with built-in formulas, colorful charts and graphs.

For Presentation

Jamboard

An interactive whiteboard system with touchscreen display for collaborative online class.

Google Slides

Which can make your class more interactive with a variety of presentation themes, embedded video, animations, and many more.

For Communicating

Gmail

An effective tool to Communicate with students, parents and teachers.

GMeet

It is a video-communication service developed by Google. It is one of two apps that constitute the replacement for Google Hangouts, the other being Google Chat

For Classroom management

Google Classroom

A free web service from Google for schools that simplifies creating, distributing, and grading assignments. The primary purpose of Google Classroom is to streamline the process of sharing files between teachers and students.

The updated features include
• Pin, mute, or remove participants during a meeting
• Disable in-meeting chat and set restrictions on who can present
• Block anonymous attendees by default
• Get students participating in virtual classes with hand raising and digital whiteboards
• Keep students focused on learning with blurred or customized backgrounds

For Assessment and quizzes

Google Assignments

Assign assessments to students and they can submit the same.
The assignments are Graded with integrated rubrics and personalized feedback

Google Forms

For collecting Data, Attendance, Quick poll, Quiz and much more.

For Organizing

Google Keep

A note-taking service and to set reminders of TO DO task included as part of the G suite.

Google Calendar

A time-management and scheduling calendar service, it also allows you to create and edit events.

For Web Apps, Add-Ons and Extensions

Google Chrome

A web browser which has plenty of Add Ons and Extensions to assess variety of tools and apps form the web store. This includes adding new features or modify existing program which help you to personalize and make it more convenient for the user. All this tools helps to enhances the functionality of the online class.

Few useful apps for online class are :

Screencastify

App help you easy Record Screen and take Screenshot anywhere

Text to speech

This applications to read the text on your screen aloud, it has around 220+ voices across 40+ languages.

Speech to Text

This service enables you to easily convert audio and voice into written text.

There are more that 300 LMS (learning management system) But, Google Classroom incorporates all the features of a live classroom like - Attandance, Assignment, Assessment, Quiz, Presentation, Group Discussion, Video recording, Grading and Cloud Storage.

How to assess and evaluate students in online teaching ?

  

We are now towards the end of the academic year.  We have all struggled and somehow learnt and managed to teach online.  But it's time for assessment now.  Many would have already started with the online assessments.  But, here though this blog I would wish to mention a few useful tools and tips for conducting and evaluating the online assessment effectively.

Assessing student learning is an essential component of effective teaching and learning in the online environment. The following resource will provide you with information on how to effectively use online assessments.

First, Lets see the difference between Assessment and evaluation ?

Assessment is to track the students understanding the areas of weakness during the learning process.  It allows us to adjust the teaching accordingly and is basically improving the learner’s performance. 

Whereas, Evaluation focuses on grades and determines the merit value or quality of the programme, it helps us to identify if a course is effective and redesign it course or product accordingly. It is product-oriented. 

Objective of assessment : 

Online assessments allow you to learn more about your students, and help to learn more about ourselves as well – so that you can see which is the right way of teaching for the students. 

Types of assessment 

• Pre-assessment or diagnostic assessment, 
• Formative assessment, 
• Summative assessment, 

Methods of assessment 

1. Written Assignments:  Short essays, research papers, case study responses.
2. Online Discussion: Asynchronous discussion activities (i.e. discussion board, blog or wiki).
3. Concept Maps: Provide visual representation, info graphics, mind mapping
4. Game- type activities : 
5. Presentations: slide deck, poster, Blackboard Collaborate
6. Test/quiz/exam: Traditional multiple choice, short or long answer questions.

Advantages of online assessments

• Saves lot of time and money
• Can be completed in less time.
• Data can be easily collected and exported to excel file.
• Can be taken during class, or at home 
• Can get results and feedback instantly
• Many candidates can take the assessment at the same time.
• Helps you to know more about your students and their needs. 

Disadvantages of online assessments

• Need to be a computer literate to create or take an assessment 
• Technology is not reliable, internet and technical problems makes it complicated 
• High costs are involved in such software.

Online assessment tool

• Google forms

It can be used to assess the students. You can also use to get feedback from students and parents. Similarly, students can use Google forms to assess their own learning and set the learning goals as well as to collect data. I have made an explanation video on how to set questions in Google forms, send it to students and how to export the marks to excel sheet, click on to the link to view it.

• Kahoot 

It is a game-based classroom response system played in real time. You can project the Questions on a shared screen, while the students can answer the questions It allows you to design multiple-choice quizzes as well as polls and surveys that populate on-the-spot data; the quiz questions and polls stimulate quick instructional decisions as well as whole-class discussion.

• Answergarden

It is an easy-to-use online feedback app that can be used to get answers from your respondents. It adopts a minimalist design that allows users to create, share, answer, and manage topic questions without signing up for accounts. It can be used for brainstorming, polling, synchronous and asynchronous communication, and formative assessment.

• Classkick

It is a free formative assessment tool that allows you to create lessons and assignments that students work through on their devices at their own pace. You can observe student progress in real time and provide immediate feedback.

Evaluation process :

• The students must be aware of the expectation of the assessment in advance and have to keep them posted. 
• Teachers can use the auto-grading options available in the online assessment tools. For example, questions like multiple choice, true-false, or short answer can be set to assess automatically and provides feedback along with the results. 
• Students can submit the assignments into the LMS within the scheduled date and time, you can later cross check to give feedback.
• One of the basic requirements for evaluation is the rubrics. Its effectiveness is based on the level of detail included. 'Rubrics help to define the characteristics of a high-quality assignment and help the student understand assignment and assessment expectations. Rubrics also provide a range of performance by establishing categories that span the range of possible outcomes, from basic to exceptional performance on task. 

Conclusion 

Online assessments are a critical part of  online education and should be undertaken with the same level of care and rigor that you put into creating your learning content. The best part is that you need not be a genius to build online assessments. There are many software tools that allow you to generate engaging tasks. Choose your way to assess student learning and a related tool to align your needs and the results you want to achieve.

Google Sheet Calendar Template for Academic Year 2021-22.

 In the book  "8760 hours - How to get the most from the next year"  written by Alex Vermeer, explains the importance of creating a detailed plan and optimizing  it for success. 

He has explained  - 

• Why to plan ? 
• How to plan ? 
• What are the things to plan ? 
• Tools that are available for planning.
• You can know your present reality by answering a few questions.
• Identifying your major Goals.
• Determining possible uncertainties. 
• Planning and reviewing your goals.

Download the book in PDF format by clicking the given link - 8760 Hours- How to get the most from the next year.

The author has also given a compact single page year calendar from David Seah. Which holds a “big-picture” for the upcoming year. On which one can place things like:

• Major project milestones.
• Specific events and important dates.
• Monthly habits to focus on and develop.
• Anything else you want to see, such as metrics, quotes, or major goals.

After reading the book, I thought about how this compact calendar can be used as a teacher to plan the academic year. 

With schools reopening very soon for the next academic year many of you are already planning for next school year. So that all the tasks can be put together in one calendar for Teachers, Students parents and for Management heads.

Though we have Google calendar, it is for our personal use and we will not be able to share it with others. Many may prefer a one page document with all the information and events for the year. 

With help of the compact calendar, I have altered and incorporated a little more information that a teacher will require to plan their academic year. 

I have given the link below to download the academic calendar to get your copies in the editable form. 

[convertkit form=2287455]

Editing the Calendar 

Once you have your copy of the calendar, you can edit them as you do in any normal Google Sheets.

[caption id="attachment_475" align="alignright" width="300"] School Calendar[/caption]

• You can type the events and information on the right side of the months.
• You can change the color of the corresponding dates on the calendars by simply clicking on the date and change the background color. 
• You can also remove a color by choosing "Transparent" as the background color.

Sharing the Calendar

As the template is a Google Sheet you can share the calendar.

• You can share the sheet by clicking the "Share" button and sharing with specific people or as a link.
• You can download a PDF version of the calendar by clicking "File" then "Download" then "PDF document".
• Or you can print the document.

 

Click the link below for a video explaining how to use this calendar 

https://youtu.be/NmgPyahwjGM

This template an by useful for anyone who like to work in an organized manner and schedule their work.

The same template can be modified each year with out much difficulty and without missing any of the previous year's events.

Hope your found this content useful, let me know your comments below.