The week of the annual ISTE conference is when many of the biggest purveyors of technology products unveil their latest and greatest offerings. Google is not an exception to that rule and so uses this week to showcase their latest product updates. This week they’ve introduced five Google Classroom updates. Some three of these are minor improvements and two are significant improvements.

Two Significant Improvements to Google Classroom
First, Google Classroom now has a section called “classwork.” The Classwork section is where you’ll now place assignments and reference resources for your students. In the Classwork section you can organize materials according to unit of study or topic instead of just organizing materials by date. A header of Classwork will now appear at the top of your Google Classroom page.

The second significant update is the option to create and post Google Forms quizzes directly within Google Classroom. When you select “Create” in the new Classwork section you’ll now see an option to make a quiz. And if your students are using school-managed Chromebooks, you’ll be able to lock them into the quiz until they submit their final responses.

Three Minor Improvements to Google Classroom
The purpose of adding the Classwork section to Google Classroom is to make it easier for students to find assignments and reference materials. In adding the Classwork section Google made the Stream section a little more compact and streamlined to help students see announcements and comment on discussion posts.

Settings for editing the class description, class code, and controls over student postings are will now be found in one menu.

Managing co-teacher, parent, and student access to your Google Classroom will now be done under one People menu.

As with most updates to G Suite for Education, these new features might not be visible in all domains right away.