Google Classroom: what it is and how to use it

Google Classroom is one of the most effective and simplest ways to learn online, both in the classroom and remotely. It’s free, it uses Google’s ecosystem of tools such as Docs and Slides to make sharing materials easy, and it helps simplify the assessment of students’ work.

• Free to use
• Easy to get started
• Integrated ecosystem of Google tools
• Simplifies grading students’ work

Google Classroom is a powerful and very easy-to-use learning management system (LMS) that works with many other third-party apps and services to make digital education much easier, more accessible and cheaper for teachers, students, tutors and administrators.

You may already have used Google’s own tools, such as Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, which makes Classroom easy to use.

During the pandemic, the need for remote learning forced faster adoption than expected, which made the simplicity of Google Classroom very attractive.

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In 2021, at the time of publication, Google Classroom was the No. 1 education app in the Apple App Store and the No. 5 free app worldwide.

Since many people already use plenty of Google tools and are familiar with how Google-based systems work, it’s an attractive way to move to online learning quickly, easily and for free. It’s also simple enough to use without worrying that you’ll need IT resources to keep it running. Cloud solutions are the best fit.

Google Classroom may be a simplistic LMS compared with TalentLMS or Litmos (formerly SAP Litmos), but the advantage is that it takes only half an hour to get used to it if you’re used to the web and Google’s tools. Even so, it still gives educators the freedom to post materials, set assignments and run quizzes quickly and easily.

Google may not have built a full LMS here, but it has cleverly made it open enough to integrate with other suites, so it can offer more. That said, in 2021 it lacked some integration with student information systems and didn’t offer a standards-based grading option.

So, is that enough to make it worth using widely? Here’s everything you need to know about Google Classroom.

What is Google Classroom?

Google Classroom is free to use, within reason. Google ensures students’ safety and security: in schools, Classroom is used with a school account, after your school or university has signed up for a Google Workspace for Education account (the Education Fundamentals edition is free for eligible institutions). This is when the institution can decide which services students can use. Outside school, for example for tutoring or homeschooling, Classroom can also be used with a personal Google account, but with fewer features.

It also gives you the chance to review and customize the privacy and security settings to best suit your groups of students. This is when student accounts are set up, because at school students aren’t allowed to use their personal accounts to access the services. Access is limited to the virtual space, which keeps it safe.

Google assures Classroom users that it keeps all data safe, that there are no ads and that it supports compliance with regulations and industry best practices.

Google Classroom focuses primarily on personalizing students’ learning experience rather than managing it. To quote: “Students can learn 21st-century problem-solving and the skills they’ll use in their future careers, with accessibility features that help every student do their best work.”

Google Classroom may not be a full LMS, but it meets the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standards, so it can be used with another LMS as an add-on. It could also work, as needed, alongside other free platforms such as Schoology and Edmodo (Edmodo shut down its free platform in September 2022).

Google Classroom: features

• Works on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Chrome and other browsers
• Integration with Google Docs, Slides and Sheets
• Create, manage and grade assignments
• Not a replacement for Blackboard

Google Classroom is very easy to access and works on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Chrome and pretty much any other device that can run a browser window. For the growing number of students who already use Chromebooks, this system is perfectly suited to their hardware and to what they’re used to doing with it.

When teachers log in to the platform, they see a section for each of their classes, with courses distinguished by colors and banners. Name the class, enter a description, choose the banner image, and the class is ready to go.

Resources can be shared with all students at the same time, and students are notified by email. This way, a teacher can share and annotate a Google Doc, Sheet or Slide and keep track of when students received the material. You can also bring in materials from Google Drive, which makes integration even easier.

While a presentation can be delivered with Google Slides, the teacher can also hold live lessons with Google Meet, to see and hear students in video interactions.

Student interactions can be controlled at three levels: students can post and comment, students can only comment, or only teachers can post and comment. This lets teachers make announcements clearly, but it also makes it obvious when educators want students to interact with a post. This applies to multiple teachers, since several can be added to a class, which makes it great for teaching assistants.

Google announced in 2021 that Classroom would allow grades to be exported to a student information system (SIS), which improves ease of use and compatibility. The feature was later launched for certain SIS systems.

Google has also added originality reports, so teachers can compare students’ work against other sources, including other students’ work from the same school. It’s a great way to detect plagiarism. In the free Education Fundamentals edition, originality reports can be turned on for 5 assignments per class; in the paid editions (Teaching and Learning and Education Plus), they’re unlimited.

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Google Classroom: performance

• Consistently stable connection
• Interaction with students
• Presentations with Slides and video calls with Google Meet (instead of the former Hangouts)
• No advertising

Google Classroom offers a home page where activity is clearly displayed in a feed, with the posts students have made, newly added materials, assignments and more.

Three tabs divide the layout into Classwork, People and Grades.

1. Classwork lets teachers upload materials, create assignments and quizzes using Google Forms, and ask questions.
2. People shows all learners and educators, including those who haven’t responded to your invitation to join.
3. Grades is the gradebook that shows assignments and students, and it’s where teachers enter grades, which are shared with each student privately. More on that below.

Depending on the settings, students can comment on each other’s posts, which can support collaboration.

Google Slides could be better integrated, because it can sometimes be difficult for a student to navigate between the presentation and a document they’re working on. It’s a small multitasking issue, but it deserves attention. When the teacher shows the class how to do this, less tech-savvy students can be spared from struggling more than those who find multitasking easier.

Making announcements is a simple feature, similar to social media posts. Announcements support basic formatting (bold, italic, underline and lists), and you can attach links, YouTube clips and documents to them, so they’re very useful but concise. These announcements can be tagged with topics for even more clarity and organization.

When you create assignments, it’s easy to select a title, add instructions, add files, choose a grading category (more on that below) or assign points and a due date.

Questions are another feature that offers an opportunity to increase engagement. For example, assign a question to the class or to specific students, with short-answer or multiple-choice options. Although this pales in comparison with Blackboard, you can use Google Forms to create self-grading quizzes with multiple-choice answers.

For announcements, assignments and questions, the really useful feature is the ability to save them as drafts, schedule them to be published at a specific time or send them immediately. This flexibility lets teachers plan and prepare well in advance.

Google Classroom: grading

• Gradebook filled in manually
• Weighted grading system option

Google Classroom uses a gradebook that shows teachers all grades at a glance. It’s also used to share grades with students directly, while maintaining privacy, so other students’ grades aren’t visible.

Grades are generally entered manually in the gradebook; the exception is quizzes created with Google Forms, whose grades can be imported automatically. Broader automation, where the grades in the assignment document fill in the gradebook on their own, would be a good option. Instead, teachers can work with the gradebook and the assignment open at the same time, much like in the real world, with a gradebook open while grading takes place.

Teachers can create a rubric, with up to 50 criteria per rubric and 10 performance levels per criterion.

For the grading itself, teachers can create a weighted grading system. For example, homework could be set to count for 25 percent, exams for another 25 percent and class participation for the remaining 50 percent.

Google does the heavy lifting here, keeping track of the category as the teacher grades individual assignments. The options here determine how much of their grades a student can see.

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What has changed in Google Classroom since 2021?

Since 2021, when we wrote this article, Google Classroom has gained new features, and a few services mentioned above have disappeared:

• Gemini AI tools. Since June 2025, Gemini in Google Classroom has been available at no extra cost in all Google Workspace for Education editions, for users over 18. Teachers use it to prepare lessons, quizzes and materials. At launch, it worked only in English; since April 2026, Google has been extending it to all the languages in which Classroom and Gemini are available.
• Google Meet instead of Hangouts. Google Hangouts was shut down in November 2022, and video lessons are held with Google Meet.
• Edmodo no longer exists. The free Edmodo platform, often compared with Classroom, shut down in September 2022.
• Originality reports and grade export have gone from announcements to available features: the reports, with a limit of 5 assignments per class in the free edition, and grade export, for certain SIS systems.

Can Google Classroom be used in companies too?

Yes, but with limits. Since November 2018, Classroom can also be turned on as an additional service in Google Workspace for businesses. However, Google states clearly that it designed Classroom for schools and that it isn’t a learning management system for companies. It’s a good fit for academies, tutoring centers or instructor-led courses for small groups. For employee training, with course tracking and certifications, a dedicated LMS platform, such as those mentioned above, is a better fit.

If your company uses Google Workspace or wants to switch to it, RezolvIT handles the migration and IT infrastructure: network, servers and accounts, including setting up accounts for new employees.

Should I use Google Classroom?

If you want a ready-made learning platform that’s extremely simple to navigate, works on many devices and integrates with other tools, then Google Classroom might be for you. It’s simply one of the easiest ways to move online, because many teachers and students already have the hardware they need to get started, and the school won’t have to worry about IT support.

For teachers, it’s a minimal way to plan and share resources for lessons, assignments and grading. Everything is clearly displayed and easily accessible across multiple devices. For live video interactions with the class, there’s Google Meet, integrated with Classroom.

That doesn’t make it a competitor to full LMS offerings, such as Blackboard, D2L Brightspace, Moodle or Instructure Canvas. It’s more comparable to Schoology or Edmodo, platforms that also had free versions.

At its simplest, Google Classroom is the face of Google Workspace for Education, bringing everything together in one place for easier and faster use of the various Google tools. While it’s an excellent way to start teaching online, especially in difficult situations, it isn’t a complete replacement for the classroom. But if you don’t have the budget or the infrastructure, it’s hard to beat.

RezolvIT is an IT outsourcing company that successfully supports the companies it works with, whether that means securing their infrastructure or making it easy for employees to work remotely.