Google Classroom and your LMS - Team of Rivals?

Google Classroom and your LMS - Team of Rivals?

In my technology-progressive school district, an excellent dialogue has opened up about what websites to use with our classes. Two main competitors have emerged: 

One of these was Canvas, the powerful multifaceted tool that has been adopted by many colleges as well as 6-12 institutions. In a contest several years ago where teachers were allowed to "kick the tires" on several different classroom websites, Canvas won out over which of these tools we would spend valuable district resources on. When asked why they liked Canvas, teachers appreciated how organized the layout is, the number of features that were all together in the same place, and the grading app, Speedgrader, as significant advantages to this system. 

In the other corner, is the free tool Google Classroom, which was still in relative infancy when we made our Canvas selection, but has proven to be very popular among staff, especially those who are heavily invested in GAFE. When teachers explain why they use this over Canvas, teacher frequently claim simplicity, easy of use, and efficiency in dealing with Google Documents as reasons.

A handful of teachers have found a third way - why not let the two of them work side by side? The history teacher in me likens this to Doris Kearns Goodwin's take on Lincoln's cabinet, a body that was composed of Lincoln's previous political enemies, who ended up being immensely complimentary and helpful to Lincoln. The big question is, can Google Classroom live alongside your more powerful LMS (wether it be Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, Schoology, etc.). I would argue that it can, if it done in a deliberative fashion. I am not the first person to suggest this, for other ideas on this strategy or similar strategies see these posts by Alice Keeler and Caitlin Tucker. I will suggest that your strategy in using both be very well thought out and consistent. Here are some things to think about:

My LMS Homepage Sidebar
Note links to all the sites that
students may need to go to

Have ONE place to start everyday

Google Classroom "About Page". Note the two teacher added
resources that students can access

If you are going to use multiple web sites in your class, you need to have a central landing pad for students to start with. This will create fewer frustrations from students along the lines of "which site are we using today" or "I don't know where to go" If you want students to start from your LMS, place links on your LMS to other sites that they will need to go, such as Google Classroom, your online textbook, etc, that they will need to access regularly. If you want students to start from Google Classroom, use the "About" section to store these links. Students will be appreciative, and you will have fewer missing assignments and student questions about "Where do I go today".  The illustration above is the sidebar for the LMS homepage for the course I taught this last year. Students did not need to know where any of these sites were - all they had to know was that if they got themselves to Canvas everyday, they could get anywhere else required for the course, including Google Classroom. I also post signs in the classroom of the logo of the sites that we will be using everyday, so that students don't have to rely on my verbal cues, but can also use the visual clues posted at the front of the classroom. 

An increasing number of vendors are also integrating their content with Google Classroom's API. This means that assignments that you create on these sites can generate an assignment on Google Classroom as well. Here is a relatively current list, but this count has already grown since the March publication of the article (Nearpod and ActivelyLearn are two that I am also fond of). This may also be a factor for you in determining where to start, especially as this list grows longer and longer. 

Have ONE place to submit assignments

Fewer things will derail your good tech planning and classroom management than an inconsistent way of collecting assignments. If you are going to collect your assignments in Classroom, collect them there consistently. If you are going to collect them in an LMS, collect them there consistently. Going back and forth will result in student confusion and frustration, as well as record keeping issues about which assignments were handed in, and where you can find them. If you have to make an exception for some reason, this is not the end of the world, but just make it clear in both your written and verbal assignment instructions that this is the case. For example, I usually have students submit assignments through Classroom. However, there are a few that I collect in my LMS, for example a discussion forum with embedded content from other websites (Google Classroom can not yet do this), so I have also collected specific, limited assignments in my LMS. Because those assignments were specific to the LMS, and I articulated this early, I had very little difficulty with students trying to turn the assignment in on some other platform.

Feedback is another thing to consider. What platform allows you to give feedback that is both timely and targeted. That is more of an individual decision than one I can give specific advice on, but consider what tools you want to use to give feedback, and then work from there. I mentioned that many teachers appreciated the Canvas "Speedgrader" tool that is built into our LMS. However, you may be be fond of Andrew Stillman's Goobric tool, which is easily integrated into Google Classroom. There are other tools as well that are being built for Classroom, so keep an eye out. Like with assginment submission, keeping feedback in one place will also help students access this feedback more easily. 

Keep a calendar in ONE place

Your LMS (likely) and Google Classroom come with a calendar. Your online gradebook, if it is not your LMS, may also have a calendar. Choose a calendar, and stick with it. It would be foolish, if not impossible, to try to keep three of more calendars updated regularly - I may have tried to do this at one point in time. Whatever place you have established as your starting point is probably a good place to keep your calendar as well. Also, make sure your students know how to read the calendar. Does it list assignment by the day they were given, by their due date, both? This is also something that could potentially be shared with parents - if the calendar can be viewed on a Google Calendar, then you can give that info to families. This is a slam dunk for Google Classroom, but also available in some LMSs and some online gradebooks (Canvas, the LMS my district uses, offers a Google Calendar friendly link to a student's calendar). You may also opt to keep your own calendar on a word processing doc or even a separate Google Calendar or Apple Calendar. Whatever you decide, stick with it, refer students (and parent if publicly available) to it, and keep it updated as part of your daily ritual. Also, remember to update it as events unfold. We all have days when class runs long and something is pushed a day later, a fire drill happens, a snow day is called, etc. Update your calendar accordingly. If your calendar is out of date, then students will not refer to it. 

That's all for now. I would welcome any comments or thoughts you have on using Google Classroom with an LMS, whether you have some additional ideas on how to do this, or even if you think is not a good idea.