[ARCHIVED] Google Course Kit in K-12

[S9300807]

We were excited to learn more about Google Course Kit at InstructureCon but disappointed when we returned home and experimented with it.  The biggest downside is that the submission does not display in Speedgrader.  Our teachers# depend on Speedgrader.  With Google Course Kit we found that the teacher graded it outside of Speedgrader.  There were other negatives for us - We found the Google LTI does certain things better and the Course Kit does certain things better but it's seem silly to run both of them.  It's too confusing for teachers. 

What have you discovered about Google Course Kit? 

[paula_setserkis]

Susan, I installed our Course Kit today and discovered the same thing as you. At Instructurecon, we thought we understood that Speedgrader could still be used. I thought I was missing something until I found your post. Personally, I agree that teachers will be terribly confused, and the Speedgrader tools are superior to what Google offers. In addition, I still don't have any graded submissions syncing into the Canvas gradebook. My notes say that should work as well but perhaps there's a delayed sync. I also found that my fake student's submissions are all appearing in my Google Drive's Shared with me folder. The Shared folder is a black hole, and hundreds of student submissions won't make that better.

[lindsay_henry]

Hi Paula - I also had trouble with the grades syncing and found out that the points on my Canvas assignment didn't match the points on the Google Course Kit assignment page, so you may want to double-check that to see if that's why the grade isn't showing up in the Canvas Gradebook. 

[paula_setserkis]

Thank you!

[cdavitt]

We are having issues as well. I can't seem to get the grades to show up in the Canvas grade book when using course kit. It seems like more trouble than it is worth. Maybe something is working on our end?

[bryan_lakatos]

I'm experiencing this grades-not-syncing problem today, though I'm pretty sure it worked well in my earlier testing. Points for both the Canvas and Course Kit / Google Assignments assignments match and all student work has been graded and returned in Course Kit / Assignments. Has anyone found a solution for the issue yet?

[bryan_lakatos]

In case anyone is seeing this, looking for answers, I was never able to figure out the grade syncing problem, though I did find out that it had actually been a problem for folks around here for a few weeks. I ended removing the LTI app for Assignments and re-setting it up. This ended up breaking all previously made Assignments assignments, but no work was lost due to the fact that the actual files are available in Drive. So, a bit of manual entry of grades (which was a thing anyway since the syncing wasn't working), and all new Assignments assignments work perfectly.

Hope this helps!

[cdavitt]

Bryan - are you saying that the grades now sync from Course Kit to the Canvas grade book?

[bryan_lakatos]

Yep - for assignments created with the newly setup Assignments, grade syncing between Google and Canvas is working.

[dgrandits]

I am so frustrated! After using Schoology for 2 years, I was asked to try Canvas. 2 issues I’m wondering about:

1. Students submitted assignment made with Course Kit but they didn’t show up in Speed Grader but are in the Drive file. 

2. I really want to see as students write. I was told Course Kit would allow that. It doesn’t. I open up in Drive again.

Am I missing something? This doesn’t seem great for 7th grade.

[joy_duncan]

Following

[bryan_lakatos]

Speedgrader is a function of Canvas and is unneeded (in my experience) with Google Assignments assignments. I say that b/c Google Assignments offers a quick and easy way for teachers to flow through assignments, grade according to rubrics, and give feedback. 

As for seeing as the students write in their Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. - all you need to do is open the target students' files in Google Docs / Sheets / Slides / etc. and you'll be able to live collaborate / watch.

[joy_duncan]

Susan, I agree going back and forth with Course Kit will be too much on my teachers and I definitely want them using Speedgrader! I work with K-5th grade teachers, how about you?

[S9300807]

While we are a K-12 school district, Speedgrader is mostly used by secondary teachers.

[vailj]

Thanks for sharing. My school is having some issues with our filter. Our staff are able to access assignments using Course Kit, but students get a 404 error. Does anyone have a list of URL's? Thanks in advance!