New! Meet Google Assignments LTI

[karl]

[UPDATE May 2021] The current deprecation date of September 1, 2021 is being pushed out to a later date. We are working with the Google Assignments Product Team to re-establish a new timeframe and will provide an update here in the near future as soon as it becomes available.

[UPDATE Dec 2020] Canvas and Google are working closely to deliver updates, which may vary from the dates mentioned in this blog post. Please view the Google Assignment page for the latest updates.

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Last fall you heard we were working with Google to launch the new Google Assignments LTI tool. Assignments, an application for learning management systems, gives educators a faster, simpler way to distribute, analyze, and grade student work—all through the collaborative power of G Suite. After a successful Beta, we are excited to announce it’s now generally available to all Canvas customers.

Over the last several years, the Instructure product team has been working with Google to transition the existing Google Apps LTI to the new Google Assignments tool. This transition allows Google to maintain its own integration with Canvas, which will result in greater attention and updates than Instructure has historically been able to provide. 

The existing Google Apps LTI is deprecated and will be removed from Canvas on September 1, 2021. All customers should set up Google Assignments in Canvas as a replacement. 

What should I expect regarding the upcoming Google Apps deprecation?

Although the integration will be deprecated in September 2021, all instructor and student Google Drive files will remain intact.

A few benefits to expect from the new Google-owned experience include:

• Better stability, uptime, and direct support from Google for all API and login issues. Improved privacy, security, and compliance from the G Suite for Education terms of service.
• Ability to restrict student submissions to school-issued Google accounts vs. any Gmail address.
• Access to the latest Google Drive features when creating and selecting files.

How is Assignments different than Google Apps LTI? 

Assignments includes all the current functionality of Google Apps LTI (excluding Collaborations, coming in Fall 2020), plus a ton of other great features.

What will I experience with Assignments? 

Assignments streamlines the creation and management of coursework, and tackles some of your biggest frustrations:

• Check for missed citations and possible plagiarism with the originality reports feature
• Embed Drive files with the Canvas rich text editor
• Add Drive files to Canvas Modules
• Allow students to submit Drive files to Canvas assignments that you can grade in SpeedGrader

If you choose to grade with Assignments, you can also:

• Provide rich feedback quickly with a comment bank of your most frequently used feedback 
• Use Google originality reports to detect possible plagiarism
• Automatically lock work once it’s turned in with permissions management 

Creating Google LTI Assignments

Other notable features of Assignments

1. 1.3 compliant. Google Assignments is available in the most recent standard via IMS Global, LTI 1.3. Google’s Certification

2. Google support for Canvas customers Only 

3. New Originality Reports: 

• Educators and administrators can save, download, and share reports
• Broader range of file types that you can scan, including Google Slides
• Additional languages are available, including Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, Indonesian, and Italian
• The ability to identify potential plagiarism between students in a school-owned content repository (“school matches”) is now generally available for G Suite Enterprise for Education users

4. Security:  Assignments is secure by design and built to the same best practices as the rest of G Suite for Education, so you can rely on privacy and data security for your educators and students. Google never assumes ownership of your data—that belongs to your organization. And because Assignments is built for learning, it meets rigorous educational compliance standards, including:

• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
• Student Privacy Pledge introduced by the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA)
• ISO/IEC 27018:2019 (privacy principles for the public cloud computing environment)

Explore more details in the Privacy & Security Center. Also take a look at our contracts under “8.1 Intellectual Property Rights” to see details on your data ownership rights.

Video Resources

• How to Grade with Assignments
• How to use Assignments with Canvas 
• How to use Originality Reports
• Livestream: Google Assignments FAQ with Cat Flippen, Brian Hendricks, and Karl Lloyd
• Canvas + Google = Better Together

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If you have additional questions, please reach out directly to Google support who can help you get started.

For product feedback, reach out directly within the Google Assignments product.

[Dan-Parry]

Hi @karl ,

Thanks for this information. Can you clarify what your note "*Grading synced to Canvas SpeedGrader coming Fall 2020" means in a functionality sense? How will this work?

Will we able to mark Google Assignments in/using Speedgrader or is the marking still done in the Google Assignments window and the results are simply synced across into Gradebook?

In my opinion, the Google Assignments marking/grading experience is a big step backwards to what can be achieved in Speedgrader. Would hate to lose this functionality - one of the main reasons we came across to Canvas in the first place!

Cheers

[karl]

In our discussions with Google they have received similar feedback and are working on adding support for Speedgrader as an option in place of Google Assignments

[mohammam]

Thank you so much for this info.

I was testing out the LTI but it seems that when I grade an assignment it didn't get reflected in the student's grades. Any ideas why this could be the case?

[BStutzman]

I am guessing because it says that this functionality is coming in the Fall of 2020.

I just tried this with real students, not test student, and the grades showed up in the grade book once I marked the assignment with a grade and "returned" the paper.

[darin_johnson]

One of the reasons some teachers prefer Google Classroom over Canvas is that the teacher can check on student progress before students have submitted their Google Doc. Certain students require "progress monitoring." Is progress monitoring in this way currently available?

See the "In Progress Tab" here: https://support.schoology.com/hc/en-us/articles/115008543287-Using-the-Google-Drive-Assignments-App#...

[Dan-Parry]

@darin_johnson 100% agree with this.

If there could be that "In Progress" functionality suggested then that would be a game-changer!

With the current setup, you can't see the document until after it has been submitted (it is possible with a few cumbersome workarounds but not ideal).

[PatrickK1]

@karl Are we able to add the Google Assignments LTI to free teacher accounts? I use the client ID from the google site (170000000000573) but it says it is disabled and not sure how to continue.

[karl]

@PatrickK1 try it again, just remember you have to be a gedu user to use the Assignments tool.

Also, the Google Edu product team is watching comments here, but you can also provide feedback directly in the Assignments app or via their Canvas support page.

[BStutzman]

What is the experience using Google Assignments on the iPad through the Student App.  I am running into issues trying to open the document.

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, @BStutzman. Reaching out to the Google team via the support link in this blog post would be a good place to start! Since Google is providing the LTI, we won't know what is intended with mobile devices.

Thanks,

Erin

[kasey]

Is there a reason why Google Cloud assignments will be removed and we can't have the choice between the two? We use Google Cloud assignments in all of our classes so now we'll have to go through and change every assignment. Also, reading through everything about the new Google Assignments it seems to be more work than Cloud assignments not less.

[ckincaid]

I am a tech integration specialist and have a couple teachers in my district who have encountered instances in which a Google Doc they are assigning their students via the Google Assignments LTI is not making individual copies to the students. Additionally, some of the docs are View Only on the student side. Any recommendations in avoiding these issues? Thanks so much!

Carrie K.

[mrwnphs]

Google Assignments is really bad.  You cannot use SpeedGrader and when you enter scores into Google Assignments the score is not automatically entered into the Canvas Gradebook.   Also, if you cross listed classes (multiple sections), then they are all mixed together when grading.   This is not good at all.  We might as well just use Google Classroom.

[maor_madmon]

@PatrickK1 I found an answer on the google support page, hope it helps you too (you have to be a G suite for education user, but you probably are if you're a teacher):

1. Go to assignments.google.com/admin and generate a key and secret
2. When there, choose "other"
3. If you can still install using the "By URL" configuration type, you should drop in this link: https://assignments.google.com/lti/canvas-config.xml

[mrwnphs]

Not sure who mao_madmon is writing to, but that information did not help me.   Right now, here are the problems I'm having with Google Assignments:

Hello,
Google Assignments has 3 problems: 1) the grades don't transfer to canvas 2) you cannot separate students into groups or sections when grading, so in my case I am stuck grading 70 papers at the same time rather than 35 today and 35 tomorrow. 3) Three teachers have reported that when they use Group Assignments with "Grade each student individually," students are reporting that they are getting the message that other students have already turned in their assignment.

[SE4]

I am having the same experience in that when I grade the assignments it is not syncing with speed grader.  Also, for the students, it is not reflecting that they have submitted the assignment. I have followed all directions from Cat Flippen on how to assign.  Please help. 

[jeneen_hill]

Agree with BStutzman, I get an error code when using Ipad and the new Google assignments. HELP!!

Our students are 1:1 ipads, school is starting SOON!

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi everyone!

Many of you are looking for assistance, and per the direction posted in the blog, please contact Google. They can help you with the questions you are looking for.

Google support information

Comments in this blog post will now be closed.

Thank you!

Erin