[External Tools] Google Classroom: Student Work View integration

[cunninghama]

In Google Classroom I can  switch over to the Student Work view and can see their work "in progress."  I see a thumbnail sketch of every students' assignment and can quickly see who is not very far.  I can directly open the document from this view to write comments directly on the Google doc.  This creates a very immediate, organic interchange between teacher and student.  

It would be great to have this same feature in Canvas for those assignments that are works-in-progress so I can monitor them while they're working and provide immediate feedback prior to them submitting their paper. 

[rislis]

At ISTE this past week, I asked about this topic. The response was, "Why would you want to do that?" We discussed how it is like a teacher being too much of a "helicopter parent." But like Rachel and Daniel, many of my teachers will be upset if we force them out of Google Classroom and into Canvas for this single reason. It's hard to be in this position when those discussions take place.

[cunninghama]

Yes, a lot of our teachers are resistant to switching to Canvas for this very reason. They like having the screen up with all the thumbnails so they can have a quick view of how their students are progressing at any given time. Some may think it’s being a “helicopter” teacher but others may see it as a classroom management tool. Either way, the lack of this feature is preventing some teachers from making the switch. Why not provide them with the option if it’s something they want and let the teacher, the professional, make the judgment call as to how to use the feature?

[jbrady2]

 @rislis ‌ I couldn't disagree more with the individual(s) who said that this would make teachers like helicopter parents. As a Developmental Writing instructor at a community college, my students need as much feedback as possible along the entire writing process. I would love to have a "living" document shared between myself and the students in which I could "pop-in" from time-to-time to encourage those students who seem stuck and provide feedback to all students without having to ask for multiple submissions throughout the writing process. I wouldn't need to, or even want to, check every students' work every day, but it would be nice to have the ability to offer encouragement to a student that appears to be struggling or provide feedback to a student who has a specific question without having to use email or some other means of sharing a document. This would be especially useful in an online writing course, where the instructor does not have the benefit of walking around a classroom to ask/see how the students are progressing without requiring multiple submissions.

[rislis]

I agree, Jeffrey. I'm going to try and "sell" Collaborations to my writing teachers as an alternative.

I'm especially in a bit of a pickle because prior to Canvas, our only "LMS" was Google Classroom, which I strongly promoted.

And which they keep improving. Locked quizzes coming in August. Ugh.

[jbrady2]

 @rislis ‌ Just to let you know, I chose to use collaborations in my  developmental writing courses this semester, and after some initial hurdles in getting the students to understand exactly how it was going to work, I now have them using a shared doc through the collaborations tool that I stored, based on section numbers, in a folder in Google Drive that I am then able to open and see a thumbnail view that lets me know that they are working on their assignments. I am then able to provide them with up-to-the-minute feedback as they work on their essays without having to provide for multiple assignment uploads. Granted it may be a little more tedious, in the work necessary on my end, than it would be in Google Classroom (Although, I am not certain of this as I have never used Google Classroom.), but it works. 

 @cunninghama ‌ This might also work for providing a pre-made document or worksheet, although, it would require the instructor to do the extra work of copying/pasting the content of the pre-made doc or worksheet into each collaborative document after they are created in Canvas, but at least a possible workaround exists. Hopefully this might become an integrated feature at some point.

[rislis]

This is great information for me to pass on to my teachers, @jeffrey brady!  Thank you for sharing!

[dpruden]

I agree!  Giving real-time feedback in Google classroom was an excellent feature that I miss in Canvas.  This provided a more authentic teacher-student classroom environment where teachers were electronically working one-on-one with students.  I suggested this last year in a comment, and I'm happy to see it again.  I hope that it gets some response this time.