Google Classroom and the teacher’s dilemma
A teacher advocating for better UX for education’s sake.
Many parents and families got up close and personal with Google Classroom during the pandemic school closures and remote learning this past spring. In the United States, it was the #1 educational app during March 2020, and came in 4th among all non-gaming downloads (behind Zoom, TikTok, and HouseParty). The desktop version was widely used on Chromebooks and other computers. This is to be expected since Google took over the classroom in a sense between 2012–2017.
Many are expecting to return to using the platform this upcoming fall. While a large number of students and teachers were very acquainted and comfortable using the platform before COVID-19 restrictions hit their area, many parents were forced to take a closer look. Remote communication between teachers, students, and parents became more critical to functionality and well-being than ever before.
Teachers generally appreciate using Google Classroom because it is free and simple to get started. It acts as an organizer and inbox for a student’s Google Drive work. If a class has completed work on Google Docs or other non-Google documents, a teacher would rather have it collected through Classroom than receive 100+ emailed attachments or “shared with you” notifications.
I am going to gloss over the many perks of Google Classroom (because there are many that I have enjoyed) and also skip over several bumps in the road that my students and I have tried to solve. I want to focus on one tough feature I experienced as a teacher this past year.
In my opinion, some UX design treatment was desperately needed in the Comments section.
Keeping Track of Allllll the Comments
You might not know that an average secondary teacher has about 25 different general locations in Google Classroom to monitor for incoming student comments. You read that right. Not one inbox or centralized location, but many many places. It takes very intentional effort for teachers to keep track of all of the different ways a student could contact them through Classroom. A student could potentially reach out to a teacher on Google Classroom in at least five ways (though settings can restrict some):
- Post on the Stream.
- Comment publicly on the Stream.
- Comment publicly on an assignment post.
- Comment privately on an assignment post.
- Comment inside an actual assignment document like Docs or Slides.
Each takes 4 to 7 clicks to reach from the browser home page in the desktop version. This does not include the option of emailing or reaching out via other methods or apps that a teacher may be using, but simply within Classroom. So multiply these five locations by the number of classes or subjects a teacher leads. If they have five sections, that is 25 locations to monitor.
I want to note that each of these places has unique usage instances and are valuable. I am actually less concerned by the number of places and more distressed over the fact that I cannot track them in a centralized location within Classroom.
Currently, Classroom offers email notifications for desktop users and mobile notifications that are native to the device (and can easily get swiped away). However, if a teacher opens Classroom on desktop or mobile, there is no list of notifications permanently logged to catch up on. Though many teachers work diligently to keep track of their email notifications or use other methods, it is remarkably easy to miss a comment.
The Case for Familiar Notifications
Teachers are more than capable of handling details like Comments Management. However, I wondered if this flurry could be improved in a scalable way.
To summarize the problem:
Teachers can potentially miss student comments when there are high volumes of incoming messages in multiple locations on the platform. Teachers do not have a running list of comments to track or flag as pending a response when they are available.
So I ask the following guiding question:
- How might we improve the ability for teachers to track and respond to high volumes of student comments on Google Classroom?
Idea to Test:
- Create a notifications icon and dropdown list on the Home page.
- Include the Comments list on the To-Do page.
My reasons include:
- Existing Mental Models: Many people are used to managing incoming messages and notifications in the header menus of websites or header/footer/corners of a mobile app. We know this. The bell symbol and the comment-talk-bubble alongside a red number is a highly recognizable feature. This could help to ensure teachers are notified and will see the comment. Adding one of these to the Home page would really help my Mission-Control-Teacher setup from home or at school or on the go.
- Existing Screen Frameworks and Interface Structure: The locations of the comment list nest easily inside already existing structures. No need to add anything fancy. We already have a header menu and a To-Do page.
Wireframe Examples
These wireframes show the possibility of notifications being logged and teachers could respond immediately there instead of having to navigate to the wide variety of places a comment could live.
On the To-Do page, a teacher can sort Comments by individual or all classes and time stamp. They could reply on the page or go directly to where the comment lives.
Help a Teacher Out
This may seem small but it would have made a world of difference while I was utilizing Classroom especially while teaching remotely. Instead of flipping back and forth between locations within class periods (that I bookmarked) and closely monitoring my email notifications in another tab, I could look at one simple page. I would save time and respond more rapidly to my students.
Considering both a UX design and business perspective, in the early research phase, I would want to be able to interview stakeholders and clarify the business value of this design change. I think there is plenty of incentive to reach existing customers and improve non-customer awareness of the benefits Classroom can provide (ease-of-use) in comparison to other learning management-type systems (like Canvas which has a free and paid version). This would lead to increased trust and familiarity with Google products and Google environment, which I assume is one of their goals.
Dear Google, as a techy-teacher, I am a big fan of Classroom and its many integrations with other apps. Does this suggestion seem viable and feasible? If you checked with your Certified Educators and deployed a survey, I imagine it would also be very desirable.
How about the readers out there… Have you taught through Google Classroom or been the student or watched your kids? Maybe you fired off some of the comments to teachers. What do you think about this problem and solution? I would love to hear more feedback.
Teachers are heading into a challenging year and there is no shortage of ways EdTech companies and UX designers can support them.
Check out the workshop I did with a small group of students on applying UX design principles to another issue we had with Google Classroom. Reach out to connect with me if you are also in the educator, EdTech, and/or UX space!
