Friday, April 10, 2020

Google Meet is now integrated in Google Classroom!

In an earlier blog post and video I explained how you can use Nicknames when creating a Google Meet to keep students from joining the Meet before you, or from rejoining the Meet after you have left. (You can see the post and video here.)

That method still works great, especially for those people who do not use Google Classroom at all, or if you are inviting students to a Meet who are not part of your Google Classroom. However for those who use Google Classroom, we now have a new easy option for managing Meets with your students!

In general here's how it works…
  • For each Google Classroom you have, you can now generate a unique Google Meet link for the students in that Classroom. 
  • The link for the Meet can be displayed on the Stream page and the Classwork page of the Classroom so you and your students can access it easily. 
  • You can use the same Meet link over and over again anytime you want to video conference with your students. 
  • However, the students cannot join the Meet without you, so they can't access the Meet before you are there, or rejoin the Meet after it is over and you have left. 

See below for detailed directions on how to use this feature, as well as a short 6-minute video that demonstrates all the steps.

Tutorial Video (6 minutes)



Note: See all of my Google Meet help videos here:

And see all of my Google Classroom help videos here:


Directions

  • First go to Google Classroom as normal and open up one of your classes.
  • Next click on the gear icon in the top right corner to access the settings for that class.
  • Now scroll down to the General section of the settings.
  • Here you will find a setting for Google Meet.


  • Click on the button for "Generate Meet link".
  • This will now create a unique Google Meet link for your class and for your students.


  • If you do not want your students to have access to the link yet, you can toggle off the setting for "Visible to students". If you turn on this setting, the Meet link will be accessible on the Stream page and the Classwork page.
  • You can also click on the down arrow next to the Meet link to "Copy" the link if needed, or to "Reset" the link to a new unique link if needed.
  • Copying the Meet link is helpful if you want to invite someone to the Meet who is not in your Google Classroom, such as another teacher or a guest speaker.
  • When done, click the "Save" button at the top of the page to save these changes.

Now when you or your students go to that Classroom, you can access the Meet link at the top of the Stream page, as well as at the top of the Classwork page.




In addition to this being convenient for you and your students, this is also a special Meet that does not allow the students to join before you or rejoin after you end the Meet. If a student clicks the Meet link in Classroom before you have started the Meet, they get an error saying "The meeting code you entered doesn't work".



Once you start the Meet using the link in Classroom, your students will be able to join. At this point you can run the Google Meet as normal, providing a lesson, having a meeting, answering questions, presenting your screen, and more.

However when you are done with the Meet, you need to make sure all of the students leave the Meet before you do. You can simply wait for all of the students to disconnect, or if needed, you can remove a student as follows:

  • Click on the "People" button in the top right corner of the Meet screen.
  • Find the students who have not left.
  • Click on the down arrow to the right of the student.
  • Click the "Remove" button for that student.
  • Once all of the students have left the Meet, you can then safely disconnect as well.



If a student tries to rejoin the Meet using the link in Classroom and you are not in the Meet, they will get the same error as when they tried to connect before you had joined.

Please note: There is about a 30 second window of time after you end the Meet that it is still technically active and the students can still rejoin. So if you have any concern that the students may be jumping back on during that small window, you can rejoin after a minute or two to double-check.

And that's how the integration works between Google Classroom and Google Meet. Keep in mind each class gets its own unique Meet link, so you do need to go into the settings at least once for each class to turn this feature on. However, once it is turned on this is an easy way for you and your students to connect for video conferencing.


Post by Eric Curts. Connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/ericcurts

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