Google Classroom has had a significant impact on the digital workflow used by students and teachers not only in Burlington, but worldwide. At the high school, our teachers love Classroom’s intuitiveness and as a 1:1 iPad school, students can easily submit projects they create using other apps directly to Classroom in a few simple taps. While Classroom continues to improve, it currently lacks some capabilities teachers are looking for. One in particular is a teacher’s ability to see all of a student’s assignments. Classroom creates folders based on assignments, not students, however there is a super easy work around to solve this problem. It’s essentially going back to the “old way” of using Drive, where a student creates a folder and shares it with their teacher. This can still be done within the Classroom folder and gives teachers the ability to see all assignments completed based on the student. This is handy not only for grading, but for showing parents the work of their child during a conference. Follow the simple steps below to access all of your students’ Classroom assignments, or watch the screencast below to see the process from the teacher as well as the student side.

1. Go to your Google Drive > Click on your Classroom folder > Click on any class within your Classroom folder. Create a folder called “Student Folders.”
2. Instruct your students to go to the Google Drive app and locate the Classroom folder. They should select your class folder, tap the “triple i”s” and rename the folder. I recommend their First and Last name and the name of the class. This will allow you to see the names of each of your students.

4.  Have the students tap the “triple i’s” again and tap the share button. Have them type in your email and share the folder with you. Make sure they select “can edit” for the permissions.

5.  Go to “Share with me” in your Drive and you will see the folders the students just renamed and shared with you. Those are their Classroom folders with all of their assignments in them.

6.  To move the folders all at once, hold down the shift key on the first folder, click on the last folder and all the folders in between will automatically be selected.

7.  Next click on the “more actions” triple i’s and select “Move to”

8.  Click on Classroom > the name of your class > Student Folders (or whatever you decide to name it) and select “Move.” Your student folders have now been moved so that you can access all of their assignments whenever necessary.

Now, each time you post an assignment in Classroom you will have the option to either open the assignment folder, or go to each student’s folder. The student is still the owner of the folder and the files, but you have edit permissions. I tested this method with my students and it worked in seconds. No fancy scripts or complicated steps are involved and students gain experience in renaming and sharing folders. I don’t think this is necessarily going to be something that many teachers need to do on a frequent basis, but it is helpful when sitting down with parents during a conference or if you have a student who may be falling behind in your class. Follow the steps listed above, or watch the screencast below, to learn these quick and easy steps for accessing all of your students’ assignments in one place.