Google Classrooms now available to everyone

Formerly accessible only by way of a G Suite for Education account, Google Classrooms is now open to anyone with a personal Google account. It was just last month that Google opened up the learning management system to users with personal accounts, though access could only be granted by G Suite for Education administrators. That's no longer a requirement, anyone with a personal account can finally create and manage their own classes or join classes and courses offered by others.

Classrooms has come a long way since its launch several years back. It's always had a great interface for class management and interaction but a constant stream of enhancements continues enhancing the experience. Educators can now share email summaries of student work with parents and create polls to garner feedback. Students can now annotate documents right through a multi-platform mobile app. This is a system that's totally free and without ads, one that now requires nothing more than a free Google account, better exposing the system to the masses.

There is other competition in this space, most comparisons being drawn with Microsoft Classroom which launched last year. Google's offering benefits from the few years it had before Microsoft entered the space and similarly, while Microsoft offers equally extensive integration with its other apps, Google Drive integration in Google Classrooms benefits greatly from the many years its online office suite dominated before Microsoft entered the online space. Both still present great options and for those interested in a fuller comparison, this article provides a great overview.

More at the source: https://blog.google/topics/education/google-classroom-outside-classroom/