How have digital tools, especially Google Classroom updated the educational system?

The conventional education system is subjected to severe challenges faced by both the students and the teachers. The primary problem between the two is the lack of resources and a vital communication mode between the two. In situations such as the pandemic, unpredicted weather, on-campus power failures, or an absent teacher can potentially cause them to suffer academically. (Richardson, 2012) Hence, there is an increasing need for digital education tools that address these issues and potentially improve the overall status of the educational system. However, to study the role played by Google 

classroom in revolutionizing the educational system, it is also crucial to perform a thorough evaluation of the popular program so that its strengths, weaknesses, and overall impact could be studied. 

      The modern days are all about digital equipment. Everything is primarily controlled and organized by digital tools such as mobile phones and computers, from day-to-day activities to educational and business matters. Therefore, it has been nothing less than a need to use the modern digital revolution to benefit most educational departments. 

      Education is used to shape the minds of individuals who are to run the world in the future. While doing so, the teachers ought to be trained to the best of their capacity to impart their knowledge to the students effectively. (Iftikhar, 2016)The primary purpose of the imparted knowledge is for the students to use that information by learning it and implementing it in their routine affairs. 

      The digital tools tend to modernize the education system and make it more interactive, efficient, and quick. Therefore, to understand the effectiveness of one of the most popular digital teaching tools, the Google classroom, it is inevitable to evaluate it for all the impact it so far has and the purpose behind introducing it to the educational system. (Al-Maroof, 2018) The undertaken evaluation can help establish a general understanding and importance of Google Classroom in society. Still, it aims to provide insight to the parent company, Google, the students, teachers, and the educational administrators to learn how significant Google Classroom is in its fundamental purpose. For the parent company, it can help it understand the strengths and weaknesses of their program and, hence, help them work on its shortcomings to provide the best possible experience for the users. The teachers and the administrators can learn how the introduction of Google Classroom can improve the quality of education for the student and what possible challenges it could rise during the implementation period (Ramdhani, 2019). Lastly, the students can use the information to establish ways to benefit from the program to speed up their educational process and make it more efficient. 

      The program has been launched under Zach Yeskel, who has been a teacher back in the 2000s. The teachers in the middle of the to late 2000s were the ones who first handled experience the bloom of technology in the society, and quite a few of them came with an idea to direct it for the educational revolution. However, Yeskel had been one of them who wanted to speed up the educational system and make it more convenient for the students and teachers. Therefore, under the initiative by Google to provide free educational tools, Zach Yeskel and his team created the Google Classroom application to help the students and teachers worldwide go paperless and have a higher degree of connection with each other. The purpose was to engage students in the learning process by introducing something different than the conventional educational system and simultaneously, helping them stay up to date with their work (Azhar, 2018). Along with that, the Google Classroom was made to help teachers organize the student grades and tasks at one forum where they could easily access it themselves but could also share it anytime with the students. 

      The thorough evaluation of this program will not only help all the stakeholders understand the positive and negative effects it can have on the overall education system, but can also be sued to evaluate the benefits or drawbacks it holds for factors other than education such as the environment, natural resources and time. Each stakeholder, after this evaluation, will be able to quickly identify the pros and cons of the program in their institute and hence, could conveniently make a decision if they want to implement it or not. 

      Both faculty and staff have access to the Google Classroom app, which can act as a district-wide, free, web-based Learning Management System. Unfortunately, not many are aware of it and are neither willing to have the set up for the application in their institutes. Simultaneously some faculty members are still interested in having strong Learning Management Systems in their institute. If every single teacher familiarize themselves with the Google Classroom application, a greater harmony will be established in which the student learning will discussed, facilitated, and monitored online by educational institutions.

      In the world of education today, computers and technology continue to play essential roles than ever before. Educators are continually trying to integrate technology into the classroom and student lessons in innovative and exciting ways. The capacity to incorporate this technology into the classroom environment has become simpler for many schools with the growing prevalence, availability of laptop computers, tablets, and WiFi in an affordable price. There has been so much more education-based technology available today that was once only used by students for word processing, online gaming, WebQuests, and surfing videos. The first available Learning Management System was by the name of FirstClass in 1990 (David, 2013) to help monitor students' success with the online content. The technology kept evolving, and finally, more interfaces such as Moodle (2002) and Eucalyptus (2008) were introduced, which grew to become open-source platforms for learning (Sharma, n.d.). A Learning Management System contains a wide variety of characteristics that range from document management to posting, submitting, and marking assignments to the connectivity of various devices, remote involvement, announcements, and a calendar to integrate all the valid dates, including exam dates as well as due dates. (Sharma, 2010)These channels, such as a parallel email system, can also provide communication between the faculty, students, and administrators. Due to the maturity and ease of using these components, Learning Management Systems have become very common in recent years.

      A Learning Management System will enable students and teachers to make the best use of digital media and environments to effectively interact with each other and function collaboratively, even at a distance, to encourage individual learning and to contribute to others' understanding as a class (International Society for Technology in Education, 2007). A survey by the name of BrightBytes Clarity was conducted in January through June. (BrightBytes, 2016) As much as fifty-three percent of the teachers claimed to have never posted their study material online while sixty-four percent of the teachers had never posted any homework on line. The student results must improve drastically when assignments and material are posted online (Richardson, 2012) as it enables learners to access content and learn at their own pace and convenience. 

      There are several options available for Learning Management Systems that include Moodle, Canvas, Brightspace, and Google Classroom. The application under discussion is Google Classroom. Google Classroom is typically useful for those familiar with other Google apps. It is efficient, easier to use, and quicker than other Learning Management Systems. Many Google applications are already incorporated into the classroom, such as Docs, Forms, Boards, Slides, Calendar, Gmail, Drive. It is available on computers as well as mobile phones. Document processing is streamlined in the Google Classroom, and all records submitted by teachers and students are retained. Inside Google Classroom, all class-related documents are stored in a single thread, and the teachers no longer need to receive emails to access student work (Asnawi, 2018). Teachers and students can quickly write back and forth comments and even participate in online discussions inside the Google Classroom with classmates. Not only the teachers and the students, but the parents can also collaborate using their Chromebooks and the class IDs issued by the schools. Due to this close collaboration between teachers and parents, the students can be monitored and made to excel in their lives.

      Some features found in other Learning Management Systems are not to be found in Google Classroom. There is currently no testing module available to cater for assessments, and hence, Google Forms must be used to record students' responses. Another problem is that the teacher becomes the owner when a student posts a document; a student can only input on a Google Doc, to make edit what the teacher has entered  and then return the task. Despite these challenges, some features make Google Classroom a possible positive change in the classroom's daily experience (Kumar, 2019). Google also works continuously to make the user interface interactive and hence, continually asks for input from educators to continue making changes and change it into a better platform. 

      The Google classroom's primary purpose is to provide vital, collaborative tools to the field of education as a user will contribute to improving the worldwide literacy rate. Not only this but with the introduction of Google Classroom, the parent company aimed at providing educational tools that are meant to enhance the learning process in general and also, to provide learning opportunities to people in the far-flung areas.

      This Learning Management System by Google was created in early 2014 and made available to specific G suite members for education only. Later in the same year, Google Classroom was made available to the public. On its launch, it was announced along with a share button for websites that would make sure that the class developers and the educational institutes' administrators can collaborate with Google and further improve the system. In the following year, Google Calendar was incorporated in the classroom so that the instructors and students could add important class dates to the calendar. Furthermore, different activities were also to be added in the Google Classroom to stay in the loop along with teachers and the administrators. The application kept evolving, and it was not until 2017 that the application was made available to all people regardless of having G suite (Kumar, 2019). As a result, the application was accessible to everyone. Later next year, significant design changes were introduced that enabled the teachers to have new sections for classes, made drastic improvements to the grading system, and made the content's organization the way they like very convenient. Next year, new themes were added to the Learning Management System, making it easier for the teachers to "decorate" their class the way they liked. Simultaneously, they could also change the assignments' sequence and easily add or drop units in the classwork section. In 2020, Google Classroom collaborated with Google Meet, which was a need of time due to the pandemic. In collaboration with Google Classroom, Google Meet made it possible for educators to interact with the students while they delivered lectures virtually. (Teasley, 2009)The students were required to attend a class by using a unique meet link available at all levels. The same year, several new features were also added alongside which included the following:

1. Smart correct for Google Docs
2. Auto compose for Google Docs
3. Multiple languages
4. To-do widget
5. Better integration with Learning Management System

Program Evaluation:

To effectively understand the role of the Google Classroom, it is essential to analyze if Google has succeeded in meeting its goal, connecting the educators with the students. To do so, we can perform an outcome evaluation. While doing an outcome evaluation, it would be essential to ask the stakeholders, the students, parents, and teachers about how successful Google and its policies have introduced the Google Classroom. The evaluation is supposed to be a two-step process that will first have a questionnaire survey being conducted with the students and the teachers to record their opinion on using Google Classroom as a means of education instead of the conventional, offline teaching methods (Jamil, 2016). Once the survey is completed, the results will be analyzed and recorded in the form of a chart or spreadsheet. Then, an evaluation report will be written with the review of existing literature and the survey results for Google Classroom. The final report will be made available publicly to all the potential educators, students, and Google to review the application. It will change all the stakeholders' attitudes as they learn first-hand information from those who would be learning or teaching using Google Classroom. It will not only help them decide to incorporate Google Classroom as the official Learning Management System in their organizations or not. Most importantly, the students will realize how they can use their gadgets such as mobile phones and laptops as a learning tool with the Google application. 

      The evaluation needs to be performed immediately due to the pandemic; there has been an increasing popularity of e-learning. (Smet, 2012) With people being homebound, there has been a potential increase in people switching to the online learning platforms to effectively communicate with each other as they did in conventional classrooms. Google classroom is a relatively newer application as compared to apps like Brightspace and Moodle. Hence, it is inevitable to evaluate the current situation to learn about using such software in the learning system. 

      There are many resources available to evaluate, including the quantitative data collected from the survey participants. Several online libraries can analyze the research paper and then incorporate that information into the evaluation. Not only this, but news reports can be used to learn authentic details about Google classroom. The survey results, which will provide first-hand experience of the people, can also be used to evaluate the google classroom's effect. 

Questions to be addressed:

      The evaluation for Google Classroom will be paramount to various real-life problems that could conventionally arise in a learning system powered by the internet and the differences between e-learning and conventional learning. The questions that are to be addressed in the evaluation include:

1. How does e-learning vary from traditional education?
2. What is an interactive Learning Management System?
3. What features of Google Classroom make it a success?
4. How can educators incorporate Google Classroom in their teaching regime?
5. What benefits do students get by using Google Classroom for studying?
6. What were the goals behind the introduction of Google Classroom, and how successful have they been achieved?
7. Is Google Classroom an effective, long-term solution to the learning gap between the students and the teachers?

Accessing the evaluability:

The e-learning programs have become typically very popular over time. As the world was hit by the pandemic earlier this year, the educational institutes have been closed until further notice. However, this vast gap could not afford the loss of the educational process as it will deprive the world of fresh graduates to work, and hence, the world will be pushed deeper into recession. Therefore, it is crucial to analyze the Google Classroom application to learn the overall impact of e-learning on the teachers, students, and administrators. (Education, 2007)Google Classroom is a young invention that has set its feet deep into the educational system through the close collaborative attempts with the educationists. The developers of the application are all set to understand their users' needs and, hence, update the application accordingly, which makes it users' number one choice. 

Therefore, by performing an evaluation, a thorough report can be made that will discuss the pros and cons of using Google Classroom in the learning process. Moreover, the assessment will indirectly also analyze if the modernized digital world holds a potential future for applications like these (Yogantara, 2019). This application's impact on the learning process will be closely looked at so that the final comment could be made if these tools are useful or just an extra burden on the educational system. 

      However, there are potential barriers in evaluating this program, as there are plenty of Learning Management Systems available that have been used for years. People who have already been using digital mediums might not be using Google Classroom and would have their reservations while switching to another system such as google classroom. Moreover, there are not much researches done precisely to target the Google Classroom alone. Most of them are generic dealing with online platforms in general, which can, to some extent, be used in the evaluator report, but they would not be sufficient. However, most of the information will be relied on a larger scale survey performed. Along with that, maximum possible reviews on the Google Classroom will be explored. Then, about the other Learning Management System, a formal evaluation will be performed. 

      As mentioned earlier, the stakeholders are the teachers, students, administrative staff, and parents. They all will be benefitting from this evaluation as they will figure out if Google Classroom is a successful program or not. Hence, based on the evaluation report, many people could be convinced of incorporating Google Classroom as the Learning Management System in their institute. (Fenton, 2016)They could consider switching another program that will cover up for the shortfall of Google Classroom. Moreover, the teachers and parents who are convinced about learning the conventional way can be possibly convinced by this evaluation to switch to digital methods. Likewise, the students can understand what they could gain from having the program implemented in their educational institute. Another critical stakeholder that could benefit from this evaluation is the parent company, Google. Google is all about improving the application. Since it was first made, it has gone through several assessment steps to enhance the users' experience and make the application even more in line with their initial goals and the overall objectives. The evaluation can serve as a thorough reflection on the application's current performance with all its strengths and weaknesses to make the application better and improve the users' experience. 

Ethics of evaluation:

      Evaluation is a complicated procedure, especially one like this. It includes several stakeholders, out of which, one, the students, is a relatively younger group. (Pynoo, 2011) There could be possible reservations of the participants while taking part in the survey about how their information will be handled. There is also a chance for breach of privacy while answering a particular program in their institute. Therefore, the participants might not be comfortable answering such questions. Some specific teachers or students were in would not be okay with their internal affairs being discussed. Most importantly, Google would have its reservations for performing such an evaluation as it could, possibly, point out internal glitches or any other information about the program that was not made public by the company. 

It is crucial to understand that anyone involved in gathering people's data is bound by ethical responsibility to value each participant's integrity and all the stakeholders. Any survey should be done in a proper way and one that is aligned with best practices. 

Confidentiality and informed consent are two critical ethical concerns to adhere to while performing a survey. The respondent's right to privacy should always be protected at all steps of a study, and any legal data security provisions adhered to. The participant should be adequately informed about the survey's purposes clearly and should be asked if they are participating without any pressure or not, and then the participant's consent to participate in the survey must be obtained and registered in the written form.

Survey research needs the same research procedure standards as any other approach to study. A survey research report with the same degree of rigor as any other research report would be. It should be judged by multiple editors and the wider research community before making it available to the public. The point to be stressed is that researchers should be informed of the steps involved in survey research and should be systematic and thoughtful in preparing, implementing, and reporting the project. This is not to suggest that survey research needs to be extraordinarily daunting or complicated. Above all, survey research should not be seen as a simple, fast, and dirty option; such work can meet local needs adequately (e.g., a brief survey of the satisfaction of the teaching staff with Google Classroom), but will not stand up to academic scrutiny and will not be seen as contributing to information as having much value (Mann, 2020). Moreover, the party against the use of Google Classroom might not be pleased with stating opinions learned from a survey but would like to see more detailed information from research journals to reshape their views or let go of their previous belief. 

      To address the ethical issues in the evaluation, the following things should be considered:

1. Eliminate bias in the findings
2. Support survey results with backup literature
3. Keep the details of the participants confidential
4. Do not force any participant to share any information which they are not comfortable with.
5. Sign a Non-Disclosure Act with the participants to win their trust.
6. Get email confirmation from all the stakeholders about the evaluation
7. Get the final evaluator report approved by a senior researcher. 

There are several adverse effects of this evaluation. A strong retaliation from the other Learning Manage Systems fans would remain on top of the review favors Google Classroom. However, if the study does not turn in favor of Google Classroom, the Google Classroom fans and the company would not be happy with the results. They would see potential problems in the evaluation. Moreover, the educational institutes working on other Learning Management Systems might be confused if they switch to Google Classroom. Simultaneously, a negative report would mean that the schools with a Google Classroom integrated Learning Management System will consider switching to other programs. Likewise, the teachers and the students would also be confused if their education is being sabotaged when they do not use the Google Classroom or vice versa. 

      Another imperative for this research is the fact that the participants could be from different cultural groups. However, learning about their castes or sub-castes might be offensive for the participants but simultaneously, not asking such questions would not standardize the evaluation. People from different cultures have different social values, as well. Likewise, the difference in social values can affect their acceptance towards various programs and, hence, affect the evaluation results (Keeler, 2015). Not only this, but people from different educational institutes could also possibly cause deviance in the product as they could potentially be working under diverse faculty, their mode of teaching would be different, and even the Learning Management System in their institute could be different from the other participants. Along with that, the Learning Management systems can be useful for some subjects but could slow down the learning process in other matters.

      To ensure standardization in the evaluation, it is essential to realize that these differences should least impact the results. Hence, first of all, the two groups should be made. The first group should be from the institutes that have Google Classroom integrated into their institutes, and the second group should be of those that do not have Google Classroom in their institute. Then, groups should be based on each group based on the subject. Moreover, for additional requirements, the participants could be asked about their racial identity to understand the results better or avoid anomalies at work. 

Description of the program and problem:

Program description:

Over years, several Learning Management Systems have been introduced to educational institutes to enhance the learning process as well as improve the collaboration between the teachers, students and the parents. During the pandemic, Google classroom has become increasingly popular to meet the off-campus academic needs. Therefore, an evaluation needs to be performed so that a thorough analysis of the application along with its implications could be performed.

Problem:

The availability of different digital learning tools has complicated the thinking process for individuals as there are several programs available to facilitate the teachers and learners today. The Blackboard, Brightspace, Canvas and Eucalyptus are relatively older while the Google Classroom is relatively new. Many institutes have already implemented it as their teaching medium while there are many that are yet to decide.

Solution:

This evaluation will help make a clear decision to all the stakeholders about how efficient Google Classroom is in contrast to its other competitors that have been implemented in the educational institutes for a longer time. A survey will be conducted to learn from the first-hand experience of the users of this program to see how it has helped shape the educational system, its potential future and the limitations due to any functions it lacks.

Services offered:

The Google Classroom is made by the integration of several Google applications which include Google Docs, Google drive, calendar, Google Sheets and Google Forms. It helps the teachers to manage all their tasks at one place by having students in the thread. There is higher flexibility of organization within the application as more options are available to customize a class. The student can also stay in touch with their teachers right on the assignment without having to email the teacher. Not only this, but the students can interact with other students of their class as well to reflect or discuss an assignment. The testing system is not available yet, so the instructors make use of the Google Forms to test the students.

Goals and objectives of the program:

The basic objective of Google behind having such a program was to integrate teaching tools on a single platform and then use it to connect the teachers with their students at a single place. Moreover, it is a part of the Google’s organizational efforts to increase the overall rate of literacy and make education accessible to everyone. 

References:

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Azhar, K.A. and Iqbal, N., 2018. Effectiveness of Google classroom: Teachers’ perceptions. Prizren Social Science Journal, 2(2), pp.52-66.

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