Today my life got infinitely better. Google Classroom now allows users with Gmail accounts (email ends in @gmail.com) to join a Google Classroom class. Eventually, Gmail users will be able to create a class, patience! Notice that new features for G Suite ROLL OUT so if your Gmail account does not have access to Google Classroom just wait.
G Suite for Education
What if your email is not @gmail.com but instead a school email on G Suite. Yes, you can now join the Google Classroom classes of people outside of your district MAYBE. By default, this ability is turned OFF. Your G Suite apps admin will need to enable this.
If you have access to the admin panel (admin.google.com) click on “Apps.” Then click on “Google Classroom.” Notice there is a radio button to allow “Any user” and “Any G Suite for Education class.” Choose those if you want to fully open the flood gates to access outside the domain.
Professional Development
This is a really big deal for professional development. Now we can learn from people outside our school! I have some Google Classroom online workshops I am running (alicekeeler.com/events). I use Google Classroom as the online platform. The hassle has been that in order to use Google Classroom you have to be at the same school. NO MORE! Now you can use your own personal Gmail account to participate in my online workshops or in person events. If you want to use your school G Suite account you’ll need to get your G Suite apps admin to check some checkboxes in the admin panel.
Learn More
If you want to learn more about Google Classroom check out my books:
50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom. This book is for users who are new to Google Classroom.
50 Things to Go Further with Google Classroom: A Student-Centered Approach. Is the follow up book to the first one to help you really rethink how teaching looks when you bring technology into the classroom.
A free resource is 50thingsbook.com. A tour of Google Classroom.
I have years of blog posts on teaching with Google Classroom.
For tips, tutorials, videos and more visit alicekeeler.com/googleclassroom.
G Suite for Work
Sorry, only @gmail.com accounts and G Suite for Education accounts for now.
4 thoughts on “OMG – Google Classroom For Gmail Accounts”
Can a teacher in with a personal gmail account be added to a Google Classroom in G-Suite for education domain?
Only if it is enabled by the G Suite admin. There are some checkboxes to check.
My district has set up Google accounts for all students (gr 5-12) so teachers can use G-a Suite and Google Classroom;however the district has disabled the email part of the student Google accounts. This hinders teachers using some Google extensions most effectively (e.g. Flubaroo- scores cannot be emailed to students).
(Our district doesn’t want the legal obligations that come with giving students email addresses and that is why they disabled the student email access.)
#facepalm it’s always frustrating when shortsighted admin turn off email for kids. I would say most schools I work with have email ON so why the paranoia? It absolutely hinders feedback. Turning off email makes learning worse. There is no legal obligation, lots of schools have it turned on. Use Gaggle if you want to monitor their emails.