Post lessons to Google Classroom

This feature is in beta, and it's still rolling out. If you don't see the Google Classroom options when you assign a lesson, posting isn't switched on for your account yet. Everything else about assigning works as usual. Try it, and tell us what happens.

If your class lives in Google Classroom, your students already check it every day. When you assign a Berdee lesson to a Google-linked class, Berdee can post it to that Google Classroom course as well. Students see it in their Classroom stream, tap the link, and land on Berdee to do the lesson.

Scores aren't sent to Google Classroom yet. For now the Classroom assignment is ungraded: it tells students where the lesson is, and you see their scores in Berdee as you do today. Sending scores to Classroom is coming in a later update.

What Berdee does in your Google Classroom

Posting is the only thing Berdee writes to Google Classroom, and only when you ask it to:

• It creates a Classroom assignment when you post a lesson.
• It deletes that assignment only if you unassign the lesson and tick Also delete it from Google Classroom.

Berdee never edits your other Classroom assignments, posts, or grades, and never changes your classes or rosters in Google.

Before you start: reconnect Google once

Posting needs one more Google permission than roster sync: Manage coursework and grades in classes you teach. If you connected Google Classroom before posting was available, Berdee doesn't have that permission yet.

You'll see Reconnect Google on the class page and in the assign dialog instead of the posting options. Press it and approve Google's screen again, making sure the new permission is ticked. Google lets you untick individual permissions; if you leave this one off, Berdee can still sync your roster but can't post. Berdee brings you back to what you were doing, with your choices still selected.

You only need to do this once.

Post a lesson when you assign it

1. Assign a lesson as usual, from the lesson's page or from the class page's Assignments button. See Assigning Lessons to Students.
2. Choose a class that's linked to Google Classroom. These carry a Google Classroom label in the class list.
3. A Google Classroom section appears, with Post to Google Classroom already ticked. Untick it if you'd rather not post this lesson.
4. Assign the lesson to the whole class.

Berdee assigns the lesson first, exactly as it always has. Posting to Classroom is a second step, and it never undoes the assignment: if posting doesn't work, your students still have the lesson in Berdee.

After a few seconds the dialog tells you how posting went:

• Posted to Google Classroom, with Open in Classroom so you can see it there.
• Still trying. Google didn't answer in time or answered with an error. Berdee keeps trying every few minutes on its own, waiting a little longer after each try. You can check on it in the class's Assignments tab.
• Paused. Posting to Google Classroom is switched off for now. The lesson is assigned in Berdee and posts on its own when posting is back on.

Posting is for the whole class

A Classroom assignment goes to everyone in the course, so Berdee only offers to post a lesson you're assigning to the whole class. If you select some students, the Google Classroom section explains that posting needs the whole class selected. You can still assign the lesson to those students in Berdee.

What students see

In Google Classroom, the assignment has your lesson's title and these instructions:

1. Tap the Berdee link below.
2. Finish your lesson.
3. Come back here and tap Turn in.

The link opens a Berdee page that shows the lesson's title and asks for their lesson code: the same access code you give them for any Berdee lesson. They type it and the lesson opens. Keep handing out codes the way you do now (printed cards, a slide, a quiet word).

Each student's code is still their own. Berdee never puts codes in the Classroom stream, where the whole class would see them.

Turning in

Only the student can press Turn in in Google Classroom. Berdee can't do it for them, so the assignment can read "Assigned" in Classroom after a student has finished the lesson in Berdee. Their work and score are safe in Berdee either way. Berdee doesn't set a due date on the Classroom assignment, so Classroom doesn't mark it Missing.

If you want everything turned in, remind students of step 3, especially the first few times.

The Assignments tab

Open a Google-linked class and go to its Assignments tab. A Google Classroom column shows where each lesson stands, with one action next to it:

A lesson's other actions, such as Update students to latest and Unassign, are in each row's ⋯ menu.

Post a lesson you've already assigned

Assigned a lesson before you connected Google, or unticked Post to Google Classroom at the time? Find it on the Assignments tab and press Post to Google Classroom. It's posted exactly as if you'd posted it when you assigned it.

The same button is there if Berdee ever assigned a lesson but didn't get as far as queuing the post (it's rare: for example, when something went wrong on our side at that exact moment).

Post again after it was removed

If the Classroom assignment was deleted in Google Classroom, the tab says Removed from Classroom. Press Post again to create a fresh Classroom assignment for the same lesson. The old one isn't brought back.

Students who join later

When a roster sync adds a new student to the class, Berdee automatically assigns them every lesson that was posted to that class's Google Classroom. Classroom already shows them those assignments, so the link works for them straight away.

Lessons that weren't posted to Classroom work as they always have: assign them to the new student yourself.

Unassign a posted lesson

When you unassign a lesson that's posted to Google Classroom, the confirmation asks one more question: Also delete it from Google Classroom. It's unticked unless you tick it.

• Leave it unticked and the Classroom assignment stays, along with anything on it there, such as grades you entered by hand. Its link no longer opens the lesson, because the lesson is closed in Berdee.
• Tick it and Berdee deletes the assignment from Google Classroom, including any grades on it there. The button changes to Unassign and delete it from Classroom.

Either way, students lose access to the lesson in Berdee and their past attempts stay in your records.

Deleting is retried until it works. If it keeps failing, the Assignments tab shows Couldn't delete with Retry deletion and Open in Classroom, so you can delete it in Classroom yourself.

If you delete a Berdee class, or it's unlinked from Google, its Classroom assignments stay in Google Classroom and Berdee stops tracking them. Delete them in Classroom if you no longer want them.

When posting is paused

Paused means posting to Google Classroom is switched off for everyone for the moment. We can switch it off quickly if Google or Berdee has a problem, so nothing unexpected lands in your class. While it's paused:

• Assigning lessons works normally in Berdee.
• Lessons you choose to post wait in a queue and post on their own when it's back on. You don't need to do anything.
• Deletes you asked for also wait, and happen when it's back on.

A Classroom assignment you made yourself

You can paste a Berdee link into an assignment you create yourself in Google Classroom, and students can still open their lessons with their codes. But Berdee can't track that assignment: Google only lets an app manage the Classroom assignments that app created. So for an assignment you made yourself, Berdee:

• doesn't show it on the Assignments tab
• can't delete it when you unassign the lesson
• doesn't assign the lesson to students who join later
• won't be able to send scores to it when score syncing arrives

To get all of that, post the lesson from Berdee instead.

Recommended next reads

• Sync Classrooms from Google Classroom (beta)
• Assigning Lessons to Students
• Assignment Access Codes
• Classrooms and Assignment Workflows