Google is rolling out a bunch of new educational tools for students and teachers who are using Google Meet. According to the official blog, the new features include new emoji reactions, end meetings, and mute all functions for teachers and students.
COVID-19 pandemic has not only trapped us inside our homes but also limited workers and students to work or attend their classes from homes.
Though over time, Google has added a ton of new features to Google Meet, the new update surely would give more functionality to students as well as teachers. It will basically improve the virtual experience of both students and teachers.
Coming back to the features, Google is adding the ability to determine who is on the roster and will allow only those people to join the meetings. It will prevent unwanted guests to enter video calls. Google will roll out this feature later this year.
Teachers will be automatically made the host of the meetings, to give them more control over who can join the meeting, even if there are multiple instructors.
For administrators, Google Meet is getting an improved audit log feature. This will allow the admins to better investigate and tweak potential security problems.
Google Meet also gets “Mute-all controls” for teachers to shush unruly kids
While conducting classes via Google Meet is the safest way during this pandemic time, it also gives students the freedom to do unruly things as they are in the comfort of their homes.
It becomes difficult for a teacher to continuously monitor each of the students. So for this, Google is adding a Mute-all control for teachers. With a tap of a button, the entire class will be shush-ed or can be made silent. This feature will roll out in the coming weeks.
Google Meet is also set to get some moderation controls for better access. Additionally, Google Meet will also let teachers control their end meetings for all participants.
Teachers will also get the ability to send transcripts to students that miss classes or can’t attend the classes. This would allow them to keep up with the class without missing on learning.
Google is also improving Google Meet’s reliability and performance on low bandwidth and slow internet connections. This is a nice move as strong internet is not present everywhere.
Talking about one of the best additions among all these features is the emoji reactions. This adds a fun and interactive way for students to engage in the online class.
There will be a hand button at the bottom of the screen which pops open a panel of reactions. These emojis are controllable by administrators, to prevent misuse and to be used when required.
