No man is an island. At some point in our lives, we have to ask people for help or work with others to accomplish a task. This is why in K-12 and higher education, educators love to create activities to help students learn to collaborate. In this digital age, there are a lot of tools that can be used to facilitate collaboration, but few can beat Google Classroom’s “free” price tag. In this tip, I will discuss how students and teachers can use Google Classroom to facilitate collaboration.

1. Text Analysis Collaboration – English Language Arts students, can easily collaborate on text analysis through Google Docs or by using a PDF annotation tool.
2. Grammar Lessons with Collaborative Corrections – Use Google Docs to create grammar lessons and have students collaborate on corrections.
3. Essay Collaboration – Have students collaborate on essays through Google Docs.
4. Collaborative Stories – Students can use Google Docs or Slides to collaborate on original stories.
5. Collaborate with Non-Google Users – Collaborate with non-google users by changing the sharing settings to anyone who has the link can access.
6. Lesson Plan Collaboration – Create a Classroom for specific content areas to collaborate on lesson plans.
7. Graphic Organizers – Upload graphic organizers for students to collaborate on assignments and projects.
8. Group Collaboration – Assign multiple students to an assignment to create a collaborative group. Give students editing rights to allow them access to the same document.
9. Group Communication – Teachers can use Classroom to communicate with groups of students, parents, or colleagues. Students can use Classroom to interact with groups of peers or teachers. When making an announcement, choose the classes and students you want to receive the communication.
10. Group Project Reflections – Have students submit reflections on group projects through Classroom. This can be done through email or by creating a document for students to utilize.
11. Group Projects – Assign group projects and have students upload artifacts and documents to the Classroom.
12. Study Groups – Create study groups for students or teachers.
13. Chat with Collaborators – Collaborators within a document can have back-channeled chats while collaborating, eliminating the need to email or use alternate methods of communications.

Can you think of additional ways that Google Classroom can be used to facilitate collaboration?

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