Google rolls out bunch of new features on Meet for Education

Google has launched a bunch of new features for its Meet for Education customers that are aimed at helping educators improve moderation and engagement of their classes in remote or hybrid learning environments of the present times.

First off, the company has launched new moderation features for G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers. When someone asks to join a meeting (called a knock), they won’t be able to knock again after being ejected from a meeting. In addition to this, a knock will no longer show up after a moderator rejects it twice.

For moderators, or in this case teachers, the company is rolling out a feature that will enable them to end a meeting for all participants, which would ensure no students linger after the teacher has left. The company will also block anonymous attendees from joining any Education meetings by default. These features will be rolling out later this year.

Another moderation feature that the company will be rolling out to the country later this year will give teachers full control over their meetings. This includes the ability to mute all participants at the same time, disable in-meeting chat for participants, restrict who can present. It also includes a setting that requires that the moderator join before the meeting can begin.

In addition to this, Google is also rolling out a blur option for Meet that would allow teachers and students to blur out their surroundings or replace their background with presets or uploaded images.

The list doesn’t end there. Google is releasing a hand raising feature for all G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education users to make meetings flow more smoothly. The company will also provide an integrated collaborative whiteboard to help teachers and students share their ideas more naturally. Additionally, a tiled view will allow teachers to display up to 49 participants at once. The company is also launching its closed captions feature in additional languages to make lessons more accessible. The company didn’t mention which languages it will support now.

Lastly, Google is also releasing several premium features for G Suite Enterprise for Education customers. This includes attendance tracking, which would provide a record of which students joined the class, breakout rooms so educators can split classes into smaller groups, Q&A to provide a way for students to ask questions without disrupting the flow of the class, and polling to engage students to share their voice.