Using the Google Drive Assignments App

The Google Drive Assignments App enables instructors to assign Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Slideshows, and Drawings from directly within the Schoology platform. When a student opens the assigned file, an individual student copy is automatically generated so that the student can work on it and submit, and the instructor can then provide feedback and grade the assignment, all without leaving Schoology.

The Google Drive Assignments App does not support Google Forms.
The new Google Assignments App can be used as an alternative to the Google Drive Assignments app.
- Instructors should continue to use the Google Drive Assignments app if grades are being entered directly in the Schoology gradebook instead of the app.
- Instructors that wish to use the in-app Google Assignments grading tool can use the new Google Assignments app.

How to install the Google Drive Assignments App

To use Google Drive Assignments, you or your system administrator must install the app from the Schoology App Center, accessible from the header.

If you are a system administrator installing the application for your organization, install the app for All Courses by first selecting Add to Organization, after clicking Install LTI App. You do not need a Consumer Key and Shared Secret for the Google Drive Assignments App.

If you are a Basic instructor, clicking Install LTI App will prompt a pop-up for you to select each Course you would like to install the app for. If you are an Enterprise instructor, your app permissions are determined by your system administrator.

Clicking Add to Organization will open the Organization Apps view.

Click Manage Installs. This will prompt a pop-up to bulk install the app.

Check All Courses and select For All Course Members.

How to check for a Successful Installation

To check if the app has been successfully installed, or if your organization's administrators have already installed it for your organization:

Navigate to a Course.
Click Add Materials at the top of your Course Materials page.
Select Add Assignment.

If installed, the Google Drive Assignments App will appear in your Create Assignment screen.

Before using the Google Drive Assignments app, ensure that third-party cookies are not being blocked on the devices and/or browsers used to access Google Drive assignments by instructors and students.

How to Create an Assignment Using the App

Instructors can add content from their Google Drive accounts directly from within a Schoology Assignment.

Create an Assignment using the Google Drive Assignments App

From the Courses menu at the top of the screen, select the course in which you're adding the assignment.
Click the Add Materials button at the top of your Course Materials page. You can also access the Add Materials button from within a folder.
Click Add Assignment.
From the Create Assignment screen, click Google Drive Assignments to open your Google Drive.
If necessary, click Connect to approve the app and log in to your Google account.

Instructors and Students must also be logged into a Google account through their browser to work on and submit assignments using the Google Drive app.
Enter words or phrases in the Search pane to filter your results. Enclose phrases in single quotes (apostrophes) to search for that exact phrase. Items matching your search terms populate automatically in the results list.
Select the file from your Drive to attach it to the assignment. When your students access your Schoology assignment, they will be able to make a copy of this file that they can work on and submit back to you from directly within Schoology.
You can only choose one Google file per Schoology Assignment. To choose a different file, click the x in the right margin to delete the current file, then re-open the Google Drive Assignments App to select another file from your Drive.
Fill in the rest of the assignment and click Create to finish. Note that once you click Create, you can no longer remove the selected Google file from your assignment.

Google Permissions & the Schoology Google Drive Assignment App

Creating the assignment automatically creates a new folder structure in your Google Drive, which Schoology uses to organize student copies of the file to make it easier for you to keep your Drive organized. It is important that you do not delete or rename any of the new folders in your Drive.
Creating an assignment in Schoology does not make any changes to the permissions on the instructor's original Google Document.
The instructor has the option to select any file in their Drive account (they can use a file they own with any level of permission, or any file that has been shared with them). When each student accesses the Schoology Assignment, a unique copy of that original file is created. Each copy is shared with the instructor and the respective student and can then be edited, annotated, and graded from directly within Schoology.
A primary teacher and a co-teacher cannot both grade student work submitted via Google Drive Assignments. Since we are leveraging Google’s permission-sharing capabilities, at this time, all student copies are only shared with the teacher who created the assignment and the student who opens it. All other visitors to the course, whether co-teachers, admins, advisors, will not be able to see the submission. As a workaround, the course admin who created the assignment can share to any co-teachers and other faculty directly from Google Drive. All student copies are organized into Google Drive folders by course and assignment. This way, the primary teacher may push out all assignments to students in Schoology and share submissions directly from Google Drive via the folder with all student work to the co-teacher. The co-teacher can then view the assignments through Google Drive directly.
Google Drive Folder Hierarchy
The first time you create an assignment using the Google Drive Assignments app, a new folder called Schoology Google Drive Assignments automatically generates at the root level in your associated Google Drive. With each new assignment you create, new folders populate automatically with the following hierarchy:
- A new folder for the course and section named CourseName: SectionName, plus a numeric identifier to ensure uniqueness, is added in the Schoology Google Drive Assignments folder.
- A new folder with the Assignment name for its title, also appended with a numeric identifier, is added to the course/section folder.
Each time a student makes a copy of the file, it is added to the Assignment folder. The filename is the name you gave it with the student name appended to the beginning.
For example, if you created a new assignment called Grammar Review in Section 1 of an English 101 course, the folder structure would be Schoology Google Drive Assignments > English 101:Section 1+[numeric ID]. If course member Hannah Atkins then creates a copy of the file, it is named Hannah Atkins - Grammar Review+[numeric ID] and placed in the English 101:Section 1+[numeric ID] folder.

You and your students should not delete, edit, or rename any of the folders created via the Schoology integration.

Managing and Editing a Google Drive Assignment in Schoology

Once you click Create, the assignment will be available in the course.

Once a student clicks My Document and creates their copy of the assignment, any changes made to the original document will not be reflected in the student copy. However, students who have not yet created their own copy will see the changes once they click My Document.

Click the gear icon in the right margin to make updates as you would with your other Schoology course materials.

Instructor View

As an instructor, you have access to three tabs displayed at the top of the assignment. Each tab has additional controls and information.

Assignment Tab

On the Assignment tab, you can:

See the due date and time.
See the assignment Description.
Open the Google file you selected in a new tab in your browser.

This is the file that your students will use to create their own copies of the file, and any edits you make do not automatically update in previously-created copies of the file. That is, only students who create their copy after you make the edits will have versions that contain the edits. Updates to the file are not reflected for students who've already made their copies.
Review a rubric if one is being used to grade the assignment.
Use the section switcher to change the course section you're viewing if you have linked sections taking the assignment.

In Progress Tab

Click In-Progress to see a list of all students who have not yet made an assignment submission. View a student's copy of your original document before they submit by selecting their name from the list of the In Progress tab.

Monitor the progress of your students before they submit. Provide feedback directly on submissions using the native Google Drive feedback tools.

To open the student's copy of the document directly within Google Drive, click Open in the top right corner.

In Progress displays a list of both students who have clicked My Document and created their own copy of your Google file, as well as students who have not yet made their copy of the distributed file.

When you select a student’s name who has not yet clicked the My Document tab in their view of the assignment, the following message displays:

It looks like [student’s first name] has not opened this assignment yet. Once your student clicks on “My Document,” a copy of your original file will be created and the document will appear here.

Students can edit their files while submissions are still In Progress. Once students make a submission, they can no longer edit their files (from either Schoology or Google Drive). As the instructor and owner of the file, you will always have edit access to each of your students' files.

This copy displays when you select a student from the list in your In Progress tab until the student makes a submission. Once the student submits, his or her name and document display in the Submissions tab instead.

Submissions Tab

Submissions displays a list of students who have submitted the assignment. Select a student’s name to view his or her document.

From Submissions you may:

Click into the grade input field along the top of the document header to grade the submission, enter a score, or add a comment.
Click the Exceptions icon to apply an exception.
If you're using a rubric to grade the assignment, click the rubric icon to open the rubric and add scores and comments for the assignment.
Click Unsubmit below the student name to move the assignment back into the In Progress tab and enable the student to continue working on the assignment.
Provide feedback using native Google features, including commenting and annotation tools, as well as advanced editing tools like insert math formula and insert charts.

Insert image is not supported at this time.
Use the filter along the top of your list of students to filter by:
- Needs Grading
- Graded
- On Time
- Late

Student View

The student view of the Google Submission Assignment displays the Assignment and My Document tabs.

If the student view is not displaying, ensure that third-party cookies are not being blocked on the devices and/or browsers used to access Google Drive assignments.

The Assignment tab displays the Assignment Description, including the due date. If you're using a rubric to grade the assignment, it also displays in this tab.
Students must click the My Document tab to generate their copies of your Google Drive file.

Student Experience

Students have access to two tabs displayed at the top of their assignment: Assignment and My Document. Clicking the My Document tab will generate a copy of the original file that will then be shared between you (the instructor) and the student. This copied file will then be placed and organized in your drive.

In the Assignment tab, students can:

See the due date and time.
See the assignment Description.
Review a rubric if one is being used to grade the assignment.

Students click the My Document tab in their view of the assignment to create their own copy of your original file. As the instructor, you are the owner of the document in Google, and the file is shared with your students.

When accessing Schoology via a web browser, students must be logged into their own Google Drive accounts through their browser in order to create a copy of your original file.

Submitting Assignments

Once students authorize the app and log into their Google Drive account through their browser, they can edit their file from within Schoology.

Click Submit Assignment at the top of the document to submit.

Students may no longer edit the Google file after submitting the assignment. Instead, any edits a student makes after submitting the assignment are added as "suggestions" to the Google file. Teachers can review the suggestions to approve or deny the edits that were suggested after submitting the assignment.

However, students may click Unsubmit at any time before the due date, and before you have graded their work. This includes applying an exception code.

Unsubmitting an assignment returns it to In Progress in your view of the assignment as the Instructor. When an assignment is unsubmitted, the student re-gains edit access to the file and may continue working on the assignment.