Google Classroom: Google’s new feature for Classroom brings ‘bad news’ for students

You’ve done it, we’ve done it. Chances are most people you know would have done it. We are talking about submitting homework way past after the deadline in school. Google plans to put an end to that — at least for those who use the company’s Classroom platform.

Google has introduced a new feature that enables teachers to customise grading in Classroom. “The new option to disable submissions after a due date allows teachers to stop accepting submissions for an assignment past the due date,” said Google in a blog post. During online classroom teaching, it becomes even more difficult to keep track of submission dates.

How will the feature work?

Google explained that any time teachers are creating a new assignment, they can decide whether it requires a strict deadline or not. The feature needs to be turned on as by default, the assignments tool will still allow submissions after the due date.
“This feature also allows teachers to choose to stop submissions for an assignment at any point, regardless of the strictness or presence of a due date,” said Google. Citing an example of how the feature works, Google further explained that a teacher could allow submissions for any assignment during the semester or year, but turn off submissions once the period is completed.
“We hope this highly requested feature gives teachers more control over their workflow by allowing them to set their own level of flexibility for accepting assignments,” noted Google in the blog post.
The feature is available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. Also, there’s no admin control over the feature. Google said that although the feature has been rolled out today, it could take up to 15 days for the feature to reach all users.