Welcome to this month’s recap of Google updates that are available now, or will be available shortly, within Google Workspace in Glow accounts.
What’s new?
Introducing the ability to ‘grade all’ in Google Classroom
In 2023, Google expanded grading systems in Google Classroom and in 2024 they added a ‘missing’ grade state to Gradebook. To further improve upon grading options for teachers and give them the ability to perform bulk grading, Google have introduced ‘grade all’.
With this new feature, teachers can quickly and efficiently grade all students’ work on the Gradebook page by selecting ‘grade all’. They can also choose to override existing grades and automatically return them to students after grading.
Release date: this is now a live feature.
Visit the Help Centre to learn more about grading and returning an assignment grading and returning an assignment.
Improving out of office notifications in Google Chat group messages and spaces
Today, if you navigate to a 1:1 direct message with someone who is out of office, you will see a banner that shows the person is out of office and the date they are returning. This banner will now extend to group direct messages and spaces. If a group direct message or space has more than 6 users, out of office status will only be shown if the user is @ mentioned.
Release date: this is now a live feature.
Visit the Help Centre to learn more about mentioning someone else in a Chat message.
Local files now sync to Google Drive faster
Google have added support for differential uploads to Google Drive, which means when large files are edited, Drive for desktop will now upload only the parts of the file that changed. This highly-requested feature results in much faster Drive syncs. Visit the Help Centre to learn more about uploading files & folders to Google Drive.
Release date: this is now a live feature.
Visit the Help Centre to learn more about uploading files & folders to Google Drive
Adding improved accessibility tagging to PDFs exported from Google Docs
To improve the ability for users with screen readers and other assistive technology to read and navigate PDFs, Google is adding more structural and accessibility tagging in PDFs exported from Google Docs. This will improve tagging for paragraphs, headings, hyperlinks, image alt text, and lists.
Release date: this is now a live feature
Visit the Help Centre to learn more about using Google Docs with a screen reader.
