Google Classroom: Why Are Students Seeing Graded Returned Work as Assigned or Late?

Are students giving you feedback that work you returned to them after grading is now showing as 'late' or 'assigned'?   The addition of the Grading module to Google Classroom has impacted this process.  Read on to understand what is happening and how to fix it!

What is happening?

Let's follow through the typical workflow in Google Classroom where students are submitting work to you.  You create an assignment in Google Classroom and assign the appropriate points to the assignment. 

You assign the work to students, which puts the work in status 'Assigned' in the student view.  

After updating the assignment, students turn in or submit work back to you by clicking the Turn In button.  

The work status changes to 'Turned in.'

After grading, you return work to students.  This is a necessary step to ensure the student owns the document.  

The status now changes to 'Returned' if you placed a grade in Google Classroom for those assignments you have given points.   We would expect this outcome.

If you didn't place a grade in Google Classroom and assigned points to the assignment,  the philosophical change becomes apparent.  Now, when you return an assignment ungraded that you allotted points, Google feels you are telling the student, 'This isn't good enough, try again".  The status is returned to 'Assigned.'  With time, the status changes to 'Late.'

What can you do?

With Google's philosophy change, you have two options when assigning work:

1.  Assign the work using points, and place the grade in Google Classroom.

There are pros and cons to this option.  The advantage is your students' To-do lists in Google Classroom accurately reflect the work they need to complete.  You can download the grades in a .csv file, and it allows you to use the new Grading feature in Google Classroom.  However, student grades live in Aspen.  There isn't any mandated reason for you to also record grades in Google Classroom. 

2.  Assign the work, but make the assignment 'ungraded.'  

This option resolves the issue but can be confusing for students.

Why is this important?

Google Classroom has several built-in options to help students stay organized.  Executive Function skills are a big challenge for many of our students, particularly the ones with identified learning differences. 

Students can view work that is due or late in several ways.  Students can view upcoming and late work from the class tile located on the main Google Classroom page.  Work that is due soon or late appears on each class tile:

I'm not a huge fan of students using this view.  It is easy to overlook the work needed for assignments that are due a few days away.

Another option to view work status is also located on the Tile Page.  Students can click on the three vertical lines on the top left.  (Hamburgers or Hot dogs - you pick what to call them!)  Google provides a To-do list for ALL of the student's classes here.   Obviously, this list is inaccurate if the work that has been completed is in the incorrect status.

Students can also view work due in an individual class while on the Classwork tab by clicking View your work.  

Google provides a list of work and its status, as well as handy filters on the left to narrow down your view.  Again, the information is meaningless without assignments appearing in the appropriate status. 

Hopefully, this explanation provided you an understanding of the current Google Classroom function.   Please reflect on how this update impacts student work status, and consider changing your practice based on what you feel will work for you and your students.