Classrooms and Chatrooms

Create a classroom for a group of learners and their instructor, give it content and a group chat, then read and moderate every chatroom. Step by step, with screenshots.

A classroom brings a group of learners together with an instructor, for a set period. It has a content page and, if you create one, a chatroom: a group chat for the instructor and the learners. This guide covers both.

Everything below is for the web app on a computer, signed in as an Admin. Learners find their classrooms in My Content → Classrooms & Chat — see the student guide Classrooms and chat.

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Table of contents

• Step 1 — Open the classrooms
• Step 2 — Create a classroom
• Step 3 — Add the chatroom and the content
• Step 4 — Preview a classroom and notify its members
• Step 5 — Read the chatrooms
• Step 6 — Moderate a chatroom
• Good to know

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Step 1 — Open the classrooms

Click Classrooms in the sidebar.

Classrooms.

Each row shows the classroom’s color and name, the instructor (Created By), the Description, the Expiration date and the number of Learners. The bell sends a message to the classroom (Step 4), and ⋯ offers Preview, Update, Notify classroom and Archive.

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Step 2 — Create a classroom

Click Create classroom at the top right. The editor has three tabs: Basic Info, Chatroom and Content.

Create classroom → Basic Info.

1. Name and describe it

   Classroom Title and Classroom Description. The Classroom Slug (its short web name) is generated from the title when you save; you can edit it afterwards.

2. Pick a color

   Classroom Theme Color: the color of the classroom’s icon, for learners and in your list.

3. Set the end date

   Expiration date. Left empty, it defaults to one month from today.

4. Add the people

   Instructor: the person who leads the classroom. Learners: everyone who takes part.

5. Save & next

   Click Save & next. The classroom is created and the Chatroom tab opens.

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Step 3 — Add the chatroom and the content

The Chatroom tab.

1. Create the chatroom (optional)

   The tab sums up the chatroom to come: Title, Slug, Instructor e-mail and Learners’ e-mails. Click Create chatroom. You can also skip it and create it later from Update.

2. Write the content

   Next page opens Content: a rich-text editor (text, images, tables, files, videos, links). Write what learners should find in the classroom: schedule, instructions, resources.

3. Save

   Click Save.

To change a classroom later, use ⋯ → Update: the same three tabs, with Next page / Previous, and a single Save at the end. Saving also updates the chatroom’s title and members.

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The content editor

Content: the rich-text editor, here with the page of class - 10.

Buttons	What they do
Formats, Size	Headings, paragraph styles and text size.
Bold, underline, italic, strikethrough, subscript, superscript	Text styles.
Text color, highlight, clear format	Colors, and removing every style from the selection.
Alignment, numbered and bulleted lists, indent, line height	The layout of the paragraphs.
Quote, code block, horizontal line, table, link	Blocks, tables and links.
Image, PDF, video, embed, Google Calendar	Images and PDFs are uploaded to the cloud storage, in the classroom’s folder. Embed takes an <iframe> code or a link (YouTube, Google Drive…).
Left-to-right / right-to-left, show blocks, code view (<>)	Writing direction, block outlines, and the HTML of the page.

The learners’ page keeps headings, lists, text colors, links, images and tables with their borders and background colors. To draw a card or a button, use a table, as the Google Meet card above does: the editor removes the styles it has no tool for (padding, rounded corners, styled <div>s or buttons). After saving, check the result with ⋯ → Preview.

Reuse the Google Meet card

Open the code view (<>), paste the HTML below where the card should go, and change the link (it appears twice), the days and the times. Close the code view and click Save. Keep the description about two lines long: on the learners’ page, a table is only as wide as its text needs.

<table style="width: 100%; border: 1px solid #dadce0; background-color: #f8fafd">
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td style="border: 0"><p style="margin: 0 10px">&nbsp;</p></td>
      <td style="border: 0; text-align: center; vertical-align: top">
        <p style="margin: 0; line-height: 18px"><br></p>
        <img src="https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/i/productlogos/meet_2020q4/v6/web-96dp/logo_meet_2020q4_color_2x_web_96dp.png" alt="Google Meet logo" style="width: 56px; height: auto">
      </td>
      <td style="border: 0"><p style="margin: 0 7px">&nbsp;</p></td>
      <td style="border: 0; vertical-align: top">
        <p style="margin: 20px 24px 2px 0"><span style="color: #1a73e8"><strong>LIVE ON GOOGLE MEET</strong></span></p>
        <h3 style="margin: 0 24px 4px 0">Daily Meeting</h3>
        <p style="margin: 0 24px 6px 0"><span style="color: #5f6368">Join our daily sync: a quick recap of yesterday's session, today's topic, and fifteen minutes for your questions. Bring your notes from the training and the quiz questions you missed: we go through them together.</span></p>
        <p style="margin: 0 24px 14px 0"><strong>Monday to Friday · 9:00 AM – 9:30 AM</strong></p>
        <table style="border-collapse: collapse">
          <tbody>
            <tr>
              <td style="background-color: #1a73e8; border: 0">
                <p style="margin: 10px 22px"><a href="https://meet.google.com/meet/pym-zgds-caj"><span style="color: #ffffff"><strong>Join Google Meet</strong></span></a></p>
              </td>
            </tr>
          </tbody>
        </table>
        <p style="margin: 10px 24px 20px 0"><span style="color: #5f6368">or open </span><a href="https://meet.google.com/meet/pym-zgds-caj">meet.google.com/meet/pym-zgds-caj</a></p>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

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Step 4 — Preview a classroom and notify its members

⋯ → Preview opens the classroom as its members see it.

Previewing a classroom.

• Content / Chat room at the top right switch between the content page and the group chat.
• The Members panel lists the Instructor and the Learners, with Search members. The icon at the far top right hides or shows it.
• Notify classroom at the bottom sends an in-app notification to every member (the same as the bell in the list).

If the classroom has no chatroom yet, Chat room says so and offers Create chatroom:

A classroom without a chatroom.

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Step 5 — Read the chatrooms

Click Chatrooms in the sidebar: every chatroom of the platform, in a table (List) or as a messenger (Chat).

Chatrooms → List.

Column	What it shows
Chatroom	Its name and slug.
Instructor	The classroom’s instructor.
Learners / Messages	How many learners belong to it, how many messages it holds.
Last activity	When the last message was posted, and an excerpt.
Status	Open to learners, or Learners can’t write when you have stopped them (Step 6).

Chat at the top right opens the messenger view: the chatrooms on the left, the conversation on the right.

Chatrooms → Chat.

You can write in any chatroom: type in Write a message…, press Enter to send (Shift + Enter for a new line). The paperclip attaches images: JPG, PNG, GIF or WEBP, up to 20 MB each, 4 per message.

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Step 6 — Moderate a chatroom

The ⋯ menu of a chatroom (in List) holds the moderation tools:

The ⋯ menu of a chatroom.

Action	What it does
View conversation	Opens the chatroom in the Chat view.
Stop learners from writing	Learners can only read; the instructor and the admins can still write. Let learners write reopens it. In the Chat view, the Learners can write switch does the same.
Back up to the cloud (CSV)	Saves every message (sender, e-mail, date, images) as a CSV file in the cloud storage, and shows where the file is.
Wipe history	Deletes every message and image of the chatroom, for everyone.
Delete chatroom	Deletes the chatroom with all its messages, images and members. The classroom stays, and you can create a new chatroom for it from Update.

Wipe history and Delete chatroom cannot be undone. Run Back up to the cloud (CSV) first if you may need the conversation later.

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Good to know

Who can read a chatroom?

The classroom’s instructor, its learners and the admins. Nobody else can open it.

I added a learner to the classroom: are they in the chatroom?

Yes. Saving the classroom updates the chatroom’s members too.

Does every classroom need a chatroom?

No, it is optional. Without one, members only see the content page, and Chat room shows No chatroom yet. You can create it at any time.