With the roll out of the Enterprise Edition of Google’s G Suite for Education (now branded as Google Workspace), there are bound to be some changes. Notable new features include the ability to deactivate links after all participants leave a Google Meet session, and the ability to record and later access attendance and polling information. 

Attendance Tracker and Polling  

Teachers have been waiting for a way to check attendance during Google Meets, and now there is a built-in way to do this. After a video call with at least five participants, the meeting organizer will receive an email with an attached attendance report in the form of a CSV file. The file contains the following:

• Participant’s name
  • If someone calls in from their mobile device instead of their name, some of their phone number digits will be listed 

• Participant’s email

• Length of time participant was on a call, including timestamps of when the participant first joined and when they left the call 
  • If someone gets ejected from a call, that timestamp will be recorded at the time they left the call
  • If someone joins and leaves the call more than once, multiple timestamps won’t be listed, but their overall call duration will be included

Below is an example of what that CSV file will look like.

Accessing Polling Results 

As for accessing polling results, in that same email you will find a link to a folder located in the host’s Google Drive. The folder will be labeled with the date, time, and the name of the Google Meet (or name of the calendar with Meet link that will look something like this: “2020-11-03 13:55 PD for PS000Q”). 

Inside the folder you’ll find a Google Sheets file with the polling questions and replies from the participants. This is provided via multiple tabs which breakdown the poll question(s) and replies from within your Google Meet.

Link Lifespan and Deactivation

Another feature is the ability to have the Google Meet link become inactive after all participants have left the Meet.  How long does a Google Meet link stay active by default? That depends on a few factors, such as how the link was created, and what type of Google account is used. 

• For standard G Suite accounts, a link will remain active for 90 days after its last use. 
• Meet links created in Google Calendar expire if they are not used for 90 days. 
• Meet links created in Google Classroom, or by an education account as a nicknamed meeting, expire after the last person leaves the meeting. That means that if you create the meeting and enter, the meeting expires as soon as you leave. Although the link can be reused, it does generate a new code/URL each time. 

These are some new great features to Google Meet, but remember some users may have inconsistent results while the bugs are worked out. In the meantime, it’s a good idea to continue to monitor student use of Google Meet links to ensure they are not re-entering meetings without an adult present. 

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Teq is an experienced Google for Education Partner. If your school is purchasing G Suite Enterprise for Education or Chromebooks, you may be eligible to receive free PD from Teq as part of the Google Service Offer program.