Google Meet education road map lays out when backgrounds, Q&A, breakout rooms are coming

Ahead of the upcoming (or already under way) school year, Google Meet is gaining a number of features for students and educators. At its back-to-school event, Google today provided a Meet education road map for upcoming moderation tools and other functionality intended to boost interactivity amid distance learning.

Later this month, moderators will have the ability to prevent previously ejected participants, as well as those denied entry twice, from rejoining a meeting. September will see the following capabilities:

• End meetings for all participants when class is finished
• Manage join requests with ease by accepting or rejecting them in bulk
• Disable in-meeting chat and set restrictions on who can present during a meeting 
• Lock meetings until the moderator joins 

Next month, Google is also introducing a 7×7 grid that supports 49 students simultaneously. That will be joined by a collaborative whiteboard, thanks to integration with Jamboard.

In October, teachers and students alike can blur or replace their backgrounds. To prevent misuse, custom wallpapers can be disabled entirely by admins. G Suite Enterprise for Education will also add:

• Attendance tracking to see and track which students attended virtual class (G Suite Enterprise for Education) 
• Breakout rooms so educators can split classes into simultaneous small group discussions (G Suite Enterprise for Education) 

The final set of education-focused Google Meet launches are scheduled for “later this year.”

• Hand-raising to help you identify students who may need help or have a question 
• Q&A features to provide a way for students to ask questions without disrupting the flow of the class discussion or lesson, and polling to engage students to share their voice (G Suite Enterprise for Education) 
• Temporary recordings allow for lessons to be viewed for up to 21 days within a domain 

These Meet features will also make their way to regular and other enterprise accounts.