Making the switch to distance learning may require your school district to set up a new Learning Management System (LMS). Google is offering features typically available from G Suite Enterprise for Education to all customers. The advanced features include Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities for larger meetings of up to 250 participants per call, live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within a domain, and the ability to record meetings and save them to Google Drive.
Your Focus Student Information System includes a built-in Application Programming Interface (API) Grade Passback (the syncing of assignments and grades) that seamlessly integrates with Google Classroom.
1. Navigate to https://console.developers.google.com/.
2. If your district uses G Suite, log in with your G Suite administrator credentials. Otherwise, log in with the Google Account you wish to use to manage the API credentials.
3. If this is the first time you have logged in to the Google Cloud Platform, you may need to agree to Google’s Terms of Service.
4. If you have not previously created a project in the Google Cloud Platform, click Create Project. Fill in the Project name and, optionally, Organization.
5. Click Enable APIs and Services, and enable the Google Classroom API.
6. Return to the main Google APIs dashboard by clicking APIs & Services or the back button.
7. Repeat steps 5-6 for the Google Calendar API and the Admin SDK.
8. Ensure that you now see the Google Classroom API, Google Calendar API, and Admin SDK on the main Google APIs dashboard at the bottom of the screen.
9. From APIs & Services, click Google Auth Platform and complete the Branding, Audience, and Data Access configuration settings.
10. Open Branding.
11. Enter the App Name.
12. Select the appropriate User support email.
13. Add the district’s domain name under Authorized domains. If the district’s production site is https://example.com/focus, the domain name is example.com.
14. Enter the required Developer Contact Information.
15. Click Save.
16. From the navigation menu, select Audience.
17. Select the appropriate User Type:
- Internal Select this option if the integration will only be used by users within the district's Google Workspace organization.
- External Select this option if users outside the organization's Google Workspace domain may need access to the integration.
18. Under Publishing status, click Publish App.
19. Click Confirm to move the application from Testing to Production status.
If the application remains in Testing status, authorization is limited to designated test users and granted access may expire after seven days. Publishing the app makes it available to the intended audience according to the selected user type. For most school districts using Google Classroom with Focus, you'll typically want the app in Production status so teachers and staff can authorize the integration without being added as test users.
20. From the navigation menu, click Data Access.
21. Click Add or remove scopes.
22. Select the check box on the top right of the table to select all scopes for the enabled APIs or select individual check boxes to add singular scopes, then click Update.
23. Click navigation menu icon, then select APIs & Services. In the APIs & Services menu, select Credentials.
24. Click the + Create credentials at the top of the screen, then select OAuth client ID.
25. For Application type, select Web application. Fill in Focus SIS as the Name.
26. Under Authorized redirect URIs, click + Add URls and enter the URL of the district’s production site, followed by ‘/redirect.php’. If the district’s production site is https://example.com/focus, the redirect URI is https://example.com/focus/redirect.php.
27. At the bottom of the screen, click Create.
28. Make note of the Client ID and the Client Secret. You can also return to Credentials and select Focus SIS under OAuth 2.0 Client IDs to pull up the Client ID and Client Secret in the future.
29. Log in to the Focus site that you want to connect to the Google API. From here, you can use your Client ID and Client Secret to follow the Setting Up Google Classroom API Integration procedure and complete the setup.
You must be on Version 10.0 or the latest Version 9.1 to utilize the Focus API integration with Google Classroom.
Permissions to view and edit specific screens can be assigned to users by profile. Permissions for one or multiple profiles can be viewed and edited at one time.
1. In the Users menu, select Profiles.
2. In the Permissions tab of the Profiles screen, select the Menu option from the Permission Type pull-down.
3. Select the Admin option from the Role pull-down.
4. Select the desired Profiles. One or multiple profiles can be selected.
5. Click Submit.
6. The Setup tab is selected by default.
7. Select the View check box for Third Party Systems.
Enable the Send user as "admin" permission to transmit users through the OneRoster API with a role of Administrator in the /users endpoint. This allows the user to be identified as an administrator rather than the default teacher role, granting administrator-level access and permissions within the third-party system.
Enable the Send user as "teacher" permission to transmit users through the OneRoster API with a role of Teacher in the /users endpoint. This allows the user to be identified as a teacher within the third-party system.
Enable the Send user as "proctor" permission to transmit users through the OneRoster API with a role of Proctor in the /users endpoint. This allows the user to be identified as a proctor within the third-party system, granting access and permissions associated with the proctor role.
Enable the Send user as "aide" permission to transmit users through the OneRoster API with a role of Aide in the /users endpoint. This allows the user to be identified as an aide within the third-party system, granting access and permissions associated with the aide role.
Enable the Send user as "parent" permission to transmit users through the OneRoster API with a role of Parent in the /users endpoint. This allows the user to be identified as a parent within the third-party system, granting access and permissions associated with the parent role.
8. Click Save to complete the process.
Focus’ easy to use Third Party Systems allows end-users to configure their integrations through the interface.
1. In the Setup menu, select Third Party Systems.
2. Any existing third party systems set up for the district or school are displayed in the table. To add a new third party system, enter the information in the blank row at the top of the table.
The information should be entered as such:
Title: Google Classroom
Version: 1.0
Dialect: Google Classroom
3. Once the Title, Version, and Dialect have been selected, press Enter to add the third party system to the table. Additions and changes to third-party systems auto-save.
4. Next, the following columns should be populated:
Read Access: The Read Access pull-down lists all the resources (data-types) available. For the Google Classroom integration, you do not need to populate any resources.
Write Access: The Write Access pull-down lists all the resources (data-types) available. For the Google Classroom integration, you must populate Assignment and Grade.
Schools: The Schools pull-down lists all schools set up in Focus. If nothing is selected, the third party system will be configured to send for all schools. If the third party system should be configured for only select schools, select the desired schools from the pull-down. Multiple selections are supported.
5. When a new third party system is entered, Focus will auto-generate the Focus API URL (the base URL used to construct API endpoints), Focus Client ID (acts as a “username” to identify the vendor), and Focus Client Secret (acts as a “password” to verify the vendor’s identity).
Do not share the Client ID or Client Secret with anyone other than the vendor it is intended for.
6. For the External API URL, enter https://classroom.googleapis.com/v1.
7. For the External User Auth URL, enter https://oauth2.googleapis.com.
8. Enter the External Client ID and External Client Secret as issued to you by Google during the process Setting Up the Google API in Google Developers.
9. Optionally, when setting up a grade passback third party system, the Icon option can be used to add a custom icon to the teacher Gradebook. To add a custom icon, click Upload. In the pop-up, select the desired icon from your computer.
When successfully loaded, the icon will display in the Icon column.
Teachers must be granted access to Google Classroom under profile permissions.
1. In the Users menu, select Profiles.
2. In the Permissions tab of the Profiles screen, select the Menu option from the Permission Type pull-down.
3. Select the Teacher option from the Role pull-down.
4. Select the desired Profiles. One or multiple profiles can be selected.
5. Click Submit.
6. Select the Grades tab.
7. Select the View check box for Show Google Classroom.
7. Click Save to complete the process.
Your teachers must have an email address saved in Focus in order to utilize Google Classroom. It must be the same email address used to set up their Google Classroom account. This email address can be entered into the system user field Google Classroom Email Address if it is not the same email stored in the standard email user field (users.custom_100000001). If no value is stored in Google Classroom Email Address, the system will default to the email address entered into users.custom_100000001.
Please download the Focus University training document "Google Classroom for Teachers" for information on how teachers can integrate Google Classroom and Focus.
This video is intended for teachers as a resource for setting up the Google Classroom integration in Focus, creating assignments in Focus, viewing and grading student work in Google Classroom and then syncing assignment grades back into Focus.