classroom-automation

Manage common Google Classroom actions with Google Apps Script

Features

• Script is container-bound to a Google Sheets spreadsheet
• Use spreadsheet to show outupt such as class and assignment listing
• Use spreadsheet as an interface to select desired courses aand assignments
• Use spreadsheet to set up batch assignment creation

Install

From existing spreadsheet

Open the spreadsheet Classroom automation 2 and make a copy of it (along with the attached Apps Script project) in your MyDrive folder (not to a shared folder). (Use the same Google account that you use for Google Classroom.)

From scratch

Use the same Google account that you use for Google Classroom. Create a Google spreadsheet and create the following sheets and columns with the given names:

• courses: select | id | name | section | courseState | alternateLink
• assignments: select | id | title | alternateLink | state | courseId | topicId | description | materials | maxPoints | due
• submissions: select | id | courseId | courseWorkId | assignment | userId | email | title | url | state | late | maxPoints | draftGrade | assignedGrade |
• batch: select | courseId | topic | title | sch_date | sch_time | due_date | due_time | points | material | description |
  • Format columns sch_date and due_date as a date type, and columns sch_time and due_time as a time type. This helps to ensure that scripts can read these values as a Javascript Date type.

For convenience, format the select column in each sheet as a checkbox.

Select Extensions > Apps Script. It will open a new project. Copy and paste app.js into it. Optionally you can copy and paste tests.js and uncomment tests you want to run. Refresh the spreadsheet window and a new menu named Classroom should appear. Start with Refresh course list. You will be asked to authorize the script to access your Google account; if you have multiple

Scripts available

• Refresh course list
• Refresh assignments list for selected course
• Refresh submissions list for selected assignment
• Merge submissions of Google Docs for selected assignment into a single Doc
• Batch assign multiple assignments for entire course
• ... or write your own using existing classes and functions (documentation coming soon)

Change log

2.2 (2025-01-09)

Fix DateTime bug. Under specific conditions, an assignment with no due date would cause "Refresh assignments list" to crash. Rewrote Assignment.due() to detect a null due date before date conversion and handle it appropriately.

Fix empty sheet bug. The "assignments" sheet could become empty after refreshing the assignment list on a course with no assignments. After that subsequent refreshes on other courses would crash because the update logic implied headers from first row. Rewrote SheetTable creation methods to detect and store headers explicitly.

2.1 (2024-08-29)

Allow optional fields in batch assign. Allow creation of assignments that are missing fields such as description, due date, schedule date, material, or topic. Title still required.

2.0 (2024-08-17)

Refactor codebase. No new features. Reimplement current feature set with class-based logic. This will make debugging and testing more reliable and systematic, especially when Google introduces subtle changes in API behavior. The new classes (especially DateTime, SheetTable, Course, MergeDoc) will enable more rapid build out of new features (e.g. collecting comments and generating grade reports), and are potentially reusable to automate other Google products such as mail, calendar, and drive.

1.5 (2023-06-14)

Use datetimes in batch assignment. In previous versions of batch assignment, you specified the scheduled date using separate columns for year, month, day, and hour. This made the date info not human-friendly to read, and it was difficult to do date arithmetic. Update the sheet ""batch"" so it has a single column to specify the scheduled date as a date object and scheduled time as a time object; same for the due date and due time. Update the function "spec_journal" so it accepts dates and times in this format and converts to the formats needed by Classroom API. Also added sheet named "convert-to-datetime" to show how previous users can easily convert old assignment specifications to use date and time objects.

Removed timely completion function. This never worked reliably, and given the potential to create user confusion over grading, it seemed prudent to remove this.

1.4 (2022-11-22)

Fix time zone dependence. In previous versions, the assignments list showed all due dates in Eastern Daylight Time, even those after Nov 06. Update the function "list_assignments_all" so it shows each date in appropriate local time for that date.

1.3 (2022-11-21)

Fix time zone error. In previous versions, the function that sets an assignment's due date hard coded the time zone to Eastern Daylight Time. Update "format_due_time" so it computes this from the user's local time.

1.2 (2022-11-03)

Fix merge submissions. Google imposed limits on how many changes an API call can make on a Google Doc, resulting in failed merge. Now 'merge_submissions' explicitly saves the merge doc after copying content from each submission, and reopens for the next content copy.

1.1 (2022-09-03)

Public beta. Initial feature set includes: viewing of courses, assignments, and submissions; merging submissions for an assignment into a single Google Doc; and batch assignment of journal-type Classwork.

Update from development spreadsheet and project

In spreadsheet

1. Update about and versions
2. Set name in version history
3. Copy appropriate sheets; if necessary redact student info in submissions
4. Copy source of app.js into contained Apps Script project

In repo

1. Update Change log in README.md
2. Copy and paste app.js and tests.js