Handouts
Create classes in Handouts for each of your real-life classes and upload images of handouts, or import from Dropbox, Google Drive, or iCloud. Leverage the digital nature of the feedback to treat worksheets as works-in-progress. Experiment with ongoing assessment practices that allow students to iterate on work until they get it right.
Continue readingEditor's Note: Handouts is no longer available.
Handouts is a tool for distributing, grading, and returning worksheets and assignments to students. Teachers can create a free account or log in with their existing Google or Edmodo accounts, create classes, upload materials, and distribute them to their classes instantly or schedule them. Uploads can come from taking a new photo, selecting a photo from the device's library, or importing from Dropbox, Google Drive, or iCloud Drive. Teachers can mark those materials with a due date, instructions, and other tags to help categorize the materials and make them more searchable. Students gain access by creating a free account and accessing a teacher's courses via a class code that the teacher distributes. Shared documents can be annotated with a built-in text tool or a series of brightly colored pencils and returned to the teacher. Once students digitally "turn in" their handouts, teachers can use the same drawing tools to grade, comment, and otherwise remark upon their students' work. Teachers can also make their own private notations --invisible to students -- for later review.
Handouts is free to try for teachers, but site licenses are available on a per-school, per-student basis. Handouts is always free to students.
Handouts is positioned as a tool to help classrooms go paperless, and it does replace much of the need for paper handouts. There's potential here for speedy, clear distribution of course materials and quick, clear feedback. The design has an elegant simplicity to it that makes this workflow easy. Without question, there's something to be said for tools that do one thing well.
The big issue with Handouts' simplicity, however, is that the tools teachers and students use to complete, annotate, and grade worksheets are limited: The text box tool isn't especially appropriate for extended writing, and the colored pencil tools are a little unwieldy for more advanced math or science work. Ultimately, teachers who need an attractive tool for distributing, receiving, and assessing pre-made forms will be pleased with this thoughtfully designed, well-conceived interface. Those who need more nuance and features may look elsewhere.
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