Edline may have some competition from a new rising star. While Edline provides a portal for teachers to display students’ grades, Google Classroom is stealing the show with some of its own unique features.
Edline has had more bugs than the Amazon rainforest, but it has always been there for us on those nights when we really wanted to see a new grade, and on the nights when we wish we had not. It is safe to say that if you are an MCPS student, you either have the app or at one time did. Our livelihood has become centralized around waiting to see what we got on our chemistry quiz (shout out to Mrs. Daugherity for always having those grades up on the same day). At times the website may have seemed outdated, but when we need it to work, usually it does. Besides, clicking the “email teacher” button is so much easier than going into the staff directory to look up your teacher’s email address. It’s the little things that Edline is good for.
The school system needed a simple site for uploading grades and information for the students’ eyes to see and Edline does that. Signing into Edline has also become a simplistic process. Senior Nisha Basavappa has found that the login process is easier for Edline than Classroom. “When you’re on your personal email account and you try to login to Classroom you have to log out and log on to your school email account and that’s annoying,” Basavappa said.
Classroom has become the young, rising star of the submission and grading system. There’s nothing like feeling your heart sink after thinking you submitted a late assignment just under the radar and then getting the “Done Late” label plastered above it. Classroom provides a new level of accountability for the student. As almost a cross between Edline and Turnitin.com, Classroom is not quite ready to steal the show from either party, but it is on the rise. Like Edline, there is an app for Classroom. This is English teacher Nicholas Hitchens’s first year using Classroom and he thinks that he has completely left Edline behind. “Admittedly, I was never great with Edline either, but from my limited availability with it so far, Google Classroom is way easier,” Hitchens said.
Students cannot use the program as a portal to see their grades, but teachers can post notes and other documents onto one page for easy access and students are sent an immediate email when new information is posted. “The interface is all Google, which most of us are familiar with,” Hitchens said.
The comfort level found in a program like Classroom has made it an attractive option for teachers who never got the hang of Edline in the first place. The bugs with Classroom are less frequent, giving the student a more seamless connection to their classes outside of school. If there comes a day when Classroom can become a central hub for both grades and submission of assignments, that might be a game changer.
Safe to say, students and staff here have one foot in the door traversing to Classroom, and one behind holding onto Edline. Until Classroom can offer grading, it can never replace our beloved Edline, and without a means of submission built in, Edline can never go back to being the one and only outlet for students and teachers. Time will tell which website will beat its counterpart to the punch.

Josh Friedman

Opinion Editor