Google Workspace as a b-learning platform. Analysis of the perceptions of the Degrees in Communication

Abstract

This article has investigated the perceptions about the educational use of the Google Workspace (formerly Google Suite) of a group of 131 students who are studying Communication Sciences and Digital Communication degrees at a University Center in the province of Seville, Spain. The main objective of the research was to collect and analyse the educational experience and the competences developed by these students with this software suite in university education. To do so, a descriptive research was designed based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis using an online questionnaire. The results showed that these university students value favourably the interface and services provided by this platform, especially Meet, Documents, Gmail, Classroom and Presentations. However, they perceive that other applications, such as Keep, Jamboard or Tasks, are not very useful. In short, blended learning models proposed by Google Workplace have proven useful in the university field, and that students have adapted adequately to the new learning environment.

Survey Analysis of University Teachers in Ukraine Regarding the Use of Google Workspace for Education

“…Google Slides and Google Documents are highly important for learning. At the same time, Keep and Jamboard turned out to be less useful [7], [28].…”

“…GWfE is one of the most famous and powerful online educational environments based on the use of cloud technologies. It is successfully used in the educational process of secondary and higher education due to numerous advantages: ensuring cooperation at different levels (student-student, teacher-student, teacher-teacher [13], administrationteacher; development of students' critical thinking and creative collaboration [10]; engaging students in reflective communication and sharing ideas; development of communication skills [9]; creation of communities to enable group work; discussing ideas, posting announcements [11]; development of digital skills (remote work in the cloud with different data formats), ensuring interactivity [7]; the ability to work on various digital gadgets. The significant educational effect of Google Workspace for Education is evidenced by the high values of such indicators as simplicity of use [14], acceptability [6], and attitude [15].…”

“…The capabilities of cloud technologies are fully realized in Google Workspace for Education (GWfE), which was previously called G Suite for Education. It integrates many tools and services that provide communication and cooperation between participants of the educational process in order to learn effectively in conditions of distance [6] and blended learning [7].…”

“…If we take into account Google Meet, researchers study the level of students' awareness about the possibilities of this tool in the conditions of distance learning [18], the level of satisfaction from its use in the educational process [19]. At the same time, most studies refer to the use of only the most common tools of Google Workspace for Education [7], [20]. At the same time, GWfE offers significantly more tools for the implementation of educational and management tasks of the educational institution.…”

Análisis del uso de las herramientas Google Workspace en estudiantes universitarios

“…Muchas instituciones de educación superior contaban ya con modelos virtuales para algunas carreras o para algunos cursos, pero el desafío consistía en generalizar la oferta educativa con el modelo a distancia. Dentro del amplio espectro de herramientas digitales, Microsoft Teams y Google Wokspace, se posicionaron en el mercado global como las dos herramientas de referencia para robustecer los sistemas de educación a distancia en las universidades; en ambos casos, el uso de una cuenta de correo electrónico es la llave para acceder a un número importante de herramientas colaborativas y en consecuencia, a la facilitación de todos los procesos educativos en la modalidad a distancia (Martín-Herrera et al, 2021).…”