Google Docs for students

by

Why Google Docs is increasingly popular among student and teacher communities? Ever wondered why would students love to use such a powerful tool and how easily they learn to use it? For almost any age group, right from primary schools to college students, Google Docs is widely used by students and teachers extensively.

Introduction To Google Docs For Students

Sharing assignments, coursework, materials, presentations, project reports, and many more are the most common activities in student or teacher routines. Most choose to get those done with Google Docs and Google Docs for students is increasingly popular. Know why? Because it can be done easily and completely free. 

For decades, almost all institutes were mostly running under Microsoft’s word-processing software. Of course, it’s quite a handy tool with a super simple interface. But we came a long way from there. We are in the internet era now and almost anything we use today is distributed.

Google Docs for students
Google Docs for students

But, think of any traditional offline installation software like MSWord, PowerPoint, or Excel. They are useful yet what makes its usage complex is that accessibility. Say, a number of students work on a single document for project work, you would be sharing those and repeatedly editing those with the utmost difficulty.

And, imagine your pen drive with an important document got lost on the day of the presentation. Oh, God! Guess, you might have faced this commonly in your school/college works. But, with the advancements in technologies, they are no more valid reasons to be compromised.

It’s time and money at the end of the day. Invest it wisely at any cost. Let’s dive deep and find how Google Docs for students can serve your educational needs exclusively in this article. 

Challenges in using other offline tools instead of Google Docs for students

As said before, there can be many challenges in using traditional offline software suites like MSWord. Let’s see what are some key challenges one would face when using those for a student or teacher. 

  • File size – The file size can be quite large. A lot of meta-information gets saved along with such files usually that bloats its size to a great extend. When it comes to daily assignments/tasks, you may create hundreds and hundreds of files for your needs. Thus it too hefty in such cases. Especially in this remote+ age, as we step into the new normal it’s more evident to see a steady hike in the usage of your storage which is possible with using Google Docs for students. 
  • Changes for losing your works –  Imagine spending hours typing a long document for your project work, and forgot to save. So bad, right? It’s usual to get lost. That’s never a thing with Google Docs for students. 
  • Limited collaboration – Only one can work at a time. MSword kind of tools is best suited for personal usage. They are installed in individual systems and the only way to share those documents is via Email or any other communication software. Thus more than one person cannot work on such documents at a time and changes can be extremely difficult to track. Say, a student is working on a project report and he/she wan to collaborate with his/her teammates, he/she’ll be worried. Sometimes students need to submit their assignments and get reviewed by their staff. How would they do this with offline software? Google Docs for students is a reliable solution. 
  • Installation and upgrade issues – It demands installation knowledge and takes considerable space on your disk. Device storage provided at school labs would be limited and thus should be used wisely. Moreover, it often requires an exceptional system admin for software installation and maintenance. You might be in trouble if you don’t find him/her at times when needed. But this not happens in the case of Google Docs for students.
  • Version conflicts and document formats – This is one common issue most of us face. There can be several version conflicts and trouble in opening files of not supported formats. Say, a colleague of you shares a document in MS Word 2010 format and you are using the latest version of the software. When you try to open it there you might have some trouble using it. Also, you may face missing font and other formatting styles in certain cases which is very rare in the case of Google Docs for students. 
  • Security – Can be highly vulnerable to viruses and malware as they are shared across multiple devices, multiple times. But Google Docs for students comes with more protective measures already.
  • Lack of backward compatibility – As students, you’ll be often urged to submit your assignments/documents on time. You would be quite unsure about your changes and thus you may end up with multiple iterations in confusion. Thus extraordinary revision history tracking would be of great help. The older versions use .doc extension and later ones come with .docx extension. Thus it becomes highly challenging in accessing earlier version files back and forth. Google Docs for students provide solutions to these problems.
  • Expensive – No students/teachers would like to pay for their simple documenting usages. Mostly they work on limited pages documents and paying a hefty amount for licensing is not a great deal. Unlike Google Docs for students, you can’t just use them without any license for the business use cases. Thus buying the office suite on your own can be quite expensive. 

In addition, there can be few other limitations when it comes to revision history, managing access, and third-party add-ons which are super easy when using Google Docs for students. 

How Google Docs for students is useful?

  • Free – It’s free to use Google Docs for students. Why would you pay for a student suite when you are good to go with a completely free suite with amazing functionalities. It’s more enough to get started with free Google Docs software for any sort of student’s educational needs. It works likes magic. 
  • Much familiar interface – Worried about your knowledge in Google Docs? Are you someone planning to use Google Docs as a student for the first time? You’ll be surprised to see that is almost similar to other word processors software you would have used before. Thus extremely easy to learn Google Docs for students. You’ll be ready in minutes.  This is what makes Google Docs a much easier tool to onboard yourself with. 
  • Excellent Revision history support – As said before, as a student we tend not to remember things. It’s ok that we get lost in our changes sometimes. With Google Docs one can easily view your documents’ revision history and roll back to any version at times of need which makes Google Docs ideal for students.
  • Easy translate – Your regional language can be your strength. Never limit yourself to language challenges for any cost. Your partner could come from different geography and thus you might be in need to present the same information in their regional language. It’s super simple with Google Docs. Google Docs comes in support of a wide number of languages to translate in to help students while using Google Docs. 
  • Export – This is one of the most common needs of all time being a student to use Google Docs. Easy export your work in .docx, .pdf, .odt, .rtf, .txt, or .html format. 
  • Controlled access – Most importantly when you share your documents with others, you might be in need to restrict access to various users at different levels. Say, your teacher should have full access to it. But, your team members can be given just the read access. Likewise, others can be restricted from accessing. Google Docs for students lets you personalize access and restrict users as per your choice easily. It’s much powerful than you imagine. 
  • Smart suggestions to help you prioritize your works and manage words. It can be very helpful when you work on your assignments and you worry less about grammar and spellings. Just focus on presenting your thoughts. 
  • Storage space – Google offers you 15GB free storage exclusively which is best while using Google Docs for students. It’s more than enough for being a student. It also includes another suite such as Gmail, Drive, etc. But, 15GB is really huge space and you would never use it fully that sooner. 
  • Collaboration and autosaving – Easy collaboration among students is the unique benefit of using Google Docs by students. No worries about saving, just use Google Docs for students to support automatic saving. 
  • Add-ons – Comes in-built with awesome and intelligent features. You can add more capabilities with a wide range of custom add-ons. 
  • Complete cloud storage – Fully cloud (Google’s secure and powerful servers). You can access it anywhere, anytime, and device of your choice. It doesn’t assume you own a laptop/PC to just access your document. You’ll be good to go even with your smartphone which is beneficial to use Google Docs as a student. 
  • Instant backup – This can be really handy when you are a student who gets back to your files later quite often. Being a student, you might be required to open a particular document only on exam days or project submission. But, you can’t just throw away as it is. Sometimes you will be trouble with your evaluation and searching for its past. In the case of Microsoft office environments, you are solely responsible for backing up your own files. No external virus/malware could easily penetrate the system. Google Docs for students stands out in terms of security and takes care of it completely. 
  • A wide range of file types – Google Docs supports almost any file type you would work within the work environment.  It offers a wide variety of file formats like Doc, Docx, ppt, Xls, xlsx, etc. Such a list of file choices gives the ability to work across several platforms without any issues when using Google Docs as a student.
  • Cross-browser compatibility – No matter what kind of browser you are using, Google Docs for students works out of the box like magic. Any device laptops, PCs, tablets, smartphones – all you need is a web browser to access your docs. 
  • Realtime chat – Collaborate online in real-time with your project mate and instant chat with other collaborators via comments/notes which is more useful when using Google Docs for students. You can see edits as others type which is super cool. 
  • Wide range of templates to work with. Say you need a leave letter, a project report, or even a resume. You’ll find a good list of templates on each category in Google Docs as a student to get started fast. 
  • Voice typing support – Although it’s not used wisely when using Google Docs as a student, voice typing support might be needed. 
  • Offline mode – No matter how strong your connectivity is. You can easily enable offline mode when using Google Docs as a  student and access all your documents completely offline just like Microsoft office software. 

What Is The Use Of Google Docs For Students

Students can use Google Docs in their classroom. Below are some of the key usages Of Google Docs for Students.

Google Docs Activities For Students

Let’s see here, a few key activities for students using Google Docs.

Synergetic Writing

Google Docs is an excellent online word processor where teacher and student can work on the same document. Students can get immediate feedback or comments on their assignments.

Multiple students can work together on the same document for any of the project or stories, etc.

Collaboration becomes easy for the students with the help of Google Docs.

Drawing Become Easy

As drawing is an important feature that a student need for their project activities and other assignments, Google Docs help students with this excellent feature to draw different shapes, arrows, lines, etc.

Drawing feature helps the students for different brainstorming  sessions where they can work together for creating Visual maps, etc.

Quickly Create A Table

Students can quickly create tables in Google Docs that can help them to improve their presentation skills.

Helps the students to organize their information in a proper way.

Free Templates Utilization

Students can use the free templates provided by Google Docs like Class notes, Lesson Plan, etc for better understanding.

You may like the following Google docs tutorials:

Exciting right? Why would students still stuck themselves with an offline suite when you have a free tool with such colorful features on the fly. Google Docs for students offers really amazing features. Go give a try and you’ll be absolutely amazed. Keep exploring!