Thursday, October 27, 2016

Tech Tip: How to Bulk Copy Share a Google Site




Do you use Google Sites with your students?  If not, I would highly recommend it.  You can use Google Sites to allow students to publish a digital portfolio to showcase their work, or to have them create a product or theory and market it. The possibilities are endless!  

As a Technology Integration Coach, I will use Google Sites for all of the 8th grade students to collect information to determine if they are proficient in technology literacy.  All students must complete a series of assignments that contains many skills that meet the NJTAPIN rubric. (A technology literacy in NJ.)

Since all of the students at my school are using G Suite for Education, I decided to have the 8th grade students, (about 300 students), showcase their work using Google Sites rather than using a template in Google Slides.  The purpose, to expose them to another app other than Drive. 

My process:  I created a template for the digital portfolio using Google Sites, then I created a spreadsheet with their account information which included their first and last names, and email address.  Then, I installed a Google Sheet add-on called SiteMaestro, which allows you to bulk copy share a Google Site with a roster of students.

The SiteMaestro add-on takes all of the students who are listed in the spreadsheet and it creates a new Google Site, renames it, and shares it accordingly. At this point, the students will see the digital portfolio template listed under the Sites app, and they will also receive an email notification that a site was shared/created.  At this point, they will be able to modify it to include my requirements. 

A convenient feature is the spreadsheet I created will contain a link to all of the student websites, so that I can easily access them.  In addition, all of the Google Sites that were created using the add-on, will be listed under my Google Sites list.  However, this can be cumbersome for me because I have so many students, so in my case, I created another G Suite for Education account just for this purpose. This will prevent my account to become flooded with student's sites.

I found this add-on to be a life saver!  I was so impressed with it, I decided to create a screen cast of the process.  I hope you find it helpful. Enjoy!