Education is about more than just imparting information. For the Geneva Business School (GBS), education is about teaching the necessary skills to adapt, survive, and thrive in the world after pupils have graduated. With a diverse, international student body spread out over five campuses, the school prides itself on fostering leadership, communication, and productivity skills as well as academic achievement. In 2016, GBS began searching for ways to help its students work together and improve communication. To do that, it turned to Google Workspace for Education.

"We wanted our content stored in a digital environment where the students could collaborate on projects even when working remotely," says Carlos Moreno Gonzalez, Barcelona Campus Director at Geneva Business School. "For us the solution was Google Workspace."

Improving collaboration, increasing accountability

Prior to 2016, GBS’ online course components were designed to be worked on individually. Students could download course materials from extranet sites to work offline on traditional word processing and spreadsheet software. If they were working together, they had to be physically in the same room or would communicate over email. GBS places a strong emphasis on collaborative work, but in such a fragmented setup, it could be hard for professors to work out exactly who had contributed what in each group.

Connecting students and professors with Google Classroom

After evaluating its options, the Barcelona campus chose to implement Google Workspace for Education in early 2016, largely because of the widespread adoption of Google tools by students in their personal lives. "Most of our students were very familiar with Google tools and how Google works," says Carlos. "It made the transition much easier for them." With such a radical change, GBS also made sure to provide adequate training for everybody to help them overcome any issues that might arise during the transition. "There was a little pushback from people who had been using the same tools for a long time," says Sabrina. "But once they saw for themselves the benefits of the new system, we turned sceptics into believers."

The core of the new system was Google Classroom, a single, online destination where teachers and students could quickly and easily interact with each other no matter where they were. Gmail replaced the traditional email system, easing the load on the campus servers. Live editing in Docs, Sheets, and Slides meant that students could work on projects and presentations at the same time without having to email multiple versions, which could get buried in long threads.

A new platform, a new way of working

The online hub that GBS built in Barcelona with Google Classroom and Google Workspace was very quickly seen as a success. So much so, that within six months, the school rolled out Google Workspace to all of its other campuses. As of Q3 2018, GBS has activated more than 2,300 user accounts. The students benefit from instant communication, frictionless collaboration, and the ability to work on projects outside the classroom. It also means they are in a better position to answer each other’s questions without having to wait for a response from their teacher.

Meanwhile, GBS’ teachers no longer have to deal with an extranet that required them to upload all their own content in an overly complicated way or spend hours bulk-creating new email addresses at the start of each year. "The time saved in administrative tasks has been massive," says Sabrina. "User creation is a breeze compared to the past." In addition, the faculty found a new efficiency with rote tasks, such as grading analysis, which allowed them to spend more time focusing on students and assessing their specific needs.

"In just a few clicks you can get a really good picture of the whole class," says Sabrina. "Whenever we tried this before Google Classroom, we would enter the grades manually and it took forever."