Google Classroom vs. OneNote

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Google Classroom
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
N/A
$0
per license/per month
OneNote
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's OneNote is a digital note-taking app, supporting photos, annotating, web page clipping, emailing, and synchronizing notes across devices.N/A
Pricing
Google ClassroomOneNote
Editions & Modules
Education Fundamentals
$0
per license/per month
Google Workspace for Education Standard
$3
per student/per year
Teaching and Learning Upgrade
$4
per license/per month
Google Workspace for Education Plus
$5
per student/per year
Microsoft OneNote
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Google ClassroomOneNote
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsEducation Fundamentals Version - 30-day free trial for qualifying institutions.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Google ClassroomOneNote
Features
Google ClassroomOneNote
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
Google Classroom
7.8
Ratings
5% below category average
OneNote
-
Ratings
Course authoring8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Course catalog or library8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Player/Portal9.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning content5.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile friendly5.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Assignments8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance management8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning administration7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Social learning7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Gamification6.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Google ClassroomOneNote
Small Businesses
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.6 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.7 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Enterprises
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.7 out of 10

No answers on this topic

All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Google ClassroomOneNote
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.9
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
2.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Google ClassroomOneNote
Likelihood to Recommend
- During the pandemic, the college needs a fast and easy solution to conduct Google Classroom. The integration with Google Accounts and Google Meet allows the university to run and access the Classroom on a large scale. - The teacher wants to conduct some exams in third-party software like Moodle. But we have not found any plugin for this famous open-source learning platform. The exam system in Google Classroom is so poor that it doesn't even fully screen the test when students are writing their exams.
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It is well suited for capturing weekly departmental task lists. For example, each week we create a new page in a shared departmental notebook. In this new page, each department member enters his/her top 3 accomplishments for the week and the top 3 things which the member will attempt to accomplish in the coming week. We then use this page during our Monday morning stand-up meeting and it helps provide an agenda, structure, and discussion points for the meeting.
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Pros
  • Student-teacher communication - I love using Classroom for this because my students can always go back and check what was on Classroom by looking through the stream. This way they don't have to go dig through emails to find what they're looking for.
  • Posting to multiple classes - I can post the same announcement or assignment to multiple classes at once without having to repeat the process or send separate emails.
  • Streamlining grading - when students turn work in on Classroom, it all goes to one place and then when I'm grading I can open their documents directly from Classroom or my Drive folder. This way, I'm not looking through emails and Google Doc shared files for their assignment.
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  • OneNote synchronizes across platforms very quickly. I often find that notes entered, or updated, on my desktop are synchronized to my laptop and smartphone well before I ever open them up to access the information.
  • OneNote has apps for just every major platform available. This includes Windows, iOS, and Android. The web app has plenty of features so you won't feel let down if you have to access your notebooks through a browser.
  • The multimedia features of OneNote are wonderful. I can draw pictures, add sound bites, add videos, add files, and much more. This helps me capture the full context of a note, including any references that I might need, all within the note itself. I don't have to go outside of OneNote to find a video clip, logo, or soundbite.
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Cons
  • Although usually in the discussion with other LMS apps such as Schoology and Canvas, Google Classroom doesn't possess as in-depth of a platform. There is no ability to set individual learning paths, pace student work with completion settings, or embed other apps directly into teacher-created assignments.
  • The assignment creation options are limited. Teachers can only choose from creating an assignment (usually a link with directions), a material (usually a doc/slide/website, etc), a question, and a quiz.
  • With gamification taking on a new lens in education, there really isn't any way to use gamification elements with Google Classroom. There isn't any way to create Individual learning paths, or use badges and micro-credentials within Classroom. Outside programs would have to be used.
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  • OneNote could improve on its web clipping features. Evernote still beats it in terms of robustness, but OneNote is sufficient for most purposes.
  • OneNote could also improve on its tagging system. Its the other major way of categorizing notes, which Evernote uses to great effect, but OneNote de-emphasizes this in favor of a hierarchical ordering.
  • This is a silly point, but it drives me mad. OneNote's free-form editing on pages, meaning you can click anywhere and start editing makes for sloppier notes that aren't as well aligned. This could be an enjoyable feature for some, but for me, I like my pages orderly.
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Likelihood to Renew
Testing is particularly important in online learning, and Google Classroom falls far short of other learning management systems in this regard. Security is also a concern: while account control is reasonable for the account used with Google Classroom, the person controlling a particular account is often able to, for example, forward or download proprietary materials.
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As this is not a compulsory tool in our organization, I would say all depends on the decision makers, however since this is a part of MS Office, I am sure we will have it for as long as we will possibly need it. However, I would not be so sure, if it was a separate product
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Usability
This is only a product I would recommend to a humanities teacher. Math and science teachers cannot use this product the same way that I can as an English teacher. It is great for word process and for reading, but unable to handle the demands of math and science. Therefore, I would highly recommend this product to English or Social Studies teachers, but NOT math or science teachers
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It is easy to use day to day and has become a common use application like Outlook or Teams. There is little to no learning curve, and you can use it in the way that is most suitable for you. Features like moving sections of text around and creating new tabs is self-explanatory.
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Reliability and Availability
We have had very little trouble in accessing Google Classroom. Our issues, if any, have risen from our server and not the Google servers.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
No answers on this topic
I find OneNote to perform very well. I experience quick load times and automatic updates which are two things that are very important to our organization. I personally do not integrate OneNote with other software or systems but I do like that it can generate a sharing link for other people to view.
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Support Rating
Since this platform is provided by Google, the technical support is better than any others, and we are not required to bother about the space constraints for adding the contents. If we have a good uninterrupted internet facility we can access Google Classroom without any delay or lag. They have app support in both Android and iPhone.
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Since it is part of Microsoft Office and used across the globe there are a lot of support options available. It's quickest to just do a google search which will have plenty of articles to help you since there are so many OneNote users but as an Office customer you also have access to Microsoft support and I have had good experiences with their support (probably because I'm with a large company who is a large customer to them).
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Implementation Rating
It was relatively easy to implement due to the simplicity of the platform. Even our more technology challenged teachers found it easy to get started with Google Classroom.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Skyward and Google Classroom are completely different programs that are used for completely different things. The only comparable areas are communication with students. Skyward does so through the class rosters and message center and Google Classroom does so through the classrooms for each student and their teacher, but each is unique in their own way.
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I’ll be honest, once I met OneNote, I knew my search was over. I found a software package that could do everything I needed and more. Pen and paper are helpful but not searchable, not private, not easily shared. Your notebook can be misplaced or stolen. You cannot use it to access websites with a click. I was a user of Lotus notes back in the day and though it had better function than pen and paper, I lost my entire notebook twice because of system issues and it didn’t have 1/10th of the function OneNote had
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Scalability
It is very easy to push out this program across our buildings. Teachers are able to use it without much trouble.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Students are able to continue learning in a remote environment
  • Parents have a single, consistent organization structure to make it easy to track assignments and progress for multiple children
  • Much better solution than the quickly assembled Zoom-and-gloom of the previous spring when school abruptly went remote with no planning
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  • By giving employees this tool, each one can try to make the most out of it, and use it as they want. I know that many employees are utilizing features of OneNote every day, and it does help them to work more organized, and more efficiently.
  • I don't think there is any negative impact. Those who don't know how to use the tool are likely not to use it, so there is no risk for negative impact other than the cost of the license.
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ScreenShots