Android 20: Google Play for Education

Android 20: Google Play for Education
Kirk Scott

Introduction There are several sections of the Android developer’s Web site One of these sections is, “Distribute” In this section there is a heading, “Google Play for Education” This heading and its subheadings are listed on the following overhead, given with numbers corresponding to this set of overheads

20.1 Google Play for Education 20.2 About 20.3 Get Started 20.4 Guidelines 20.5 FAQ 20.6 Signup

In general, Google Play for Education is based on familiarity with publishing an app through Google Play That topic won’t be addressed here It is a separate heading under, “Distribute” This set of overheads will just include the material in the 5 subheadings listed above

20.1 Google Play for Education

Google Play for Education Google Play for Education is a destination where schools can find great, teacher-approved, educational apps and videos on Play Store. Teachers can filter content by subject matter, grade and other criteria. Bulk purchase and instant distribution let educators bring your apps directly to classrooms and schools. If you have an educational app, join Google Play for Education.

20.2 About

About Google Play for Education Introducing Google Play for Education, the online destination where schools can find the right tablet content and tools for their students and teachers. With easy bulk ordering for groups, schools can purchase and instantly distribute your apps, and videos right to their students’ devices. Google Play for Education can help your innovative educational apps gain visibility with the right audiences, without having to knock on school doors.

20.2.1 For Developers Get discovered With Google Play for Education, teachers and administrators can browse content by curriculum, grade, and standard — discovering the right content for their students. If your app offers an exciting new way to learn sixth grade algebra, math educators will be able to find, purchase, and distribute your app to their classes in a few clicks.

Reach more schools and students Over 30 million students, faculty, and staff are already using Google Apps for Education and other Google services. Many of these schools are excited to take advantage of tablets with Google Play for Education and they look to bringing your apps into their classrooms, especially apps using Google sign-on.

Monetize effectively With Google Play for Education, educators are able to make high-volume purchases using standard institutional payment mechanisms and distribute them to the students they want — whether it is a class of 20 or a district of 20,000.

20.2.2 For Educators Android tablets in the classroom Google Play for Education brings the innovation of Android technology into classrooms. School districts can set up and deploy large numbers of devices in just minutes or hours rather than days.

Curriculum-based discovery Powerful browsing tools let educators quickly discover apps, videos, and other content—with many recommended by teachers and categorized according to familiar Core Curriculum standards.

Bulk purchase with institutional payment Convenient purchasing and delivery tools let educators buy apps in bulk using purchase orders and other payment methods that are easy for schools to manage.

Over-the-air delivery to student devices After finding apps they want to use, educators can push them instantly to student devices over the air. They can send the apps to individuals or groups of any size, across classrooms, schools, or even districts.

20.3 Get Started

Get Started You can now include your educational apps in the Google Play for Education program, getting it into the hands of participating schools and key influencers in the education technology community. See the sections below to learn more.

If you've got a great app for education, be part of Google Play for Education to reach even more teachers and students. It's easy to participate, and you'll be able to offer new or existing Android apps using familiar tools and processes in Google Play.

To get started, review the sections in this document and learn how to make your apps available through Google Play for Education. Also make sure to read Guidelines for Apps for information on the safety, usability, and quality standards that your apps should meet. When your app is ready, you can opt-in to Google Play for Education from the Developer Console.

Note that Google Play for Education is currently available to schools in the United States only, with support for schools in other countries to follow. At this time, please include your app in Google Play for Education only if it is targeting the US K-12 market.

How to Participate Google Play for Education is a great way to put your educational apps in front of a new audience of teachers and students. You can develop and publish using familiar tools and processes, such as your existing Developer Console account and your current distribution and pricing settings. It's easy to participate — the sections below outline the process.

1. Understand guidelines and policies To prepare for a successful launch on Google Play for Education, start by reviewing the guidelines for educational apps in Google Play and the policies that apply to your apps. See Guidelines for Apps for details. Also, make sure that your are familiar with the policies that your app must comply with, including content policies, the developer agreement, and Google Play for Education Addendum.

2. Design and develop a great app for education A great app for educators and students is designed for classroom use, looks great on tablets, and delivers a compelling feature set for teachers and students. If you are developing an app for education, make sure that it is appropriate for K-12 classrooms, offers educational value, and is refined to offer a polished, high-quality tablet experience.

Assess your app against the criteria listed in Guidelines for Apps and plan on supporting them to the greatest extent possible. In some cases you might need to modify your features or UI to support the requirements of the classroom use-case. It's a good idea to identify those areas early in development so that you are able address them properly.

With Google Play for Education, optimizing your app for tablets is a crucial part of getting your app ready for distribution to educators. A variety of resources are available to help you understand what you need to optimize for tablets — a good starting point is the Tablet App Quality Guidelines.

Throughout design and development, it's important to have a suitable device on which to prototype and test your user experience. It's highly recommended that you acquire one or more tablet devices and set up your testing environment as early as possible. The recommended hardware device that replicates the Google Play for Education environment is the Nexus 7, which is available from Google Play and other stores.

Proper testing and quality assurance are key aspects of delivering a great app for teachers and students. Make sure you set up a proper test environment to ensure that your app meets guidelines under realistic conditions.

3. Opt-in to Google Play for Education and publish Before you opt-in To participate in Google Play for Education, you must agree to a Google Play for Education Addendum to the standard Developer Distribution Agreement. Before you opt-in, review the Addendum completely and make any necessary modifications to your app.

Once you've built your release-ready APK and tested to ensure that it meets the app guidelines, upload it to the Developer Console, create your store listing, and set distribution options. If you aren't familiar with how to prepare for launch on Google Play, see the Launch Checklist.

When your app is ready to publish, you can opt-in to Google Play for Education directly from the Developer Console. Opt-in means that you want your app to be made available to educators through Google Play for Education, including review, classification, and approval by our third-party educator network. Note that opt-in does not affect the availability of your app in Google Play Store.

Opt-in also confirms that your app complies with Google Play Developer Program Policies and the Developer Distribution Agreement, including a Google Play for Education Addendum. If you are not familiar with these policy documents or the Addendum, make sure to read them before opting-in.

Here's how to opt-in to Google Play for Education for a specific app: 1. In the Developer Console All Applications page, click the app you want to opt-in. 2. Under Pricing and Distribution, scroll down to find "Google Play for Education" and the opt-in checkbox.

3. Click the checkbox next to "Include this application in Google Play for Education." 4. In the first dialog that appears, review the content policies and guidelines and click "Continue" if your app meets the the policies and guidelines.

5. In next dialog that appears, shown below, find the "Ads" and "In-app purchases" radio buttons. Check each option that applies. Your app's use of ads or in-app purchases will be shown to educators when they are browsing your app. 6. Click "Save" to save your Pricing and Distribution changes.

Ads and in-app purchase: When you opt-in to Google Play for Education, make sure to declare your app's use of ads and in-app purchases. Once you save changes and publish your app, the app will be submitted to our third-party educator network for review and approval. If the app is already published, it will be submitted for review as soon as you opt-in and save your changes.

Note: Google Play for Education is part of Google Play. When you publish an app that's opted-in to Google Play for Education, the app becomes available to users in Google Play right away. After the app is reviewed and approved, it then becomes available to educators in Google Play for Education.

4. Track your review and approval Google Play for Education provides content to educators in a way that's properly organized by subject, grade level, and common core standards (where applicable). To ensure high educational value and proper classification, we work with a third-party educator network to review and approve apps before making them discoverable through the Google Play for Education browsing tools.

Our third-party educator network will evaluate apps according to educational value and alignment with K-12 core standards, then assign the metadata for subject, grade level, and core curriculum that makes them easily browsable for educators. To understand how your apps will be evaluated, please see the Guidelines for Apps document.

As soon as you opt-in to Google Play for Education and publish, your app is queued for review by our third-party educator network. The review and approval process can take four weeks or more. You'll receive notification by email (to your developer account address) when the review is complete, with a summary of the review results.

At any time, you can check the review and approval status of your app in the Developer Console, under "Google Play for Education" in the app's Pricing and Distribution page. There are three approval states:

Pending — Your app was sent for review and the review is not yet complete. Approved — Your app was reviewed and approved. The app will be made available directly to educators through Google Play for Education. Once your app is approved, you can update it at your convenience without needing another full review.

Not approved — Your app was reviewed and not approved. Check the notification email for information about why the app was not approved. You can address any issues and opt-in again for another review. If you have questions about the review status of your app, follow the process discussed in the next section.

5. Get support or appeal your review results After your app is reviewed you'll receive an email giving you the results, including information on whether the app was approved and what issues may need to be addressed. You'll receive the email at the address you specified for your developer account.

If your app has issues that need to be addressed, make the necessary adjustments, upload your app, and then resubmit the app to Google Play for Education through the Developer Console using process described above. Your app will be queued for review and you'll receive the review results by email just as before.

20.4 Guidelines

Guidelines for Apps You can now include your educational apps in the recently launched Google Play for Education program, getting it into the hands of participating schools and key influencers in the education technology community. See Get Started to learn how to participate.

The sections below list the guidelines and requirements for apps participating in Google Play for Education. Before you include your app in Google Play for Education, set up a test environment and make sure your app meets all of the safety, usability, and quality guidelines given here.

You can use the linked resources to help you develop a great app for students that offers compelling content and an intuitive user experience on Android tablets. In addition, ensure that your app complies with the terms of a Google Play for Education Addendum, as well as the standard Google Play Developer Program Policies and Developer Distribution Agreement.

Safety First To participate, your apps must be designed to be appropriate for the K-12 market. The basic requirements that your apps must meet are:

1. Apps and the ads they contain must not collect personally identifiable information other than user credentials or data required to operate and improve the app. 2. Apps must not use student data for purposes unrelated to its educational function. 3. Apps must have a content rating of "Everyone" or "Low Maturity" (apps with a "Medium Maturity" rating are allowed, if they have that rating solely because they allow communication between students).

4. App content, including ads displayed by the app, must be consistent with the app's maturity rating. The app must not display any “offensive” content, as described in the Google Play Developer Program Policies and content-rating guidelines. 5. Apps must comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and all other applicable laws and regulations.

Monetizing and Ads Google Play for Education provides a simple and secure environment for students and teachers. To support that environment, priced or free apps that do not use in-app purchases are preferred, as are apps that do not display ads. Apps that use in-app payments or ads are acceptable, but you must declare those behaviors when opting-in to Google Play for Education.

Your app's use of in-app purchases or ads will be disclosed to educators when they are browsing for content. Follow the guidelines below to help your app receive the highest ratings and offer the best possible user-experience. If your app is priced or sells in-app products, you must:

Sell all content and services through Google Play for Education Allow Google Play to offer teachers limited free trials before purchase (through business terms only, no development work is needed)

Disable in-app purchases if possible, or ensure that: Users can access your app's core functionality for a classroom setting without an in-app purchase. In-app purchases are clearly identifiable in your UI. You declare the use of in-app purchases at opt-in.

Note: In-app purchases are blocked on Google Play for Education tablets at this time. If your app displays ads, you should:

Disable the display of ads if possible, or ensure that: Ads are not distracting for students or teachers Ads do not occupy a significant portion of the screen Ads content does not exceed the maturity rating of the app. You declare the use of ads at opt-in.

Educational Value Apps submitted to Google Play for Education will be evaluated by a third-party educator network, which will review them based on alignment with Common Core Standards and other factors. This will help make your content more discoverable for teachers and administrators as they browse by grade level, subject, core curriculum, and other parameters. Apps with highest educational value will have these characteristics:

Designed for use in K-12 classrooms. Aligned with a common core standard or support common-core learning. Simple, easy to use, and intuitive for the grade levels the app is targeting. App is relatively easy to navigate without teacher guidance. Not distracting or overwhelming to students.

Enjoyable and interactive. App is engaging to students and lets them control their experience. Versatile. App has features make the it useful for more than one classroom function or lesson throughout the school year.

Supports the "4Cs": Creativity— Allows students to create in order to express understanding of the learning objectives, and try new approaches, innovation and invention to get things done. Critical thinking — Allows students to look at problems in a new way, linking learning across subjects and disciplines.

Collaboration — Allows students and (if appropriate) educators to work together to reach a goal. Communication — Allows students to comprehend, critique and share thoughts, questions, ideas and solutions.

As you design and develop your app, make sure it offers high educational value by addressing as many of those characteristics as possible.

App Quality Google Play for Education brings educational content to students and teachers on Android tablets. Your apps should be designed to perform well and look great on Android tablets, and they should offer the best user experience possible.

High quality apps are engaging, intuitive, and offer compelling content. Google Play for Education will highlight high-quality apps for easy discovery in the store. Here are some recommendations for making your app easy for students and teachers to enjoy.

Meet Core app quality guidelines Follow Android Design Guidelines. Pay special attention to the sections on Action Bar, Navigation and Pure Android. Test your apps against the Core App Quality Guidelines.

Meet tablet app quality guidelines Follow our best practices for tablet app development Review the Tablet App Quality Checklist and blog post on designing for tablets Check your Optimization Tips in the Google Play Developer Console (if you've already uploaded your app)

Strive for simplicity and highest usability for students Design your app so that teachers and students can use all capabilities of your app without having to sign-in to multiple accounts and remember multiple passwords. Every student or teacher using a Google Play for Education tablet will already be signed in with a Google account on the device.

You can take advantage of that to provide a simple, seamless sign-in experience in your app. A recommended approach is to use Google OAuth 2 authorization through Google Play Services.

Test Environment To test your app and assess it against the guidelines in this document, it's recommended that you set up a test environment that replicates the actual environment in which students and teachers will run your app. In general, you should use the test environment described in Setting Up a Test Environment for Tablets, including a small number of actual hardware devices that replicate the tablet form factors used in the Google Play for Education.

Android tablets Google Play for Education uses primarily Nexus 7 devices, so your testing can focus on that specific hardware device. You can purchase the device from Google Play and other stores. Although testing on Nexus devices is preferred, you can test on other 7-inch (or 10-inch) tablets or virtual devices if you don't have access to Nexus devices.

Test conditions Once you've set up a suitable hardware environment, make sure to test your apps under conditions that simulate those of schools. For example, Google Play for Education lets administrators control or disable certain capabilities for students, so it's good to test your app with those capabilities disabled. Below are some conditions to test your app in, to ensure best results in the Google Play for Education environment:

Android version — Test the app on devices running Android 4.2. Google Play for Education devices will be running Android 4.2 or higher (API level 17+). Proxy server — Test the app in network environment that uses proxies. Many schools use proxies. No location services — Test the app to make sure it works properly with location services disabled. Many schools will disable location services for student devices.

No In-app Billing — Test the app to make sure it works properly without access to In-app Billing. In-app purchases are blocked on Google Play for Education devices at this time. No Bluetooth — Test the app to make sure it works properly when Bluetooth is disabled. Many schools will disable Bluetooth on student devices. No access to network — Test the app to make sure it works properly when the device cannot connect to the internet.

20.5 FAQ

Google Play for Education FAQ The sections below provide more information about Google Play for Education and answer common questions that you might have about it.

Business Model and Monetization What is Google Play for Education? Google Play for Education is a new online destination designed for schools. Teachers can discover educational apps, books, and videos to meet the needs of a single student, a classroom, or a whole district.

Educators can browse apps by grade, subject, keyword, or standard including common core. Purchasing is done via PO with no credit card required. Apps are distributed to tablets instantly via the cloud.

Is Google Play for Education primarily for students or educators? The store on Google Play for Education is for educators, but its content is for both educators and students. Teachers and administrators have the ability to make purchases and control who within their school has access to the purchase flows.

Will Google Play for Education support subscription purchases? Currently, Google Play for Education supports one-time purchases. We are investigating additional purchase mechanisms to enable more flexible pricing models for developers and schools.

Why is it recommended to disable in-app purchases? In-app purchase is currently not supported with Google Play for Education, and a student device will block the Play transaction if a student attempts to make an in-app purchase.

To avoid student confusion in the classroom, also recommend not including any in-app purchase buttons and other UI in your application. We are investigating additional purchase mechanisms to enable more flexible pricing models for developers and schools.

Is Google Play for Education restricted so only its users can purchase from the Google Play for Education? Or will anyone be able to purchase from it? Currently, only schools that are signed up for Google Play for Education can make purchases on it.

Is there a way to differentiate an app's pricing between Google Play for Education and Google Play? For each app that you publish, you can set a single price that applies to both Google Play and Google Play for Education &mdash. You can’t set a different price for a given app (based on a single package name) in Google Play for Education.

Free Trials Can I offer free trials through Google Play for Education? Google Play for Education doesn't currently support free trials. If you want, you can offer a free version of your app with limited functionality in Google Play for Education, but that app would need to be separate from your paid app and be reviewed separately for educational content.

Can I offer a free trial through Google Play's "In-app Subscriptions with Free Trials" feature? Google Play for Education does not currently support In-app Billing or In-app Subscriptions with free trials.

Discovery What are the categories in Google Play for Education? Google Play for Education includes categories for all grade levels from Kindergarten to 12 and the following subjects: English Language Arts, World Languages, Mathematics, Science, Social Science, Elective, OER (Open Education Resources), and Tools.

I created an app specifically for Google Play for Education and do not want it to show up in Google Play. Is this possible? Currently, it is not possible to publish an app Google Play for Education and make it unavailable on Google Play.

If my app offers content for every level of education, how will it fit the common-core standard filters? If your app applies to multiple levels of education, then the app will show up filtered results for in multiple levels.

App Review Process How are apps being reviewed? By whom and with what criteria? Apps are being reviewed by a third party network of educators.

These educators assign the appropriate subject, grade, and common core standards metadata, as well as evaluating whether the app meets the Google Play for Education criteria for classroom use. You can learn more about the submission process and criteria at developer.android.com/edu.

How do I update my apps in Google Play for Education? Developers can update their apps on Google Play for Education in the same manner that they do for Google Play. App updates will not be reviewed prior to being made available through Play for Education. However, we will periodically review updated apps for quality.

Does the app maturity rating reflect solely what a user can do within my Android app, or does the web version of my app influence the rating as well? The maturity rating that you set for your Android app refers only to the content displayed in that application.

App Features Do I need separate builds of my phone and tablet apps for Google Play for Education, or is it the exact same app that lives on Google Play? We recommend you create one app and use it in both Google Play and Google Play for Education.

What is the best way to get students’ work within apps sent back to their teachers? Many teachers have mentioned that the way apps treat this now is via an email from a third party, which is not optimal for schools. As many schools use Google Apps for Education, consider integrating your app with Google Drive using the SDK which can be found here: developers.google.com/drive/about-sdk.

How can developers test the teacher experience in Google Play for Education? Is there a way to get an account to test it? Currently, we are unable to provide developers with a test account to test the Google Play for Education user experience. We are investigating ways to allow developers to simulate the environment.

If I already have an app in the Chrome Apps Pack will I get some help migrating this to Android? If you’d like to reach users of Nexus tablets for schools we encourage you to build a native app for the optimal user experience. Considerations for building your app and instructions for registering it can be found at developer.android.com/edu.

Marketing and ROI What are you doing to promote these apps to educators? Google Play for Education is an extension of Google Play targeting schools and making discovery easier for educational apps.

It helps your apps gain visibility with the right audiences, without having to knock on school doors. We are constantly referring to the highest quality apps in our educator outreach. We have also developed a series of collections to help educators quickly browse apps for the most common use cases.

How many installs have similar apps had on Play? How much can I expect to make if I do an ROI analysis? While we cannot disclose specific numbers, Google Play app listings provide app download ranges for all apps.

What is the seasonality like for the education market? What are the key timing considerations for app developers? In the United States, school districts’ budget decisions go through a planning phase in the Spring with budgets being released on July 1.

We have observed high purchase-volumes in the second quarter of the calendar year, using up end-of-year budgets. New budget purchases begin in the third quarter of the calendar year.

Is there a way to offer a special deal, such as a discount, only on Google Play for Education and not on Google Play? No, this is not possible. Pricing, including special offers, must be the same between Google Play for Education and Google Play.

Devices Which devices are available in the program? Will more be available? Nexus 7 is available for shipment now, and the Asus Transformer will be available in early 2014. We look forward to welcoming more Android devices into the Google in Education family soon.

Can the devices be shared among many students? No. Currently, this program is for one-to-one usage. Each student can login to one specific tablet that is allocated to them.

Accounts Will an app know whether a user is a teacher or student? No, the app has no mechanism for knowing if it is running on a teacher’s device or a student’s device. We recommend developers use their own user database to enable this feature, where logins can be based on Google Account information.

What log-in method do you recommend for an app on Google Play for Education? One of the key pieces of feedback we have heard multiple times from various schools is that they prefer apps that offer Google Single Sign-on, so that teachers and students do not need to remember multiple log-in credentials. As schools in the program use Google Accounts and Google Apps for Education, offering Google Single Sign-on is ideal.

20.6 Signup

Sign Up for More Information We're looking forward to improving how students learn in the classroom as we bring your first-class educational content into schools across the United States, and to a broader international audience in the future.

For Developers Whether you have an existing educational app or are developing a fresh idea that will unlock learning in the classroom — sign up to receive information about the upcoming launch of Google Play for Education. To get your apps ready, read our guidelines for building educational apps. Developer Sign Up »

For Educators If you're a school or system interested in tablets and Google Play for Education, complete the expression of interest form at www.google.com/edu/android. School Interest Form »

The End

Android 20: Google Play for Education