Integrate Google Workspace to Enable Google Drive Collaboration

• Automatic integration with Google Drive (Learn more): Most Pearson Connexus domains are automatically integrated with Google Drive, allowing users to use Google Drive documents in Pearson Connexus as long as they have a Google account. This integration does not include collaborative tools.
• Google Workspace integration (covered in this article): This integration requires more setup, requires users to have a Gmail address attached to their Pearson Connexus account, and enables collaborative tools.

Google Workspace integration

Google Workspace integration enables:

• Easy creation of Google Drive documents in the Student app when completing a portfolio activity. Previously, if students wanted to submit an activity as a Google Doc, they had to create the document in their Google Drive, then open the activity in Pearson Connexus and search for that document to attach. Now they can create and submit all within Pearson Connexus.
• PDF snapshots of Google Drive submissions. When a student submits an activity as a Google Doc, Pearson Connexus creates a PDF snapshot that is available to both the student and the teacher. This way a record remains if the student makes changes to the document, or even if the Google Drive account is deactivated.
• Automatic permissions management. Google Docs makes collaboration and inline commenting easy, as long as all members have the correct permissions. With G Suite integration, Pearson Connexus automatically gives students (including students that are in the same group assignment) and teachers the correct permissions for easy collaboration. If, for any reason, permissions are not correctly granted, users will simply ask for permission using Google Drive.
• Automatic copies of Google Drive documents when duplicating activities. Teachers can include Google Drive documents as part of activities. If a colleague wants to duplicate the activity for their own use, they can easily copy the attached Google Drive document to their Google Drive for their own use.

Additional articles

Students:

• How do I submit a portfolio submission?

Google Workspace integration setup

Google Workspace integration is managed by Admins at your root domain. Once it is set up, it is inherited by all subdomains.

In order to set up your G Suite integration:

• You must create a Google service account.
• All users must have a current Google Workspace email attached to their profile (only the admin can edit these emails in Pearson Connexus).  
• You must enable it in Domain Settings.

Create a service account

There are four steps to setting up your service account for G Suite:

1. Create a project.
2. Enable the Google Drive API.
3. Create a service account for the project.
4. Enable API client access for the service account.

 

Create a project

Any Google Cloud Platform resources that you allocate and use must belong to a project. You can think of a project as the organizing entity for what you're building. A project is made up of the settings, permissions, and other metadata that describe your applications.

If you already have a project that you want to use, you can skip to Step 2. Enable the Google Drive API.

To create a project:

1. Go to the Google Developers Console (https://console.developers.google.com/project) and sign in as a super administrator.
2. Select Create project. If you haven't used the Developers Console before, agree to the Google Cloud Platform Terms of Service. Then, select Create a project.

3. Enter a project name.
4. Edit the Project ID if you want.
5. Select the desired Organization and Location from the appropriate dropdown menus.
6. Select Create.

 

Enable the Google Drive API

For Pearson Connexus to interface with the Google Drive API, you need to enable it.

1. Go to the API dashboard (https://console.developers.google.com/apis/dashboard) and select the project you created or selected in Step 1.
2. Select Enable APIs and Services in the Dashboard.

3. Search for Google Drive API and select it from the results.

4. Select Enable.

 

Create a service account for the project

To manage permissions effectively, Pearsons Connexus needs access to your Google service account.

1. Open the Menu in the top-left corner of the console and select IAM & Admin > Service accounts.

2. Select Create Service Account.
3. Enter a title in the Service Account Name field.
4. Describe what the service does in the Service account description field (e.g., Integrates Pearson Connexus with G Suite).
5. Select Create.

6. You can set any optional Service account permissions you desire, then select Continue.

7. Set up any optional user access.
8. Select Done. 
   
9. Open the Actions menu, then select Create Key.
10. Select JSON under Key type from the right pane, then select Create. A message displays that the service account JSON file has been downloaded to your computer. Make note of the location and name of this file to use later. 
11. Select Done. 
12. Open the Actions menu, then select Edit.
    
13. Select Show Domain-wide delegation to expand the section, then check the Enable Domain-wide Delegation box and enter a name in the Product name for the consent screen field (choose a useful name... only the system admin managing the integration will see it.)
14. Select Save. 
15. You can select View Client ID to review the service account just created. Copy the Client ID value. 

 

Enable API client access for the service account

Once Google Drive API is enabled, you need to give Pearson Connexus access to the service account.

 

Tips

Your organization may have multiple active domains within your Google Workspace account (e.g., @studentemail.com, @teacheremail.com, @parentemail.com). If so, each of these domains need the client access you set up in these steps, and you need to repeat them for each domain.

1. In your Google Workspace domain’s Admin console (https://admin.google.com), select Security from the list of controls.
   
   • If you don't see Security listed, select More controls from the gray bar at the bottom of the page, then select Security from the list of controls.
   • If you can't see the controls, make sure you're signed in as an administrator for the domain.
     
2. In Security, select API controls.
   
3. Select Manage Domain Wide Delegation. 
   
   
4. Enter the service account's Client ID. You should have copied this in step 3, or you can find it in the Service Accounts page. 
5. In the OAuth Scopes field, enter https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.
6. Select Authorize.
   

Enable Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) integration on Pearson Connexus 

Once you have a Google service account created, you can enable the Google Workspace integration:  

1. Open the side menu in Domain > Details.  
2. Select Domain settings in the more menu in the toolbar.

3. Check Enable Google Workspace service account box on the Google Workspace service account card.
4. Choose the Google Drive folder name (this is The top-most Drive folder where Pearson Connexus stores documents).
5. Select Edit service-account key.

6. Copy and paste the contents from the .json file that Google provided when you set up your service account into this field.
7. Select Done.

When users open Google Drive from Pearson Connexus for the first time, they may be asked to verify the access, sign in to their account, indicate which account, etc. Review the possible requests pictured here.

Users' browsers must allow Google to pop up windows.

Error messaging

• If the Google Drive fails to create or copy documents, Pearson Connexus reports an error.
• If the Google Drive cannot correctly grant permissions, Pearson Connexus does not report an error and users will simply ask for permission from the document author using Google Drive screens.
• If Google fails to generate a PDF snapshot, Pearson Connexus attaches a TXT file to the activity in the PDFs place, alerting you of the issue.