Skip to content

Classroom Activity Utility for Google Docs

Raven Icon

The Classroom Activity Utility (CAU) is a Google Docs add-on to help teachers to create and revise classroom activities. CAU can use an author’s version of an activity to generate versions for students and teachers. Specifically, CAU will:

  • Remove sample answers and teacher notes within the activity (anything in a selected paragraph style).
  • Remove teacher information at the start and end of the activity (anything before and after selected tags).

For details, contact Clif Kussmaul (clif@kussmaul.org).

To use CAU

  1. Install from: https://workspace.google.com/u/0/marketplace/app/classroom_activity_utility/782628538794
    • Google warns that CAU is not verified. Click “Advanced”, then “Go to Classroom Activity Utility (unsafe)”.
    • Check all three permissions (see Permissions below). If any are unchecked, CAU asks again when you use it.
  2. Create a document with a classroom activity, or import from other formats (e.g. Microsoft Word).
  3. Use a specific paragraph style (Heading 4, by default) for answers, teacher notes, and other text that should be in the teacher version but not the student version. In Google Docs you can change the formatting for a paragraph style, and it often makes sense for this style to be the same size & font as normal text, but with a different color or format (italics, underline, etc). (answers become blank space, so students have room to write)
  4. Optionally, add tags to identify text at the start and end of the document that should also be removed (see Document Structure below).
  5. From Extensions > Classroom Activity Utility, select “Make student version”, “Make teacher version”, etc.
  6. The new versions should appear in the same folder as the author’s master version.
    • Note: If “Remove old versions” is checked in Settings (the default), CAU replaces earlier versions with the same name.
  7. From Extensions > Classroom Activity Utility, select “Settings” to adjust settings and enable some advanced features.
  8. If the document has tabs, CAU uses the current tab (and any parent tabs), and removes other tabs from the new versions.
    • To use several tabs, open Settings and check “Process all tabs (not just current) with author suffix”. CAU then keeps every tab whose title ends with the author suffix (“(Author)” by default).
    • In each kept tab title, CAU replaces the author suffix (e.g. “Activity (Author)” becomes “Activity (Student)”).
    • If no tab title ends with the suffix, CAU shows an error and makes no files. If the setting is off but other tab titles end with the suffix, CAU asks before continuing.
    • Tags such as {{TABTITLE}} are replaced separately in each tab, including its headers and footers.

See Tags and Advanced Features below for more features.

Permissions

CAU needs three permissions. Google lets you uncheck each one, but CAU needs all three and asks again if any are missing.

  • “See, edit, create, and delete all your Google Docs documents”: CAU edits the new versions it creates. It never changes the author’s document.
  • “See, edit, create, and delete all of your Google Drive files”: CAU copies the author’s document, saves new versions and PDFs in the same folder, and removes old versions. A narrower Drive permission would not let CAU see the document you have open.
  • “Display and run third-party web content in prompts and sidebars inside Google applications”: Google’s wording for showing CAU’s own Settings dialog, sidebars, and messages. CAU does not load content from other websites.

Google shows the “unverified” warning because CAU uses full Drive access, and Google requires a security review before verifying apps with that access. CAU is a small, free tool and has not gone through that review.

Document Structure

If there is a {{TEACHER START}} tag, any text before it will be removed from the teacher version. If there is a {{TEACHER STOP}} tag, any text after it will be removed from the teacher version. These tags can be used to exclude information for the author(s), such as a list of changes to be made, a revision history, or draft content that is not yet part of the main activity.

If there is a {{STUDENT START}} tag, any text before it will be removed from the student version. If there is a {{STUDENT STOP}} tag, any text after it will be removed from the student version. These tags can be used to exclude information for teachers, such as prerequisites, learning outcomes, notes on how to adapt the activity, sample homework, test questions, and handouts.

Similarly, {{SAMPLE START}} and {{SAMPLE STOP}} can be used to create a sample version.

Thus, a typical document with all 4 teacher and student tags would look like this:

initial text
for author		 {{TEACHER START}} initial text
for teachers		 {{STUDENT START}} main body
of activity		 {{STUDENT STOP}} final text
for teachers		 {{TEACHER STOP}} final text
for author

If {{TEACHER START}} does not appear, all initial text will be in the teacher version. If {{TEACHER STOP}} does not appear, all final text will be in the teacher version. Thus, if the document starts with the body of the activity, both START tags can be left out. Similarly, one or both of the STUDENT or SAMPLE tags can be omitted.

The following table shows the author version (far left), and the resulting versions for teachers (middle left) and students (middle right).

Author Version Teacher Version Student Version Notes
Things To Do content for author only
{{TEACHER START}} if this tag is not used, teacher version starts at start of document
Overview
This activity …
Prerequisites
Students should be able to …
Objectives
Students will be able to …		 Overview
This activity …
Prerequisites
Students should be able to …
Objectives
Students will be able to …		 content for teachers (before STUDENT START)
{{STUDENT START}} if this tag is not used, student version starts at start of document
Introduction
What color was the white horse?		 Introduction
What color was the white horse?		 Introduction
What color was the white horse?		 body of activity
ANSWER: White ANSWER: White answers removed
{{STUDENT STOP}} if this tag is not used, student version ends at end of document
References

Sample Test Questions		 References

Sample Test Questions		 content for teachers (after STUDENT STOP, before TEACHER STOP)
{{TEACHER STOP}} if this tag is not used, teacher version ends at end of document
Revision History content for author only (after TEACHER STOP)

Note: Some authors prefer the structure below, with student content first, then all teacher content, and finally all author content. (With this structure, all versions use the same page numbers.)

main body
of activity		 {{STUDENT STOP}} final text
for teachers		 {{TEACHER STOP}} final text
for author

Tags

If “Replace tags (including IMPORT)” is checked in Settings, CAU replaces tags in the new versions, in the body, headers, and footers of each kept tab. CAU never changes tags in the author’s document.

Text tags

Tag Replaced with
{{DATE}} current date (e.g. 2026-10-07)
{{YEAR}} current year
{{DOCNAME}} name of the new file (e.g. “Loops (Student)”)
{{DOCTITLE}} first paragraph in Title style, in the first kept tab
{{TABNAME}} title of the tab in the new file (e.g. “Q3 (Student)”)
{{TABTITLE}} first paragraph in Title style, in this tab
{{CC-BY}}
{{CC-BY-NC}}
{{CC-BY-NC-SA}}		 Creative Commons license, with image and link
{{CS-POGIL}}
{{POGIL}}		 project name, with link
{{IMPORT ref}} imported content (see below)

{{NAME}} and {{TITLE}} are older names for {{DOCNAME}} and {{TABTITLE}}, and still work.

Importing content

{{IMPORT ref}} is replaced by the contents of a tab from another Google Doc. ref can be:

  • the doc’s URL, e.g. https://docs.google.com/document/d/ID/edit?tab=t.abc123
  • the doc’s ID, optionally followed by a tab ID, e.g. ID?tab=t.abc123
  • a smart chip: type {{IMPORT, insert a chip for the doc, then type }}

Rules:

  • The tag must be the only content of its paragraph, in the body (not in a header, footer, table, or list).
  • If the doc has more than one tab, ref must include the tab ID. Only that tab is imported, not its child tabs.
  • Imported content must not contain START or STOP tags.
  • Imported content is processed like the rest of the activity: answers are removed from the student version, and text tags are replaced. IMPORT tags in imported content are not replaced.
  • You need at least view access to the imported doc.
  • A smart chip shows the doc’s title, but not the tab. Use Check (below) to see which tab will be imported.

If an import fails, CAU leaves the tag in place, finishes the new version, and then lists each problem under “Import errors”.

Some formatting can’t be imported exactly:

  • dash bullets and checklists become round bullets
  • footnotes and table of contents are removed (CAU reports these)

Advanced Features

If Settings > “Show Check document menu item” is checked, Extensions > Classroom Activity Utility > Check document shows a sidebar with results for each tab:

  • Imports: each IMPORT tag, with the doc and tab it imports, or the error.
  • Unknown tags: tags CAU didn’t recognize (e.g. misspelled). If tag replacement is off, this lists every tag that was not replaced.
  • Readability scores and flagged text that may be difficult to read.
  • START/STOP tags (duplicates, and how much text each removes).
  • Heading counts, header and footer length.
  • Image size, small fonts.

Check also creates a “… - Check” file: the full document with imports done and tags replaced, and flagged text highlighted.

CAU has other features in development. If you are eager to use them or have comments or suggestions, please contact Clif Kussmaul (clif@kussmaul.org).