DigitalLearn Lab: Gmail Basics

Open the official DigitalLearn Gmail Basics course materials and use the learner activity available there.

DigitalLearn's public description includes creating a free Gmail account. That part is adapted for this classroom: use the school-managed Google Workspace account already provided to you. Do not create a personal Gmail account for this course.

Preserve the source skill, change the account boundary

Complete the applicable DigitalLearn Gmail activity steps in the authorized school environment. Depending on current source material and school policy, the activity may cover actions such as composing, replying, organizing, deleting/archiving, or searching for messages.

The goal is not to collect screenshots of every button. Your evidence should prove that you understand the state change.

Search is different from scrolling

If the source activity includes search, choose a course-safe message or supplied example and test a query that narrows the mailbox using a meaningful clue such as sender role, subject term, or date context.

Record:

Search clue → matching message → reason the match is correct

Do not expose unrelated inbox content.

Archive, delete, and label are not synonyms

Current Gmail interfaces may expose several ways to manage a message. The concepts are different:

• a label categorizes or groups a message;
• archive removes a message from the normal inbox view while keeping it available in the mailbox;
• delete moves it toward removal according to the service's retention behavior.

If the source activity uses one of these, state what changed and how you verified the message's resulting state.

Add an evidence log to the DigitalLearn activity

One row should involve finding or organizing information, not only composing text.

School-safe limits

• Send practice messages only to authorized classroom recipients.
• Never include a password or authentication code in the message body.
• Do not forward a real suspicious message to classmates as a demonstration.
• If the current Gmail interface differs from the handout, record the verified equivalent rather than guessing.

Lab exit

Keep the completed DigitalLearn activity plus your three-row evidence log. Add one sentence answering:

Which Gmail action changed the message itself, and which action only changed how you located or organized it?

Source credit: DigitalLearn.org — Gmail Basics, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 unless an individual item states otherwise. Robotnix changes the personal-account requirement and adds the evidence boundary above.