figure out a long term solution for both file sharing and distributing documents from classroom to all the students

Question

Background: I am an highschool computer science teacher. My students uses Citrix as their means for sharing internal files. In order to access the files, they must be logged in using Citrix Receiver. The account used to login is created on AD and are members of their computer's designated Citrix group (i.e. STUDENTS_5_CLASS_STAFF_GG). Once added to that group, they will have access to certain folders within CitrixDocs. Problem: When accessing files within CitrixDocs (i.e. Excel Spreadsheets), students must use the version of Office (2003) that is installed on the Citrix Server (SLSCLASS1). This causes compatibility issues when opened in 2016 and re-saved with a different extension as the original file (see below). Files also open as (read-only); they must save the file as a different file name and delete the older version.

Office 2003 - File Extension: .xls

Office 2016 - File Extension: .xlsx

Macro-enabled - File Extension: .xlsm

Workaround: Have students copy the file (in question) to their Citrix Local Folder and open it with their version of Office. They can then save the file and move it back. As you can imagine, this is a cumbersome process. I need to figure out a long term solution for both file sharing and distributing documents from classroom to all the students. Right now I am leaning toward just creating vpn tunnels from the students to classroom. I'd like to open this up for discussion. Thanks you

Answer 1

Microsoft Classroom (https://classroom.microsoft.com/) is geared towards this exact set of scenarios.

Answer 2

An alternative Google Classroom which solves a lot problems mentioned.

I reason I like Google Education, is ChromeBook. Everything works on cheap hardware, along with mobiles and tablets.