By Ellen Puffe
For nearly a year, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) has been working on plans to integrate Google applications for use at the University of Minnesota. After months of planning, collaboration, development and testing, Google Apps for the University of Minnesota is almost here.
Initially planned as an e-mail service for students, the Google project has generated a great deal of interest across the University. The project team has received much feedback since it began the planning process, and began informing the University community about plans for using the Google suite of apps. Because of that feedback, the initiative grew into what it is today—a suite of applications that will be available to University students, faculty and staff.
Partnering with Google will give the University community access to a suite of state-of-the-art communication and collaboration tools that will enhance their ability to work together. A University Google account offers, in addition to e-mail, access to the University Google Apps suite, and will provide users the opportunity to share documents with others in the University Google space.
The decision to offer Google Apps to University students, faculty and staff stemmed from conversations that have been taking place for quite some time in the University-wide technical community. A set of guiding principles was decided upon collaboratively between University deans, chancellors, senior leadership, OIT and the entire University information technology community.
Initially, faculty, staff, and student use of U of M Google Mail and Apps will be optional. The long-term goal is, however, to have all students using U of M Google mail, so at some point; all incoming students will be required to use it as their official University e-mail account.
The University will use the Google Apps for Education Edition, which includes Gmail (e-mail), Docs (word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations), Calendar, Talk (instant messaging), and Sites.
Some of the features of University Gmail accounts include no advertisements while the user is a student, faculty, or staff member; a powerful spam filter; up to 7 GB of storage; replies that are grouped with their original message; single-conversation threads; the ability to organize and categorize Gmail messages with labels; and built-in chat.
Google Calendar can help organize a user’s social and academic life and even offers a tool to invite people to events. It is important to note that Google Calendar will not replace UMCal, the University's current enterprise calendaring system, at this time. UMCal still should be used to schedule conference rooms, resources, and meetings with other University faculty and staff. In addition, Google Calendar and UMCal synchronization is not supported.
Docs is a suite of applications that are great for working on group projects. Users can create a document, presentation or spreadsheet, and share and collaborate with others in real time from the convenience of one’s office or home.
In addition to increased productivity opportunities, Google Apps also will allow the University to save costs in the long run by reducing the need to buy and support software, hardware, and storage to maintain our own independent e-mail service.
The Google Apps implementation remains on schedule.
OIT is in the final stages of finishing the due diligence work that will lead to student, faculty and staff adoption. This work involves the University's internal audit department and the University's internal IT security and assurance department.
A phased implementation of Google Apps to some student groups has begun, and each group will receive an invitation by e-mail when eligible to sign up for an account. The phased implementation will continue with students until all students have been invited to opt in.
OIT expects to be in a position to begin offering accounts to faculty and staff in the upcoming months, and will continue to work with the IT leadership on that adoption plan.
U of M Google accounts are set up and administered by University staff. The University also will provide user support through the help desk and Office of Information Technology (OIT) technical staff.
Coordinate campuses that use central e-mail servers, including Crookston, Morris, Rochester and Duluth, also are included in the project, and implementation for those campuses is scheduled for late fall. Since the Duluth campus operates its own e-mail services using its own servers and software, implementation for that campus is planned for sometime after the initial implementation.
Visit the Google Initiative project Web site for additional help and information. You can also check out the University's Google Apps Collaborative Learning Space for a tour of Google Apps and suggestions for working with them in the University environment. Another good resource is the Google Apps Help Center.
Google Apps training sessions are available at no charge and have been scheduled. Information, schedules, and registration are available at Technology Training Web site. Information on all other University technology training opportunities also is available.