Beginning today, the College of Charleston will provide all students with access to Google Apps for Education. More than 11,000 students will have the opportunity to be connected on a common system that integrates e-mail, chat, calendar, documents and other multimedia tools. Cmail — as the college has named their customized version of Google’s email service — will offer every student an email address “@g.cofc.edu” that features increased email storage, better spam filtering and powerful search capabilities.
“This switch will provide a dramatic improvement in the quality of communication and collaboration services for students,” says Bob Cape, the College of Charleston’s Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer. “Plus, this service is free. So we are able to avoid the expense of maintaining the existing Edisto application, which translates into meaningful savings for the College.”
Google Apps for Education allows schools to give Google’s communication and collaboration applications to their entire education community for free. All services are hosted by Google and are available to users via any internet-connected computer or mobile device. Google Apps for Education includes the following services:
● Gmail – provides seven gigabytes of email storage, highly effective spam filtering and powerful search with integrated voice and video chat
● Google Calendar – allows easy coordination of work or class schedules, meetings and events online
● Google Video – offers online video private to a school’s domain
● Google Docs – allows users to create and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings in real-time as well as upload and share any file type
● Google Sites – gives users the ability to develop and customize rich websites and embed Google Docs, Google Calendars, videos, and other media — all without requiring any technical expertise
● Google Groups – offers the ability to create mailing lists and discussion forums allowing students and teachers to easily and efficiently sharing documents, calendars, sites, and media with specific groups
Faculty, staff, and alumni will also be given access to Google Apps for Education, and alumni will be given a Cmail address in fall 2011.
To claim their Cmail account, students should log into MyCharleston, click on the Academic Services tab, locate the Google Apps Account Request channel and follow the instructions. The new account will be created once the student has agreed to the terms of service. Students’ Edisto accounts will be migrated to their new Cmail accounts, and incoming mail will automatically be forwarded. Students will be able to access their Edisto account for 15 days after submitting their Google Apps Account Request.
More information is available at the Frequently Asked Questions section on the College of Charleston Cmail website, http://it.cofc.edu/accounts–email/cmail. For additional questions, please call the IT Helpdesk at 843.953.3375.
