Tag Archives: Google Apps for Education

Using Google Sites for ePortolios

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google-sites-logoThere’s a lot that you can do with Google Apps for Education. We all use it for email and our calendars, and many people use it for writing papers, creating spreadsheets and presentations, and making websites for projects and student organizations.

A less obvious feature that might be very helpful is using Google Sites to create an ePortfolio. Whether you’re a business major or a fine artist, creating a portfolio that reflects your skills and achievements is important for grad school applications and job hunting. Not only do ePortfolios showcase all that you’ve done during your time at Simmons, but they also encourage you to improve your writing and web design skills.

Google Sites makes it easy to collect and present your personal, professional, and academic experiences with customizable templates and an easy-to-use interface. You can upload images, embed documents, presentations, and YouTube videos, and link to other sites.

To get started, visit Google Sites at Simmons and click createto begin building your ePortfolio. There are many online guides to using Google Sites, but this PDF and this presentationprovide great introductions to the elements you’ll use to create an ePortfolio.

Of course, you’ll also need to collect everything you want to include in your portfolio. For more information about constructing a portfolio that reflects your goals, contact theCareer Education Center.

Using Advanced Search in Gmail

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Remember that email with the attached Word document that had an article listed in the works cited section that you could really use right now? It was sent by your classmate from two semesters ago whose name you can’t quite remember at the moment, and it had something to do with statistical anomalies in urban demography or maybe statistical models of emerging democracies? You know, that one?

First, take a deep breath. Then, use advanced search in your Simmons Gmail to find it. To access the advanced search options, click on the small triangle on the right side of the search bar.

Gmail search box

From there, you can use the fields in the dropdown menu to search your email by who sent it, when it was sent, if it contained an attachment, or even how large the attachment is.

Gmail advanced search options

Use these advanced options to quickly narrow down your search and find that one email you’re looking for. To learn more about how to use advanced search, click here.

Doing More with Google Docs and Sheets

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Within the Technology team, we’ve been using Google Drive for much of our project planning and collaborative work. While Docs is a great alternative to using Microsoft Office and helps us to work together more effectively, it also lacks some of the small but integral tools necessary for certain kinds of work.

In an effort to close those gaps, Google has introduced Add-ons for Docs and Sheets, a set of tools created by outside developers and verified by Google. The Add-ons cover a wide range of features, from creating tables of contents and bibliographies, to track changes and advanced diagramming and flowchart creation.

To begin using Add-ons, click the Add-ons menu while working in any Doc or Spreadsheet.

Google Docs menu

Next, click Get Add-ons.

Google Docs Add-ons menu

From there, you can choose from a wide variety of tools. To help you get started, here are two Add-ons we think the Simmons community will find useful.

Track Changes
While Google Docs helpfully keeps track of changes to a document, it doesn’t allow you make changes that must be accepted by a collaborator. The Track Changes Add-on fixes that and adds a feature that many Microsoft Word users desperately wanted to see in Google Drive.

Track Changes Add-on

Hassle-free Bibliographies
If you’re working on a research paper in Google Docs and you need a citation, the EasyBib Add-on allows you to search for books, articles, and websites, and then creates a bibliographic entry in MLA, APA, or Chicago style. Once you have added your sources, EasyBib will even create an alphabetized list of citations at the end of the document.

EasyBib Add-on

These are just two of the many Add-ons available. To find more, click the Add-ons menu or browse all of the available Add-ons.

Google Apps Training and a Note About the New Compose Experience

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google_apps_smAs of Friday, April 18th, the faculty and staff migration to Google Apps for Education is more than eighty percent complete. Because so many faculty members have been migrated in the last month, we want to remind you that we’re holding Google Apps training every week on Tuesday and Thursday. You can find the full schedule here. There’s no need to sign up, just drop in and get answers to your questions about creating, collaborating, and sharing with Google Apps.

Many of you may have noticed that Gmail now has a new compose window that you’ll see when writing an email. The new compose setup features a few advantages, including the ability to minimize drafts in progress and to open the email you’re composing in a separate window. To find out more about the new compose experience, click here.

That brings us to our tip for this month. During training, many people have asked us if you can automatically open a new email in a new window, and the answer is yes. If you hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard and click COMPOSE, a blank email will open in a new window in front of your inbox. You can find additional tips for making the most of the new compose experience over at the Chronicle of Higher Ed.

Google Apps Tips and a Reminder about Meeting Maker

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google_apps_smSimmons Technology is pleased to report that we have completed more than half of all faculty and staff Google Apps for Education migrations. The project is moving forward on schedule and should be complete by late May.

As we move forward, we would like to remind you that Meeting Maker will be decommissioned at the end of June. If your department is now using Google Calendar and you want your Meeting Maker account removed, please contact the Service Desk. For more information, and tips for moving your meetings to Google Calendar, please see our full Meeting Maker FAQ.

If you have started using Google Apps and you have questions, you can find many answers on the project site or from within Google Apps by clicking on “More” and then “Google Apps Training” in the black bar at the top of your email. We’re also hosting trainings every week, where we cover Gmail, Calendar, Drive, and the other available apps. To find an upcoming session, check the training calendar.

Beginning this month, we’ll also be providing some advanced tips and tricks to make Google Apps even more useful. Here’s the first one: Did you know that you can drag messages to a label right from your inbox? Just click and hold on or near the checkbox next to a message and drag it to the label you want to use. Your message has been organized with one click and without leaving your inbox.