GoogleApps - General Information about GoogleApps at MSU

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Overview

MSU secured an agreement with Google to offer MSU Google Apps for Education (http://googleapps.msu.edu) to our faculty, academic faculty retirees, registered students (account is created upon enrollment and registration for class), and staff.

The agreement provides access to core apps, with terms of service different from consumer apps and designed to protect intellectual property rights and privacy. The core MSU Google apps are:

  • Google Drive (aka Google Docs)
  • Google Calendar
  • Google Sites
  • Google Classroom
  • Google Hangouts
  • Google Contacts

Consumer apps such as Gmail, YouTube, Vault, etc., are not covered by the Google Apps agreement and therefore have not been enabled. MSU persons who wish to use those services are free to do so by using a consumer (personal) Google account.

Appropriate Use: Users must be careful about appropriate use when using MSU Google Apps for Education services. Users are advised to fully review the Appropriate Use of MSU Google Apps for Education Services guidelines and policies.

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Support for MSU Google Apps for Education

Support for issues regarding the portal or log-in problems is provided by IT Services.

Support for the specific use of the programs and services are provided by Google:

Also, refer to KB 855 (link) or to the Google App Status Dashboard if an outage is suspected.

The terms of service do not provide for deployment of any accounts beyond the faculty/staff/student NetIDs.

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Helpful Information

Benefits of the Google Apps agreement:

  • Our Google Apps terms of service provide better protections for user and institutional interests (than do the individual-user, aka consumer ToS) and therefore are suitable for many of the types of uses MSU users will wish to engage. Of particular note are protections related to intellectual property and privacy of data.
  • When necessary, IT Services can contact Google directly for help and assistance.

Space/quota limitations:

  • Review SecureIT file sharing and copyright information.
  • Google Drive: each user has 15 GB for storage (see this tech.msu article (link) for more), however there is a 50MB file size limit on presentations and documents uploaded to Drive and converted to Docs and Slides, and a 100MB limit on spreadsheets converted to Sheets. Other services may have limitations; see below.
  • Google Sites: MSU as an institution is limited to a total of 100GB for all sites/users. There is not an easy method to check quota user per individual account. Google advises that Google Docs embedded by Sites do not count against the Sites quota. Uploaded attachment files (ie: PDF, JPEG) will count against quota. A large number of pages on a Site will cause slowness.

Considerations regarding consumer apps and devices:

  • Google does not provide a way for MSU to allow access to consumer apps (non-core apps) subject to the Google Apps terms of service. If MSU were to add any non-core app, our users would be required to agree to both the Google Apps and the consumer apps terms of service. To avoid confusion, MSU has decided to limit our Google Apps strictly to the core apps.
  • Use of any consumer app from Google for MSU purposes is allowable, as long as the use is appropriate per both the MSU cloud computing and with the institutional data policies.
  • Please use your personal Google account for use of a Google Chrome-based device such as a Chromebook. Use of the institutional account will be interrupted when your eligibility for this service expires; use of an @msu.edu account for these devices is inadvisable. 

Chrome Extensions:

  • If you are signed in to your MSU GoogleApps account, you cannot install extensions. You can use a separate browser for your personal account as a workaround (or a private/incognito window).

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Browser Compatibility

Google Apps will support the current and prior major release of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari on a rolling basis. Each time a new version is released, Google will begin supporting the latest update and stop supporting the third-oldest version.

Users accessing Google Apps with an unsupported browser may be forwarded to a basic view and/or read-only access to services.

Google Apps provides the fullest feature set when accessed via Chrome.

For more information, visit the Google Apps Administrator Help Center.

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Related Services / Offerings (1)

GoogleApps
Google Apps for Education Edition, supporting Google Docs, Google Calendar and Google Sites. Access to these services is via MSU NetIDs and Passwords (IT Services' IdM Team).