Google Apps for Education launched Wednesday at MSU for faculty, students

A group of Google applications for MSU faculty and students will make sharing information and working collaboratively on projects only a click away.

Google Apps for Education at MSU launched Thursday and provides a suite of applications for the university community such as Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Calendar.

The apps might be more useful than ANGEL, said Peter Murray, information technologist at James Madison College.

“Nobody really likes ANGEL,” he said. “What the Google (app) brings to the table is that it’s really well-executed.”

Beth Bonsall, the communication manager for MSU’s Academic Technology Services, said ANGEL is focused on facilitating online learning and Google Apps has more collaborative tools.

“Google Apps is less focused so the tools can be used for a broader range of applications,” she wrote in an e-mail. “ANGEL and Google Apps can work together. For instance, ANGEL users could link to Google Docs for class collaboration on a certain presentation.”

Gene Burns, a social relations and policy professor at James Madison College, who has not seen the MSU Google Apps, said the ANGEL system has some imperfections.

“ANGEL is incredible at one level, but it’s not always the most user-friendly,” he said.

Premedical junior Laura Salani said she would use the apps if her professors did.

“If my professors aren’t using it for my class I wouldn’t have any need to use it,” she said.

Google Docs, which is included in the MSU Google Apps for Education, already is used by students here and would continue to be utilized, Murray said.

“Students can collaboratively write a document like a group project very easily,” he said. “Multiple people can edit at the same time.”

Maureen Callery, a graduate student in the MSU School of Labor and Industrial Relations, said she would be interested in the MSU edition of the apps if it offered Google Docs.

“If it could be used for group work, kind of like a Google Docs thing where you could upload it and everyone else could work on it, then yeah, definitely,” she said.

Professors can edit students’ papers in real-time with Google Docs, said Aviva Gilbert, Google Apps for Education spokeswoman.

“(It) transforms the teaching relationship … to somebody who can really coach you along the way,” she said.

Thousands of universities worldwide use Google Apps for Education, Gilbert said.

The apps are free for MSU to use and have no advertisements, she said.

The groups of applications can be accessed at googleapps.msu.edu.

MSU Google Apps should not be a hard sell for students and faculty, Murray said.

“It will be even easier for students to get on the bandwagon,” he said. “It’s going to be very successful.”