G Suite for Education - What is it and how to set it up.

How can schools adapt to distant learning with all the coronavirus related restrictions? G Suite for Education is probably the best tool right now. Read here to learn how to set it up.

What is G Suite for Education?

G Suite is a cloud-based set of tools provided by Google to help optimize interaction, collaboration, and creativity for students and teachers. Amongst other things, teachers can modernize administrative tasks, provide instant feedback, and track student’s performance.

You can read more about G Suite for Education from Google here.

So what are the requirements for G Suite for Education?

For educational institutions, the tools are free of charge as long as the organization is accepted by the local accreditation body. Google promotes its tools for helping teachers and students learn online. In a nutshell, Google states that the G suite for education is free of charge, there are no ads, its reliable and of course secure.

The smart thing about these Google tools is that they are always accessible, and they’re made easy, all you need is one login to access them all. Usually, your google account suffices for accessing all of them. Moreover, by now you probably already know that all google tools are cross-platform, hence you can you any device to log on, whether it’s your laptop, tablet or mobile phone, which makes them handy since the majority of people are more on their phones than any other device these days.

Which tools are included in G Suite for Education?

There are a group of G Suite core services which educational institution can choose to enable or disable from the main admin console. For example, some schools would choose an alternative email to Gmail for their students. Enabling and disabling services is quite simple and straight forward, and allows a school to tailor their system to what suits them best.

Here is a list of the G Suite core services:

Some other tools are not part of the G Suite for Education but can still come in handy, and you can access them using the same login credentials, these are:

How can schools and universities sign up for G Suite Education?

There are three basic steps to follow, you can read the instructions here on Google Support.

1# Request Approval

If your domain is already signed up for G Suite then its quite simple. All you have to do is login into your G Suite admin account and request an upgrade to “G Suite for Education”, and wait for the approval.
In the case that you do not have a G Suite account, then you should sign up for one. Google offers you 14 days of the free trial once you sign up. Click here to do that.
The final step is just to read the agreement, check all the boxes that agree to the terms and conditions and your good to go.

2# Verify your Domain

Here you have to verify that the domain belongs to you before you can move forward to review your application. This ensures that no others are using your domain for any Google services without your permission. To that you have to:

Sign in to your Google Admin Console
Then verify your domain, if you want to read more about how to that just click here.
You can usually expect verification email from Google within a week or 2 from your submission so be patient.

3# Add Users

The final step after the verification is to start adding users and setting up your organization. This includes enabling or disabling services and migrating data.

You could also consider G Suite Enterprise for Education if your institution has a more advanced need and a comprehensive IT department. You can read more about it here.

Conclusion

The number of infected with coronavirus worldwide has reached over a million. More and more countries are implementing restrictions to maintain the crises and give health care systems a fighting chance to save as many lives as possible. Most restrictions have taken a toll on the educational institutions where more and more countries are switching the online and virtual learning environments.

Many schools and universities have already some kind of digital platform in place, however not all. If your school is struggling with distance teaching and learning, now is the time to consider utilizing G Suite for Education. This will allow students to continue learning at these difficult times, instead of halting the process altogether.

At Miklagard we have professionals experienced in Google products and especially G Suite for Education. Reach out to us if you need help to set up your e-learning platform, by clicking here, or simply leave a comment below.

G Suite for Education – What is it and how to set it up.