Otterbein’s initiative to switch to Google Apps is approaching after having been delayed for several months.
The transition was anticipated to begin in December, but Jeff Kasson, the information technology director at Otterbein, is looking forward to beginning the transition within the coming months.
“There were some technical and logistic problems to deal with, but we plan to migrate to Google in March,” Kasson said.
The first set of Otterbein email accounts to be switched over will be the 2011 graduates and retired faculty and staff.
After those transitions, all students will be switched to the new system alphabetically, and the entire transition is expected to be completed in a few months.
Information Technology is easing into the transition by sending instructions and information about the program’s key features via email. These emails will include helpful links to videos that will provide tutorials for using the program.
Many students on campus use Google, and Kasson said he believes that this will be an easy transition for most students, faculty and staff.
An informational email from Kasson that was sent to students in the fall said that Google Apps contains over 50 applications.
These include email, calendar, contacts, documents, instant messaging, audio and video chat, web sites, search, pictures, videos, mobile, blogs, language translation, maps, phone calling and more tools that could be of use to students.
Kasson said that the new Google account is a permanent account that can be used beyond graduation, and all emails, calendar appointments and settings will be automatically moved over.
Why Google? “Google Apps for education is the premier communication and collaboration platform for higher education,” Kasson said in an email interview.
“Google is a world leader in innovation and provides a full suite of applications that allow students, faculty and staff to live in an open, collaborative and productive digital environment. Google’s style is to provide a user-friendly and intuitive online experience,” Kasson said.
Some aspects of student email will remain the same. For example, email addresses will continue to end in “@otterbein.edu.” The new system will also provide features that Microsoft Outlook currently does not, including video chatting and compatibility with outside emails and other Google features.
“With the growing Otterbein community, we want to keep everyone together in hopes that they will use chat, video chat and other sharing features of Google to remain in contact,” Kasson said.
