ITS has enabled the Google Groups service within Google Apps for UNE.  All users of Google Apps @ UNE have access to this new service.

Instructors can improve communications among students by creating Groups for their classes, subjects, and grade levels. Students can use Groups to reach other students in their classes, sports teams, clubs, and extracurricular activities.  Staff can also use Groups to improve communication within their department, project collaboration, etc.

The creation of new Groups is done via form request.  The Group request is approved by Student Affairs for students and ITS will create the Group.  Group management and configuration is then handled by the person who made the request.  Additional managers can be assigned by the owner of the Group.

This approval process is necessary to prevent the creation of Group email addresses that conflict with Nor'Easter IDs or reserved names.

Overview

The Groups (user-managed) service is an optional feature of Google Groups for Enterprise. Enable the service to facilitate messaging and collaboration among users and improve their productivity. With user-managed Groups, users can:

• Manage their Group memberships, allowing them to tailor email communications to their needs, without having to make requests to your IT department.
• Create their own Groups, giving them even more ability to customize their communications -- without the need to contact your IT staff. You can give this privilege to all users (not individuals) and remove it at any time. If you let users create their own Groups, they can managed their Groups to control who can join, send messages, invite members, view members, and view discussion archives.

Features of user-managed Groups for users

My Groups

Users can click the Groups link at the top of any Google Apps service and open the "My Groups" page, where they can see all the Groups they are a member of, own, or manage. This page is also their portal to other Groups features.

Groups directory

From their "My Groups" page, users can display your domain's entire Groups directory, where they can browse Groups to view their information -- such as members lists and discussion archives -- and join new Groups.

Membership management

From their "My Groups" page, users can easily manage their Group memberships. For example, they can choose the type of subscription they want, including full email, abridged email, digest email, or no email. They can also unsubscribe from any Group.

Discussion archives

All messages sent to a Group can be archived on a discussion page, so members always have quick access to important past communications. Members can also post messages directly on the Discussion page.

Group and message search

Users can quickly find existing Groups to join or to view their discussion archives, using Group search field on the "My Groups" page or Groups directory. They can also search for specific messages across all Groups, using the search options at the top of the "My Groups" page or Groups directory. With these powerful search options, users can now find useful information that wasn't available to them before.

More information:

• Using Google Groups @ UNE - https://docs.google.com/a/une.edu/Doc?docid=0ATl4enBD_EwUZHQyYm5rbV8zMDRmc3FkaDNocg&hl=en
• UNE Groups & Mailing List Request Form - https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/une.edu/viewform?formkey=dGJQbUQ4ZjliQnJ3SklVWE1CTk9MeUE6MA
• About Google Groups - http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=166147

For questions or comments about Google Groups, please contact John Ellingsworth (jellingsworth@une.edu)