Year End Round-Up With UAlberta G Suite

Another year has come and gone, and this time we’re embarking on a new decade. In the last ten years, the University of Alberta led the way by welcoming Google to campus, reimagining how we work by empowering us to be faster, smarter and more collaborative than ever before. 

UAlberta’s G Suite implementation is one of the largest, and most active in Canada. With over 200,000 UAlberta CCID’s using G Suite for Education, 37.1 million emails are sent each month, and 2,400 TB of data is being stored in Google Drive, with more added every day.  And with the use of video conferencing becoming a more common way to connect, UAlberta G Suite users are hosting an average of 7,700 video conferencing sessions a month on Hangouts Meet.

So with the year coming to an end, we’ve rounded up some highlights showcasing what Google brought to UAlberta G Suite users in 2019.

How Do You Google?

Familiar with our How Do You Google series? Highlighting professors, researchers, administrators and graduate students across campus, this series dives into ways the university community is exploring G Suite products and applications to be more effective. Learn more about how G Suite shapes teaching, learning and research at UAlberta from:

• Lia Daniels, Associate Professor
• Mary Golab, Director - Information and Privacy Office
• Mike MacGregor, VP - IST
• Donald Kuiken, Professor Emeritus

What's New? Take a Look Back at 2019

From enhancing the look of G Suite Apps, to improving collaboration and integration with shared drives, and introducing new features, UAlberta has been privileged to some great G suite additions and updates in 2019. Take a look back on all that Google has offered us this year, and some features we can look forward to:

• Improving Collaboration and Integration with Google Drive
• Hey Google, Back That File Up 
• Holiday Hangouts
• Up Your Game with these Digital Study Tips
• Protect Gmail Messages with Confidential Mode
• Hangouts Meet Now Allows Up to 100 Participants
• New Sites to Replace Classic Sites in 2021
• Upcoming Changes to Classic Hangouts
• A New Look for Your G Suite Apps

Check the updates calendar for more! (Scroll to the bottom)

New ways to be more effective were also introduced this year, including the following features:

• Schedule your emails to send at a later time
• Use Drive Priority to keep important or frequently used files at your fingertips
• Use URL shortcuts to quickly create new google docs, sheets, slides, and more
• Use Gmail’s Calendar sidebar to easily view your schedule without switching between tabs
• Turn on automatic “real” time captions in Hangouts Meet and Google Slides to follow along with the speaker
• Coming this December, send emails as attachments in Gmail

And that’s a wrap! Be sure to keep an eye on IST’s G Suite News to see what’s in store for next year, and learn the latest, tips, tricks and updates. And if you know someone that’s doing something cool with Google on campus, send their info to istcomms@ualberta.ca and they might be featured in an upcoming article!