Google Apps Added to the Curriculum
Finalized in August, the arrangement gives USC students access to an online suite of communication and collaboration tools, called Google Apps for Education. These tools include Gmail (e-mail with 2 GB of storage per account), integrated chat and applications for calendaring and document and spreadsheet production.
Led by Suh-Pyng Ku, chief technology officer for enhanced learning, and Ilee Rhimes, chief information officer and vice provost for information technology services, the initiative to bring Google Apps for Education to USC stemmed from the recognition that students’ expectations about technology have changed dramatically in the past few years.
“Today’s students study and network online; they expect Web-based communication and social-networking tools to be integrated into the educational environment,” Rhimes said.
According to Ku, “Our partnership with Google will support an infrastructure for both on-campus and distance learning by giving students additional tools for online communication, collaboration and networking.”
Google Apps for Education includes the Web-based Google Docs & Spreadsheet program, which allows documents to be uploaded or created online. The word-processing and spreadsheet program makes it possible for users to collaborate online in real time, keeping a record of individual edits and document versions.
Google Apps does not require users to install separate software. The application suite supports Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Netscape Web browsers.
The first students to benefit from the USC-Google partnership are those enrolled in USC Gould School of Law and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Distance Education Network.
The USC Viterbi School recently made the Google application suite available to students taking online courses in its distance education program. More than 1,300 students currently enrolled in the network will be able to access the Google Apps for Education tools from the network’s online course management system, along with approximately 2,500 USC students taking distance education courses.
“Integrating Google Apps into DEN’s online course management system enhances support for student collaboration," said Binh Tran, the network’s executive director.
At USC Law, the first school at USC to implement Google Apps for Education, students readily adopted the Gmail option for their university e-mail. USC Law began to offer students new USC-Google e-mail accounts at the beginning of the semester. Within a few weeks, the adoption rate climbed to almost 90 percent.
The USC-Google partnership will allow students to keep USC in the domain name of their e-mail address. The new domain name for law school students is @lawmail.usc.edu.
The USC-branded Gmail accounts offer students considerable advantages that explain the rapid rate of adoption. USC Gmail accounts will not be subject to the university’s one-year e-mail retention policy, saving students the inconvenience of moving e-mail that they wish to save beyond a year to a personal e-mail account or to their hard drive. The additional storage space also means that students will spend less time deleting e-mail to stay within quota.
“Law student response has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Albert Brecht, associate dean, John Stauffer Professor of Law and chief technology officer at the USC Gould School of Law. “Many law students were quite familiar with Gmail and are happy to use it at the law school. Students appreciate the system’s flexibility and built-in integration of applications such as calendars, shared documents and instant messaging.”
Google Apps for Education has been adopted by many universities across the country.
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The Chronicle of Higher Education mentioned USC’s $6 billion fundraising campaign. The story noted that USC had already raised $1 billion in a “quiet phase,” including the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College.
The Guardian (U.K.) highlighted two major gifts to USC in a list of the 10 biggest philanthropic benefactors in America. The list included the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
The New York Times featured the USC U.S.-China Institute documentary “Assignment: China — The Week that Changed the World.” The documentary, part of a series, examines media coverage of the 1972 Nixon trip that reshaped U.S.-China relations after a quarter century of isolation and hostility. “People look back now and take it for granted that the outcome was preordained,” said the institute’s Mike Chinoy, who produced the documentary. Voice of America also featured the story.
Los Angeles Times featured the Oscar Senti-meter, a tool developed by the USC Annenberg School, Los Angeles Times and IBM that analyzes thousands of tweets about the Academy Awards nominees. The story noted that Mexican actor Demian Bechir received an enormous boost on Twitter the day of the nominations, with a total of 6,893 tweets mentioning him, a 47-fold increase from the day before. The story noted the tool uses language-recognition technology developed in collaboration with USC Viterbi School’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab.
The Times of India (India) featured a three-day medical emergency training workshop organized in association with USC. At the workshop, held at GCS Medical College in India, 50 doctors and more than 100 paramedics learned how to improve emergency support systems. William Mallon of the Keck School of USC said that discussion topics included the use of portable ultrasonic devices to scan patients. “The ultrasound applications help physicians make accurate and timely decisions,” he noted. Daily News & Analysis (India) also featured the workshop.
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