LIS is pleased to announce its plan to implement Google Apps for Education at Luther under the name Norse Apps. This online productivity suite includes Luther-branded versions of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Documents,Google Sites, and iGoogle (Google Start Page). Implementation began in spring 2008, and was completed by December 31, 2008.

This LIS Training document is meant to help point you to the training resources that are offered. Contact the Technology Help Desk at x1000 or helpdesk@luther.edu with questions.

For an overview, see 7 things you should know about…Google Apps which is part of the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s (ELI’s) series providing concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices.

Advantages of Norse Apps

LIS piloted use of these services since mid-2007 and, based upon our review, some significant benefits to Luther to implementing these services are:

• Better Quality of Service – By partnering with an international leader in online collaborative services, we can offer a state-of-the-art suite of online tools locally.
• Improved Reliability – By hosting these services with an international leader, we gain reliability, redundancy, and scalability, beyond what is feasible for Luther to provide individually.
• Emergency Preparedness – With offsite hosting of email, and easy access from any web-enabled computer or telephone, this critical communication tool will be much more likely to be functional during a significant emergency on campus.
• Cost Savings – We estimate that Luther can save approximately $30,000 annually in hardware costs, service costs, and staff time after full implementation.
• Lifelong Email for Alumni – Alumni now have the choice of keeping the Luther Norse Apps account active or forwarding their Luther email elsewhere.
• Campus-Wide Integrated Calendaring – All members of the Luther community have access to calendaring, a significant expansion of our current service.
• Integrated Portal – The suite of services includes a brandable portal that integrates with other online tools more easily (and cheaply) than other options.
• User-Provisioned Document Collaboration Tools – Students in particular will benefit from document sharing and collaboration features.

Luther’s Timeline

Spring 2008

The Luther Class of 2012 had their initial accounts created in Norse Apps, and all other students were invited to migrate their email service to Norse Mail and with a May 31, 2008 deadline for doing so. Students are now 100% migrated to Norse Mail. Employees also had the option to migrate if they chose during this time. Members of the Class of 2008 were invited to migrate prior to removal of their old email accounts, which occurred on June 1, 2008.

Fall 2008

All employees were asked to migrate their email service to Norse Mail by December 31, 2008. Conversion from Oracle Calendar to Norse Calendar was targeted for January 1, 2009. Alumni were also invited to participate at this phase.

Additional Information

Email migration occurred at the convenience of individual users. LIS had a self-provisioning system that individuals launched themselves via the web for the migration. There was no downtime for email for any user, and all mail currently held in their account was migrated to their new account. Migration of old email began at 4PM on weekdays.

For calendar implementation, migration from Oracle Calendar was a straight cross-over on January 1, 2009. LIS encouraged people to begin using their Google Calendars as soon as they had them for events scheduled January 1 and beyond. Students and employees who were not currently using Oracle Calendar began using Norse Calendar as soon as they had a Norse Apps account. Employees who were using Oracle Calendar continued to use Oracle Calendar as their primary calendar through December 31, 2008, though they were welcome to use Norse Calendar as well.

Norse Apps Components

Norse Mail (Gmail) – http://mail.luther.edu

Gmail is Google’s email service. With Google Apps, mail quotas are currently greater than 7GB per user (and growing) and all accounts include built-in Google search technology to quickly navigate through all of your mail. Gmail also helps you manage large quantities of mail by automatically grouping related messages, so you see a whole series of related replies all at once.

Gmail integrates instant messaging into the mail browser window, so you can see when your contacts are online and connect with them in real-time. Your IM conversations can be saved and searched within Gmail, just like your email conversations.

Google Calendar features are also built right into Gmail. When someone else sends you a calendar event invitation, Gmail displays a summary of your agenda for the day so you can reply to the invitation in a single click. When you receive a regular email message that mentions an event, Gmail understands that the message might contain something that belongs on your calendar and helps you quickly add the event to your agenda. Employees who are using Oracle Calendar should continue to use Oracle Calendar as their primary calendar, though they are welcome to use Norse Calendar as well. January 1 2009, Norse Calendar replaces Oracle Calendar as the primary campus calendar.

Also included with Gmail are powerful virus and spam filtering, POP and IMAP capabilities, free forwarding, mobile access, wide support across web browsers, and native support for more than 35 languages.

Norse Chat (Google Talk) – http://mail.luther.edu

Google Talk helps you communicate more effectively and efficiently by providing a simple and free way to speak with and exchange instant messages with your contacts. With Google Apps, Luther’s IM network is automatically connected to the whole Google Talk, AIM, and AOL networks, so you can instantly connect with the Luther community as well as millions of other users.

All you need to make free calls around the world is an Internet connection, a microphone, and a speaker (which are built-in to most computers these days). Google Talk also offers file transfers so you can quickly send attachments while you’re instant messaging, and voicemail so you can leave a message when your contacts aren’t online. Voice functions are available from Microsoft Windows-based PCs.

Norse Calendar (Google Calendar) – http://calendar.luther.edu

With Google Calendar, sharing events and meetings with others is simple. You can coordinate schedules with people in several ways:

• Send out meeting and event invitations, and track people’s responses whether or not they use Google Calendar.
• Share your calendar (or just some of your information) with people you know.
• Create a shared calendar for your organization, team or group that everyone can view and edit.
• Create a public calendar that anyone can subscribe to.
• Display your calendar on your website.

Google Calendar also brings you useful innovations, like the “Quick Add” feature, which lets you add new events to your calendar by just typing a short description of the event in plain language. Rather than hassling with form fields, you can simply enter a single phrase like “meeting with Matt at 1:30pm next Tuesday.” Google Calendar will figure out what you mean and add the appointment to your agenda in the right spot. Other helpful additions include SMS access for when you’re away from your computer, calendar printing, and an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.

Google Calendar and Gmail are integrated to make using Google Calendar even easier. Your calendar draws from the same contact list as your email account, so inviting others to events and meetings is fast and easy. Google Calendar is standards based, and offers data APIs for integration with other applications, unlike our current calendaring solution.

Students and employees who are not currently using Oracle Calendar may begin using Norse Calendar as soon as they have a Norse Apps account. Employees who are using Oracle Calendar should continue to use Oracle Calendar as their primary calendar, though they are welcome to use Norse Calendar as well.

Norse Docs (Google Docs) – http://docs.luther.edu

Google Docs is a web-based word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation program that makes collaboration more efficient. It lets you keep a document online that others in our organization can edit and update simultaneously right from their browsers, so you don’t need to keep track of attachments and who has the latest version of a file. Multiple people can make changes at once, and see other people’s edits as they happen in real-time. And each revision is automatically saved for you, so you can see who changed what, when, and revert to an older version at any point.

It’s easy to get files into and out of Google Docs. To start from an existing file saved on your computer, simply upload the document and pick up where you left off. To work on documents offline or distribute them as attachments, simply save a copy of your Google file to your computer in the format that works best for you. Whether you upload or download, all of your formatting will be preserved.

You can also use Google Docs to create an online web form that can be emailed to recipients. Once they have received the form, entered and submitted their responses (all through email
h1. ), the information is automatically put into a Google Docs spreadsheet for you. No paper and no re-keying of the information are needed.

The Google Docs suite is not intended as a full replacement for workstations-based tools such as Microsoft Word, Excel, or Powerpoint. But it does offer a powerful suite of complementary functions to be used alongside more full-featured software.

Norse Sites (Google Sites) – http://sites.luther.edu

Norse Sites makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. You can quickly gather a variety of information in one place — including videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and gadgets — and easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group, your entire organization, or the world.

Norse Start Page (Google Start Page) – http://start.luther.edu

The Start Page is a unique, dynamic portal for you to preview and access your inbox and calendar, find relevant information from our organization, and search the web. LIS has customized the layout, header information and color scheme, as well as the page’s default content which includes our content and links. After you log in, you can further customize the Start Page.

With the Start Page, you only need to remember a single Internet address to access all your Norse Apps services. That way, you can save time and clicks, and it’s easier to access your new communication tools.

LIS Training Classes

LIS offers demonstrations, training sessions, and workshops on Norse Apps upon request. Classes are available to faculty, staff, and students. Watch the Tuesday for more information as well as the list of training and instruction currently available.

LIS Training Materials

You can familiarize yourself with Norse Apps and begin to learn about it. Each of the following links contains a wealth of information including screen shots of the products.

• Norse Apps FAQ
• Norse Mail Training
• Norse Chat Training
• Norse Calendar Training
• Norse Docs Training
• Norse Sites Training
• Norse Start Page Training
• For more related articles not listed here, go to http://lis.luther.edu, and use the Search LIS box in the upper right hand corner to search for “Norse Apps”
• For more articles on other topics, go to http://lis.luther.edu/learn/articles.

Contact the Technology Help Desk

• Call 563-387-1000
• Email helpdesk@luther.edu
• Stop by the Technology Help Desk in Preus Library