Email3 Drexel X Google X Microsoft Adele Varenas, Asst. Vice President for Client Services Jennifer Gay, Helpdesk Coordinator EDUCAUSE Mid-Atlantic Conference 2008 January 7, 2009 Copyright Jennifer Gay and Adele Varenas , 2009. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.
Drexel University Philadelphia, PA Private institution founded in 1891 Cooperative education school 13,000 Undergrads, 7,000 Grads First microcomputer requirement in nation began in 1983 First major university to operate a fully wireless campus
Current Email and Storage Systems All users pick up a Drexel account and Unix storage (100 MB each) Faculty and Staff also have the choice of an Exchange account (100 MB) Students also can activate Exchange Labs and Gmail A few colleges host their own mail servers
Ways Drexel Offers Software as a Service Hosting Bb Vista for 6 other institutions Supplying an IDMS for 2 other institutions Programming and maintaining Banner databases for 3 other institutions
Ways Drexel Uses Software as a Service Turn-it in Wimba Sandbox – Emerging Technologies Connected Backup RightNow – http://ask.drexel.edu
Why Offsite Email?
Offer students choices Work with both companies to offer benefits from each First school to offer all three services Response to overwhelming demand from students for more storage Eliminate additional cost Greening of Drexel Introduction to services, such as file storage, that we do not offer in-house
Implementation
Contracts Worked with Microsoft and Google on details of the agreements No ads Free service Launch details Legal issues
Back-end Configuration Created a web service that allowed communication between Google, MS and our homegrown IDMS Modified end-user interface for our IDMS to allow student to activate accounts
Provisioning Retained the Drexel account as primary (and mandatory) Allowed the students to have the option to create the additional accounts Students also have the option to forward mail from Drexel accounts to their new accounts
Exclusions Our General Counsel decided faculty and staff were not eligible for these accounts E-discovery issues Security of student and employee data Necessity for long-term email storage Faculty and Staff
Publicity Festive launch party hosted by the vendors – complete with giveaways and raffles Full page color ad in the university paper Website (http://www.drexel.edu/linkedu) All-student targeted email Posters around campus Article in our monthly Tech-Update
Benefits for Students
Drexel Branded Account Future integration social networking groups, e.g. Facebook & Windows LiveSpaces Use address for student resumes Ability to create a personalized alias Ad-Free interface
Collaborative Editing Additional Tools Drexel Google Exchange Labs Email 100MB 6 GB 10 GB Calendar ; Shareable? DrexelOne; Only with Drexel Community Yes, with anyone Yes, elink users Instant Message None Talk Live Messenger Collaborative Editing Docs Office Live & SkyDrive Personalized Portal DrexelOne Channels Start Page Blogging Live Spaces
Exchange Labs Experience working with Exchange May be helpful when students are on co-op or in future jobs Prospect of integrating with Drexel Exchange server Link up with professors re classes Link up with supervisors re campus employment
Additional Reasons Massive File Storage Shared Calendars Large Email Quotas (10 GB for Exchange Labs and 5GB for Gmail)
How Are We Doing?
Number of Accounts by Service Our situation is unique because we are a coop school and half of our students were not on campus during the launch. Hopefully we are able to promote this service in the summer while they are on campus.
Type of Account by Role
Success Over Time
What’s Next?
Ongoing Promotion Continuing promotion to capture interest of transfers and freshman Information at orientations, open houses, and at the helpdesk Publicizing in electronic Technology Update newsletters
The Future? Integration with Drexel Exchange, Student Portal or Facebook Encourage instructors to use the services with their classes (esp. shared SkyDrives or Google Documents) Elimination of local email accounts and Unix storage for students Surveys to capture student opinion and needs
Future, Cont Use Windows Admin Center generate reports Migration tools (calendaring and contacts for other email services) Additional password management
Questions??? Drexel University Adele Varenas, Asst. Vice President for Client Services adele@drexel.edu Jennifer Gay, Coordinator of Client Services jen@drexel.edu Drexel University "The registered trademark for Educause is owned by EDUCAUSE, Inc. Unauthorized use of any EDUCAUSE trademark is strictly prohibited."