Google Workspace for Education Standard
Written by: Richard Meservy Approved by: ITEC - 09/03/2024
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to establish and document approved use and support guidelines associated with the BYU-Idaho implementation of Google Workspace for Education, previously called Google G Suite for Education.
Background and History
The Google Workspace implementation project was initiated in 2019 and was completed in early 2020. The project included the following purposes and uses:
- To add Google Workspace for Education to the collection of tools available at BYU-Idaho.
- Automatic account provisioning for faculty, students, and staff.
- Single Sign-On setup
- Provide access to all students, faculty, and staff
- IT ASE administration setup and removal of non-IT admin accounts
- UR Marketing
Prior to the Google Workspace project, Google Workspace for Education was being used by an estimated 500 faculty and staff across campus and was being managed by the Online Learning department. However, many of these users were outside of Online Learning but had legitimate needs for using the suite to teach their students the tools used in industry.
There were several use cases that were reported that required the use of Google Workspace. The largest example was the Teacher Education department, where future teachers are expected to know the Google Workspace tools when they enter public schools. BYU-Idaho students were at a distinct disadvantage due to the policies against using this suite. Thus, the addition of Google Workspaces addressed these needs.
Features Implemented
The governance council will help determine which Google Workspace features will be implemented excluding Gmail and calendaring because the official university email service and calendar service is through M365.
Levels of Support
IT will provide support for authentication for all BYUI employees, students and Pathway employees accessing Google Workspace. IT enables access to Google Workspace, but Google provides feature support. IT support engineers will provide access to authorized students, faculty, or staff to certain administrative tools within the Google Workspace environment. Approvals for administrative access will be discussed and approved by the IT Productivity Suites Governance Council.
Additional Feature Implementation and Support Requests
Organizations and employees desiring implementation and/or support of additional features will request them through their Portfolio Manager, who will work with the IT Productivity Suites Governance Council for approval.