Google Apps for Education at Rhodes University
This site provides a starting point to help you get the most out of using the Google Apps for Education (GAE@RU) at Rhodes University.
In addition to providing information that is specific and tailored to the GAE@RU implementation, links are also provided to the documentation maintained by Google.
There are a number of benefits for using GAE.
Firstly, it is a solution that provides shared calendaring on a wide-scale – effectively with anyone who uses a standards compliant calendar.
Secondly, outsourcing these types of services (email, calendaring) to the cloud is rapidly becoming an industry best practice that is both acknowledged and supported by Gartner and Educause, amongst others. Not only would we be conforming to best practice, once the initial implementation is complete we would also allow our current overstretched staff more time to work on other issues. This notion is supported by the number of well-known international universities that use GAE (http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/edu/customer_list.html).
Thirdly, Google Apps has wide acceptance and third party products are added on a regular basis.
