GoogleApps E-mail - 3 weeks old

I posted a short survey to the approximately 1,000 e-mail users we have in out district about how they are getting along with the new e-mail system in Google Apps (MAPS Apps, for us). Here is the survey:

After 3 days, I've received 370 responses (36% of all users). Not too shabby. Here are the results...

Some good info here to help direct our future training efforts. The comment section, which I am just starting to look at, is helpful. (Many of the respondents indictated that they answered "no" to some of these skills just because they have not had time or need to try some features.) I will use many of these questions to send out short "How do I ... ?" e-mails this month.

For inquiring minds, I am very happy with this roll-out of GoogleApps for Education so far. We'll give teachers the rest of this month to get more comfortable with the new e-mail/contacts app and then start raising awareness of calendaring and Docs. But at the current time, the change in e-mail systems has just not been that big a deal for many people.

Whew? Knock wood? Send offerings to the technology gods?

Comments

[Clint Buhs]

Looks like you're staying well on top of this process. Congrats on the smooth transition so far.

If I may offer some assistance based on the survey results:
Spell check
Adding attachments
Creating and using labels
Searching Gmail
Adding a signature
Setting a vacation response
Creating contacts
Adding a contact group

[Bonnie]

I like the positive response. Did you only roll this out for teachers/staff, or do students have accounts as well?

[Caitlin]

I think it would be more telling about the ease of Google's interface if you had given this same survey regarding Outlook or other email programs. Even I get lost tying to create groups or signatures in Outlook. Google makes everything easier.

[Kathy Schrock]

How about creating screencasts using JIngPro and adding them to a Google site to show teachers how to do those things they have not had time for? Like these that I created: http://linkyy.com/oS

[Doug Johnson]

Thanks, Clint. We've been pushing folks to use this great resource as much as possible.

Doug

Hi Bonnie,

Just staff now. Students in a few months, I hope.

Doug

Hi Caitlin,

Yeah, we are moving from Outlook/Entourage. Hoping that by the end of the school year, everyone will see the move to Gmail as a positive.

Doug

Hi Kathy,

I've watched your great screencasts. Thanks for sharing these. A lot of this stuff is covered by the video tutorials in AtomicLearning that we've been directing people toward.

Thanks,

Doug

[Jeff Hastings]

Doug,

Here in Michigan, public employee's e-mails are public record and are subject to FOIA requests. (We've had a couple in my district.) 1) Is it the same deal there and 2) do you have access to a full record of your district's employee messages?

Thanks for Blogging,

Jeff

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Jeff,

Yes, I am afraid we will need to address this. Our data retention policy requires four years storage of administrative e-mail. So far, nobody seems to worried about archiving email here.

Google will provide this service for $15 per account and Gaggle will do it for $7 per account. I am sure there are other ways to do this as well.

All the best,

Doug