With the launch of Google@Drew, we automatically create Google Groups for all courses. These groups can be used for simple email announcements or discussion. They may also be used for sharing in other Google applications. For example you can easily share a folder in Google Drive with a course or invite students to a Google Calendar event.
Similar to Moodle, course groups are connected to Banner course registration. Course groups are automatically updated within a few moments of students registering, adding, or dropping courses.
Course email addresses
Every Drew course has an email address for its corresponding Google Group in the format CRN-TermCode@courses.drew.edu (i.e. 10044-201410@courses.drew.edu). The Course Registration Number (CRN) is used during TreeHouse registration and can be found in the online TreeHouse Course Search or in your personal faculty or student schedule in TreeHouse. The term code is the 6 digit Banner term code where the first 4 digits represent the academic year and the last 2 digits represent the term (i.e. 10 for Fall, 20 for January, 30 for Spring, 40 for Summer, etc.).
Example
The email address for this Fall 2013 Anthropology course would be 10044-201410@courses.drew.edu.
Term |
Banner Term Code |
|---|---|
Summer 2013 |
201340 |
MAT Program Summer 2013 |
201405 |
MFA Program Fall 2013 |
201408 |
Fall 2013 |
201410 |
January 2014 |
201420 |
MFA Program Spring 2014 |
201425 |
Spring 2014 |
201430 |
Summer 2014 |
201440 |
What happened to the course email addresses based on subject and course number (i.e. ANTH-103-001@courses.drew.edu)?
Prior to the implementation of Google at Drew, we provided course email aliases in the form of Subject-CourseNumber-Section@courses.drew.edu while a term was in session in addition to the permanent term-specific CRN-TermCode@courses.drew.edu address.
With the move to Google, we are currently unable to offer the Subject-CourseNumber-Section@courses.drew.edu addresses. While it is possible for a Google Apps administrator to manually add an alias to a group, Google does not provide a mechanism for us to do this automatically for all course groups. When Google adds the ability to assign group aliases in a way that can be automated, we intend to reinstate the alias addresses you are familiar with.
Finding course groups in Google Groups
You can find all of the course groups you are a member of by logging in to Google Groups. You may navigate directly to Drew's instance of Google Groups by selecting Groups from the Google Bar after logging in to any of the Drew Google services such as GMail or Drive.
- Once logged in to Google Groups, select My Groups to view your groups:
- Select any of the groups to navigate to its home page. Group members can view all archived discussions. Instructors may change any of the group settings.
- Select the About link to quickly view the group's email address. You may use this email address to send messages to the group as well as use it inside of Google Drive and Calendar for sharing.
Using course groups for discussion
By default, course groups are set up to enable any member of the group to send messages. Messages sent to the group email address will be sent to all of the members.
If you wish to use the Google Group as a discussion board, we recommend turning on Archiving. This will allow users to see all of the topics within the Google Groups interface as well as email. Users may post messages and reply within Google Groups or email.
Course instructors may enable archiving by navigating to the group from within Google Groups and selecting Group Settings from the gear drop down menu in the upper right corner of the page. Navigate to Information > Content Control and click the checkbox to enable archiving.
See the Google Groups documentation for more information about discussion group settings.