Google Apps and Google Drive

Google Apps is a collection of Google applications that allow a number of people to participate in shared online use and production of material, such as documents with text and images, calculations in spreadsheets, production of slides / presentations and much more.

Participants get access to the mutual material over the internet via their web browser, such as Google Chrome. Other browsers can also be used.

This allows participants to write, draw, comment and upload simultaneously in the various Google Apps, such as Google Drive (see more below). This way of working together is often referred to as online collaboration.

At Absalon Google Drive, which includes contains G-Docs (Documents), G-Sheets (Spreadsheets) and G-Slides (presentations), is the central part of the study environment. But generally, the term "Google Apps" can also refer to other Google applications and solutions, such as Gmail, Youtube, Hangout (virtual meetings, such as Microsoft Skype), and many others.

The following instructions are about Absalon student's use of Google Drive.

Automatic user-generation in Absalon Google Drive

As an institution Absalon has an agreement with Google that students and employees can use Google Apps through Google Education, a comprehensive solution that Google has designed specifically for teaching purposes.

As a consequnce of this agreement Absalon Digital (Absalon's IT department) creates a Google account for students and employees when they start their tenures at Absalon.

Login to Google Drive

Students and employees must therefore use their Absalon email and password when signing in to Google Drive with their Absalon Google Account. Documents and materials are then only available to students and employees at Absalon.

Back-up of important documents

The special Google Drive setup at Absalon also means that documents and materials stored in Absalon's Google Drive solution will be automatically deleted 365 days after a student or employee terminates at Absalon.

If documents needs to be available and used beyond longer be sure to also keep a copy of the documents elsewhere. This can be done in one's personal Google account where there is no such restriction (see below how to switch between Google accounts).

Where can I find my Absalon Google Drive?

When Absalon Digital has created the student in Absalon's Google Drive solution (see above), you can go to Absalon's Google Drive via Google: http://www.google.dk.  This is the same page that you also use when you want to "Google" something:

From this page you can go to Absalon's Google Drive via the automatically created Absalon Google Account (see above), in the same way you access other Google accounts.

You do this by clicking on the icon with the 9 small squares, which can be found on the top right of the page (see the red circle in the image above). If you press this icon, this pop-up follows:

By tapping on the Google Drive icon, which is here only called "Drive" (see the red circle in the pop-up above), a new pop-up from which you can log in to Absalon's Google Drive, with Absalon's email and password, will appear.

The Absalon Google page will look like this, with the Absalon's logo shown in red letters at the top left of the page:

Switching between multiple Google accounts

If you are already signed in to Google Drive with, for example, a private Google Account, you land on the page below when you access Google Drive, as described above.

Here you can switch to the automatically created Absalon Google Account by touching the profile image at the top right of the page (see "1." in the image below). 

A popup will then appear, showing all your Google accounts. Choose your Absalon Google Account, which appears with your Absalon email (see arrow "2." in the picture below):

How do I create an new document in Google Drive?

To create a new document in Google Drive, you click the blue icon: "New" in the top left corner of Google Drive and a pop-up with options below the icon will appear:

You choose Google Docs if you want to open a document primary for text/pictures, Google Sheets for calculation or Google Slides, if you want to produce slides for presentations.

How do I share Google documents?

Once you have opened a Google document, the document is automatically shared with those who have access to the folder in which you open the document.

You can give more people access to a document on Google Drive by right-clicking on the document in the archive. In the appearing pop-up you press the "Share" function (see the red circle):

You then insert the Absalon's email addresses of the people with whom you want to share the document and press "Finish" in the following pop-up:

You can also share the document with other people with a link, which can be forwarded by e-mail, or exchanged via a chat message, by clicking "Advanced" in the above pop-up.