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Collaboration Services Work from Home Challenge - Congratulations to our winner!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Work from Home Challenge. Congratulations to our winner, Monique! For those that missed it, these modules remain available for your use. Checkout the challenges below and track your progress by completing the short questionnaire at the end of each challenge.

Google Work from Home Challenge - Google Drive

Let's kick off the Work from Home Google Challenge by introducing Google Drive, or Drive for short. Drive is part of your VCU Google Workspace account that provides virtually unlimited online storage space. We'll explore various parts Drive as a foundation for future weeks.

Google Drive Basics

Google drive basics - drivework better together [View Image]

Starting to use Google Drive is a simple as clicking the Drive icon from the Google Apps menu at the top right of any Google App including Gmail. Begin by reviewing What Can You Do with Drive and Google Drive Cheat Sheet

Assignment: Click on the Google Apps menu and open Google Drive. Upload a file.

Sharing

Once you have added files to Google Drive, you can choose to keep the files private (default) or share with colleagues or friends. Files are accessible anywhere, from any device. Locate the file that you just uploaded or add another file to explore sharing settings in Drive. Review Share files from Google Drive

Assignment: Share a file that you've uploaded to Google Drive.

Finding Files - Add to My Drive

Finding files is easy with Drive. Drive uses Google's powerful search technology to find files that best match your search. Drive also allows you to add files that have been shared with you to your Drive - not by copying the file, but rather giving you direct access to the same file that has been shared with you. Simply click the "Add to My Drive" icon to make the file available whenever you access Drive without the need to search.

Assignment: Find a file that has been shared with you and add to "My Drive"

Drive File Stream - Backup

Drive File Stream is a new way to access all of your Google Drive files directly from your Mac or PC, without using up all your disk space. Unlike traditional file sync tools, Drive File Stream doesn’t require you to download your files first in order to access them from your computer. Instead, when you need to view or edit a file, it automatically streams from the cloud, on-demand. With Drive File Stream, your team will spend less time waiting for files to sync, no time worrying about disk space, and more time being productive. With Drive File Stream, you can:

Quickly see all your Google Drive files in Finder/Explorer (including Shared Drives).
Browse and organize Google Drive files without downloading all of them to your computer.
Choose which files or folders you'd like to make available offline.
Open files in common apps like Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop.

To install and begin using Drive File Stream, contact your departmental IT Support team.

Once you complete reviewing the materials from the first week of the Google Collaboration Challenge take a few minutes to answer these questions: Week 1 Google Drive Questionnaire

Google Work from Home Challenge - Google Docs

Getting started with Docs

Let's start by getting introduced to Docs - an online replacement for Microsoft Word.

Google Docs icon [View Image]

Track changes, make progress

Word processing for teams

Create and edit text documents right in your browser—no dedicated software required. Multiple people can work at the same time, and every change is saved automatically.

Commenting, chat and real-time editing

Work in a single document with teammates or people outside your company. See edits as others type, communicate through built-in chat and ask questions through including comments.

Works with all popular file types

Import your documents to make them instantly editable, including Microsoft® Word and PDF files. Export your work in .docx, .pdf, .odt, .rtf, .txt or .html format.

Unlimited revision history

Track changes made to your documents and undo anything you choose. Previous versions are kept indefinitely and they don't count toward your storage.

Assignment: Complete the "What can you do with Docs" tutorial and create, edit, and share a new Doc.

Try the same tutorial for Sheets and Slides.

Once you complete reviewing the materials from the second week of the Google Collaboration Challenge take a few minutes to answer these questions: Week 2 Google Docs Questionnaire

Google Work from Home Challenge - Utilize Action Items to Work More Productively with Google Docs

Utilize Action Items to Work More Productively with Google Docs

One of the core promises of Google Docs is to help you and your team go from collecting ideas to achieving your goals as quickly and easily as possible. That’s why Google Docs launched Explore in Docs, Sheets and Slides — with machine intelligence built right in — to help your team create amazing presentations, spreadsheets and documents in a fraction of the time it used to take.

Try out two new time-saving features designed to speed up and simplify the way you work, so you can focus on bringing your team’s ideas to life.

1. Spend less time figuring out who owns what with Action Items

According to research by the McKinsey Global Institute, employees spend about 20 percent of their work week — nearly an entire day — searching for details internally and tracking down colleagues for answers. This can be especially true when a document is full of ideas, requests and comments, making it difficult to get a clear sense of who’s responsible for what.

To help keep your projects moving, when you type phrases like “Ryan to follow up on the keynote script,” or “Andrea to schedule a weekly check in” on desktop, Docs will intelligently suggest an Action Item to assign to the right person, thanks to Natural Language Processing (NLP).

Gif depicting how an action items work [View Image]

Assignment:
Manually assign an Action Item to someone in the Docs, Sheets and Slides desktop and mobile apps by mentioning their name in a comment and checking the new Action Item box. The assignee will get an email notification and see the Action Item(s) clearly highlighted with a blue bar when they open the file.Gif depicting how to assign action items [View Image]

2. Spend less time searching for the files that need attention

Once Action Items have been assigned, it’s easy for team members to identify documents, spreadsheets and presentations that need their attention. The next time they visit Docs, Sheets, Slides (or Drive) from their laptops or mobile apps, they’ll see a badge on any files with Action Items assigned to them, plus any unresolved suggestions that others have made to their files.Image depicting how action items are displayed in Google Drive [View Image]
Assignment: Ask someone to assign an Action Item to you and complete that action item by navigating My Drive to find that Action Item.

Once you complete reviewing the materials from the third week of the Google Collaboration Challenge take a few minutes to answer these questions: Week 3 Google Questionnaire

Google Work from Home Challenge - Gmail

Using Gmail at VCU

VCU provides a Gmail account to all students and employees. With Gmail you can:

Create and send email

Creating and sending emails is as easy as selecting Compose within Gmail. You can then specify the recipients and the subject, and begin typing the content. Once done, select Send to send the email. You can view sent mail by selecting the Sent Mail section in Gmail.

Assignment: Create an email and send it to yourself or someone else.

Schedule an email

With Gmail, you can easily schedule an email. Select Compose, and create your email.

At the bottom left next to "Send," click the Dropdown Arrow dropdown arrow for more send options.

Click Schedule and Send. Learn more here, Schedule emails to send

Assignment: Schedule an email to send to a coworker or friend.

Organize your inbox

You can manage and organize emails by creating labels and filters. To create a label, select Settings in the top right, and select Settings. Then select the Labels tab. Scroll to the Labels section and select Create new label. Enter the label name and select Create. You can also create nested labels, which are like subfolders. You also have the option to Star emails. You can view any starred emails in the Starred view. For more help, visit Google's Organize your Inbox page.

Assignment: Organize your inbox by creating and applying labels.

Search for emails

To search for specific emails, type any keywords associated with the email in the search bar found at the top of the page in Gmail. Once you have entered keywords into the search bar, any emails associated with the key words will be displayed.

For more helps, tips, and tricks, please see the Gmail section in the GSuite Learning Center.

Once you complete reviewing the materials from the fourth week of the Google Collaboration Challenge take a few minutes to answer these questions: Week 4 Gmail Questionnaire

Google Work from Home Challenge - Google Calendar

Using Google Calendar

Gif depicting an animation of the number of days in a month [View Image]
With Google Calendar, you can quickly schedule meetings and events, and get reminders about upcoming activities, so you always know what’s next. This week we'll show you how to setup your Google Calendar to keep track of classes, meetings, and events as well as configure Calendar to let others know when you are available.

Getting started with Google Calendar

Let's start by getting familiar with Google Calendar. In this tutorial, we'll explore Calendar basics including creating meetings, reminders, and invitations as well as customizing the look and function of Calendar.

Configure Calendar

First, we'll need to make sure the Calendar is configured to securely share your Free/Busy information while keeping your event details private.

Access Calendar by clicking the Google Apps menu and selecting "Calendar. The Google Apps menu can be accessed from any Google app including Gmail.
In calendar, select the "gear" icon at the top right of the page and select "Settings".
In the Calendar Settings screen select your calendar from the "Settings for my Calendars" list.
In your calendar settings select, Access permissions from the list. Recommended settings are below. Be sure to check the appropriate boxes and select "See only free/busy" from both drop-downs.

Your calendar has now been configured to the recommended settings to share your availability with others while keeping your event details private.

Add a Hangouts Meet to your event

VCU users have the option to add conferencing options to calendar events. When creating an event in Google Calendar, make sure to set the conferencing option to Hangouts Meet. This will associate a meeting code with that event, allowing you and other people to join a conference using the invitation sent to them or the meeting code. Note that with Goggle Workspace for Education, you can have up to 250 people simultaneously connected to the meeting.

Assignment: Create an event with the Hangouts Meet conferencing option and join the meeting and invite a friend to join.

Get familiar with Google Calendar

Assignment: Complete the "Get Started with Calendar" tutorial to create and manage your first personal event, invite others, and set reminders.

Once you complete reviewing the materials from the fifth week of the Google Collaboration Challenge take a few minutes to answer these questions: Week 5 Google Calendar Questionnaire

Google Work from Home Challenge - Google Forms

Getting Started with Google Forms

To get started, head to forms.google.com and select Blank. This will provide you with an empty canvas that you can begin to fill with questions. Note that you have many templates that you can choose from.

Gif depicting the use of Google Forms as a survey tool [View Image]

Google Forms is a useful feature that allows you to manage event registrations, create a quick opinion poll, and much more. With Google Forms, you can create and analyze surveys right in your mobile or web browser—no special software required. You get instant results as they come in. And, you can summarize survey results at a glance with charts and graphs.

When responses are submitted, you will be sent an email notifying you that someone has completed your Form. You also have the ability with Google Forms to organize responses into a Google Sheet. This is especially useful when analyzing responses.

Assignment:

Complete tutorial for creating a Google Form.
Following the instructions in the tutorial, create a Google Form survey asking for a name and five multiple choice questions and have a friend take the survey.
Have their name and responses sent to a Google Sheet.

Once you complete reviewing the materials from the sixth week of the Google Collaboration Challenge, take a few minutes to answer these questions: Week 6 Google Forms Questionnaire. For more Forms help, join us for a hands-on training session. Visit https://go.vcu.edu/gogoogle to register.

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