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Gmail and Google Apps

Aims provides the academic community including students, faculty and staff with email services in partnership with Google that gives access to email hosted by Gmail. Students, faculty and staff also have access to other Google Apps such as Calendar, Drive, Sites and more.

You can log into your Gmail account via the Aims homepage or anywhere you can access Google including on desktop PCs, laptops, mobile devices or campus workstations. Here you can use the entire suite of Google applications, referred to as Google Workspace.

Accessing Google calendar delegated to you

Once a Google calendar has been delegated or shared to your account, you can easily access it using the steps below.

  1. Open your own Google Calendar
  2. On the left, find the “Other calendars” section.
  3. Click the plus + next to “Other calendars” and then click Subscribe to calendar
  4. Search for and select the calendar that has been delegated to you
  5. On the top right, click the back arrow next to Settings.
  6. You should now see the calendar under your “My calendars” section
  7. You can toggle its view on/off, view events, and manage events on its behalf.
  8. To create an event on the delegated calendar, add a new event as you normally would, but where your name is listed, click the name and choose the delegated calendar instead.
     

Migrating content from a shared account’s Google Drive to a Google shared drive

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Migrating content from a shared account’s Google Drive to a Google shared drive ensures that your team still has access to the content after moving away from signing in to shared accounts directly. Aside from maintaining access to your team’s files, shared drives have a number of advantages over using a shared account’s Google Drive:

  • Your team is able to control access to the content. As team members come and go, your team can manage access to the shared drive to ensure only the people who should have access do have access. When using a shared account, it’s impossible to know who the password has been shared with and who is accessing the account.
  • Improved collaboration. Add comments and tag team members into your comments to assign a task or action item. Drive will send them an email notification that summarizes the activity and comments on your files, and you can respond to these items directly in the email, without the need to switch between apps.
  • Trackability. Quickly know who viewed or modified a file without having to check with other team members.
  • Accessibility. Your ability to access the content is tied to your own account. You won’t have to worry about not being able to access the content if someone resets the password of a shared account.
  • Better user experience. Single sign-on (SSO) improves the user experience by enabling you to sign in to a number of different applications with one set of credentials. Signing in to a secondary account will make this experience less seamless.
  • Greater security. Shared accounts pose a security risk to the college data since it’s impossible to know who has the password, even if they are no longer with the college.

The steps below will describe how to ensure your team maintains access to content saved in a shared account’s Google Drive beyond May 10, 2021.

  1. From the shared Google account, click the Google apps icon in the top right corner and then click Drive. Verify that content shows within the My Drive folder.
  2. Navigate to your own Google Drive account
  3. Right-click Shared drives on the left side and then click New shared drive.
  4. Provide a name for the shared drive, for example, the name of the shared Google account.
  5. Right-click the newly created shared drive and then click Manage members
  6. Add the team members that currently have access to the shared Google account. You can use this page to determine the appropriate permissions needed.
  7. Navigate back to Google Drive for the shared account.
  8. Select all the files that you wish to move and then right-click Move to
  9. Click the back arrow next to My Drive. Click back until you see Shared drives.
  10. Double-click Shared Drives and then select the newly created shared drive.
  11. Click Move and confirm by clicking Move again
     

Google Delegate Access

Delegate access allows a Google account to be managed by another person who is delegated to the account. It provides a way for someone else, such as an assistant, to manage your inbox or calendar on your behalf. Employees can also request delegate access to a shared account if used by the department.

Access to shared Google account email and/or calendars requires that you access it by delegation rather than signing in to the account using a shared username and password. Each shared account will receive several email notifications regarding this change and the steps required to request delegate access. This change is required for our efforts to modernize and protect the college’s online environment.

For information about Google groups, see Get started with Groups

How to Access a Delegated Aims Gmail Account on a Mobile Device

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While delegated accounts cannot be accessed on mobile devices, the three steps below provide a workable solution for sending and receiving email for a delegated account on your mobile device.

  1. Forward incoming emails from a delegated account
  2. Create a label in Gmail to filter emails forwarded from the delegated account
  3. Set replies to send using the delegated account address

After completing the instructions below, you will be able to log into your Aims Gmail account using the Gmail mobile app on your iOS or Android mobile device, and email messages sent to the selected delegated account will be delivered to your inbox. When you reply to messages sent to the delegated account, it will appear as if they were sent from the delegated account.

NOTE: These instructions assume that you have already set up your Aims email on your mobile device.