G Suite for Higher Education

By Carol Campbell

The explosion of online learning models in higher education, and the evolving use of mobile devices for ubiquitous learning, demands innovative methods to keep students feeling connected to their instructor and to each other. G Suite for Education is a technological innovation that can strategically contribute to enhanced engagement among learners.

What is G Suite for Education?

G Suite for Education is a suite of free productivity tools such as Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Forms and Google Slides among others, that ‘help students and faculty members interact seamlessly and securely across devices’ google.com. G Suite provides unlimited opportunities for educators and students to explore course content. G Suite for Education fosters students’ creativity and critical thinking skills through knowledge building, and instructors can use the platform to engage with individual students or the whole class.

Benefits of G Suite for Institutions of Higher Learning

•   Ease of Use:

Scalability is optimal across campuses and these cloud-based tools are easy for professors and students to learn and require little professional development.

•     Facilitates Ubiquitous Learning

G Suite for Education allows for anywhere, anytime learning on any device.
Most Google products are designed for mobile web applications and as such are ideal for mobile learning.  These applications encourage interaction, and collaboration as learners can access Gmail, Google Docs, and other productivity tools on any device.

•     Real Time Collaboration

“G-Suite fuels collaboration through its suite of free productivity tools to help students and faculty interact seamlessly and securely across devices” (google.com ). The tools facilitate easy classroom collaboration and students can easily co-edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in real time.

•    Real-Time Feedback

Educators can provide instant feedback through tools like Google Classroom, and track individual progress to improve student performance.

Twenty first century learning is characterized by ‘content -sharing and collectively
generating knowledge’ through the use of technology (Nayak, 2017). G Suite provides a critical medium through which institutions of higher learning can facilitate collaborative learning among students and faculty alike.


References:

“G Suite for Higher Ed Institutions.” Google for Education: Google SVA Scholarship. Retrieved May 17, 2018 from https://edu.google.com/intl/en_ca/higher-ed-solutions/

Nayak, S. N. (2017). Google Products for Enhancing Library Services. Asian Journal of Information Science and Technology, 7(2), 47-52.