Poll - Subdomain for student GApps accounts?

[Aaron Kurtz]

This may have been discussed before, but we are considering a Google Apps deployment for our students. Our teachers and staff are already on Google Apps (including email), and have an @jccu1.org email address. I am trying to decide whether I would create a separate subdomain for student accounts (@student.jccu1.org) or just use our existing domain (students would also have an @jccu1.org address. Initially, I wouldn't turn on email at all for students (they would primarily use Google Docs), but might turn on email (perhaps limited to within the domain) at a later point.

Or maybe there is a better way, that I haven't considered. What is everyone else doing for student Google Apps accounts?

TIA,

Aaron Kurtz

Technology Coordinator

Jasper County CUSD #1

609 S. Lafayette St.

Newton, IL  62448

Ph: 618-783-2439

aku...@jccu1.org

[Matthew Peskay]

We created sep subdominant for each school level. Our top domain (all staff) is @kippla.org. Our middle school kids are @ms.kippla.org and out elem our @es.kippla.org. 

We use the domain separation for the email blacklist filtering to allow different mail rules for es and ms students. For example we let ms students email staff but we block es students from mailing to staff. We also block the es and ms domains from mailing each other.  With all the students in one domain, you wouldn't have that ability. 

We then use organizations and break up orgs by student cohort so we can turn on and off services per grade level.    For example we might leave chat off for everyone but then enable it just for the eighth graders.  By having all our eight graders in one organization, we can easily accomplish that.  

This seems like the best mix for our district. 
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Matthew

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[HEBDave]

We're early in our piloting process, but we've decided to setup a
subdomain for students that clearly identifies them as students
(@students.domain.edu). We manage all of our staff and student
accounts through one Google Apps for Education account.

The practical reason is that we already have email for staff on an
Exchange server (@domain.edu). The easiest way forward with Google
Apps seemed to be to completely avoid that pre-existing system for
now. Staff will keep using Outlook/Exchange, but will also be able to
login to Google Apps to use Docs and such.

It seems like it would be technically possible to put student and
staff email addresses on the same domain. A separate domain for
students seems to make it easier to sleep at night, but I'm not sure
if there's a real reason or that's just what my gut is telling me. :)

[Miriam Parkinson]

We are also in the early stages of our GAFE pilot.  The domain for our students is fairlawnsds.org and our staff is a subdomain at fairlawnsd.org. To distinguish grade levels, we have incorporated graduation years into our student email addresses. Our pilot encompasses our Middle and High Schools.  Elementary schools will come down the road.

Miriam

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Miriam Parkinson

Librarian

Google Certified Teacher

Fair Lawn High School

Fair Lawn, NJ

[Roy]

HI HEBDave,

We're trying to do the same thing here. I want to keep my faculty/staff on our existing Exchange server (bownet.org), and put our high school students in a sub-domain (bhs.bownet.org) and let them use Google Mail. I'm hoping the students and faculty will be able to seamlessly correspond with each other with this setup. 

I'm still digging around to find documentation on how to set it up this way, but I've had limited success finding it so far. I'd love to hear anything you've learned so far with your setup.

Thanks,

Roy

[DIXON, SCOTT]

Roy -

 

We are doing exactly what you mentioned - internal Exchange and students in Sub-Domain using only GMail.

 

I have it working but it is "quirky" - at least with what I came up with. 

 

I use GMail as the front end for both my main domain and sub-domain.  It is setup as Dual Delivery so all email to staff goes into their GMail account and forwards through to their Exchange account.  There are a couple "gotchas" to this though - all email forwarded via Dual Delivery through Google apps is not cleaned for Spam.  It was when they gave us Postini as the front end.  Mail into Google Apps is filtered but everything including the Spam is forwarded to Exchange. 

 

I needed to put another cloud based Spam Service out there like Postini to handle this.  We also did not want Spam being delivered into the Spam folder for student accounts so this cures that as well.

 

The issue we have is the Student Accounts do not exist in our Exchange Server so staff have to use GMail to email students.  Plus all the sharing features are directly integrated to the GMail area.  What is confusing is email sent internally - Exchange to Exchange - does not end up in GMail.  Also there is no sync between the two so staff have to clear email in both systems.  There appear to be third product solution to handle this but it kind of defeats some of the cost savings GAPPS provides.

 

This has been enough to make me strongly consider making the jump entirely to GMail but we are still very early in our GAPPS initiative and the cloud.

 

Hopefully others will post back and have better ideas and/or solutions.

 

Scott

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[Sheri]

Our admin / finance / sped departments strongly resisted gmail and complained to our school board. Their reasons were not based on facts, only emotions.   Still, we had to keep Exchange for every staff member and now have both systems in place. 

It is not a good plan because we have two email addresses for all staff;  many people refuse to collaborate through the other apps as well -- after 3 years.

So, if at all possible, make the  switch to all GAFE as soon as possible. 

The students love it, and any staff with tech knowledge love our GAFE. For some, they've moved almost totally to the cloud. 

Thanks. 

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Reflect curiosity and wonder --

Go boldly and scatter seeds of kindness...

[DIXON, SCOTT]

Anyone care to elaborate on bandwidth concerns with GAFE?  How much do you have and for how many users?

 

We have a 50Mbps internet pipe shared by 1000 PC's and have added about 90 Chromebooks.  There are usually only a maximum of 300-400 active on the internet at a time.  We gets alert about high traffic and high ping times but my firewall or router appear to be going into panic mode and just giving up at times.

 

Since starting to work with Google Apps in November/December with student groups - we seem to be experiencing internet issues.

 

I have been unable to find the smoking gun at this point - can't even say for sure it is the constant trickle of traffic to GAFE.  But the increase in problems coincides with starting large groups on GAFE and especially since we added three carts of Chromebooks.

 

Thanks you,

 

Scott

[Bob Clay, 6196448282]

We have 100 MBPS for ~ 4000 staff and ~ 20000 students.  The line is saturated during normal school hours.  We are soon upgrading to 400 MBPS.  Meanwhile, despite the saturation, GAFE works well for us since we use a traffic shaper from Exinda to guarantee bandwidth to GAFE at the expense of things like Facebook, Pandora, Windows updates, etc.

Bob Clay

[Chris Franzen]

We are at the opposite end of the spectrum here with 700 Prek-12 students and about 75 staff using 330 computers.  We have just 7MB up and down available, but rarely top the 7MB down limit.  Granted bandwidth needs are always growing.

Chris Franzen
Technology Coordinator
Nokomis School District
511 Oberle St.
Nokomis, IL  62075

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[Ben Courtade]

I wouldn't think GAFE in general would be much of a hog.  This is about 60 seconds worth of clicking various Google Apps tabs and opening Google Documents and it barely registered.  Perhaps you have increased YouTube/Google Video usage since Google Apps accounts also can log into and upload YouTube/Google Video?

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Ben Courtade

Technology Specialist

Elk Rapids Schools
(231) 264-8642
Ext. 3121