MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / June 4, 2013) — Universidad de Zamboanga (UZ), Mindanao State University IIT (MSU-IIT) in southern Philippines, and Silliman University in central Philippines have joined the ranks of more than 100 campuses in the country and abroad that adopted a host of seamless communication tools accessible through Google Apps for Education.
The universities were looking for a cost-effective and efficient system so going Google was the next logical step, according to users on campus.
Silliman University also wanted a service that would improve their communication and correspondence system.
“We wanted the new system to be more interactive and user-friendly. Google was the best option because it offered what we needed at no cost,” Mark Raygan Garcia, Director, Office of Information and Publications of Silliman University, said in a statement sent by Google to the Mindanao Examiner.
One very useful Google apps is Gmail. Its high storage capacity makes it a clear favorite among educational institutions.
“We were interested in having our branded Gmail to replace our old e-mail service. We did it for obvious reasons: powerful spam filtering and bigger mailboxes,” said Dante Dinawanao, Systems Administrator of MSU-IIT.
Silliman University’s challenge also involved its old e-mail service, particularly the high bounce-back rate of their e-mails. “We received a number of complaints about our e-mails not getting through. Add to that the limited storage capacity,” Garcia said.
Garcia expressed that their previous system needed a higher Internet bandwidth, which could increase their IT costs. “It started with our in-house system servicing the students. It was not working as planned. There were no technical challenges encountered except to prepare for the needed increase in Internet bandwidth,” he said.
MSU-IIT implemented Google Apps for Education in two of its campuses in Iligan City and Marawi City where they integrated Google Apps into the in-house applications.
Amelia Buan, Assistant Professor in MSU-IIT, uses Google Calendar, Google Drive, and Google+ Hangouts for collaboration with her colleagues and students. “The tools help us easily provide feedback to our students’ course output, and manage, track, and implement tasks for our College’s projects. It gives us more time to brainstorm on better ideas for future projects,” she said.
And for UZ, choosing Google Apps is a step closer to implementing a successful distance e-Learning program in the university. Yolynne Medina, its MIS Director, said: “We migrated to Google Apps from the old mail server in 2009 but implementation was poor and only a few employees were using it. The Google Support program for Educational Institutions provided the best avenue to get support from top management. It helped employees and students become aware of the benefits of using Google Apps.”
Support from Google made UZ one of the first universities in the Philippines to implement Google Apps.
UZ uses Gmail, Chat, Drive, Calendar, and Google+. The university loves that everything is backed up, with a 99.9% guaranteed uptime and built-in robust disaster recovery.
“We are not afraid of losing a single e-mail or file. The biggest advantage for the management is saving a lot of money from buying e-mail servers. Also, since Google Apps for Education is hosted on the Cloud and requires minimal maintenance, UZ didn’t need to hire an administrator who will take care of the system,” she said.
There are over 25,000 users among students, faculty and staff in the three universities who are now enjoying Google Apps for Education.
“We are happy to know that universities outside of Metro Manila are embracing the suite of collaboration tools of Google Apps for Education,” said Janet Yoon, Google Apps Supporting Programs, lead for the Philippines. “Google will continue to support these universities to establish a more efficient and accessible learning system for their students and faculty.”
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