In January of this year, Virginia Tech began making changes to Google Workspace. These changes prevented students and employees from accessing his Gmail, Google Photos, Google Calendar, and shared drive features. We've also introduced a 5GB storage limit within Google Workspace. This change forced students and employees to use Exchange Online for all email and calendar needs and her SharePoint for document sharing.
This switch had both positive and negative impacts on the community.
“I taught the winter course,” said Dr. Kelly Scarf, University Assistant Professor and Technical Communication Program Director in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “It was a quick response and coincided with student migration.”
Scarf said some students who are unaware of the change do not understand why they are not receiving emails. “It caused a little bit of panic on the part of the students. Everything went well, but there was a problem during the transition,” Scarf said.
Other than the initial transition, Mr. Scarfe hasn't faced many problems, so he agrees to the switch.
“My understanding is that part of the reason they did that was to kind of streamline the software that everyone was using, because everyone was using different types of storage space and email. I think it was,” Scarf said. “So, in a year's time, you might be able to say, oh, great. I love the change, but right now I'm a little nervous just because I have to adapt to something.”
This change to Microsoft was primarily targeted at students who were getting used to Google Workspace.
“I had to teach myself that. I've never used it before. I know a lot of people don't know how to use it,” said Alison, an English major. – Stacey talked about switching to Microsoft.
Stacey didn't care about the change itself, but she did have a problem with the way the transition was being made.
“My problem is that I don't like the way they handle the switch, even if it makes sense. It's like, it came out of nowhere and if I hadn't taken Leslie King's class, I wouldn't have been able to email I wouldn't have known it was happening until it arrived,” Stacey said. “And my roommates didn't know about it until they received the email. Some of them received the email after their Google account had already been suspended.”
The changes for students will not be immediate. Starting in 2025, Microsoft storage capacity will be limited to 10 GB and use of SharePoint and Teams will require departmental sponsorship.
To stay up to date with future changes, please review the timeline of changes through the Information Technology Department.
