Sharing on Google Drive using Google Groups

[elsiegee40]

We are new to Google Apps for Education and are starting to try to use document sharing on Google drive.

 

From what I can see, the best way of sharing a folder with staff at the school is to create an XYZ_school_Staff google group and share the relevant folders with that group.

 

Has anyone done this?

 

We have a staff@XYZ_School mailing list... can we use this to populate the group? Or do we have to add each member of staff's email address manually to the group?

 

Are there any gotchas with use of groups, privacy of groups, etc that I need to look out for?

[pcstru]

Do you use Active Directory or other directory system at your school?

 

You can use the ADSync tool to query AD groups and create groups in Google. That way your groups are synced from one place.

[sparkeh]

AD sync is good idea. Set up all the groups you need in AD then sync them with GApps. Much easier than trying to keep them synced manually.

 

And yes, in Google Drive you can create a folder and share it with a group.

[pcstru]

GAM (Google Apps Manager) is another potentially useful tool. It would be fairly easy to pull teaching and tutor groups from MIS into a spreadsheet (assuming you store email address) and then use that info to generate a file of GAM calls to create and add the appropriate users to groups.

[ADMaster]

As said above use GADS and GAPS.

Google Apps Directory Sync - Google Apps Help

Google Apps Password Sync - Google Apps Help

 

One gotcha to look out for is sharing to a group doesn’t put the document in their document list. You will want to tick the box to notify by email, or post the link somewhere. After they click the link it shows up in the list.

I created a google site with help info and posted the link there for the info I shared, others just use the email notification. The issue with email notification is new accounts will not have the email, so the link makes it simpler depending on the nature of the document.

This was my experience a few years ago, maybe it has changed.

 

Create a few test groups and experiment.