Communication Tools

The University of Minnesota provides email accounts to all eligible faculty, staff, and students. Additional services are also available for managing email. Some of these are provided by default; others require the user to opt in. Initially, all email accounts are basic client/server accounts.

Email is a common good service provided by the Office of Information Technology. Central email service for the Twin Cities, Morris, and Crookston campuses include mail routing, spam blocking, and virus filtering. In addition, the University has partnered with Google to offer Google Apps for the University of Minnesota's students, staff, and faculty. Partnering Google will give the University community access to a suite of state-of-the-art communication and collaboration tools, which includes Gmail.

• Account End of Life Reference Guide

Google On Air is an easy way to stream video to multiple participants. Some features include:

• Live Streaming
• Live Conversations
• Live Apps
• Full feature list

Lecture-capture tools, such as ScreenPal, allow instructors to record lectures directly from their computer, without elaborate or additional classroom equipment. Consider recording your lectures as you give them, and then uploading them for students to re-watch. Studies show that posting recorded lectures does not diminish attendance and students appreciate the opportunity to review lectures at their own pace and their learning increases.

SAFE-U is the University of Minnesota's emergency notification text messaging system. Everyone in the University community who has a mobile phone number listed in their personal information is automatically be enrolled in SAFE-U and will receive emergency text messages.