SHU Google Apps for Education

Sheffield Hallam uses Google Apps for Education to provide services such as email via Google Mail and online storage via Google Drive. One of the many benefits of this is the ability to access all of Google’s apps and services with the same credentials you use at the university and without the need to create or use your own personal account.

Accessing Google Services

You can directly login to Google’s Apps and Services with you SHU Account.

• Within the Google App or Service choose “Sign In”
• On the Google Sign In page enter your SHU email address, this is in the format of  username@my.shu.ac.uk
• Don’t enter your password, click “Sign In”
• You will be redirected to the usual SHU login page
• Enter you SHU username and password and login.
• You will be returned to the Google App or Service your wanted to sign in to.

Tip: If you login to Google Mail through this method you don’t have to go through blackboard every time you want to access your email.

Saving your credentials

Google will also by default keep you logged in to its services, this allows you to access any other Google services without having to login again.

When using a University machine you will automatically be logged out of Google’s services when you close you browser. If you are using your own device your account should be remembered (dependent on your settings) and this reduce’s the amount of times you need to login via the SHU login page.

Google also supports multiple accounts so if you also have a personal Google Account you have created (for example Google mail) you can use it simultaneously with you SHU Account. To do so on any of Google’s apps or services if you are currently logged click the profile image / username on the top right of the screen and choose the “Add Account” option. One logged in this will enable you to switch between accounts without having to log off and if you access another services you will be presented with a choice of accounts to use.

Changing your profile image

At the time of writing the Google + service is unfortunately not enabled for SHU accounts, one of the consequences of this is that no user profile information is editable, and as such there is no profile image for your account.

You can add a profile image that will be displayed by most Google services through Google Mail. The following steps explain how to do so.

• Login and open you SHU Google Mail account.
• Click the Settings Cog (top right)
• Choose the “settings” option.
• In the General tab (you should be on this by default) scroll down to the “My Picture” section
• Upload a new profile picture (you can remove a picture by clicking the “No Picture” option.
• Apply the changes.

Accessing Services that allow login via Google

Using your Google Account can also be a great way to set up accounts your going to use as part of your studies while at university. The majority of services and applications available now support login via external identity providers, for example you often see “Login via Facebook” or “Login via Twitter”. If you see a service or app that might be useful to your studies but don’t want to use a personal account you might be able to login with your SHU Google Account, this is usually indicated with a “Sign in with Google” option.

Our previous post on Trello is a great example of this!