Spirit Toolkit: Google workspace.

This is your one stop shop for all of your online resources, productivity and organisation tools.

Google’s online office suite enables powerful and seamless collaboration and communication between tutors, students and Spirit staff.

Find tips and tutorials on the Google Workspace Learning Centre.

Google Classroom

This is where all of your course information, classwork, assignments and submissions will be. The platform is organised into classes, you will be invited into Classroom hubs for each of your relevant modules for each semester. These will include assignments, class resources and communications from your tutors and peers.

Each course will have a Course Hub which will include Timetables, Guidance and Grading criteria and more general information and resources for your course. This also acts as a platform for tutors to communicate with all students on the course, make announcements and ask questions.

The Student Hub features more general information relevant to all students such as announcements for events and work opportunities, careers and money management advice, student handbooks and policy documents.

The Student Welfare Hub has lots of resources and information for support services. Including how to arrange a 1 to 1 welfare appointment, external support services.

Get started with Classroom with this guide.

Gmail

Google’s email service that we use for all internal emails from Spirit Studios, your Spirit email address will be your student number followed by: @spiritstudios.ac.uk

For example: 0123456@spiritstudios.ac.uk

It’s important you use this email address when contacting your tutors or any spirit staff such as academic support, attendance or student welfare. External email addresses can get redirected or end up in spam folders and may not be seen.

Google Drive

Google’s cloud-based storage system that allows users to share, access and upload files online. Google drive integrates seamlessly with Google Docs, Slides and Sheets providing an alternative/ online solution to Microsoft Office.

One of the major benefits of using Google Drive is it automatically saves your work as soon as you stop typing, this avoids the risk of losing your work by forgetting to save, computers crashing and so on.

Furthermore your can share and collaborate on files live and access your work from anywhere with an internet connection. There are free apps for each of the Google products so make sure you download them and get signed in with your Spirit account.

Google Meet

This is Google’s answer to video calls, similar to Zoom and Microsoft Teams, it enables you to video call with features including live captioning and screen sharing.

It’s easy to use and you can join or share calls with a simple link or code. This is where some of our 1 to 1 tutorials and student welfare appointments take place.

These products will be used most throughout your time studying at Spirit however there are numerous other Google products in Workspace such as Photos and News.

Google Workspace is increasingly used by businesses and it’s likely you’ll encounter it in your future career. Get savvy with it now and you’ll thank yourself down the line.