Welcome to the Fall 2025 Semester at VCU! + Important Tips and News
What’s New in Google Workspace?
Check out our features blog posts from this past Spring and Summer:
Phishing incidents are on the rise
Several phishing attempts targeting students are on the rise. The Collaboration Services and Information Security teams are hard at work protecting VCU from these attacks. To help protect yourself, keep an eye out for and report any phishing scams, especially those offering job opportunities that seem too good to be true and forms that ask you to enter your password.
Our friends at Information Security also keep a log of these scams and how to identify them at their website: InfoSec – Virginia Commonwealth University.
If you see a phishing attempt please email our team at [email protected] or Information Security at [email protected].
Need a Google Group?
Google Groups can be used in a number of ways for both students and employees, whether it is as a mailing list, as a discussion forum, a way to easily invite a group of people to calendar invites, or collaborate with a group of people in Google Drive:
- As an instructor or faculty member:
- A Group for each of your individual classes
- A combined Group for all of the sections of the same class
- As a student:
- A Group for your class group or team
- A Group for your student organization
For more information, including how to request one, please visit: Google Groups – Collaboration Services.
Need a Shared Drive?
Shared Drives are integrated with Google Drive and provide a place to keep materials and files together while not being owned by any one individual member and aren’t at risk if contributors leave the university.
To know if a Shared Drive is right for you, see our previous blog post: What is a Shared Drive and do I need one?
Need a place to talk with your colleagues? Try Google Chat and Spaces!
Spaces in Chat allow you to create a place to chat with your colleagues. Spaces work great for projects or teams in classes, staff teams, and much more. Additionally, everyone at VCU can use Google Chat, so you don’t have to worry about whether they have access. Spaces allow you to assign tasks, keep track of files shared with the Space, and use threading to organize conversations.
To learn more about Google Chat, visit: Google Chat training and help.
Meet the Google Apps in Canvas
Over the Summer, we rolled out the Google Meet integration in Canvas. Learn more about the ways Google integrates with Canvas here: Google Apps in Canvas – Collaboration Services.
Availability of Google AI at VCU
Over the Summer, our team announced the official availability of Google’s AI tools: Gemini and NotebookLM. To learn more about these, visit:
- Meet Gemini: Google’s Answer to Generative AI and Google Gemini – Getting Started
- Google NotebookLM – Getting Started