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The Skills Check is a short survey which should take you no more than 3 minutes to complete. Once you have completed the Skills Check we provide you with a personal learning plan targeted to your personal study needs and goals.

Sign in to work on the Skills Check.

The OU, in partnership with Google, is offering access to an educational version of Google Apps to students who are currently studying with us.

Covered in this section

  • A description of the applications available to you
  • Information on how to get your account
  • Guidance on how to use the applications
  • 15 mins to complete this section

The use of Google Apps is entirely optional for personal, self-organised use. Google Apps cannot be used for submitting assessed work to the OU. Once you have signed up for your personal Google account, you can access the following applications:

Note: If you are already familiar with Google's personal accounts, please note that OU Google Apps is not quite the same, as the space isn't public – it's an educational domain set up for the OU. In addition, we are not using Google Video or Google Groups.

How to create your Google account

Current students can register for a personal Google account. The Open University Google accounts are only available to current students.The sign up process takes less than 5 minutes and you will be taken through the process step by step – it should only take a few moments.

Sign up for your Open University Google account

Once you have registered you will then have your own personal web space where you will find access to e-mail, calendars, documents and easy website building.

Once you have an account

A link to Google Apps will be available from the tools section of your StudentHome page. [Google Apps will load in a separate window or tab on your web browser, to allow you to see both OU online content and your personal content hosted by Google on the OU's behalf] Please note that you cannot access Google Apps unless you have signed in to the OU.

Once you have entered Google Apps the current list of tools that you will see as top links include:

  • Google Mail or Gmail (OU email) (see current Computing Guide or new Computing Guide) - this also includes the ability to manage your contacts, tasks, see who’s online and initiate a chat session in Google Talk (see current Computing Guide or new Computing Guide).
  • Google Calendar (see current Computing Guide or new Computing Guide) - this includes the ability to view multiple calendars and related tasks.
  • Google Documents (see current Computing Guide or new Computing Guide) – this provides storage and sharing for any type of document, or conversion to a Google Docs format for Word processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation and Drawing to work collaboratively. At present, we do not recommend use of Google Apps for assessed work that requires use of the eTMA system (the system students use for electronically submitting OU assignments). This is due to a series of compatibility issues, which are being explored further.
  • Google Sites (see current Computing Guide or new Computing Guide) – this enables the use of templates to create and share simple websites containing multimedia.

If you require any assistance with Google Apps: