Quick guide to Sites for MIT Google Apps

On this page:

Context

• MIT Google Apps for the mit.edu domain

Answer

1. Getting an account

G Suite for Education is a Google service that allows members of the MIT community to collaborate with each other, separate from their personal Google accounts. It is provided free of charge upon request;

An email address can only be used as a username with one Google account at a time. We recommend you use your MIT email address as your MIT G Suite username. If you already use it with another Google account, Google will send you an invitation to transition it to G Suite. If you do not want to use your MIT email address with G Suite, we can instead create an alias of the form username-google@mit.edu for you; however, several Google features will then not work seamlessly.

• To request an account, please fill the G-Suite request form here: G Suite for Education Request Form (Touchstone login required)
• To reset your password if you've forgotten it, please contact the G Suite support team
• Document, calendar, and collaboration invitation requests will not be immediately shared with your MIT email address in MIT G Suite.
• You will need to let your colleagues know to share with your username-google@mit.edu alias instead of your MIT address.

Note: You will not be able to use your MIT email address as a username for a personal Google account once it is registered in MIT G Suite..

2. Log into Sites for MIT Google Apps

• Go to http://sites.google.com/a/mit.edu to log in via the MIT Google Apps login page for Sites
• Alternative you can log in directly from Google's main Sites login page at http://sites.google.com but you will need to enter your full MIT Google Apps account name (with the @mit.edu at the end) to do so

3. Create your first MIT Google Apps Site

1. Click on the red button on the Sites home page
2. Fill out the simple creation form
   1. Pick an initial template by selecting either Blank or browsing for a template in the template gallery
   2. Enter a name for your site
   3. Enter a site location (a short name that will be the last part of the site URL)
3. Click the red button again to actually create your site

4. Things to watch out for

4.1. Google apps do not always do a good job of managing multiple accounts

• If you have both a personal Google account and an MIT Google Apps account you may be logging into Sites with your personal account without realizing it
• When you are logged in, make sure the Sites top bar is the MIT-specific one, not the personal one
• Double check the account name in the upper right corner of the Google Sites page
• The Google account name displayed in the upper right should be your username-google@mit.edu account as shown below
  
• If you are logged into your personal Google account instead, there are several ways to fix this:
  • Either: log out of Google from the account menu in the upper right of the page, and log back in using your MIT Google Apps account
  • Or: open a new Private Browsing Window or Incognito browser window, and log into Google Sites from there; this is a convenient work-around because login sessions in private browsing windows are separate from your normal browsing sessions
    • In Firefox go to Tools > Start Private Browsing
    • In Google Chrome go to File > New Incognito Window
    • In Safari go to Safari > Private Browsing...

4.2. Site locations need to be unique across all of MIT Google Apps

• When you create a site, you will be asked to pick a site location that will be part of the site's URL
• These site locations need to be unique across all of MIT Google Apps
• Pick something as specific as possible, so you don't cause problems for your peers
• For example:
  • If you are one of several students creating a project site for a class you're in (let's say 11.124) do not pick the class number as the location
  • Instead, pick something like 11.124-your-username or 11.124-team-blue

4.3. Default permissions allow viewing by anyone in MIT Google Apps

• Default permissions for Sites in MIT Google Apps allow viewing by anyone at MIT who registered for MIT Google Apps
• You can change sharing permissions for your site using the blue Share button in the upper right corner of your site
  ** You can grant edit and owner access to additional users in MIT Google Apps
  • You can further restrict viewing to specific individuals or only those users who have the direct link to the site
  • You can make a site public to allow anyone on the internet to view it

4.4. Limited local support and documentation

We have limited local support and documentation for Google Sites, but Google offers a lot of built-in documentation and guides. Sites for MIT Google Apps work the same as Site for personal Google accounts, and should be fairly easy to use.

See also

• MIT G Suite for Education