U.S. Coast Guard Academy moves to Google Apps for coursework and collaboration

Google took to the Official Google Enterprise Blog today to share that the U.S. Coast Guard Academy is the first service academy to adopt the Google Apps platform. The 1,100 cadets at the academy started transitioning to Google Apps in January for all of their email, collaboration, and course assignments. They’ve even taken advantage of video chat features to collaborate and communicate with friends and family back home.

Google described out one group of cadets collaborated using a number of Google services to create a Google Site for their mini gas turbine engine project:

The cadets are also using these tools to improve collaboration on team projects. One group of four cadets created a Google Site for their capstone project designing a mini gas turbine engine. They could simultaneously edit spreadsheets, use video chat to share ideas, and even work together with students and professors from other universities to gather input. The cadets are a driving force of change across the campus. Today, nearly half the faculty and staff have converted to Google Apps and that number continues to climb.

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy is the one of the oldest federal service academies having been founded in the late 1880’s with a small campus in Connecticut. No word on whether Google+, which is now also available to Google Apps users, has also been made available to cadets.