What do I have to install to implement Gaggle’s tools?
Gaggle offers a hosted, web-based solution. Therefore no additional hardware or software will be installed at your location.
How long will it take to implement Gaggle?
Implementation of Gaggle, from contract to roll-out of accounts, can be accomplished in as little as 5-7 business days. The timeline is ultimately dependent on the District’s availability for the initial implementation meeting and completion of required worksheets and documents. The success of initial implementation is ensured through regular contact between Gaggle’s Account Representative and the District’s designated contact person. Gaggle is committed to making this process as efficient and easy as possible.
Can we use a custom domain name for the email addresses?
Yes, using a custom domain name gives your students more choices for their email address. For instance, jeff@gaggle.net is taken, but jeff@sdhs.gaggle.net would be available. A custom domain also helps unify and identify the members of your school. There are two choices:
- You can use a sub domain name such as "jsmith@westsidehigh.gaggle.net". A sub domain of Gaggle requires no work on your part.
- If your school has its own domain name such as franklinschool.com, you can use this for your email address. You will need to have your web master point the MX record of your server at the Gaggle mail server. (We can help.)
The cost for a custom domain name of either type is $200 for the first year and a $100 maintenance fee each year thereafter. To order a custom domain name for your school, fax us a purchase order at (309) 665-0171. Please list the domain name you would like as well as a person to serve as the technical contact. If you want to use your school's top level domain name, the MX record for your server should point to "mail.gaggle.net". This will forward mail from your domain name to the Gaggle mail server.
Can account creation be automated?
Using Gaggle’s Data Integration features, account creation can be automated from your student management system. Accounts can be created, deleted and updated via customized scripts between the District and Gaggle’s servers. Accounts can be imported as a one-time creation or set to automatically update on a schedule determined by the District.
What are the minimum hardware requirements to utilize Gaggle?
The only requirement for client machines is that they can connect to the Internet, utilizing a modern browser such as Internet Explorer 8.0+, Mozilla Firefox 3.0+, Safari 4.0+ or Google Chrome. Gaggle supports Macintosh, Windows and Linux platforms.
What kind of spam and virus protection is available with Gaggle?
Gaggle uses a two-pronged approach to combat viruses, utilizing an enterprise-class commercial virus scanning solution as well as a customized system. Each message is scanned twice for viruses, once upon the upload to our servers, and then again prior to delivering the message to the end user. Gaggle’s virus definition libraries are updated hourly.
Gaggle has many systems in place that are designed to help quickly detect new threats. Each day the Gaggle system rejects millions of spam messages. The technology analyzes all incoming mail to identify new spammers in real time. The final tool in the spam control system is that each user’s personal spam filter can be set to High, Medium, Low or Off.
For an additional fee, Gaggle offers a premium virus and spam filtering solution. Added features include a daily digest of quarantined mail and the ability for users to adjust individual spam settings.
Can you explain the access levels?
Gaggle offers numerous access levels to customize our solution to meet the needs of your district. The access levels include: District Master, District Administrator, School Master, School Administrator, Enhanced Teacher, Teacher, Staff, Parent Accounts, Student, Gaggle Only, District Only, School Only, Class Only, Admin Only, Read Only, and Suspended, among others. Each of the access levels has different email privileges and can control different parameters for the group and member accounts. Some users can change the Blocked Word and Blocked Address Lists as well as read and edit other users' email. We would be happy to explain our extensive user permissioning in detail, upon request.
How much storage is available with our Gaggle accounts?
The Subscription Accounts include 7 GB of storage space per user. Gaggle offers other storage options for an additional fee including: Virtual Drives (1 GB, 2 GB or unlimited storage) as well as an Unlimited Email Storage option.
How long is our mail stored on Gaggle’s servers?
All mail, whether student or faculty mail, is archived for up to six months from the date the message is received. When mail is deleted from the Inbox or a custom folder, the message is moved to the Deleted folder, where it will remain for approximately 30 days. After 30 days, the mail is moved from the Deleted folder, and is put in the user’s Archive folder. Mail will remain in the Archive folder another 4-6 months or longer depending upon the archiving service you have purchased and your retention policy. The amount of time the mail sits in the archive folder is based on the actual age of the email. The longer the email sits in the Inbox or custom folder, the shorter period of time it will reside in the Archive folder, though no less than 3 months.
Where can I find a list of Gaggle features?
Many of our features are described in our "Gaggle Apps" section of this site.
Can I forward my Gaggle email to my district email address?
Gaggle has a forwarding feature that will allow users to forward mail to another email address. You can set it up to forward or copy all of your mail or just forward your blocked messages. Only users with the access level of School Staff or above can forward mail.
How do I setup Gaggle as a portal for logins to other systems?
Portal links are a single-sign-on solution from Gaggle to other web sites. They allow users to click a single link and log directly into other web sites. They are particularly useful for accessing other sites where your school has subscriptions. Only School Admin users and above can create and edit Portal Links.
What reports are available?
All Gaggle user activity is tracked and this data is stored with an exact time stamp. The data can be reported on an individual user, per school, or district wide basis. Reports include bar graphs and pie charts for appropriate data. The raw data in CSV format is also sent as part of each report. Gaggle has over 40 different tracked activities such as user logins, emails sent, emails blocked, blog posts, social wall posts, homework submissions and many more.
Automated monthly reports are also available to District Administrator level users. The standard reports include logins, sent mail, blog entries, blocked messages, intercepted spam, locker file uploads, message board posts and chat room usage.
Can Gaggle restrict the display name in the emails that are sent?
Gaggle offers an Email Display name feature which can restrict the display name to first name, first name and last initial, full name, or none.
Does Gaggle offer POP3 or IMAP and SMTP access for using Outlook?
Gaggle offers POP3, IMAP, and SMTP access to users that subscribe to our Subscription Version. Detailed instructions on how to set up your account can be found in the Administrator's Guide. The Administrator's Guide is located under the School Admin menu after you have logged into Gaggle.
Can I send an email to all the students in my school?
Gaggle’s built-in address groups make this easy! Click the "To" button on your Compose screen, and use the drop down menu at the top to choose Built-In Address Groups. Your choices are determined by your access level, but teachers and above can send to all students, all teachers, or all users in the school. District level accounts have similar options to send to an entire school or the entire district.
How do we distribute thousands of accounts to our students?
At Gaggle we spend a lot of time thinking about the problems that affect a districts' IT department. Your problems are our problems too.
Our solution to this problem is our new phone based account retrieval system. The system allows users to retrieve their user name and password from Gaggle without any human involvement. User's enter their home phone or mobile number on the Gaggle website. It then looks up the user accounts associated with that phone number. The system dials the number and asks the user to speak their name. The user's voice name is matched to an account and recorded for security. The user is then given a two digit code to enter into the phone and a web form is displayed for the user to reset their password.
Can we integrate Gaggle with Moodle or Sharepoint?
Gaggle's new widgets are small versions of each of Gaggle's safe tools. These widgets can be embedded into systems such as Sharepoint and Moodle. When users log into these other systems the widget is displayed on the district's portal page. The widgets are fully functional, small versions of the tools. For example, clicking an a blog or social wall entry can launch the user directly into Gaggle without any additional login. The user can also view their calendar or delete mail from the widget without launching Gaggle.
How can I find messages in my students’ accounts?
Using Gaggle’s Search feature you can search an individual account or multiple accounts depending on your access level. On the left side bar, click the small arrow next to the spyglass icon in the search box. The Advanced Search screen has multiple parameters to enter for your search. The results will be displayed with your search terms highlighted in red.
Does your system offer Language Translation features?
Gaggle includes a built-in language translation feature that supports forty-three different languages. This feature is available on the Gaggle write mail screen, read mail screen, message boards, and blogs.
What is the cost for Gaggle?
You can purchase individual accounts for $6.00 each or as little as $3.75 per student on a district wide basis. The accounts are sold as an annual subscription service.
There are grants and other federal funding sources such as E-ratethat can help your district afford the Gaggle subscription version.
What kind of Customer Service does Gaggle offer?
Gaggle prides itself on providing outstanding customer service. Customers can reach the Gaggle customer service team via our toll-free number or Live Chat feature between 7:00AM – 6:00PM, Monday-Friday (CST). After normal business hours and on weekends, and holidays, customers are encouraged to reach our service department via our admin@gaggle.net address. We guarantee a 8 hour or less response time, even on weekends and holidays, with typical response times are less than 2 hours. In addition to telephone and email support, customers may choose to take advantage of our extensive library of online documentation, which includes “Quick Start Guides,” walkthroughs of several features, and tutorials.
Do you have any examples of a Student Online Safety Pledge?
Gaggle has a sample document that can be downloaded and used as a Student Online Safety Pledge. The file is in Rich Text Format (RTF). It will open with any word processing program such as Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat or Star Office. This document is also available in Spanish: We also have a Spanish version of the Online Safety Pledge.
Are Gaggle’s services eRate Eligible?
Gaggle is an experienced eRate Service Provider that is in good standing with the SLD and understands the extensive workings of the eRate program. We have provided our services through eRate since 2002. We will work with your District to meet eRate time frames as it pertains to service start dates and implementation. Our Email service is 100% eRate eligible with our Student Web Hosting tools 80% eRate eligible. Gaggle’s SPIN Number is 143024051.
What is Gaggle’s Privacy Policy?
A detailed description of Gaggle’s Privacy Policy can be found on our web site: Gaggle Privacy Policy
Does Gaggle meet CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) requirements to “block visual depictions that are obscene or are harmful to minors”?
One of the important provisions of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) states that schools must have technology measures in place to protect against visual depictions that are obscene or pornographic.
Gaggle provides real time image analysis to detect and prevent pornographic images displayed through email. The best option that other providers can suggest is to block all attachments. However, this will not prevent pornographic images that are sent as linked files or the inclusion of URLs that point to pornographic web sites. While filters such as Xstop and 8e6 may block some pornographic sites via a blacklist, there are many other sites that will only be blocked via Gaggle's Anti-Pornography Scanner (APS).
At Gaggle we believe that pornography protection is vital for a district-provided tool that will also be used from home. No educator wants to get an angry phone call from a parent whose child accessed a pornographic picture or web site from a message that was received in a school provided email account. Gaggle's ability to block pornographic attachments, and messages with links to pornographic web sites, can provide the peace of mind administrators and parents need before allowing student email access.
Does Gaggle comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)?
Yes, Gaggle is in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. For more details read our statement of compliance.
Does Gaggle offer an Email Archiving Solution?
Gaggle offers a hosted Email Archiving Solution that is compatible with Microsoft Exchange, GroupWise, FirstClass, Gmail, LotusNotes, iMail, qmail, Postfix, Sendmail, and Gaggle's own Accounts. There is no easier way to comply with Open Records Requirements and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that cover eDiscovery.