Getting Started: Faculty & Staff

1. PennKey

A PennKey username and password is required to access many of Penn's online resources and services. Your PennKey is unique and you should never, under any circumstances, share your PennKey password with anyone.

Go to the PennKey Support site for all PennKey issues
Enroll in PennKey two-step verification

2. Microsoft Office 365 & Email

GSE provides email accounts to full-time faculty and staff at GSE. As part of the onboarding process, IT authorizes your email account after your PennKey is created. If you have a PennKey but are not sure you have an email account, please reach out to your program manager or to HR. They will open a ticket with IT to complete the account process.

In addition, you have access to PennO365 free of charge. As part of the PennO365 service, you can install the latest version of Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus on up to five (5) personal computers and mobile devices. You also receive access to Microsoft Office Online and 1 TB of storage on OneDrive, Microsoft's cloud data storage and collaboration solution.

Access your email through the online portal @ portal.office.com
Download apps & set up mobile devices
Note: Your O365 password is your PennKey password

3. Get Your Computer

As part of the onboarding process, IT will help you order and configure your computer. After it arrives and is configured, we'll schedule a meeting to walk through account setup, and answer any questions. Please note that computers can take 6-8 weeks to arrive after placing the order. Please open a support ticket if you have questions.

4. Work Securely

GSE faculty and staff are eligible for the security software free of charge. Combining these with two-step verification will help you work and learn more securely. See Penn IT Security for faculty and for staff.

Dashlane Password Manager (use on- and off-campus)
Sophos Home, anti-spyware/adware (use at home)
University VPN - GlobalProtect is Penn's virtual private network (use at home and off-campus)

5. Explore Apps for Learning and Research

GSE faculty and staff can access teaching, learning, research, and collaboration technologies for free.

Teaching and academic support staff can into Canvas @ canvas.upenn.edu
- Faculty: Create your Canvas course sites on-demand
- Note: If you do not have access to Canvas, please email GSE-IT at gse-cnvs@gse.upenn.edu.
Get fully licensed account for Zoom Pro - a web conference software
Learn about Penn's Guidance on AI in teaching and learning
- Available AI tools
If you'd like to use Padlet for classes, please open a support ticket.
Go to teams.microsoft.com to collaborate with colleagues (and students)
Activate your Qualtrics account
Visit GSE's Penn Libraries Subject Specialist to learn more about library services, including researcher software
Check out the full catalog of linkedinlearning.upenn.edu video tutorials freely available to the Penn community

6. Request Classroom Support

You can request in-class support at the start of each term if you teach a class.

Review all GSE Classrooms At-a-Glance
Setup Mersive Wireless Screen Sharing on your laptop, tablet, and phone
View all GSE classroom help documentation

7. When on Campus:

Set up AirPennNet wireless for your devices

Need help?

Open a Support Ticket