Software for Students
ALL currently-enrolled VCU students are provided with access to a variety of software titles and resources under the VCU Student Software Bundle, primarily funded via the Student Technology Fee. This bundle includes all of the software listed below and many others. In addition, some students may be eligible for access to other software titles through their specific college/school or department for use on a personally-owned computer and/or via a computer lab.
We strongly recommend that all students review these offerings thoroughly before making ANY software purchase to avoid paying for something that is already included at no additional cost. If unsure, please reach out to the IT Support Center to ask if a software title is available.
VCU Software Center
The VCU Software Center is the go-to resource for ALL software that is made available to currently-enrolled students at VCU either through VCU agreements or by way of no additional cost offerings direct by software providers. Please visit the VCU Software Center for a complete list of available software.
Adobe Creative Cloud
Did you know that ALL currently-enrolled VCU students get access to Adobe Creative Cloud automatically as part of the VCU Student Software Bundle? To learn more about this benefit, please visit the VCU Adobe website.
Canvas
VCU has adopted the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) as the central platform for course management for students and instructors to interact digitally. Canvas allows instructors to and share manage documents and other course information, create and manage assignments and assessments such as quizzes and exams, as well as manage a grade book for all enrolled students. To learn more about Canvas, please visit the VCU Canvas website.
Microsoft Office 365
VCU provides access to Microsoft Office 365 to ALL currently-enrolled students at no additional cost! To get started, visit our Microsoft Software askIT page.
Google Workspace
Google Workspace for Education is VCU’s email and collaboration platform available to faculty, staff and students. To learn more about Google Workspace for VCU Students, visit the Collaboration Services website at https://collaborate.vcu.edu/apps/.
Top Hat
Top Hat is a student engagement tool that allows instructors to conduct polls, track attendance, and create digital assessments that integrates with VCU’s Canvas learning management system. Students may utilize their mobile device, tablet, laptop, and even SMS to respond to polls.
VCU provides access to Top Hat at no additional cost for all currently-enrolled students as part of the VCU Student Software Bundle. To learn more about Top Hat at VCU, visit our askIT page at https://go.vcu.edu/tophat.
App2Go
VCU offers a large portfolio of software for students to use for their coursework through our Software Center, but some applications are just too expensive with usage too low to justify the cost of providing licensing for ALL currently-enrolled students concurrently. To ensure the most optimized and cost-effective use of the Student Technology Fee, VCU has opted to "virtualize" many of these high-cost applications using a platform we call App2Go (based on Citrix XenApp).
App2Go hosts over a dozen of these high-cost application software titles at no additional cost to currently-enrolled students. To learn more about using App2Go on your device(s), visit https://go.vcu.edu/app2go.