What is Office 365?
Office 365 is the name Microsoft has given to a platform that provides users access to their cloud based Office software which allows you to create, collaborate and share your work. In addition to the usual Microsoft Office apps, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Office 365 offers additional collaboration and communication tools such as Teams, OneDrive for Business, and the Yammer social networking platform.
Why are we implementing it at the university?
Implementing Office 365 is a key component in delivering the university's Digital Strategy to help the university deliver its mission, vision and strategy.
The Digital Strategy is aligned to the Strategic Plan through four parallel themes, all of which focus on people and experiences. Some of its driving principles underpinning these themes are simplifying processes, providing a consistent look and feel across all platforms, considering Information Security at all times, and working as part of One University to ensure the delivery of consistent and efficient services supporting all areas of university life.
Can I add members to a Team/Channel using lists?
You can add groups of individuals to a Team using distribution lists or contact groups. However, the membership of the Team will not update automatically if the distribution list or contact group membership is updated once the Team has been created. However, Team members are only automatically removed when their university access is removed at the end of their employment or studies at the university.
For example, you use a university generated distribution list set up for your department to create a Department Team. The Team is created and a new starter joins your department. The new starter will need to be manually added to the Team. Similarly, when someone leaves your department to move to another area of the university they will need to be manually removed from the Team.
I'm a group owner, how does that fit in Office 365?
If you manage a group or distribution list, where you are the group owner and regularly add and remove members, you may wish to set this up as a Team so that you can manage and communicate more effectively with your group and to take advantage of the range of collaboration opportunities within Teams.
What do the different levels of Privacy for Teams mean?
When you create a Team you can select its Privacy level, either Public or Private:
- Public - Anyone in your organisation can join.
- Private - Only team owners can add members.
Public Teams
Staff, Students and some Affiliates can access all Public groups within the university Office 365 environment, so it is important to make sure that Public Teams are only created when all of the data held within the team should be shared with everyone.
Private Teams
Membership of Private Teams are controlled by the Team owner(s). Private Teams can be made up of a mix of Staff, Students and Affiliates, as well as Guests,
Remember:
- check the privacy status and membership of a Team before you share any sensitive information in the Team.
- double check the identify of individuals before adding them to a Team.
- manage membership of teams for student members of staff carefully, use their student User ID for teaching and student support related teams, and use their staff User ID for staff Teams.