Office 365 for Education
User Scenario:
Staff Communication and Information Gathering
Mrs de Bruyn receives an email from the Education Department asking urgently for some statistical information that is required before the end of the school day.
Before the school had Office 365 this would have meant holding an emergency staff meeting, requiring teachers to leave their classes to hear the request and ask any questions about what they needed to do. This always has a negative impact on learning and teaching.
Forms and paperwork would have been handed out for completion and then collected, and the information collated and returned to the Education Department, all taking up lots of time. Meanwhile students, with no adult supervision, tend to cause disciplinary problems and learning activities are interrupted.
But now, when Mrs de Bruyn receives such email requests, she knows she can use the communication tools in Office 365 to save on admin and prevent loss of learning and teaching time.
- She receives the statistics request via email from the Department of Education.
- Mrs de Bruyn sends an email via Outlook.com* to all staff using the Groups option and the staff distribution group, which has already been set up in Exchange. The email contains a link to OneDrive** where the applicable documents are shared with teachers.
- She adds a Meeting Request to the email, marked as urgent, and staff members must accept it. In this way she keeps track of the process and ensures that the staff will complete the documentation.
- Absentees receive the email on their mobile phones or computers at home. They complete the forms in the same manner as the teachers who are present at school.
- Each staff member opens the documents on OneDrive and completes their form electronically. Instructions are provided, but staff can ask questions regarding uncertainties via Instant messaging, as Mrs de Bruyn’s status on Office 365 shows she is available.
- She keeps track of the progress of completion by using the Task facility in her own SharePoint personal site.
*Formerly known as Outlook Web App.
**
Formerly known as SkyDrive.
Email, contacts and calendar - Further Reading
» Email, calendars and contacts» Scenario: Connecting other accounts to email
» Scenario: People and contacts
» Scenario: Setting up and using distribution groups
» Scenario: Staff communication and info gathering
» Scenario: Staff professional development
» Scenario: Using and sharing calendars
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