Embedding Office 365 usage across school

[jonathan.lees]

I'm hoping to improve on our staff and students making more use of Office 365 as we've been using it over 5 years now and staff only use it for email, students barely use it at all despite having access, although I do get a lot of calls from parents who want to download Office 2016 for free! So a while back I started up a weekly drop in session for teachers where I show them how to use OneNote, Sway, Planner, Teams and One Drive and hope that might spark some ideas but take up has been slow as my SLT don't really see the benefits beyond email despite having seen various webinars etc on Class notebooks.

 

I'm just wondering if anyone has some ideas on further embedding it beyond training sessions for teachers, what have you done in your school?

[Ephelyon]

You could maybe look to embedding it "by the back door" by adopting an O365-based VLE, like LP+365?

 

(Alternative products are available! ;D )

 

That brings the more classroom-centric features together into a single dashboard, while also adding some new functionality (e.g. assignments/marking), which leads to a situation where it becomes everybody's default homepage/dashboard. From that point, you then have a basis to start slowly drawing people's attention to the other features as well...

[Katy]

Unfortunately youi're going to struggle unless there's someone high enough in the teaching staff to drive it forwards. My line manager is an assistant head (as well as being head of computing) and uses Class OneNote with all his classes, and has been trying hard to get other departments to have a go. Our aim is to get rid of our RDP server in a couple of years by getting rid of the things standing in the way - e.g. "you need to remote in to get at the shared drive" = we are thinking of moving this over to a sharepoint site, etc.

 

Also I think it helps that all his classes (Y7 upwards) know that we have 365, know that onedrive actually exists and that they can just edit documents online from anywhere, hopefully pressure from the pupils as well as us towards other teachers will help sway them towards adopting it.

 

I've just set up SSO and got Onedrive Mapper working, and we're trying to persuade SLT that they should be working collaboratively using 365, not emailing files around named things like "Staffing Rota v1 final v2 edit 3.xlsx" (although they're not the easiest to convince that a shared document is better.... we will get there eventually)

[TechMonkey]

As @Katy said,it does need some push from the top.

 

To help you can try and refer to how O365 could help with any issues staff bring to you, or that you know the school has. So if someone asks about how they could publish homework electronically, show them Teams. If they want to collaborate on a project show them OneNote. Maybe show the secretaries or admin staff OneNote for taking and sharing meeting minutes and staff will see it and maybe have a spark about how they could use it. Maybe show the Clerk to the governors Teams so SMT see how it could be used for internal meetings.

 

Alternatively use it yourself. Use Planner, Teams and OneNote within your IT Team (if you have one). Document using OneNote if you haven't got an online documentation system all ready. Use Teams if you have any Curriculum meetings or meetings with the Head or your line manager. Show what it can do. Eat your own dog food as they say. This is probably the best way to start so you end up living and breathing it and can be the best proponent for it.

 

Next step could be find some champions. Some staff that are IT literate or IT enthusiastic. Ask them if they would try or look at something for you. Spend time with them, showing them what it can do, how it can help. Invest the time. Give them a hotline, if they have an issue or query about O365 you are there within minutes. If they like it and can see the use and get it then they will talk about it, they will get others excited, or curious. Possibly, even if they don't, others will see them using something and want to use it as they feel left out.

 

Another front could be show SMT a business case. How can O365 save money, time or resources. Make them want to use it, make them need to use it. Could you drop any services because they replicate O365 functionality, or could be replicated in O365?

 

Be creative, make a plan, thin how it could help you. Experiment. To me, most importantly is using it your self, why would anyone else use it if you won't?

[ChrisERoots]

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread. I've just been through the process of opening a new School with 365 as the primary and only means of storage. No network shares and although people can save files locally they have OneDrive synced via the client. On the other hand the legacy school in the trust uses conventional shares and 365 for mail.

 

Our new school is doing well with it as they've come in and had to get used to it. There's a long way to go still but people are coming round to it. The challenge i've always seen is changing the habits of those who are used to file shares. Ambassadors are definitely a way forward to change other peoples opinions but i'm tempted to turn things off so that people have no other way. There's a really painful period of transition but people should get used to it.

 

Good luck with everything Jonathon & Jasmine. Really hope you keep the faith and keep driving things forward. Anything that works please share.

[HPlum78]

Some of the use of these products has to be organic, with a degree of eating your own dog food.... by that I mean we start by using the tools within IT Services then get the rest of the support services to start using the tools then getting the IT department involved. I would reiterate what @Katy and @TechMonkey have said its a hard to throw a beast like Microsoft 365! (Office 365) over the wall in one go, start by using Yammer for instance then expand it out and in no time the organic use of it will snowball and with the drop in session you will see that the uptake will be just happen. This will need support from above and where possible should not be mandated or forced on to people as this never goes down well! the idea behind offering services is that we give our users the tools that they need not what we dictate try not to rip the rug out from under your users as this makes the task of getting them to adopt new/ different services much harder than it needs to be. Its a journey.....

[2ilent8cho]

I think it will be an uphill struggle, the only thing we use massively on Office 365 is email. The teachers hate one drive, i hate one drive, the admin staff hate one drive so they don't use it. The kids don't bother with one drive because they have to sign in so much so just save it locally on their iPad. I've also been burned too many times by Office 365 to even care for it anymore. Its an extremely badly designed and badly executed service with hardly any thought for the end user experience.

 

I did look at trying to get our shared areas over to Office 365 but its just not workable yet. Stupid things like Sharepoint sites don't appear for the kids in the one drive app on an iPad unless they login to the web based version and favourite the site first what kind of idiot thought that was a great idea?! There should be a force on all users option. Same with pinning icons to the Office 365 launcher.

 

Then you have the fact Microsoft cannot make their mind up, they had place holders, then they removed them, then they came back.

 

Then one of my biggest annoyances is the fact it signs out after 30 days if not run due to licensing. I'm sick to death of logging in, or staff loading Outlook ignoring the Office 365 login window then calling me to say their email ain't working.

 

So i would say don't force any more Office 365 on users until Microsoft get there act together with this awful product.

[Ephelyon]

Wow - somebody's annoyed this morning!