SharePoint - File differentiation

[Planehazza]

We've moved from local file shares to SharePoint for hosting of teaching/lesson resources.

 

We're hitting a lot of backlash with teachers where they're adamant they 'have to download their files' to not mess up the original.

 

If you have departments sharing PowerPoints, what is your model/solution for making versions of these masters differentiated for top/bottom sets etc? I try to recommend a top level SOW folder and other folders that teachers own with their versions, but instead they refuse to adapt and keep downloading and wasting space on local file servers.

 

Just wondering how you have approached this when in similar situations? Getting the backing of SLT and advising more assertively is a real struggle here.

[DaveTheTech]

Staff get told to make a copy of the master first.

They are also shown how to use the version history to revert back when the inevitable happens.

 

We dont have file servers, everything is ODSP.

[Planehazza]

This is what I'm constantly recommending but getting this place to take us seriously and value our advice is... not happening.

[Planehazza]

On a related note, how do you get people to NOT keep all their work and files in OneDrive and keep them in SharePoint instead? I'm sick of people saving all their stuff in OneDrive instead of the departmental SharePoint; it goes against the whole concept of collaborative work and I'm dreading the day our 'one man departments' leave and we'll have to faff about moving files from one OneDrive to elsewhere instead of them just being readily available in that Team. I assume it stems from lack of policy and training, but believe me when I say it's not for the lack of trying on my part...

[KK20]

Training. We moved all of our onsite to offsite just before covid hit. Covid was a very very rapid set of training for us. We did two things, first we actually had office 2019 at the time and needed to move to 365 fairly quickly. The second was show people file versioning and file history. This led to branching and organising of "stuff". We were already dipping our toes in the teams water but covid catapulted this to the front. Our ethos is sharepoint for departmental "masters", teams for changing classwork, onedrive for personal stuff. However, items can be shared from any of them to staff (or pupils) as required.

 

We moved our two main file storage areas into two main document libraries so the mentality was the same. For common resources people can file version their own branch if they wish or edit the master. Onedrive for personal stuff and share links with other people if they wish for collaboration. If staff leave I simply give the new person access to their onedrive, and move them to a "left staff" group. The new person gets a couple of months to sift through before they go in the bin. I do most of my work in onedrive and email links to my shared collaboration work, shutting off access when required.

 

I have sharepoint external sharing disabled and onedrive external sharing enabled for staff. this stops someone sharing the root of a document library to the outside world.

 

As for pupils, I have a scheduled task script that checks for new pupils and adds staff as site collectors thus staff have access to pupil onedrives.

 

We still have a file server for our art and drama departments, moving and editing 500mb drama recordings offsite is still problematic for editing. Photoshop monsters are also an issue so pupils and staff edit using the onsite library and publish to sharepoint and onedrive.

 

Get your administration office staff onboard quickly. Get minutes of meetings sent out as links, registration summaries as links, have collaboration spreadsheets for markbooks (if you dont use teams or firefly etc) as links. People will soon see the advantage of not searching emails for the correct version. Show the advantages of file versions, the recycle bin, being able to give a trusted pupil access to a pupil share for creating end of year leavers books, or 6th form prefects write access to the duty rotas etc. Show people how the versions can be checked for arsing around.

 

It is better than onsite storage an far less of a task for you, one of the massive advantages for us was that staff could change who had access to their departmental areas without emailing us for NTFS permission changes.

 

the other big sigh of relief was access requests. They used to take a lot longer with onsite storage, not quite as onerous with sharepoint and onedrive. Redacting still takes as long of course!

Edited May 20, 2022 by KK20