Data Move to the Cloud

[Manny-Tech]

We're fairly far down the line in terms of shifting staff data to the 'cloud', we've essentially move home areas to OneDrive and each department has access to their own 'Team' alongside a generic staff area. We're a hybrid amongst each teacher having a laptop and a desktop in their classroom. Syncing files seems to be a problem as teachers move around various classrooms - not a problem if they use their laptop! I'm considering setting up a SharePoint Hub site to pull all relevant Teams document libraries into a central location. Has anyone else gone this route? I've tried to use the native tools available, but it does look like more and more people are going down the third party route.

 

Second part to this is student data which is next on the list. Currently we have teachers that have access to student home areas on a network share, this isn't quite as fluent once that data is in OneDrive and I'm not sure how I get around that. Maybe we need to change the way we work and utilise student class teams for them to save their work in to make it accessible for relevant teachers? Likewise is the best way for students to access any teams / sharepoint data through a hub site rather than using Teams app or Office applications?

 

I'm interested in others feedback on this and problems that have arisen and how you've circumvented it. Fairly sure we're all coming from a similar background of network home areas / shares and getting the best out of this in the cloud.

[Bankesy]

@Manny-Tech in a similar but not exactly the same position as yourself I think.

 

All staff and student home directories were moved to OneDrive using Known Folder Move via Intune.

 

We have two shares, ShareA for staff to put resources for students and ShareB for staff to put resources for staff.

 

Now working with Salamander to create a student Team for every subject, with channels for each year group that are locked down to students and staff of that year group. This will replace ShareA.

 

Then create a staff Team for every subject\non-teaching department where they can put staff-only resources. This will replace ShareB.

 

The idea is to create those structures in Teams and give staff a whole academic year to move resources off the shares before cutting them off for September 2026.

 

Given that we already have Salamander creating Teams for individual classes I am hoping this will all work well.

 

Thanks

[Oaktech]

We use the hub site facility extensively and it works really well.

 

We also giver the advice to staff - always check the online library. If you can't see the files you just modified/created in the browser, assume they aren't, and don't log off until you've checked why.

[psydii]

Use and abuse Class Teams Assignments:

 

https://www.edugeek.net/forums/office-software/237668-coursework-teams-onedrive.html#post2034410

 

 

On the syncing of departmental (team) folders to multiple devices: Teachers *mostly* didn't move around, so no too much of a problem. The plan was to move everybody to using laptops instead of desktops, this followed a year or so after, and everybody agreed it was better. (but we'd let the desktop PCs 'atrophy' and moved to brand new flat panel displays at the same time we moved to laptops, stacking the deck somewhat).

 

300,000 files is, I seem to recall, the limit of OneDrive/SharePoint sync client so members of departments that have accrued near that will need to be a little more focused with the folders they choose to sync.

 

If departments have way less than 300,000 files, then teachers can use the shortcut feature of SharePoint to add it into the OneDrive - this way the setup on each computer they log onto is automatic. And as long as they don't move around too much, and you don't go wiping/re-imaging machines every term/half term / year then they should be fine (after the first logon session). I think when we rolled it out we advised people to visit all the classroom they were timetabled in during the start of term inset day, just to get ahead of sync issues. We also advised them that going in via the web might be quicker and more consistent.

 

These days its about 50/50 some prefer the web, others like it all in Explorer.

 

 

Departments where they are using the Student Work folders directly, often the teacher will choose to sync each Class Teams' Student Work - Working Files folder to their laptop for review. We have an aggressive "Storage Sense" policy we can deploy to those who make heavy use of this so they don't run themselves out of space on their laptops. I'd have the same aggressive policy apply to the classroom-teacher desktops if we still had any.

[Manny-Tech]

I don't think we're too far off then and thank you for suggestions.

 

The other thing that bothers me is the syncing of folders to explorer and then if said user is removed from a Team they retain access to the explorer view, there doesn't appear to be a way to remove this automatically.

[2097]

Having recently gone through file shifting , I would recomend the following

 

option 1 - Use MS teams App Only for accessing Onedrive and Sharepoint ( Departments )

option 2 - Use Cloud Drive Mapper v3 and the Teams apps side by side

option 3 - Use only the web versions of Teams/Onedrive

 

I would not recommend the Onedrive Sync tool ! especially if people are moving around between machines .

 

Large sharepoint sites could run you into issues with Throttling ( If they have this linked to their onedrive Sync tool ) ! , we are currently experiencing this randomly.