Office 365 for education - available now!

[jamesbmarshall]

Just a quick heads up for those that have been waiting: Welcome to Office 365 for education - UK Live@edu Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

 

[edutech4schools]

Can this be set up under our main domain (.sch.uk) without it causing issues for our other services running under that domain such as email and website. Basically I do not want to change our email or website to MS but would like to use some of the office apps.

 

Hope that makes sense.

[zag]

Can this be set up under our main domain (.sch.uk) without it causing issues for our other services running under that domain such as email and website. Basically I do not want to change our email or website to MS but would like to use some of the office apps.

 

Hope that makes sense.

 

Yes it can with a sub domain.

 

Personally I would choose a new shorter domain name and get it up and running on that, its a great opportunity to change it. Our staff really loved the shorted address and it made the changeover very easy.

[edutech4schools]

We are a small primary and do not have sub domain. The reason I ask is Google apps gives you the choice of being set up on a domain but does not enable or require key services to be pushed over for it to work. After setting up Gapps you have the choice to move you mail (MX) and dns settings or leave them as they are.

 

Is it not possible to do the same with office 365?

 

EDIT: Also do not want to start adding other domains in to the mix. If they were a larger primary I would consider it but I only help out as and when needed.

Edited June 28, 2012 by edutech4schools

[CyberNerd]

Yay! That's only 6 years behind Google apps for education. Lets hope they put those years to good use in development and testing.

 

So which bits are paid for, and which bits are free?

[SYNACK]

Yay! That's only 6 years behind Google apps for education. Lets hope they put those years to good use in development and testing.

 

So which bits are paid for, and which bits are free?

 

Well, it does look like a desktop app rather than a telnet session from the 80s and has non-damaging support for all the features of the full Office client alog with the tight integration with the full desktop app. You can also map drives directly without a messy client or HTML mess in the way.

 

You get sharepoint, exchange and basic lync for free I think. It does not have the depth of additional apps that the Google environment does but it is not trying to be a universal hammer so specialises more. I imagine that there will be the ability to bolt on stuff to sharepoint to mimic much of that functionality though.

[CyberNerd]

So would 365 be a route to completely getting rid of MS Office licenses? and how would this sit with things like SIMS -

ie can I write an access database in 365 and can I export SIMS documents if I don't have 365 installed.

 

Do I even need windows clients and an EES agreement now to run office?

[edutech4schools]

I have Google apps at some of my primary schools and it looks like the ones that had wanted to go down the office 365 direction will not be able to as they are expected to alter the DNS and MX records.

[zag]

So would 365 be a route to completely getting rid of MS Office licenses? and how would this sit with things like SIMS -

ie can I write an access database in 365 and can I export SIMS documents if I don't have 365 installed.

 

Do I even need windows clients and an EES agreement now to run office?

 

We are expecting it to complement our existing local office installs. I doubt anyone would completely replace it.

[localzuk]

I have Google apps at some of my primary schools and it looks like the ones that had wanted to go down the office 365 direction will not be able to as they are expected to alter the DNS and MX records.

 

You have to with Google Apps too though? So, I'm not sure what the argument here is.

[CyberNerd]

We are expecting it to complement our existing local office installs. I doubt anyone would completely replace it.

 

Why not? We ditched MSOffice a while back for students. Surely if you can get it for free and it has FULL functionality as described then there would be no point paying for Office (or EES given that it would be cheaper to perpetually license windows under a school agreement without office)

[SYNACK]

So would 365 be a route to completely getting rid of MS Office licenses? and how would this sit with things like SIMS -

ie can I write an access database in 365 and can I export SIMS documents if I don't have 365 installed.

 

Do I even need windows clients and an EES agreement now to run office?

 

Sims uses local APIs to construct the docs I think so you'd need to have it on the stations. If it generates the files independently, which I don't think it does you could theoridicly output them to the sharepoint drive or skydrive then open them from there using the web based solution which should give you 95% of the featureset for view and a decent stack for editing.

 

Access is depreciated and horrible, it makes kittens cry when you use it. It is not supported as a web app but depending on the type of sharepoint offered it may be able to use preconstructed ones as searchable read/write data sources inside sharepoint. The better solution would be to write a sharepoint plugin to use its database strutures in SQL, faster/better etc.

 

Assuming you'd only use liited features, not the full extended set offered by full Office you could do stacks with the online version and no EES. Depending on your setup you can also pay a bit more for staff to put them on a higher up plan which does cost per month but gives them access to Office Pro desktop as well. You can also tie this into a phone system on the higher plans to pipe calls around and take messages etc but this bit requires an onsite server thanks to VoIP latency issues.

[jamesbmarshall]

Office 365 for education is not a replacement for Office on the desktop. It provides the back-end services (Exchange Online, Lync Online and SharePoint Online) for you to use with your browser, or desktop applications.

 

SharePoint Online does come with the Office Web Apps (Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint) but these are lightweight versions for you to create, edit and collaborate "on the go". They work really well in conjunction with a desktop productivity suite, and provide a way to ensure your students and staff can still be productive wherever they are.

 

As for it being 6 years behind Google Apps... Live@edu came first.

[edutech4schools]

You have to with Google Apps too though? So, I'm not sure what the argument here is.

 

no you do not. you can request a file from google that you upload to your web space this proves you have access to your .sch.uk domain and they can enable the full edu apps from this. No messing with DNS. You access all your apps using google.com/a/schoolname.sch.uk but it is easy to get round this. When you log in email is disabled but you have the choice to update your DNS and MX which will in turn enable email or leave your old email system as is.

[localzuk]

no you do not. you can request a file from google that you upload to your web space this proves you have access to your .sch.uk domain and they can enable the full edu apps from this. No messing with DNS. You access all your apps using google.com/a/schoolname.sch.uk but it is easy to get round this. When you log in email is disabled but you have the choice to update your DNS and MX which will in turn enable email or leave your old email system as is.

 

So, you end up with only partial functionality - which for a 'complete' system, which includes email is in my mind pointless. You aren't going to get staff remembering google.com/a/schoolname.sch.uk, for example.

 

You lose so many features by not having email enabled.

[jamesbmarshall]

When you log in email is disabled but you have the choice to update your DNS and MX which will in turn enable email or leave your old email system as is.

 

You don't have to use all the services Office 365 for education provides. You can pick and choose. For example if you just wanted Lync Online, but not Exchange or SharePoint, that's fine.

[SYNACK]

Why not? We ditched MSOffice a while back for students. Surely if you can get it for free and it has FULL functionality as described then there would be no point paying for Office (or EES given that it would be cheaper to perpetually license windows under a school agreement without office)

 

It's not full functionality as there are stacks of things that would simply choke a web app that Office does nicely locally. It has full nondestructive support to read and edit files so even using advanced feature on the local app, saving it to sharepoint then editing it with the web app will not kill the advanced features. Rendering of them is best effort for some things though so advanced accelerated transitions and some features like that are not fully rendered on the web version of powerpoint. Open it in the full app though and all that stiff is still there.

 

As to features it does have a cut down feature set as opposed to the desktop app but still eclipses Gaps for UI and features. It does have a decent feature set but Office is huge and porting all of it to a web app would result in a horrible slow mess given web apps inherent inefficiencies.

 

For students basic usage you would probably get away with the web apps but if you were using some of the deeper advanced Office features you would need the desktop app.

[edutech4schools]

So, you end up with only partial functionality - which for a 'complete' system, which includes email is in my mind pointless. You aren't going to get staff remembering google.com/a/schoolname.sch.uk, for example.

 

You lose so many features by not having email enabled.

 

do not forget it is completely web based so you direct all users to the school website that you have designed with big fat pictures of the different apps. Nobody has to know what the address really is and you have a nice central point with all your apps layed out how you need it.

Edited June 28, 2012 by edutech4schools

[edutech4schools]

You lose so many features by not having email enabled.

 

can you name me one. not including email.

[edutech4schools]

So, you end up with only partial functionality - which for a 'complete' system, which includes email is in my mind pointless. You aren't going to get staff remembering google.com/a/schoolname.sch.uk, for example.

You lose so many features by not having email enabled.

do not forget it is completely web based so you direct all users to the school website that you have designed with big fat pictures of the different apps. Nobody has to know what the address really is and you have a nice central point with all your apps layed out how you need it.

 

and if you use sites, when a user logs in they get directed to the igoogle page but still within the website, so any apps, emails, calendars, tasks, docs are all listed and live.

[CyberNerd]

 

As for it being 6 years behind Google Apps... Live@edu came first.

 

That's an email client, were talking about office apps.

 

 

OK I got it. Office365 isn't a full office application, it's just a baby one that supplements MSOffice, like the google one does. I was hoping for something really good as they took so long releasing it to education.

 

 

 

Access is depreciated and horrible, it makes kittens cry when you use it. It is not supported as a web app but depending on the type of sharepoint offered it may be able to use preconstructed ones as searchable read/write data sources inside sharepoint. The better solution would be to write a sharepoint plugin to use its database strutures in SQL, faster/better etc.

 

Yes I know, it is awful. There is too much in office that is no good.

unfortunately we still needed to pay for a few office licenses because A level ICT exam board uses Access files.

 

I seem to be hearing quite a lot of things that Office 365 doesn't do now, I was quite excited this morning and nearly signed us up.

[jamesbmarshall]

I seem to be hearing quite a lot of things that Office 365 doesn't do now, I was quite excited this morning and nearly signed us up.

 

What is there that it doesn't do that concerns you?

[CyberNerd]

What is there that it doesn't do that concerns you?

 

Access mostly. In reality I'd want to completely replace Desktop Office for the majority of users as a way of reducing costs.

I don't think I'd want to jump ship to a relatively new product that is so far behind Google which has seen years of development in web based collaborative apps.

 

I'll probably sign up for a test site and check it out though.

[GrumbleDook]

One of the other things to note is that when we are talking about what is available in comparison with Google Apps for Education then you have to remember that a fair few of the google apps are not part of the bundle, are not subject to the SLAs and are subject to change with no notice. That has been a problem for some people *including* some Google advocates / trainers.

 

The big bonuses for me ... availability of the web apps of Word/Excel/Powerpoint/OneNote (and OneNote probably gets the biggest thumbs up!) which don't mess up my files, the inclusion of Lync and SharePointOnline (though I still want to call it SharePointLite to be honest ... I need to get to grips with it to fully see what is missing from a fully featured install ... but I don't think I'll wait until the next SharePoint Saturday).

 

Most of what is available is a direct comparison with the offerings from Google Apps for Education. Both sides have some bits which are better than the opposition and some which are not as good.

 

I prefer the management of Office365 for email / calendar / etc, Google Sites and Groups are a bit better to manage that trying to create a website or have group discussions in SharePointOnline ... but SharePointOnline is more powerful when it comes to managing information, business processes, etc.

 

Some of it will be about personal preference about how much you want certain tools to work ... most of the functionality and how you make the most of it can be translated between the services anyway if you have teachers with some sense (and there are plenty out there in spite of what some may experience ... but still not enough though).

 

The other personal thing is about the relationship and support ... I have always found it easier to work with and share with the MS education team than with Google. There are a number of teachers who have been on Google training, MS Partners in Learning or are Apple Distinguished Educators ... (still haven't found anyone with all 3 yet) and most can make use of any tool provided, though some evangelise about particular ecosystems more than others.

[localzuk]

Another great advantage of the Google Apps system is their Chromebooks. Brilliant little devices, all integrated and managed via the dashboard.

 

can you name me one. not including email.

 

A more unified communications system. For example chat combines with email etc...