May 25, 2017, by Sharon Caine

UoN Office 365 – Supporting project teams

This is the third in our series of blogs looking at how UoN staff can best use the range of 0ffice 365 tools in our University workplace. Today’s blog focusses upon how Darren Flynn, Teaching & Learning Librarian in LRLR got started with Office 365 by using online applications to co-operate and share as part of a project team.

How LRLR have been using Office 365 online tools

As part of a project team, Darren was asked to use the range of Office 365 online tools as the primary means of communication and collaboration for the LRLR project.

Darren used a range of the Office 365 online applications during the duration of the project – Groups; for communication, collaboration and file storage, Word Online; for co-editing documents with other project team members in real-time; Instant Messaging; for discussions and conversations with stakeholders and colleagues engaged in project activities, Skype: for meeting across different campuses . Darren commented, ‘I found that using Office 365 tools helped greatly with the efficiency of our collaborative work. We didn’t need to work separately and have one person read and synthesise everyone’s thoughts. This was particularly important for actions and checking off what progress had been made in real-time – email or shared drive would have been a nightmare for this’. Darren reflected that using a range of Office 365 tools together with chat/Instant Messaging ensured that jobs got done quicker as the team were able to share thoughts/progress and information easily.

Lessons Learned – ‘be patient’

Darren’s advice to other colleagues trying Office 365 tools is to ‘combine using Office 365 with a task or tool that you already use. Minutes of meetings or an action plan are a perfect start – instead of emailing minutes or plans and asking for feedback, save the document online in OneDrive and share the link’. Darren saw the real benefits of Office 365 as all project team members able to work together on a single copy – ‘once colleagues have made that cognitive leap, then you can start thinking of other opportunities to use cloud technology’.

Office 365– try it today. Connect, communicate, and collaborate with colleagues across our global University

How to find out more:

• View our short presentation on the features and applications offered by Office 365
• View our workspace customer guides to see how you can get started with Office Online, Skype, Groups and Forms
• Contact IS if you’d like us to come and discuss further how Office 365 tools could help transform ways of working in your School/ Department

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Google+
• Share on LinkedIn