Microsoft Office365 requirements

[Graham Quince]

Comparing what offer for Google and what we offer for Office365 integration, there's obviously a big gap.  What are Office365 schools looking for to get Frog and O365 to work nicely together.  We're going to be pushing forward with development on this soon, so now's a really good chance to let us know your ideas about what you want from integration.

This isn't our only source for ideas, we're collating Ideas Portal requests and speaking to schools directly too

[ADT]

Everything Google can do...  we want O365 to do... but better

[Graham Quince]

So, you want to be able to:

• assign individual docs for collaboration or as duplicates
• view MS docs through FrogDrive
• change the sharing settings when a student hands work in so they can no longer make changes
• Embed MS docs on a page via a widget
• Open the folder on OneDrive from FrogDrive

Anything else?

[ADT]

Some kind of way of displaying a folder would be nice...  Shared/Network Folder Widget!!!

 

[clangstaff]

@Graham Quince Is this integration going to require ADFS set-up or can we please get some SSO and integration without ADFS?

• assign individual docs for collaboration or as duplicates
• view MS docs through FrogDrive
• change the sharing settings when a student hands work in so they can no longer make changes
• Embed MS docs on a page via a widget
• Open the folder on OneDrive from FrogDrive
• Access relevant Group OneDrives via Frog

[Graham Quince]

Hi @clangstaff

Honestly, I'm just gathering requirements at this stage.  What we end up building will be based on what's wanted and what's possible.  If ADFS is an issue (and I know it is for you) I'll pass on that as a requirement.

Good idea about the Group folders too.

[deanmoulder]

We use 365, if we could embed Sharepoint document libraries into Frog, that would be amazing for us. We use MS365 for all of our collaborative documentation, reports etc Lots of different things. We've now got Frog ADFS and are moving towards Office 365 ADFS too. 

The silver bullet for us would be both onedrive and sharepoint integration, and easier document embedding. Sharepoint is huge for us in terms of collaborative working, but building sharepoint sites is so much more difficult for the average user than building frog sites, which is one of the reasons we've stuck with Frog. 

If students could submit their work which is saved in OneDrive from Frog, that would be pretty cool. 

[mmclaughlin]

I would fully support a 365 integration.  This would make this product stand out even more.  Many places in the US use 365 as well.

Matt

[mhamilton]

We've recently moved over to frog learn from our frog three environment. We have created network shares for folders we call him Porten documents for students, parents and faculty. The ability to be able to save seamlessly from one drive to a folder on frog or vice a versa would be huge. For us SSO integration makes the navigation of our environment that much easier. Anything that allows for better integration between office 365 and frog would be supported and utilized on our side.

[Graham Quince]

Just out of interest, those of you who are using Office365, how much training time have your staff had? And does your school development plan include plans for use of online documents?

I ask because I'm noticing a trend in schools: those who have adopted G-Suite have ongoing training for their staff to show how to get the best out of the online tools, whereas those schools who have chosen Office365 have made their choices not based on classroom requirements as much as convenience of set up (I'm sure it's not the case for all) and the assumption that training is not need.  The end result being that the Google schools are using online collaboration tools well and the Office365 schools are using OneDrive as a file store.  I'm not trying to throw shade on anyone's choices, but I am curious as to why you've decided on Office365 over other options.  Were you (the VLE / Frog champion) included in the decision?

For what it's worth, at Frog, I have access to both Office365 and G-Suite.  Personally, I find G-Suite much easier to use for collaboration, document editing/sharing etc... Office365 has some clunky features to it that slow down working.  But that's my personal opinion.  Everyone's choice is valid here.  

[mhamilton]

This goes back to the age-old Mac versus Windows type scenario. Often times it is more just a comfort zone situation then anything else. For us we have always been an office application suite school. Students have come through key stage 3 learning to navigate the Microsoft products and our licensing moved from office applications to office suites which included online office 365. There was no need for us to go looking anywhere else nor to provide additional training at this point in time. Because we only recently adopted 0365, collaborative instruction and the sharing of files and sites has not been something we have yet implemented. It is however our plan to fully utilize office 365 and the full suite of applications. As ICT Coordinator for the school I did investigate Google apps [at that time] versus office 365. In my feasibility study and discussion with staff members it was quite apparent that Google apps was not the direction the school felt they wanted to go. Through frog learn we hope to be able to offer SSO for all our apps and would love to integrate office 365 into our platform.

[deanmoulder]

On 4/22/2017 at 16:38, Graham Quince said:

Just out of interest, those of you who are using Office365, how much training time have your staff had? And does your school development plan include plans for use of online documents?

I ask because I'm noticing a trend in schools: those who have adopted G-Suite have ongoing training for their staff to show how to get the best out of the online tools, whereas those schools who have chosen Office365 have made their choices not based on classroom requirements as much as convenience of set up (I'm sure it's not the case for all) and the assumption that training is not need.  The end result being that the Google schools are using online collaboration tools well and the Office365 schools are using OneDrive as a file store.  I'm not trying to throw shade on anyone's choices, but I am curious as to why you've decided on Office365 over other options.  Were you (the VLE / Frog champion) included in the decision?

For what it's worth, at Frog, I have access to both Office365 and G-Suite.  Personally, I find G-Suite much easier to use for collaboration, document editing/sharing etc... Office365 has some clunky features to it that slow down working.  But that's my personal opinion.  Everyone's choice is valid here.  

We perfectly fit the trend you have noticed. Indeed we did once use G-Suite, I really liked it.

[deanmoulder]

Any news/updates on this? 

[clangstaff]

On 4/22/2017 at 16:38, Graham Quince said:

Just out of interest, those of you who are using Office365, how much training time have your staff had? And does your school development plan include plans for use of online documents?

I ask because I'm noticing a trend in schools: those who have adopted G-Suite have ongoing training for their staff to show how to get the best out of the online tools, whereas those schools who have chosen Office365 have made their choices not based on classroom requirements as much as convenience of set up (I'm sure it's not the case for all) and the assumption that training is not need.  The end result being that the Google schools are using online collaboration tools well and the Office365 schools are using OneDrive as a file store.  I'm not trying to throw shade on anyone's choices, but I am curious as to why you've decided on Office365 over other options.  Were you (the VLE / Frog champion) included in the decision?

For what it's worth, at Frog, I have access to both Office365 and G-Suite.  Personally, I find G-Suite much easier to use for collaboration, document editing/sharing etc... Office365 has some clunky features to it that slow down working.  But that's my personal opinion.  Everyone's choice is valid here.  

@Graham Quince This is interesting to hear and I'd agree that Google is superior when it comes to collaboration - certainly with students anyway. This is because Office 365 have not made it easy for teachers to restrict what students can and cannot edit on a collaborative document. The Notebook in theory looks great but it's a lot of work to get running and who needs a lot of work in education?!?

For us the main benefit for using Office 365 over Google was to give all staff and students the ability to download the full office suite for free on up to 5 home devices. A big benefit within a school that a lot of students don't have access to Office from home.

Also at the time of our decision we had recently invested in ipads and although our requirements have since changed In order to access the Microsoft apps on ipads an Office 365 account was required. This is now not being heavily used as we are yet to find an ideal solution for work flow on ipads.

Withe regards to training sessions have been run at both schools I work at however it has very much been tailored to staff working collaboratively rather than staff working collaboratively with students.

[deanmoulder]

It's worth adding that we're in a bit of a fix about how to share files with students, we still use old shared network drives for the most part, and not many interactive Frog Sites or OneDrive. We're between IT strategies with having access to lots of great tools but still relying on the old ones as they work. 

[deanmoulder]

I missed the webinar, anyone give me an update on 365 integration? I'm dying to include this as part of a proposal to increase our use of Frog, and less use of Sharepoint (uck!)

[Graham Quince]

Here you go: