“It should do everything that pantherLINK does and more,” Kavanagh said.Īccording to a summary posted on the UWM Campus IT Project website, an email and calendar evaluation took place on UWM Campus to decide between using Google Apps for Education or Microsoft Office 365 in 2013 between September and January. Interim Director Jim Kavanagh from the Letters and Science IT Office said that using Microsoft Office 365 will be much easier on mobile devices than pantherLINK.
Office 365 uwm for free#
Microsoft Office Mobile is currently only available for free on iOS 7 devices and Android phones with at least a 4.4 update. “We need something new, bigger and quicker,” Jordan said.Īnother offer for students is the access to the cloud service and being able to access documents and messages from up to five mobile devices.
Office 365 uwm software#
Jordan is looking forward to the new software and has a lot of confidence in the tech people working on the project. “Just an email name.” With the new video chat feature, Jordan will be able to get a sense of the student and their appearance if they are comfortable with it. “Sometimes I don’t see my students,” Jordan said. One of the online courses Jordan teaches is Communications 335: Critical Analysis of Communication and he never gets to meet those students. Jordan sees the implementation as a way to encourage students to communicate with him more often and to feel comfortable to do so. Being able to put a personality and a face to papers would allow him to professors to get to know his students and in return, students will feel comfortable asking questions. Associate Professor and Chair of the UWM IT Policy meetings, John Jordan is one of the many professors who teaches online courses. The idea of holding web conferences and instant messaging opens up a new path for students and professors to easily communicate. “It would alleviate the awkwardness of raising your hand in class.” “I personally wouldn’t feel awkward skyping with my professor, especially during finals,” Ortiz said. Norma Ortiz, a senior at UWM, said she wouldn’t mind using Skype or sending an instant message to her teacher. “Part of the challenge is we have different audiences with different needs,” In order to appeal to students and their needs, Office 365 also has instant messaging and the ability to hold web conferences and video chat with classmates and professors.
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Morse does face some challenges as to how to make Office 365 more appealing to students. Other steps involved in alerting the campus are hanging up posters throughout various campus buildings, offering hands on classes and posting notices on the UWM Learning TECHniques Facebook page.Įmail and calendar migration appeals to staff and faculty more as that is the primary way of communicating with students or setting up meetings. “We’re trying to do as much as we possibly can, given the resources we have,” Morse said. There are currently five teams and 100 people involved in the project. Microsoft Office 365 will take time to get used to but the increase of storage and low costs of maintenance helped in choosing 365 in the end.īobby Jo Morse, the manager of the UITS department, began leading the project between late August and early September of 2013. 51 percent of students preferred Google Apps based on familiarity and the ability to access the service with smart phones. The results from the evaluation proved that price played the biggest factor in reaching a final decision to choose Microsoft Office 365. Office Online will allow students to edit and share documents, PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets and notes using a web browser instead of the application itself which does not have to be installed to function. Office 365 will include the ability to have web conferences, instant messaging and the use of Office Online. Microsoft Office 365 is a cloud-based server with over 50GB of storage for email and creating appointments by calendar is faster and more efficient.
Students and staff will have more storage space for calendar appointments, email and will be able to use IM and video chat with teachers. The University Information Technology Department has reached the decision to begin implementing Office 365 software for students, faculty and staff by summer 2014.