Features
SharePoint Online is an Microsoft 365 application that allows users to easily create websites for sharing information and tracking and collaborating on projects. SharePoint Online offers many out of the box features to help users share, organize and discover information which is relevant to a department, team or project.
Some of the most commonly used SharePoint collaboration features are summarized below:
| Feature | Purpose | Examples | Level of effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| OneDrive for Business | Sharing content for personal use or small groups. Management of content and permissions is mostly limited to the owner of the OneDrive library. | Working on documents with a small team for time limited project. Access to content is narrow and typically controlled by the OneDrive owner. | No training required |
| SharePoint team sites | Sharing content, tasks, calendars and contacts with a defined team where the members are more defined and the project will continue for a longer period of time. Some of the more advanced features of SharePoint Online, such as content types or workflow are needed. There are several owners of the site who can grant and deny permissions to content as the team changes. | A project team which goes across a number of departments in the university. Ownership of the site is centralized among several members of the team. The project is longer term and the membership and ownership of the site could change over time. Advanced features of SharePoint, such as workflow are required. | Some effort required to understand SharePoint features, such as lists/libraries, sharing /permissions, views. |
| Department Intranet sites | Sites for internal access to department files in document libraries, tasks in lists, shared calendars for resource scheduling. The Department sites primary purpose is to facilitate work and collaboration efforts. The sites are not public facing, although they could be shared with other external users who have Microsoft accounts. | An internal (not public) intranet site for a University department or unit, which is primarily used to share content among members of the department, or possibly content which needs to be accessed by other departments. Department sites can make use of more advanced features of SharePoint Online, such as workflows, retention, content types and metadata. | Level of effort depends on purpose of site and what the department wants to accomplish. Existing department sites typically store documents, resource lists, announcements and calendars. |
Resources
- CU Boulder - SharePoint User Group in Teams
- What's new in SharePoint Online
- SharePoint Online Learning Center - Get started with SharePoint
- Learning SharePoint Online Training (LinkedIn Learning)
- SharePoint Tutorial Collection (LinkedIn Learning)
SharePoint Accessibility
CU Boulder is committed to providing help information and assistance with campus services for all users, including those with accessibility concerns. SharePoint accessibility considerations, information for content creators, alternatives/workarounds, and more can be found on the SharePoint Accessibility page.
