Do you need to organise and work with a team on a project? Office 365 Groups is a collaborative tool, enabling you to work collectively when writing documents, creating spreadsheets, working on project plans and scheduling meetings.

The benefits of using Groups in Office 365

Members of a created group will have access to a shared:

• Inbox for group conversations.
• Calendar that all members can see and contribute to.
• Files Library in SharePoint to store, share, and collaborate on documents, workbooks, presentations, or just about any kind of file.
• OneNote notebook to gather ideas, collaborate and store research/meeting notes.

How to access Groups in Office 365

1. Sign in to your Office 365 account with your username in the format universityID@newcastle.ac.uk and your university password. e.g. nmc84@newcastle.ac.uk or b1013456@newcastle.ac.uk
2. In the list on the left you should see an expandable section called 'Groups' with options to ‘Discover’ or ‘Create’ Groups.

Using Groups in Office 365

Create a group in: Outlook on the web | Outlook 2016

Join a group in: Outlook on the web | Outlook 2016

Have a group conversation in: Outlook on the web | Outlook 2016

Schedule a meeting on a group calendar in: Outlook on the web | Outlook 2016

Share group files in: Outlook on the web | Outlook 2016

Where is Groups data stored?

Groups data is stored in Ireland.

Expiration of Inactive Groups

Renewal notifications are emailed to group owners 30 days, 15 days, and one day prior to group expiration. Group owners must have Exchange licenses to receive notification emails. If a group is not renewed, it is deleted along with its associated content from sources such as Outlook, SharePoint, Teams, and PowerBI.

Orphaned Groups

If a group owner leaves the group and there are no other owners the group becomes orphaned. Existing members of the group can request to be elevated to an owner by contacting it.servicedesk@newcastle.ac.uk

Things to consider

Time Sensitive Group Projects: Consider creating a  Microsoft Team for your group. This further enhances group collaboration by offering instant messaging on desktop and mobile in addition to the ability to schedule video meetings and screen sharing.

Audience:  Groups/teams can be made public or private and you can invite members outside of the University to a group or team.

Group/Team Name:  Searchable to all staff and students within the University so please take care when naming your group.

Spring Cleaning: Leave the Office as you found it by deleting your inactive groups.

Make it Private and add a Description:  Add a description to your private group as this will help prevent unwanted joining requests from staff and students.

Group Members Visibility:  Staff and students can see who is a member of a group, even if it is private.

Accessing Groups from Campus Desktop: You can access Groups through Outlook on the desktop providing you are running Office 2016 or greater and have cached exchanged-mode turned on.