IT Advisory Community: Collaboration Tools
The Collaboration Tools Advisory Community is open to OHIO students, faculty, and staff who have an interest in collaboration tools including chat, remote meetings, intranets, and storage solutions.
At a glance
Discussed digital clutter and motivators or obstacles to dealing with unneeded data
Hosted discussion regarding cloud storage tools and participants' behavior using these tools
Collected participant's behavior and needs related to hybrid meetings
Product roadmap
IT Product roadmaps display where we currently are and where we expect to be in the coming months and years in regards to technology at Ohio University. This Advisory Community is one of the major channels that influences the roadmap and IT's future work for the service.
To view the Collaboration and Storage roadmap, navigate to our IT Product roadmaps webpage. Under Available roadmaps, in the Product dropdown menu, select Collaboration and Storage.
Recent activity
Advisory communities not only provide a means for participants to engage with OHIO IT, but they also provide a platform for faculty, staff, and students to influence technology decisions based on their needs and experiences. In the past several months, this advisory community has:
- Hosted a rich discussion regarding cloud storage tools, such as OneDrive and SharePoint, and gathered insight into participants' behavior with these tools. The feedback gathered has justified the need for a OneDrive/SharePoint retention policy to be created and implemented. Additionally, the service team will use the information gathered to create better educational materials for these cloud storage tools.
- Collected a detailed list of current behavior and technology needs related to hybrid meetings. Collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Teams, play a vital role in supporting hybrid meetings and activities (meetings in which at least one attendee is participating remotely and two or more attendees are co-located in a physical space). By documenting participants' behavior in hybrid meetings and current or anticipated needs, IT can enhance our collaboration tools to best support how faculty, staff, and students are utilizing them for hybrid meetings and activities.
- Indicated a desire to participate in an upcoming IT Teaching Technologies Survey. This survey is still in draft status but is planned to examine teaching technologies broadly and their value to faculty and instructors. Advisory community participants expressed that the timing of the survey carries importance; if too much time has lapsed between using technologies and completing the survey, participants are likely to forget their frustrations and successes.
How to participate
Advisory Community meetings are flexible and open. Anyone can attend. To get the most of the experience, we recommend joining a special Microsoft Team that we have created to keep track of community-related conversations, documents, and meeting dates.
How to join the Microsoft Team
- Sign up for the Collaboration Tools Advisory Community on Microsoft Teams.
- When prompted, either:
- Download the Teams app, or
- Use the web app instead
- Check your email for a welcome message with more information on how to get the most out of the online group.
Any time the community meets, an online meeting space will be available inside of Microsoft Teams that you can use to participate remotely. The community's space in Teams can be used to conduct chat-based conversations outside of scheduled meetings.
We also will post relevant files in the Team, such as agendas and minutes.
How to add Advisory Community meetings to your Outlook calendar
Once you have joined the Community on Teams:
- Locate a post with a purple calendar invite.
- Select the calendar invite and click Add to calendar.
Meeting schedule
Meetings will take place at least once per quarter with additional sessions scheduled as needed to accommodate time-sensitive discussions or to address demand. The three most recent meetings are listed below.
| Date | Time | Location | Agenda & Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02/08/2024 | 2-3 pm | Teams Meeting | |
| 09/21/2023 | 2-3 pm | Teams Meeting | |
| 02/23/2023 | 2-3 pm | Teams Meeting |