Its that time of year again where we are looking at the end of year processes for IT which includes archiving user data, moving those users, upgrading system and taking a little break from staff knocking at the door for help <– never an issue but it is nice to have a break ;-).
Microsoft School Data Sync users your classes for that academic year so we have an end of year process we need to complete for us to be ready to add the following years classes to the system.
When you set up your current profile you would have been asked for an end of year date. At the end of this date, this changes your profile into a new state ready for the archive process. I often pick a date towards the end of August, after results day in the UK so any Teams are still available as they were throughout the year for the teachers wanting to check anything for GCSE or A Level students.
The day after the date you have set the profile changes into a locked state, and you are presented with the ability to archive the profile with three different options as part of this archive process. These are:
- Mark Classes Expired
- Archive Teams
- Remove Students from Classes
Mark Classes Expired
This will change the alias and email address of the Office 366 Group (that underpins Teams) to include expmmyy allowing anyone using this information with third parts to easily filter the classes
Archive Teams
Once a class Team has been archived it will be moved to a drop down in your Microsoft Teams client which is called Archived. This will help you to separate between your previous year classes and current academic year.
Remove Students from Classes
This is the most important decision to make for your staff, do you want students to be able to see their work from previous years? Is it important for them to go back to previous years to help with revision? It might be worth checking with your lead educator around ICT across the school to see what the preference is.
Good luck with the changes, if you have any questions please let me know via Twitter @alex_pearce or add me on LinkedIn (Alex Pearce) and happy to help where I can.