Office 365 Learning and Education Roundup

Do you ever find there's a lack of sufficient Office 365 technical and learning resources?

Yeah, me neither.

There is so much available it can be a real challenge to identify what is worth your time and what is not.  This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list but I'm going to hit some highlights of more useful resources.  Feel free to add your favorites down in the comments.

I've organized resources by category, beginning with introductory materials and ending with expert resources.

Happy learning!

For Beginners

Resource	Description	Usefulness
What is Office 365 for business?	Microsoft's Office 365 main product website is comprehensive with links to use cases, features, versions, pricing, and learning materials. It's a great place to start.	*****
Getting to know Office 365 eBook	Has very high level use cases for end users. Gives an idea about capabilities without going in to any details about specific functionality.	**
Quick Start to Office 365 for Small to Medium Businesses	A guide to introducing new users to Office 365 through Microsoft learning videos, e-mail campaigns and hands-on demonstrations.  Zipped guide e-mail templates, presentation, videos, etc.	***
Office 365 Midsize Business Quick Deployment Guide	An initial training resource for Office 365 admins that will be configuring the service. The guide covers simple new account topics like setting up e-mail services, managing licenses and adding users.	***
Microsoft Virtual Academy	The MVA is a fantastic resource for IT pros. A number of Office 365 courses are available including introductory guides, video training, hands-on virtual demos and more.	*****

Intermediate and Advanced

Resource	Description	Usefulness
Office 365 MCSA Certification	Achieve certification in Office 365. Concentrates on provisioning, identity management (DirSync), federation and single sign on (ADFS), and configuring the services. Instructor-led training is available from Microsoft Learning Partners to prepare.	****
MS Online Demo Solutions	This site has virtual click-through labs for Office 365 including for migration of users, enabling federation and more.  Unfortunately, the content is for an older version of the service and the 2010-level applications.  Still, it may be useful for those who don't have a demo environment and need more hands-on than the videos and documentation provide.	**
Office Ignite	Important resource! Events, in-depth videos and technical content for training administrators.  Much of the content is presented directly by Microsoft product managers, engineers and support staff.	*****
Office 365 Technical Network on Yammer	This is a great place to network with your peers, ask questions, and interact directly with Microsoft.	***
LinkedIn Office 365	The Microsoft Office page on LinkedIn with content shared from members.  Join the LinkedIn group for "Microsoft Office 365" as well to network with your peers.	****
Channel 9	View videos from Microsoft events - including product demonstrations, training videos and more.	***
Office 365 Garage Series	These are good videos for deeper technical dives in to particular Office 365 features. They highlight topics like compliance, what's new with SP1 for Exchange 2013, Yammer, OneDrive and more.	*****
Office Blogs	News about Office and Office 365... a good place to subscribe a RSS feed to.	***

I know that's a lot to absorb, but hopefully my descriptions and rankings will help you make sense of them somewhat.  This is by no means an exhaustive list... what did I miss?  I'll add the best ones in and update the article periodically.

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Upgrading Office 365 SharePoint Online Sites to Wave 15 (2013)

If your Office 365 tenant has just been upgraded you won't see the new SharePoint Online features unless you manually upgrade your existing sites to the new 2013 platform.  New features include:

• Better mobile experience
• eDiscovery
• Improved branding
• New Business Intelligence and Business Connectivity Services capabilities (limited in SharePoint Online)
• OneNote
• PowerShell for SharePoint Online
• Records Management & Compliance
• Revamped Office Web Apps
• Site Mailboxes
• SkyDrive Pro
• Social - including Yammer (the options for Yammer should show up by July for all tenants)
• Totally reworked external file sharing

For a more extensive education about the new features of SharePoint 2013 visit Capabilities and features in SharePoint 2013 on TechNet or specifically for SharePoint Online - What’s new in SharePoint Online–top 10.

* Note: Please keep in mind that you should always test changes in a separate environment where possible before making production system changes like this.  During the process you will be presented with an option to set up a demo site with the new features.  If you have questions about how upgrading the service will affect your content and existing SharePoint environment I recommend you test on the demo site before following these instructions. *

Here are the steps you follow to upgrade your SharePoint sites:

1. Log in to your Office 365 tenant
2. You should see a bell icon in the top navigation bar:

3. Click the bell icon and a drop-down box with additional information will appear:

4. Click on the link to "Start using them" - it will take you to the SharePoint admin console.  Or if you don't have the alert you can just choose the Admin link on the top navigation bar and click the SharePoint option:



5. On the SharePoint Site Collections page find a collection that lists 2010 in the version column:

6. Check the box next to the 2010 site collection you wish to upgrade:

7. Click the Upgrade button and select the option for "Site collection upgrade settings":

8. Click the "Link to upgrade page" and your upgrade page will open in a new window:

9. Click the "Upgrade this Site Collection" button to begin your upgrade.  If you want a demo upgrade to test your applications follow the link provided:

10. Click the "I'm ready" button in the confirmation window.  Note that you cannot go back once you have upgraded.

  

11.  Depending on how busy the Office 365 SharePoint automated upgrade service is you may see a notification that you are "Waiting to Upgrade."  The screen will update periodically and when its your turn to upgrade (generally just a few minutes later) you will be forwarded to the upgrade screen.

12. While your upgrade is in progress you'll see some statistics and when it finishes the screen will update to the completed screen.

13. Within just a few minutes you should see your upgrade complete successfully.  You'll be provided links to discover the new features of SharePoint 2013 or to just go to your newly upgraded site collection.

14. Go back to your SharePoint - Site Collections screen and repeat the process for each 2010 collection.  Keep in mind that you'll need to log in with an account that has admin permissions for each site collection you upgrade.

You're done!  Go explore the new features and enjoy SharePoint 2013!

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Partner Program and Office 365 Cert Update

* Microsoft released a new Cloud Productivity competency that mostly addresses the request I made.  See my update on the new competency at The New Cloud Productivity Competency for Office 365 Partners.

To update my previous post on this topic... Microsoft recently started a Yammer group for partners (request access here if you're a Microsoft Partner) where they asked for feedback on their Partner program and I suggested:

I'd like to see a better alignment between the competencies required for Cloud Deployment partner designation, the exams required to achieve them and the (lack of) certifications for Office 365. The current Office 365 exams are being retired but no replacements have been announced.

It seems to me that Office 365 tests would be a better fit for qualifying as a Cloud Deployment partner than the full Exchange on-premises tests which include much unnecessary content for even large and complicated cloud deployments and migrations.

The answer from Microsoft was:

Good feedback Scott. I hear you on this and we are driving for stronger alignment in the next 6 months.

I take that to mean that they are either revisiting the cloud program requirements or that they are developing Office 365-specific tests or both.  In any case, it sounds like good news to me.

Now we just need to be patient...

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