HCOM File Storage and Collaboration Best Practices

Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine recommends faculty, staff, and students utilize Microsoft’s OneDrive, MS Teams, and SharePoint Cloud applications to store and share data.  This ensures retention of data in the event of an end user’s device failure.  The following article outlines HCOM’s approach to OneDrive best practices.  Please reach out to us at HCOMTech@ohio.edu to create a ticket if you need assistance or experience technical issues.

OneDrive Basics

• Store all files in onedrive.ohio.edu. 
• Visit Getting Started with OneDrive for OneDrive basics.
• Follow HIPAA and FERPA guidelines regarding OneDrive Sensitive Data best practices.

OneDrive Sync

• For personal files, most individuals prefer to utilize OneDrive Sync to synchronize data with Microsoft’s Cloud storage. 
• For SharePoint accounts including OneDrive and Microsoft Teams shared accounts, we recommend accessing and working with files directly within Microsoft’s cloud instead of using OneDrive Sync.
• If you begin the process of Syncing a SharePoint group and decide to stop syncing or to change which files, folders, or SharePoint Groups to Synchronize, do NOT stop the process of syncing and do NOT delete the files from your device. Allow the synchronization to finish before attempting any changes.
• To stop synchronizing selected locations files and folders, choose the OneDrive icon in your system’s Taskbar, and choose the Gear icon in the upper right corner, then Settings. 
• If you experience issues with SharePoint, submit a ticket by emailing hcomtech@ohio.edu for assistance.

OneDrive Recovery

• For OneDrive Recovery options, please see this article for Restoring Deleted Files in MS SharePoint and Teams.

Installing Microsoft 365

• Ohio University's Microsoft 365-licensed students, faculty, and staff can install Microsoft Office 365 on up to five devices.  See OIT’s Knowledge Base for Microsoft 365 instructions.

MS Teams

HCOM relies heavily on MS Teams for collaboration and every day communication among departments, labs, and HCOM-sponsored communities and activities.

• To get started, visit MS Teams Basics tutorial.
• To download MS Teams, visit Microsoft's Teams website.
• MS Teams Tutorials and Videos are valuable resources.  Choose "Resources" in the menu on Microsoft's Teams website. 
• To request a new MS Team for your group, please email hcomtech@ohio.edu with the following information:

  • Division or College:  HCOM

  • Department:  For an organization, this should be the sponsoring department.

  • Preferred Display Name:  A short, descriptive name of your Group "HCOM-".  The Group's shared email address will be based on this name.

  • Purpose of Group/Team: 

  • Will the Group be used to store sensitive data (HIPAA, FERPA, PHI, etc.)? 

  • Group Owner(s):  The Name and Ohio email address of at least two people who will be responsible for managing Group membership.

Additional MS Teams Help Articles

• OneDrive Lunch and Learn Video.
• Several YouTube videos are available that cover both basic and advanced features of Microsoft products. We encourage you search those on your own.