Microsoft 365 (MS365) groups are collaborative groups created in Microsoft 365 intended for collaboration within Davidson College. Each group has an assigned email address that can be used in a variety of functions within outlook. They offer many collaborative tools in a single space, but these options can be overwhelming at times.
MS365 groups are just one of many options for email based collaboration here at Davidson. To learn more, check out our complete guide.
Table of Contents
Features of MS365 groups
- Self Management
- Shared Mailboxes
- Listserv capabilities
- Shared Calendar
- Additional Microsoft tools (Planner and Teams)
Accessing Your Groups
Management
- Create a new group
- Managing members
- Leaving a group you are a member of
- Allow external mail
- Send mail to inboxes
- Send Emails from shared mailbox Address
Features of MS365 Groups
Self Management
Perhaps one of the biggest features of a MS365 groups is the ability to manage the group without requesting T&I to make changes on your behalf. You can create the group, add and remove others, and even transfer ownership of the group.
This also means that members can more easily opt-out of the group on their own when they’d prefer to.
Shared Mailbox
Each MS365 group has an associated email address, which functions as a shared mailbox. This means all members of the group can view any messages sent to the email address.
If you will need to also send from the associated shared email address, please contact T&I to explore options in more detail.
Listserv Capabilities
You can also enable mail sent to the shared mailbox to show up in member’s individual email mailboxes. This functions identically to a listserv in practice, meaning if you were to email the group ‘Test Group’ at ‘testgroup@davidson.edu’, it would go both to the ‘Test Group’ shared mailbox, and the individual mailboxes of each member.
You can configure this for the group as a whole, and individual members can opt-out of these emails if they’d prefer.
Shared Calendar
Each MS365 group also has a shared calendar. This means groups can have a calendar of important dates and events without the calendar being tied to an individual. This is important as calendars owned by individuals cannot be transferred to others if they depart the college, or simply are not longer a member of the working group.
Additional Microsoft tools (Planner and Teams)
Microsoft 365 has an abundance of products available, and tools such as Microsoft Planner and Microsoft Teams are inherently available for any MS365 group created.
Davidson college has not disabled these tools, as a few members of the campus actively use them. However, please note that support for these tools is limited here at Davidson if you do choose to use them.
Accessing Your Groups
You can access MS365 groups from both Webmail, the Outlook desktop application,and Outlook mobile app. While you are able to access the group from all these options, T&I highly recommends managing the group solely through Webmail
Webmail
Viewing and managing groups on Webmail is down through the ‘People’ tab of Webmail.
First, head to outlook.davidson.edu and sign in with your Davidson email address and password.
In the Left-hand side menu, select the People icon.
Under the People tab, select Groups.
Here, you can see each of the groups, sorted by which you are a member of and which you are an owner of. Selecting the group allows you to see the members, mailbox, and shared calendar of the group. For groups you are an owner of, you can also manage it as necessary.
Desktop Application
On the Outlook desktop application, the “groups” drop down can be found directly within your personal mailbox tab. By default, it can be found underneath the “Sent” folder, but you may find you need to scroll to the bottom of the left-hand menu if you have multiple email folders.
Management
T&I highly recommends that all management of MS365 groups be done on the web version of outlook. As such, these instructions are tailored to the web experience.
Create a new group
First, Navigate to the ‘People’ Section of webmail (outlook.davidson.edu)
Select the New Contact dropdown, then select New Group
You will first be prompted to create a name and description for your group. Once you type in a name, the system will automatically turn the name into an email address. You can then change the email address to be different if desired.
Please avoid creating an additional/similarly named group if your group’s name or email address is already taken. If you should be the owner/manager of a pre-existing group, please contact T&I before creating a duplicate.
You can also edit privacy settings, such as setting the group to Public so it can be searched for and found by others.
Once the group is created, you can move on to managing Members.
Managing members
First, Navigate to the Groups>Owner section of the People tab on webmail, and select the group you want to manage.
Under this group, select the Members tab.
To add new members, use the Add Members button
To remove a member of the group, search for their name, then press the x on the far right of the list and confirm.
To transfer ownership, or create additional owners, search for their name, then select the Role dropdown, and change their role from Member to Owner. If transferring ownership, you can then remove yourself from the group.
Leaving a group you are a member of
If you no longer wish to be a member of a group, first head to Webmail (outlook.davidson.edu), and select the People tab on the left hand side.
Then, select Groups>Member
In the list of groups, right-click the group you wish to leave, and select Leave Group.
Want to stay in the group, but tired of receiving every single email? If you instead right click on the group, and select “stop following”, you will remain in the group but no longer receive emails. You can always come back to this page and follow later to receive emails again.
Allow external mail
Owners of a group can choose to allows email addresses outside of Davidson to email the group address.
From the Group>Owners section of the People tab, right click on the group and select Edit
In this menu, Check the box ‘Let people outside the organization email the group’
Send mail to inboxes
As detailed, you can elect to have members of the group receive emails sent to the group address directly into their mailbox (similar to the functions of a listserv/Distribution group)
To do so, head to the Group>Owners section of the People tab, right click on the group and select Edit
In this menu, check the Subscription box.
Send emails from shared mailbox address
At this time, Access to send mail from the attached email address must be granted by T&I. Please first email us at ti@davidson.edu to be granted access.
Once access is granted, you can send emails from the mailbox by changing the ‘from’ line while drafting your email. If you don’t see the ‘From’ line, head to Options in the upper toolbar, and make sure it’s selected as a visible field. Then, Select the drop down or manually type the address of the mailbox you’d like to send from.