Microsoft 365 (M365)
Microsoft 365 (M365) is a commercial subscription hosted by Microsoft and is a suite of applications available via the cloud or for download to a local device. Okanagan College employees and students currently enrolled in courses have access to this service. This educational subscription includes access to the core Office products (Word/Excel/PowerPoint/OneNote) as well as cloud based services such as Outlook, Teams and OneDrive. Additional products such as Access and Publisher may be available for download.
College email services for both staff and students are through M365.
While the cloud based service supports both Windows and Apple based devices there may be some limits for locally downloaded software. (i.e. Access is not available for Apple)
Accessing M365
M365 is a cloud based service hosted by Microsoft and is accessed externally to OC via Microsoft's M365 website at www.office.com
In order to identify yourself for the Okanagan College subscription service you MUST login using a college associated email address and your OC network password (this is the same password you would use for myOkanagan or Moodle).
For students the username is your myOkanagan email address is usually in the form firstname.lastname@myokanagan.bc.ca
In cases where a second student has the same first and last name combination an additional numeric digit will be added after the lastname - john.smith1@myokanagan.bc.ca
For staff the username is your college email address usually in the form FirstinitialLastname@okanagan.bc.ca
In cases where a second staff member has the same first initial and last name combination a middle initial is typically added - JBSmith@okanagan.bc.ca
Once logged in you can check what account you are using by clicking the round circle with your initials in the top-right corner. It will show you the name and email address used to login. If you see a personal email such a gmail or hotmail account then you are not logged in using the college provided subscription and will not have the services or email access you expect.
Downloading M365 to your device
M365 is a cloud based services hosted by Microsoft and is accessed externally to OC via Microsoft's M365 website at www.office.com this cloud based service is only available to you while connected to the Internet and may have associated data costs based on your personal Internet provider.
To work offline or to avoid data charges you can download and install a local copy of Office products provided your device supports them. Some devices with older versions of Windows or Apple OS may need to upgrade their operating system separate from this process. The download is the latest available version of Microsoft products and therefore may require fairly current hardware to run effectively. After this install this local copy can then work 'offline', however it will periodically check online to confirm that your subscription is still valid (i.e you are still currently associated with OC)
In addition some software available through the subscription is not available in the cloud but is available for a local install. Current examples of this are Access and Publisher. Some software, notably Access, is not available for Apple computers.
The number of allotted downloads are limited and tracked by Microsoft to prevent piracy. In addition activation requires your college associated email address. The terms of service of both your usage agreement with Microsoft and your account usage agreement with the college prohibit the sharing of these services with others as either shared install files or shared passwords.
STAFF - College employees are eligible for downloads for personal home use during your term of employment. In order to keep the limited number of installs available for your home use please do not use this download process to install Microsoft products on any college owned devices. There is a separate licensing scheme for that purpose.
To Download:
- Login to www.office.com using your college associated email address.
- In the top right corner or the screen will be a drop menu labeled Install Office - click it and follow the provided prompts and instructions. (see image below)
Alumni
Access to the full subscription service starts with the first eligible course registration and ends after the final day of the last course. Thus Alumni are no longer eligible for the full suite of services or licensing of any locally installed products and should investigate MS public subscription services.
Microsoft does provide a legacy service and you will find that your cloud based email (Outlook) and file storage (OneDrive) will continue after course completion.
End of Employment
Due to the high level of student and corporate data and service access that staff enjoy, with the end of active employment all services including email and cloud based file will also be suspended. Term staff will not have access between semesters. Should you need access for course prep before official start of class or additional time at end of term and find you do not have expected access please contact your Department or Faculty office.
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