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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

McMaster Student Mail: Microsoft 365 Email and Calendaring Migration

Status History

In-Review January 4, 2021
Approved January 21, 2021
In-Progress May 20, 2021

McMaster student email is currently provided through a Gmail account powered by Google Apps for Education. In addition, all active students are granted license to the Microsoft 365 suite of products, which include an email service, Exchange online. However, Exchange online is currently inactive for students. Moving student email services into McMaster’s Microsoft 365 platform would encourage students to use the full integrated capabilities of the MS 365 suite of products and tools provided and enable cross collaboration between all McMaster constituents.

Instructors and staff recently had their email and calendar services successfully migrated to Exchange online and have been using the collaboration and integrated functionalities that come with the Microsoft 365 suite of products. Faculty members who are using MS Teams for delivering synchronous teaching have found that having their email and calendar integrated with MS Teams allows them to use other functionalities and allows for integrated file sharing, and easier scheduling of class sessions in their calendar. Having students in the same platform will improve the ability of instructors to interact with their Teaching Assistants and Graduate students, as well as undergraduate students.

This project will activate the Exchange online email service for all active students who currently have a McMaster Gmail account. The student population conversion planning to begin in late Spring/early Summer of 2021. Continued access to the Google Apps for Education environment will be available for a period of time so students can access and transfer their data from G-Suite. A robust migration strategy will be ready to share by early April 2021 after reviewing student email account administration processes and once discussions with Microsoft and other universities are completed.

All clubs and 99% of student email accounts have been successfully migrated.

Project status reports can be found here.

Project information, pre-migration and post-migration tips for students can be found on the Office 365 Hub.