SharePoint vs Microsoft 365 Education
Last Updated:Our analysts compared SharePoint vs Microsoft 365 Education based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Collaboration Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.
Product Basics
Microsoft 365 Education is a comprehensive suite of tools designed to enhance the educational experience for students, educators, and administrators. It integrates productivity applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint with collaborative tools such as Teams, OneNote, and SharePoint. This platform is particularly suited for K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and educational organizations due to its robust features that support remote learning, classroom management, and administrative tasks.
One of the standout benefits of Microsoft 365 Education is its ability to facilitate seamless communication and collaboration among students and teachers. Features like real-time co-authoring, virtual classrooms, and assignment tracking streamline the educational process. Additionally, the platform's security and compliance measures ensure that sensitive educational data is protected.
Compared to similar products, users often highlight the intuitive interface and integration capabilities of Microsoft 365 Education. Pricing varies based on the specific needs and size of the institution, so it is recommended to contact SelectHub for a tailored quote.
Product Assistance
Product Insights
- Home Page: Locate sites easily within the organization, including news, followed and suggested sites. Create sites from the homepage with administrator permission. Store, create and retrieve data while managing content search, tags, information and documents.
- Lists: Support business processes by letting individual employees and teams share, access and collaborate for structured data and gather information from other systems. Simplify curation, creation and interaction with information.
- Site Pages: Share stories, display news items and broadcast messages on communication sites. Draw attention to important information by displaying up to five items with texts, images and links.
- Create New Pages: Construct fresh pages by customizing web parts according to requirements. Embed videos, attach documents, images, videos, site activities, Yammer feeds and more. Attach PowerPoint, Excel and Word documents while creating content.
- Powerful Search Engine: View results before typing and updated results while typing. Get an overview of search results grouped based on their type in the search results page.
- Interoperability: Integrate seamlessly with a range of Microsoft apps, including Office and 365, to enhance project delivery.
- Enhanced Collaboration: Microsoft 365 Education facilitates real-time collaboration among students and teachers through tools like Microsoft Teams, enabling seamless group projects and discussions.
- Accessibility Features: Built-in accessibility tools such as Immersive Reader and Dictation help ensure that all students, including those with disabilities, can participate fully in their education.
- Cost-Effective: Schools can save on software and hardware costs by leveraging cloud-based applications, reducing the need for expensive infrastructure.
- Data Security: Advanced security features protect sensitive student and staff data, ensuring compliance with educational data protection regulations.
- Streamlined Communication: Integrated email and calendar functions help streamline communication between teachers, students, and parents, making it easier to schedule meetings and share updates.
- Personalized Learning: Tools like OneNote and Microsoft Forms allow for personalized learning experiences, enabling teachers to tailor content to individual student needs.
- Professional Development: Access to a wide range of training resources and professional development courses helps educators stay current with the latest teaching strategies and technologies.
- Remote Learning Support: Comprehensive remote learning capabilities ensure that education can continue uninterrupted, regardless of physical location, through virtual classrooms and online assignments.
- Resource Management: Efficiently manage educational resources and materials with SharePoint, making it easier to organize and distribute content to students and staff.
- Scalability: Easily scalable to accommodate the needs of small schools to large educational institutions, ensuring that the software grows with your organization.
- Integration with Existing Systems: Seamlessly integrates with other educational tools and platforms, reducing the learning curve and enhancing overall productivity.
- Student Engagement: Interactive tools like Sway and PowerPoint help create engaging and dynamic presentations, capturing students' attention and enhancing learning outcomes.
- Time Management: Tools like Planner and To-Do help students and teachers manage their time effectively, keeping track of assignments, deadlines, and tasks.
- Environmental Impact: Reduces the need for paper-based materials, contributing to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly educational environment.
- Seamless Collaboration: Accelerate teamwork with dynamic team sites for every project, division and department. Easily share resources, files, news and data across teams. Streamline team tasks by customizing the site. Collaborate securely and effortlessly with people inside and outside the organization using any internet-connected device.
- Information Sharing: Improve transparency and cohesion by informing employees throughout the intranet. Share common applications and resources on home portals and enhance efficiency. Share organizational stories with communication sites and use apps to share targeted news items.
- Harness Knowledge: Discover insights, information and expertise with a powerful search engine to make informed decisions. Maximize knowledge velocity with valuable conversations and connections.
- Business Process Transformation: Transform business processes like approvals, notifications and complex workflows to enhance productivity. Use workflows, forms and custom apps to enhance the digital experience.
- Insights: Display data on a site by leveraging SQL and Excel servers and integrate with Microsoft Access. Leverage dashboards and KPIs to convert raw data into actionable insights to make smart business decisions.
- Customizations: Configure master pages and customize apps to enhance the look of the company’s web page. Customize pre-built templates or create fresh templates to create in-depth branding while maintaining consistency.
- Microsoft Teams Integration: Facilitates virtual classrooms, enabling real-time collaboration and communication among students and educators.
- OneNote Class Notebook: Provides a digital notebook for each student, allowing for personalized learning and easy sharing of notes and assignments.
- Office Suite Access: Includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other essential productivity tools, available both online and offline.
- Learning Tools: Features like Immersive Reader and Dictation support diverse learning needs, enhancing accessibility and comprehension.
- Assignments and Grades: Streamlines the creation, distribution, and grading of assignments within Microsoft Teams, offering a centralized platform for educators.
- Forms for Quizzes and Surveys: Enables the creation of interactive quizzes and surveys to assess student understanding and gather feedback.
- Stream for Video Content: Allows educators to upload, share, and manage video content securely, supporting flipped classroom models and remote learning.
- Planner and To-Do: Helps students and teachers organize tasks and manage projects efficiently, promoting better time management and productivity.
- Advanced Security Features: Includes data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and compliance with educational data protection regulations.
- Collaboration Spaces: Facilitates group projects and peer collaboration through shared documents and workspaces in OneDrive and SharePoint.
- Integration with Learning Management Systems (LMS): Seamlessly connects with popular LMS platforms like Moodle and Canvas, enhancing the overall learning experience.
- Analytics and Insights: Provides educators with data-driven insights into student performance and engagement, helping to tailor instruction to individual needs.
- Accessibility Features: Includes tools like screen readers, high contrast modes, and keyboard shortcuts to support students with disabilities.
- Professional Development Resources: Offers training and resources for educators to enhance their teaching skills and effectively integrate technology into their classrooms.
- Cloud Storage: Provides ample cloud storage through OneDrive, ensuring that students and educators can access their files from anywhere, at any time.
Product Ranking
#30
among all
Collaboration Software
#76
among all
Collaboration Software
User Sentiment Summary
13522 reviews
16018 reviews
SharePoint has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 82% when considering 13522 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.
Microsoft 365 Education has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 92% when considering 16018 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.
Awards
Microsoft 365 Education stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.
Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews
Can you pinpoint a time when SharePoint didn't live up to expectations? SharePoint receives generally positive feedback from users, who praise its robust document management, version control, and seamless integration with other Microsoft products. These features are highly valued because they streamline workflows and boost productivity for teams. Users particularly appreciate the centralized platform for document storage, collaborative features like team sites and discussion boards, and automation capabilities through Power Automate. The robust search functionality and customization options, including web parts and site templates, further enhance its appeal. However, some users have reported synchronization issues when co-authoring large Excel files, which can be a major drawback for teams heavily reliant on Excel collaboration. Additionally, some users find the user interface outdated, although still relatively user-friendly. Overall, SharePoint is best suited for teams and organizations seeking a comprehensive platform for document management, collaboration, and automation. Its tight integration with the Microsoft ecosystem makes it a natural choice for organizations already invested in Microsoft products. However, teams heavily reliant on real-time collaboration in Excel might need to consider workarounds or alternative solutions to mitigate the synchronization issues.
Is Microsoft 365 Education a gold star student in the digital classroom, or is it headed for detention? User reviews from the past year suggest that this software suite is a high achiever, particularly lauded for its robust features that empower educators to create dynamic and personalized learning experiences. For instance, OneNote, a standout tool within the suite, enables real-time lesson customization and student engagement, leading to improved learning outcomes. Users consistently highlight the platform's collaborative capabilities as a key strength, drawing parallels to Google Workspace. The seamless integration of applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams, particularly within Windows-based environments, facilitates a fluid workflow for both educators and students. Security is another area where Microsoft 365 Education shines, with robust measures like data encryption and multi-factor authentication providing peace of mind. However, some users have voiced concerns about the challenges of maintaining synchronization with in-house applications due to frequent updates. The sheer breadth of features can also feel overwhelming at times, particularly for educators who are less tech-savvy. Overall, Microsoft 365 Education emerges as a comprehensive and secure platform tailored for the modern educational landscape. Its strength lies in its ability to foster engaging learning experiences, streamline collaboration, and alleviate security concerns. While the learning curve and integration hiccups might pose initial hurdles, the platform's benefits far outweigh its drawbacks, making it an ideal choice for institutions seeking a future-ready solution to elevate their educational endeavors.
Screenshots
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