SharePoint Online Administrator: Teaching Tips

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  Lab Environment: Teaching Tips for Shared Tenant Lab Environment

The lab environment for this course uses a shared Microsoft 365 tenant. Each student will be provided with a temporary user account to complete lab exercises. Students get access to the account based on their email address, courseware redemption, and in certain cases "class start and end dates". This setup introduces certain constraints. The following tips will help instructors guide learners effectively and avoid common issues.

The temporary lab accounts provided for this course are licensed under Microsoft 365 Business Standard. This license includes access to core services such as SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Exchange, and Microsoft Teams, as well as Office web apps. While it supports most of the functionality needed for completing course labs, certain advanced features such as Power BI Pro, eDiscovery, or Compliance Center tools are not included by default. Instructors should be aware of these limitations when preparing labs that require enterprise-level capabilities.

Helpful Tips for Instructors

  • Set Expectations Early:

    Inform students that they will be working within a shared environment with temporary accounts. Make it clear that certain advanced administrative functions (such as setting tenant-wide policies, configuring eDiscovery, or modifying global security settings) may be restricted. This helps prevent frustration and sets a realistic tone for the labs.

  • Use Unique Naming:

    To avoid conflicts with other students, encourage learners to add a unique identifier (such as their initials or assigned number) to everything they create site collections, lists, term sets, etc. For example: Intranet-JS or HRDocs-Sam01. This ensures their work remains distinct and easily identifiable.

  • One Student Per Account:

    Reinforce that each student must use their assigned credentials only. Sharing accounts or cross-logging in can cause confusion and may result in labs not functioning as expected. Students get access to the account based on their email, courseware redemption, and in certain cases "class start and end dates".

  • Avoid Global Configuration Changes:

    Unless the lab specifically requires it, students should avoid editing shared configuration areas such as the term store, search schema, or admin center policies. Unauthorized changes can affect other learners or future sessions. Treat these areas as read-only unless instructed otherwise.

  • Prepare for Delays:

    Explain that some updates in Microsoft 365 take time to propagate. For example, changes to user profiles, search indexing, or audience targeting may not be visible right away. Encourage students to complete these labs early in the day so they can revisit results later in the course.

  • Provide Fallback Materials:

    Keep screenshots, instructor demos, or recorded walkthroughs handy for any labs that may be blocked by tenant restrictions. Having alternatives ready ensures you can still demonstrate the concept even if execution is partially limited.

  • Clean Up When Possible:

    Where feasible, assign cleanup tasks at the end of the session. Have students delete unused sites, documents, or lists they created. This keeps the tenant tidy and reduces confusion for the next class using the same environment. Automated cleanup is scheduled for two days after class so let students know their work will be removed after class.

  • Clarify the Learning Objective:

    Remind learners that the focus of the labs is to understand workflows, configuration steps, and administrative intent not necessarily to see perfect execution in every case. If a feature doesn’t behave as expected, use it as a discussion point rather than a roadblock.

Not Using Our Lab? Requirements for Running the Course Without a Shared Tenant

If you plan to deliver the SharePoint Online Administrator course using your own Microsoft 365 environment (instead of our shared tenant), you’ll need to prepare the following components to ensure all labs function as intended:

1. Microsoft 365 Tenant Type

  • A paid Microsoft 365 tenant is required (Microsoft 365 E5 or equivalent recommended).
  • Students will need a credit card for free trials.
  • Free trials often lack key services such as Power Platform, Compliance Center, and advanced SharePoint admin features.

2. User Accounts Setup

  • Provision one user account per student with the SharePoint license assigned.
  • Ensure OneDrive is provisioned for each account to support labs in Modules 1, 8, and 9.
  • At least one account should have SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator privileges to complete:
    • Site collection creation
    • Search schema edits
    • Compliance Center labs (DLP, eDiscovery)

3. Power Platform Licensing

  • Labs in Modules 4 and 8 require:
    • Power Automate
    • Power Apps
    • Power BI (Power BI Pro required for publishing dashboards)
  • Ensure these services are enabled and licensed for all student accounts.

4. Pre-Configured Services

  • SharePoint Admin Center must be enabled and accessible.
  • App Catalog should be created and populated for app-related labs.
  • Term Store must be enabled for metadata and content type management.
  • Compliance Center should have DLP, retention, and eDiscovery features turned on.
  • Delve has been deprecated in v3.2, but residual profile content may still appear unless filtered.

5. Connectivity & Tools

  • Install necessary PowerShell modules on lab machines or VMs:
    • PnP.PowerShell
    • Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell
  • Use a modern browser (e.g., Edge or Chrome) that supports multiple profiles.
  • Ensure login access works with MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) if it is enabled.

6. Content Cleanup & Isolation

  • Plan for lab resets or manual cleanup between sessions to keep the tenant organized.
  • Advise students to use unique prefixes in naming (e.g., “Project-X-JS”) to avoid naming conflicts.