Microsoft OneDrive/SharePoint overview in education

2025-08-22

Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint (ODSP) are key components of the education offering for the Microsoft ecosystem. SharePoint and OneDrive in Microsoft 365 are cloud-based services that help organizations share and manage content, knowledge, and applications to:

Empower teamwork
Quickly find information
Seamlessly collaborate across the organization

This article provides an overview of resources for SharePoint and OneDrive in Microsoft 365 that can help you get started with these services.

Roles and responsibilities

IT Admin
Identity Admin
OneDrive Admin
SharePoint Admin
EXO Admin

Governance

The following links can be used in moving your organization's files to SharePoint and OneDrive from other locations. If your organization has legal or other requirements that govern the handling of data, or if you have sensitive or confidential information that you want to protect, these references can help you configure SharePoint for your governance standards and policies.

If you're looking for this information	Go to this resource:
How to plan your compliance requirements for SharePoint and OneDrive	Plan compliance requirements for SharePoint and OneDrive
How to ensure that you retain files for a specified period of time, or delete them on a specified schedule	Overview of retention and deletion policies
How to classify documents based on the sensitivity of the information	Overview of sensitivity labels
How to prevent the loss or exfiltration of important data in documents emails	Learn data loss prevention
Search for in-place items such as email, documents, and instant messaging conversations	Content Search in Microsoft 365

If you use OneDrive in your organization and you want to protect important files by saving them to the cloud, govern how much storage space users get, or govern how users sync file, these references can help you configure your policies.

If you're looking for this information	Go to this resource:
Protect important files on users' desktops or in their Documents folder	Redirect and move Windows known folders to OneDrive and Redirect and move macOS Desktop and Documents folders to OneDrive
Control how users sync files to their devices	Use Group Policy to control OneDrive sync settings and Deploy and configure the OneDrive sync app for Mac
Configure the amount of storage space users have in OneDrive	Configure Default Storage Space for OneDrive users

Microsoft Teams integration

SharePoint is deeply integrated into Teams. Files that are stored in Teams are stored in SharePoint sites. When you administer SharePoint sites in the SharePoint admin center, you might find that many of them are connected to teams. Use these resources to understand how SharePoint and Teams are integrated.

If you're looking for this information	Go to this resource:
Learn about how Teams and SharePoint work together	Overview of Teams and SharePoint integration
Learn how to manage settings and permissions when Teams and SharePoint are integrated together	Manage settings and permissions when SharePoint and Teams are integrated

Note

For education scenarios:

Collaboration

SharePoint and OneDrive provide a rich collaboration environment where people inside and outside your organization can work together, coauthoring documents. Microsoft 365 provides various options to help you create a secure and productive file collaboration environment that meets the needs of your organization. Use these resources to get started.

If you're looking for this information	Go to this resource:
Learn about secure collaboration in Microsoft 365	Set up secure collaboration with Microsoft 365
Learn about file collaboration and how to plan your implementation	Intro to file collaboration in Microsoft 365
Learn about collaborating with people outside your organization	External sharing overview
Use the security and compliance features in Microsoft 365 to help secure your guest sharing environment	Create a secure guest sharing environment

Modern intranet

SharePoint provides a rich set of tools to help you create and maintain your organization's intranet. Use these resources to get started.

If you're looking for this information	Go to this resource:
Learn about the different types of SharePoint sites	Plan your SharePoint site
Select whether to allow users to create their own sites	Manage site creation
Learn how to plan an intelligent intranet for your organization	Plan an intelligent SharePoint intranet

Customizations

SharePoint provides a wide range of options for customization. We recommend using the out-of-box features and functionality as much as possible to meet your organization's needs. If you do need to customize SharePoint, see these references.

If you're looking for this information	Go to this resource:
Understand how to customize SharePoint using modern tools and techniques	Customizing SharePoint
Build SharePoint Framework solutions, apps, add-ins, and solutions	SharePoint development

Migration

If you have files to move to SharePoint and OneDrive, you can use some of the following resources to perform that task.

If you're looking for this information	Go to this resource:
Learn how to include migration as part of your plan to roll out SharePoint and OneDrive	Migration planning for SharePoint and OneDrive rollout
How to migrate content from file shares or other cloud providers using Migration Manager	Migrate your content to Microsoft 365
How to migrate SharePoint Server sites and content	Overview of the SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT)

Limits to SharePoint and OneDrive

The following links can be used in moving files that are needed in your organization to SharePoint and OneDrive from other locations.