TUNI Groups

TUNI Groups is a group work service for different types of groups of the higher education community. TUNI Groups is a perfect tool when group of people need to share and edit common documents. TUNI Groups also provides a platform for group messaging and video meetings.

TUNI Groups is a collection of familiar Office 365 applications including SharePoint, Teams, Planner and Stream.

There are three types of TUNI Groups to order: Basic, Organization and Education. Group owners control groups members and settings.

TUNI Groups applications are recommended to be used with computer softwares. Services can also be used with browser or mobile applications. Staff and students can download Office ProPlus program package from the Office 365 portal and install it into personal computer. You can open, edit and save most of the groups Office files with Office ProPlus programs.

Learn how TUNI Groups are created and used with these videos >>

How to order a TUNI Group? 

You can order TUNI Group at TUNI Groups self-service portal at https://tuni.fi/groups/. Log in by using your TUNI email address.

Which TUNI Groups type is for our group?  

A few different types of TUNI Groups can be ordered. Select the Group type according to the group’s needs. The life spans (life cycles) and default applications vary according to the group type. It is recommended that each Group have two owners to manage the Group settings and members. The orderer of the Group will automatically become a Group owner. The members can create, edit and delete the contents of the Group but cannot control the Group settings or members.

Group name and email address 

A group name always has a TG- prefix so that the group can be identified e.g. in the address book. A Group name can include up to 60 characters. If the group name contains scandic letters or special characters, they will be automatically removed from both the group email and url.

The group will get an email address, which can be used when communicating with people outside the higher education community. The email address comprises of the TG prefix, the name of the group and @groups.tuni.fi ending, for example TG-xxxxxxx [at] groups.tuni.fi. The owner must activate the incoming mail option from the group settings in Outlook Online. From the same place, the owner can specify that all group chats and events will be sent to members' inboxes.

Group user roles

There are three user roles in a group: Owner, Member and Guest. Owners can manage the user rights and the settings of the group. Members can edit end delete the contents but cannot change the group settings or accecpt members to the group. Other members will have same kind of rights as an owner if member is given Owner role. It is possible to add new members and give owner roles after group is created.

You can invite people from outside the Tampere university community if the owner has allowed it when ordering the group. The people outside the organization are always added as Guests. Users with Guest user right have a restricted right to use the group applications and contents. Guest cannot have owner role. External users invited to the group should enable multifactor authentication. Please read about the limitations of the Guest role on the instruction page.

It may take a few hours before the new members and owners or a changed member type are displayed in the applications - please be patient.

Group accessibility 

A Group can be Private or Public. All groups can be found at the Apps or the Address Book. The materials and contents of a private group are only available to Group members added or accepted by the Group owner. Everyone in the higher education community can join public groups without the owners’ approval. Members of a private group can invite users from the higher education community but they must be accepted by the owner.

Life cycle of groups

The life cycle of the Basic group is one year. However, the life cycle is easy to continue by clicking on the link in the message sent to the owners of the group. The message is sent 2 months, 1 month, 15 days and 1 day before the end of the life cycle from noreply(at)sharepointonline.com. When you click on a link from any of the sent messages, the life cycle continues again for a year.

TUNI Groups portal and group cards 

At the TUNI Groups (https://tuni.fi/groups/) self service portal, you can find all the groups in which you are a member or an owner. The Group front page is also accessible from the Office 365 portal App launcher. The groups are displayed in cards with information of the group.  

The Groups are arranged alphabetically. You can filter the groups in the Filter menu by adding the group type or group target. You can also find Groups by entering a search in the Search field. On the Discover page, you can search and join public groups.

You can set groups as favorites by clicking the heart icon on the group card. Your favorite groups are prioritized in the group listing making it easier to find them. By clicking the heart icon again, you can deselect the group. If there is a lock icon on the group card, the group is private.

The Group image and headline are links to the default application of the group. The default application of the Basic and Education groups is Teams space. The default application of the Organization group is SharePoint file library. Owners can change the default application if the most used application is not the current default.

By clicking on the menu button (three dots) at the top of the group card, you can open the menu to select the group’s other applications. The group owner can add extra applications to the menu and modify the card settings by selecting Group info and clicking Modify Group Info button.

Owner can add more applications to the Group’s card by selecting the applications in the Group’s info page. The owner can also link external services or important contents to the Group card’s application menu. The owner of a project group, for example, could link an hourly progress page or a wiki area of the project. A teacher could link a Moodle course to the application menu. The default application can be changed by selecting the application in the Default app selection. 

Group apps 

TUNI Groups have access to several applications suited for different types of working, teaching and learning. The applications include SharePoint for shared files, Teams space for communication and video meetings, Planner for task management and Stream for videos. Group applications are interconnected in many cases. For example, the files in Teams channels are saved in the SharePoint file library and recorded Teams space meetings are saved in Stream.

Group conversations and video meetings (Teams space) 

You can create conversation channels for groups members in a Teams space. In the channel, you can send messages and have video meetings with the group members. Group owners and members can create new channels by clicking Teams space settings (1) and selecting Add channel (2). Groups owners can also create private channels (3) where specific members can have a private conversations. Channels can favorite for members to be shown in the channel list automatically (4). Group owner can favorite up to 10 channels for team members.

Every member can hide channel from their own channel list by clicking channel name with right click and selecting Hide. Channel can be unhidden by selecting Hidden channels (1) and clicking channels Show (2) button. 

In a Teams space, you can work on common files which are saved in the group’s SharePoint library. Other applications, such as Planner and Stream can be added to a Teams space as well.

Teams space works best when you download and install Microsoft Teams application. 

1. Learn about Teams application 

2. Download and install Microsoft Teams on your computer and phone 

3. Create channels for common subjects 

4. Start a channel conversation 

5. Add and create files 

6. Add tabs to channels 

7. Schedule a video meeting 

8. Join a video meeting 

9. Share content in a video meeting 

10. Record a video meeting 

11. Play and share a recorded video meeting 

Group email and calendar (Group Outlook) 

You can communicate with people from outside the organization by using the Outlook browser view. Each group member can read the incoming messages and can forward them to their personal TUNI email address by changing the star in the group's SharePoint view to Followed. The group owner must change the email settings for the group to be able to receive external emails (instructions below).

Everyone can send emails from the Outlook view of the group. In the email, the sender’s personal address will be displayed. However, you can send emails in the name of an Organization group. This requires a setting to be changed and users to be assigned.

A calendar can be used for the group’s scheduled meetings. The meetings can also be copied to the members’ personal calendars.

Composing email 

1. Open Outlook in the browser view 

2. If required, log in using your TUNI email address and password 

3. Open the Group menu and select the correct group 

4. Compose and send email according to Microsoft instructions 

Setting for allowing for receiving emails from external users and using the group as an e-mail list

1. Open Outlook in the browser view 

2. If required, log in using your TUNI email address and password 

3. Open the Group menu and select the correct group 

4. Click the wheel button in the right upper corner 

5. Click Edit group button 

6. Setting for allowing for receiving emails from external users:
   Select Let people outside the organization email this group

7. To use a group as an email list:
   Select Send all group conversations and events to members’ inboxes. They can stop following this group later if they want to.

8. Click Save button 

Group files and contents (Group SharePoint and file library) 

You can share and work on common files in the group’s file library. In the group site, you can also create lists and share topical contents by using news posts. The group owners can expand the group site with required applications.

1. Learn about a SharePoint site 

2. Upload and share files in the Share point library 

3. Sync files and folders 

Deleted files are moved to the site’s Recycle Bin. Deleted files can be restored within 90 days after the file has been deleted. Files can be restored according to Microsoft instructions.

Organizing the group’s tasks (Group Planner) 

It is easy to share, arrange and view the progress of the tasks using Planner. In the task center, you can assign group members to tasks and sort them into buckets. You can display the tasks in various ways to help you view the progress and carry out the tasks. 

1. Browse to the Planner application 

2. Select the Planner of the Group 

3. Add tasks 

4. Assign members to tasks 

5. Sort tasks to buckets 

6. View the progress of the plans 

The group’s videos (Group Stream) 

There are two different versions of Stream today. Old recordings created before June 14, 2021 can be found in the Stream (classic) application, and recordings created after that can be found in the Stream (SharePoint) application. Stream (classic) recordings are only for internal use of the organization, but Stream (SharePoint) recordings can also be distributed outside the organization. Members of groups can share and watch videos in the Stream app. Stream (classic) is being phased out and the recordings must be transferred to Stream (SharePoint) at some point in time if they are still needed. 

Group settings for owners 

Owners can change the Group settings in the Application Settings. 

Settings in Outlook browser view 

Change of groups name, picture, accessibility and description. 

1. Open Outlook in the browser view 

2. If required, log in using your TUNI email address and password 

3. Open the Group menu and select the correct group 

4. Click settings (cog) button in the upper right corner 

5. Click Edit group button 

6. Make the required changes and click Save 

Groups deletion before the end of it’s life cycle.  

N.B! The applications and all contents of the Group will be deleted!

1. Open Outlook in the browser view 

2. If required, log in using your TUNI email address and password 

3. Open the Group menu and select the correct group 

4. Click settings (wheel) button in the right upper corner 

5. Click Edit group button 

6. Click Delete Group -painiketta 

7. Select I understand that all group content will be deleted and click Delete button 

Leave the group. Please find the instructions here. 

Settings in Teams space 

• Changing Group's name, image, accessibility and description 

• Adding and removing members 

• Promoting a member to an owner and demoting an owner to a member 

• Changing the Group image 

• Deleting the Group before the end of it’s life cycle. (N.B! Groups applications and all content created in the group will be deleted!) 

• Leaving the group 

IT Helpdesk
0294 520 500
it-helpdesk [at] tuni.fi
helpdesk.tuni.fi