Article Description

This article describes:

• Some departmental calendar use cases
• Pros and cons of using departmental calendars
• A comparison of the methods that are currently available for using departmental calendars

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Departmental Calendar Use Cases

When deciding if an event should go on a departmental calendar, the main consideration is audience. Events should only be placed on a departmental calendar if they involve most of the users subscribed to the calendar. Examples of events include:

• Departmental/Staff meetings
• Workgroup meetings
• Workshops
• Hosted conferences
• Symposiums
• Work planning meetings
• Town Halls

Events to avoid placing on departmental calendars:

• Personal meetings
• Non-critical out-of-office meetings
• Events not relevant to the team/department

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Pros and Cons of Using Departmental Calendars

Pros

• Can be shared with members with permissions set by the owner
• Integrates with systems such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, depending on your configuration
• Desktop banner and email alerts/notifications are available to remind you of these events
• Simple scheduling with select members or an entire group

Cons

• Can be cumbersome with the number of event alerts/notifications you may receive if you are not involved in all department activities or there is an attendee miscommunication
• If not configured properly, you may receive duplicate alerts

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Comparison of Virginia Tech Options Available for Departmental Calendars

Currently, there are four options readily available for departmental calendars: Google Auxiliary Accounts (GAE), Shared Calendars, Microsoft 365 Groups, and Microsoft Teams. Please refer to the table below to determine which method would be more applicable to your use case(s).

 

Service	Description	Pros	Cons
Google Auxiliary Accounts (GAE)	GAE accounts are Virginia Tech Google Workspace for Education @vt.edu accounts that are linked to a specific VT username PID and are accessed via that user’s credentials. They have access to the full collection of Google apps, and the account’s Gmail mailbox can be delegated to other vt.edu Google users. More Info about Virginia Tech Email Objects	• Anyone can subscribe to the calendar if set to public access • Access can be delegated to others	Owned by single user (i.e., each GAE is linked to a single VT Username PID) If the user leaves the department, the department is responsible for working with the user to transfer the GAE ownership to another user. Otherwise, the GAE will be deprovisioned.
Shared Calendars	• Simple calendar in the Microsoft 365 environment that can be shared with others • Permissions can be granted as required (Read, Write, etc.)	Permissions can be assigned via security groups	• Exchange Online only option • If you don’t use security groups, people have to be manually added and removed
Microsoft 365 Groups	Groups lets you easily set up a collection of resources for people you collaborate with such as a shared calendar.	• Permissions to the calendar do not have to be assigned individually • Groups can be private or public	• Long unwieldy email • Possible to orphan a group if there is only one owner
Microsoft Teams	Microsoft Teams is a Microsoft 365 app designed to be a centralized tool for collaboration. Each Team has a calendar associated with it.	• Easily integrates with other Microsoft 365 products • Expanded functionality for collaboration provided by Teams	Requires everyone to be a member of the Team, giving them equal access to documents and posts in that Team