How to Create a New SharePoint Site for Study Management, Team Collaboration or Lab Websites

Summary

University of Michigan and Michigan Medicine faculty and staff can create new SharePoint Online sites that can be used, for instance, for managing day-to-day study tasks, team collaboration, sharing documents, or even for public-facing Lab websites. This article describes the steps for creating and configuring SharePoint sites, setting up permissions, and enabling team collaboration features.

SharePoint Online is part of the institutional Microsoft 365 license. It provides an easy-to-use platform for team collaboration, document sharing, light database-like functionality, and business process automation. It is a great tool to make daily study management tasks easier, within an environment that is approved for HIPAA / PII (Michigan Medicine only) or for public-facing websites (campus only).

Steps

Create the Site

1. Login to SharePoint
   • U-M users can login at https://umich.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/sharepoint.aspx
   • Michigan Medicine users (those with level-2 access) can login at https://umhealth.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/sharepoint.aspx
   • Note that the campus environment (umich.sharepoint.com) is not approved for PII and requires a level-1 login. The MM environment (umhealth.sharepoint.com) is approved for PII but requires a level-2 login.
   • Users whose department has its own technology services provider, TSP or IT unit may have access to a separate SharePoint environment. The U-M environment is available to all U-M units, but users should check with their unit's technology provider first.
      
2. Once logged in, click "+ Create site" on the top left. You will be presented with two choices: Team site or Communication site.
   • Team sites are more appropriate for collaboration among team members, tracking daily study management tasks, or storing participant data.
   • Communication sites are more appropriate for public-facing sites, or Hub-connected sites (those part of the MM InSite intranet) that are meant to give information about your department or lab to others.
     
     
      
3. Click Standard to start with a blank site, or choose from a specific template to get sample lists and formatting added. Under the "From your organization" tab, you will find templates made available to all campus or all MM users. The Eisenberg Family Depression Center is currently working on templates for study teams that will be made available under this tab.
   
   
    
4. Click Use Template
   
    
5. Enter a Site Name and click Next. The Site Name should be short, and should contain only letters, numbers and dashes. Even though SharePoint will allow you to use names with spaces and other characters, we recommend avoiding special characters for better compatibility with other products, such as Power Automate, and to make links to documents more readable.
   
   
    
6. Chose the appropriate language and privacy level. For Team sites, choose Private, so that only the team members you specify will have access (this can be refined later). Click Create site.
    
7. Add the team members who should have access and assign an access level. Members can create, edit and delete content such as files and list items, but cannot create new types of content. Owners can create new lists and document libraries, and can manage permissions. You can also use Active Directory or Michigan Medicine groups here. Click Finish.
   
   
    
8. Your new site is now ready to use! We recommend you bookmark your new site, but if you ever forget how to access it, return to the link on step 1 to view a list of all your SharePoint sites.
    

Setup Permissions

1. If the basic permissions outlined earlier are not granular enough, once logged in, click the gear icon on the top right and go to Settings -> Site Permissions
   
   
   
    
2. The three default levels of permissions are:
   • Site owners - administrators; can do everything on the site.
   • Site members - read/write users; can add/edit/delete content (pages, list items, documents) but not create new lists or document libraries
   • Site visitors - read-only users; can view the site and list items but cannot add or edit anything
      
3. We recommend that only those who will create site functionality, such as new lists and document libraries, have Site owner permissions, to decrease the possibility of accidentally breaking things.
    
4. We also recommend that management or primary investigators have either visitor or member access to all team sites, for business continuity purposes.
    
5. If more fine-grained permissions are needed, click Advanced Permission Settings. This will take you to the "classic experience" (older version) where you can setup permissions with much more detail, such as breaking inheritance from parent permission groups or customizing permission groups.

Optional: Attach an MS Teams Chat

1. To add even more team collaboration features, you can create a new MS Teams team and attach it to your new SharePoint site. This would allow real-time collaboration like video calls, chat, and interactive apps, while keeping all files and information on the connected SharePoint site. Note: this only applies to Team sites, not Communication sites.
    
2. Open the Microsoft Teams app.
   1. Michigan Medicine users using a CoreImage PC or mac already have MS Teams installed.
   2. U-M (campus side) users may need to install the app first via the Microsoft Store app (in the Windows menu) or from Microsoft's site.
       
3. Click "Teams" on the sidebar, then "Create team" on the upper right.
   
   
    
4. On the left side, select "From group."
   
   
    
5. Find the group for the site you just created and click "Add team."
    
6. Users are automatically synced between the two going forward.

Optional: Sync Files to your PC or Mac

1. Syncing document libraries allows you to access files stored in SharePoint via Mac Finder or Windows Explorer. You can work on files with any desktop apps, and all changes are automatically synced to SharePoint. The OneDrive for Business app is required (it is already installed on Michigan Medicine CoreImage PCs/Macs).
    
2. On your SharePoint site, click Documents on the left-side menu (or top menu, depending on theme).
    
3. Click Sync. This will open your OneDrive for Business client to finish the process.
   
   
    
4. Files will now be available in Windows Explorer or Mac Finder.

Create Content

1. Now that your site is created and permissions are set, use the gear icon on the upper right to go to Site Content. Here, you can add new Lists (similar to spreadsheets or database tales, but more flexible), Document Libraries (shared drives), or Site Pages (web pages created with widgets).

Notes

• A note on digital accessibility from ITS Digital Accessibility: "Updates to the ADA regulations require public universities to deliver digital content—websites, course materials, videos, documents, social media posts, and applications—in formats that meet recognized accessibility standards by April 24, 2026." Note that SharePoint Online complies with web accessibility guidelines and standards, but your design choices, color themes, etc. can also affect accessibility.

Resources

• UM Library - "Create a Website" information and consultations
• HITS - Microsoft 365 Community of Practice (level-2 login required)
• ITS - Getting Started with Web Development and Web Hosting
• ITS - Digital Accessibility

About the Author

Gabriel Mongefranco is a Mobile Data Architect at the University of Michigan's Eisenberg Family Depression Center. Gabriel has over a decade of experience with automation, data analytics, database architecture, dashboard design, software development, and technical writing. He supports U-M researchers with data cleaning, data pipelines, automation and enterprise architecture for wearables and other mobile technologies.    |     |     |