Peters School of Business · Assiniboine College · Networking 7

Week 1, Day 1 — Founding the company — M365 Business Standard trial setup

2 hours total · Networking 7 · Assiniboine College · Business Standard trial

0:00–0:15
Welcome
0:15–0:40
Lecture
0:40–1:45
Guided Lab
1:45–2:00
Debrief
0:00 – 0:15 Welcome & orientation

Course intro & the Lakeview Logistics scenario

Students are IT administrators at a fictional company — Lakeview Logistics — being built from nothing. Today is literally Day 1 of the business. There is no tenant, no email, no users. Their job is to create it.

  • Introduce the Lakeview Logistics scenario and the 8-week arc from startup to secured enterprise
  • Review course structure, weekly themes, and how assessments connect to the scenario
  • Establish the IT Admin mindset: every action is deliberate, documented, and reversible where possible
  • Confirm every student has a personal email address (Gmail/Outlook.com) for the trial sign-up — not a school account
Instructor note: Walk through the trial sign-up yourself on the projector before students begin, so they know exactly what screens to expect. Microsoft's sign-up flow occasionally changes — preview it the day before class.
0:15 – 0:40 Lecture · 25 min

What are we signing up for, and why does it matter?

Before students create anything, they need to understand what a tenant is and why the decisions made during sign-up have lasting consequences.

  • The M365 tenant — a dedicated, isolated instance of Microsoft's cloud services. One org, one tenant. The onmicrosoft.com domain is permanent and cannot be changed.
  • Business Standard in context — what's included (Exchange, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, M365 Apps), what's not (advanced security, Intune MDM, Purview compliance). This is the realistic starting point for an SMB.
  • Trial mechanics — 30-day trial, credit card required but not charged, up to 25 users, what happens at expiry. Flag now: they will add an E5 trial in Week 5 before the Business Standard trial expires.
  • Data residency — when signing up, Microsoft asks for a country. This determines where tenant data is stored. It cannot be changed after sign-up. Choose Canada.
  • The Global Admin account — the account created during sign-up is the most powerful account in the tenant. It should be treated like a master key: used only when necessary, never used as a daily account.
0:40 – 1:45 Guided lab · 65 min

Lab 1-A: Provisioning the Lakeview Logistics tenant

Students sign up for a Microsoft 365 Business Standard trial and perform an initial structured survey of their new tenant. This is the foundation everything else in the course is built on.

  • Step 1 — Sign up (15 min)
    Navigate to microsoft.com/en-ca/microsoft-365/business/compare-all-plans and select Business Standard → Try free for one month. Use a personal email. When prompted:
    · Company name: Lakeview Logistics
    · Tenant domain: lakeviewlogisticsXX.onmicrosoft.com (XX = student initials)
    · Country/region: Canada
    · Create the Global Admin account as: admin@lakeviewlogisticsXX.onmicrosoft.com
    Record the tenant domain and admin credentials in your Lab Journal immediately.
  • Step 2 — First login (5 min)
    Sign in to admin.microsoft.com. Complete any first-run prompts. Do not follow the setup wizard — dismiss it. Real admins configure on their own terms.
  • Step 3 — Document the tenant (15 min)
    In your Lab Journal, record:
    · Tenant name (onmicrosoft.com domain)
    · Tenant ID (found in Azure AD → Overview)
    · Trial expiry date (Billing → Licences)
    · Number of licences available
    · Data region (Settings → Org Settings → Organization profile)
  • Step 4 — Explore the admin centre (15 min)
    Navigate and locate without changing anything:
    · Users → Active users
    · Billing → Licences and Subscriptions
    · Settings → Org Settings
    · Health → Service Health (note any current advisories)
    · Show all → Azure Active Directory
  • Step 5 — Identify what Business Standard includes (15 min)
    Go to Billing → Licences → Microsoft 365 Business Standard → click the licence → review the list of included services. In your Lab Journal, list three services that are enabled and two that are notably absent. Compare with a partner.
Trial expiry reminder: Have students note the exact trial expiry date in their Lab Journal and add a calendar reminder for Week 4. The E5 trial will be added in Week 5 — before expiry — but it's good practice to track this from Day 1.
Instructor note: Circulate during sign-up — the most common issues are Microsoft rejecting personal emails already tied to a Microsoft account, and students accidentally following the setup wizard and making premature changes. Catch both early.
1:45 – 2:00 Debrief · 15 min

Reflection & preview

  • Ask: "What did you notice about the sign-up process — what decisions were made that can't be undone?"
  • Reinforce: the tenant they just created is their company's infrastructure for the next 8 weeks — treat it accordingly
  • Collect exit ticket: name your tenant domain, your tenant ID, and your trial expiry date — from memory or your Lab Journal
  • Preview Day 2: adding a custom domain (lakeviewlogistics.com) to replace the onmicrosoft.com address
Learning outcomes — by end of Day 1, students can…
Provision an M365 tenantSign up for a Business Standard trial with correct org name, domain, and data region
Explain tenant permanenceDescribe what cannot be changed after sign-up and why it matters
Locate key tenant detailsFind and record Tenant ID, trial expiry, licence count, and data region
Navigate the admin centreMove between Users, Billing, Health, and Azure AD without assistance
Identify licensing scopeList what Business Standard includes and what requires a higher tier
What you need ready
Personal email per student (non-school) Credit/debit card per student Lab Journal template (Word/OneNote) Slide deck: tenant & licensing overview Lab 1-A step sheet (printed or shared)
Day 2 →Week 1 Overview