Using Teams as a Virtual Learning Environment
In addition to hosting online meetings and teaching sessions, Microsoft Teams can be used as a central module space, to host learning materials, online activities, and formative assessments. See the tips below to help use Teams effectively.
1. Create a "Class" Team
When creating the Teams space for your module, choose the Class option; a Class Team includes a number of special features focused on teaching and learning (see the Class Team tab on the Creating a Team page of the Teams Group Collaboration online course for more details). Creating a Class Team also allows you to access a far more detailed set of user analytics, so you can track your students' engagement over the course of your module. Teams should be used in addition to your Moodle space.
Use standard channels to structure the module by week or topic and create hidden channels for any specific set group activities throughout the module. Use the ‘Announcement’ feature to post in specific channels regarding important information, with the use of the ‘Pin’ feature to ensure all important content is easily accessible in one place for students and staff.
2. Structure and learning context
Explain the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and make participation requirements clear; you could do this via an announcement in the general channel. When setting up the site, consider:
- For course related paperwork use the Class Materials folder in the Files tab in the General channel, limiting students’ ability to amend that paperwork.
- Add the Insights tab to the Team to allow greater detail in the analytics data to inform future engagement activities.
- Consider the possibility of using a OneNote Class Notebook throughout the course, to encourage collaborative working and individual portfolio building.
- Contemplate the value in having online meeting/webinar elements in addition to face-to-face sessions, with the enhanced meeting features for polling, quizzing and whiteboarding all useful engagement tools.
- Flexibility in the channel structure can facilitate collaborative/group working with predefined tasks and effectively capturing learning artefacts.
3. Use a variety of communication methods
Use the announcements and @mentioning facility to keep students up to date with relevant content and ongoing course deadlines. Students can adjust their notifications to suit their personal preference, for example, limiting notification alerts between defined times on the mobile app. The General channel can be ring-fenced for one way communication of information by restricting students posting or replying. This can encourage more focused discussion and communication on specific topics in the relevant channels.
4. Include assessments
Use a Website tab to add summative assessments hosted in Moodle to your Teams space. Formative assessments can be created in the Assignments section on Teams, creating multimedia Forms and essay-based tasks with deadlines, supporting rubrics and student notification and dashboard access. Ongoing assessments can effectively monitor student progression and give an effective visual representation of the group and individual level development, which can be addressed in relation to the Insights for greater clarity.
5. Include a range of learning resources
Identify appropriate tabs that can enhance the student experience and facilitate effective pedagogic approaches e.g. YouTube with associated chat to initiate discussion on a given video. Use built in self-guided learning and assessment materials in the form of self-grading quizzes etc. to promote an effective blended learning approach. Utilise the collaborative documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) for student engagement activities and individual accountability on a range of reading and production tasks. Instead of adding links to external sites (like in Moodle), add a Website tab and bring the content in to develop into a learning resource and possible activity, also allowing discussion to be centred around the resource. You can also use the website tab to include pages from a SharePoint site, see the case study below.
Tip 5 accordion accordion
Challenges
- Engaging students in dialogue and discussion around a reading can be problematic.
- Creating individual accountability within group tasks and maintaining a balanced group can be difficult.
- Multiple documents with students trying to consolidate learning at the end of a task can be troublesome and messy.
Solution
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Separate students into groups of 5-8. The groups could be set up in breakout rooms on Microsoft Teams in advance.
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Ensure the documents you will be using are accessible.
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Provide the groups with the documents, this could be the same document for all groups, or different documents per group.
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Students can then view, collaborate on and discuss the document synchronously or asynchronously using the collaborative features in Microsoft Teams.
Notes
- Oversight by the academic is ongoing across all groups and occasional input and assistance can be given at any point required.
- Students will be able to @mention each other within the document to prompt their engagement/response when required.
- Within Word the ‘Read Aloud’ & ‘Translate’ tools can be useful inclusive tools to support individuals who prefer to have to text in an audio format & in their first language.
Who was involved?
Jenny Roberts: Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, convenor for ENGR311 Engineering Management (core 3rd year engineering module across all disciplines)
Dale Munday: Teams guru, advisor and general legend throughout the development of the site
Students: 169 x 3rd year students (all engineering disciplines plus a couple of natural science students)
What did you do?
Due to the rapid transition to online delivery of all modules in Michaelmas term 2020, I set out to develop a Microsoft Teams site that was as engaging as possible and incorporated all lecture material, but also acted as a platform for delivery of 3 experiential workshops.
Utilising a layered approach, I created weekly channels that housed all of the lecture or workshop material for that week. The content for each lecture was embedded in separate SharePoint files, which were then imported as content tabs for each week. Similarly, various other applications were used for the workshops and inserted as content tabs. This allowed all the material to be displayed in one place and in a format that was both accessible and engaging.
ENGR311 Teams site: Week 4 integrated SharePoint page for lectures on Controlling
How did you do it?
I used a number of applications to help enhance my Teams site, including SharePoint, Wakelet and Flipgrid:
SharePoint was pivotal to the way lecture material within this module was presented and allowed for lecture recordings, lecture slides, exercises, reading material, quizzes and feedback forms to be included all in one place. The ease of setting up the SharePoint pages for each lecture topic largely negates the additional time spent to achieve a much more engaging learning environment. Fully integrated with the Microsoft Office suite and with the ability to embed pretty much anything, I could easily add in supporting material for quick reference in between lecture recordings, add in an exercise to put into practice the theory, or include a quick quiz for students to formatively assess their understanding of the material covered. All of this material can equally be presented in Moodle, however rather than opening up numerous tabs in the browser, or downloading multiple documents, in Teams students could access the equivalent embedded material via the integrated SharePoint page and interact with everything in a single window.
The first of three experiential workshops made use of two integrated applications in particular: Wakelet and Flipgrid. Students were required to research a case study assigned to their group of six, make links with relevant legislation and then create a 5-minute summary video of their findings that would then be added to a resource bank of all videos for peer-to-peer review and subsequent reflection. Wakelet was used to present the list of groups, their case study title and a link to an initial article. Flipgrid allowed the students to record their video via their laptop, computer or mobile, then upload it to be included in the resource bank. All students within the Teams group could then view all of the videos and comment on key themes or links between case studies. As with the SharePoint pages, both applications were simply added as tabs in the channel for the first workshop making them highly accessible.
Flipgrid tab within workshop 1
Why did you do it?
Engineering Management can be delivered in a transmissive manner, but makes for a rather dry subject with little opportunity for students to really appreciate the responsibility and trust that professional engineers are expected to uphold. I had therefore redesigned the module to include three experiential workshops prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and was looking at ways to deliver these workshops to a large cohort in what, at that point, was a challenging teaching environment; the Great Hall. Teams provided the perfect platform to ensure students could communicate with each other in a collaborative manner, even if they were sat on opposite sides of a large lecture hall, or indeed in a separate building, town or even country. Not only could students chat via messaging or video calls, they could also work on collaborative OneNote documents within the Teams space and access all of the necessary resources for the workshops. Therefore, a very versatile platform that enabled a rich learning experience exclusive of the physical location the students were in.
When it was confirmed that teaching would be delivered online in Michaelmas 2020, it became apparent that I could endeavour to enhance the engagement levels throughout the module, not just the workshops, and explore how Teams could be exploited further for this purpose.
Does it work?
The concise answer is, yes, I believe so. With an average overall increase in the end of module feedback mark from last year of 11%, I believe the development of the Teams platform has been a real enabler in enhancing engagement. Positive feedback from the students included:
‘The workshops in particular were fantastic. Despite being online, the module was really well taught. The integration with Teams was particularly well-executed.’
‘The workshops were amazingly done and made breakout rooms bearable’
‘I liked how interactive the module was. Also thought the workshops and coursework were well organised. I have to say even with the teaching being online, I felt it was one of the best engaging and organised modules.'
In person delivery without doubt has its advantages however if the capability that Teams has to offer can be effectively harnessed, then an engaging alternative can be provided that may even rival in person delivery in certain situations (such as large cohort group work).
6. Accessibility
Teams has a variety of integrated accessibility features - take a look at the list below. Make sure your students are aware of these features, so that they have the most accessible experience possible. You could use focus mode when screen sharing and zoom as required for clear visuals for participants. Ensure content is accessible to student prior to, during and after taught sessions and make sure all resources adhere to accessibility regulations.
Teams accessibility features accordion
- Customise view with default, dark mode, and high contrast options to suit individual preferences.
- Live captions on meetings.
- Screen reader navigation compatibility.
- Translation in text-based communication.
- Immersive reader for text-based chat allowing for further personalisation.
For more information see Microsoft's accessibility support site for Teams.
Apps to help with this
Related guides
Need more help?
If you need further help or advice setting up a Class Team, please contact the ISS digital learning and teaching team.