Teaching With Microsoft Teams

Last week, I had the opportunity to work with a class that used Microsoft Teams to manage a group project. Students were divided into 14 groups or (channels) of 5. After establishing group norms, students are given the freedom to complete the group assignment synchronously or asynchronously, depending on their schedules. When they used the video conference features, the instructor was able to see who attended and for how long, if they met within the channel. Students also had the capacity to add the instructor to meetings (if needed; based on availability). All files that were needed for the project were hosted in OneDrive but had a “physical” representation within Teams that students were able to access without leaving the interface. Teams allowed for screen and file sharing, chatting, and Word markups. The course did not create the assignment in Teams, but it is possible to do so, as well as create a rubric within Teams, and import them into Canvas.

While this sounds like an advertisement for Teams, it isn’t. My goal is to let you know (or remind you of) alternatives you can use if you are looking for technological teaching tools that are a better match your pedagogical style than what you are currently using.

There are many free, short tutorials from Microsoft https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/microsoft-teams-video-training-4f108e54-240b-4351-8084-b1089f0d21d7, and as always, I am happy to help you with you with teaching and learning

Pre-Course Survey

One way to improve engagement with your students is to learn more about them. A precourse survey is one way to help develop a connection with your students, and get to know them beyond what is shared in an introduction discussion.

What do you want to know about them?

Diligent student in college with classmates, taking notes of teacher lecture.

A survey can help you conduct a needs assessment about where your students are at in terms of prior knowledge, demographics, mindset, learning preferences, goals, content confidence level, preferred feedback style, and/or access to technology.  Because this takes place “behind the scenes” and is only shared with the instructor, rather than in a public discussion forum, you may be more likely to receive candid responses.

What strategies and skills will students need and/or develop in your course?

These kinds of questions can help students flex metacognitive skills and become more aware of their learning habits. As an instructor, this can help you provide more specific feedback on student work, suggesting similar strategies and stretch goals.

• Reflection on Strategies: Metacognitive reflection questions ask how students get things done. Do you take marginal notes or highlight as you read? What conditions do you need to do your best work?

• Planning Ahead: Beyond what has worked for students in the past, you might ask about strategies they will use specifically in this class. What times each week do you have earmarked to work on this course?

• Setting Goals:You might ask them to review the learning objectives, asking what they will commit to accomplishing. And beyond the learning objectives for the course, are there other skills or competencies they plan to work on in the course? Do they have any suggestions for the instructor about strategies for helping meet those goals?

During the first week of your course

Providing students with an opportunity to quiz themselves not on the course topic but on the course itself–how to get started in the course, how to navigate the course, what the course should help students accomplish, and how the course is structured–can help instructors send fewer emails saying, “It’s in the syllabus!”

Given multiple choice or true/false question types, these kinds of pre-course surveys can be automatically scored. Don’t forget to compose feedback for incorrect responses and allow multiple attempts!

What tools are available?

IU supports the Qualtrics survey tool and Canvas includes a dashboard feature that allows instructors to create a type of quiz called ‘ungraded’ that can be used as a survey. In Canvas, once the survey, or ‘ungraded quiz,’ is published online, students can login to their Canvas course page and participate. IU also has access to Google Forms and Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Forms are Available in the Channel and Chat features) for quick survey and quiz creation.

If you’d like support implementing a pre-course survey or questionnaire in your online class, or in any other aspects of teaching and learning, please contact me at your earliest convenience with your availability.