The Covid-19 situation did not just force us inside but also forced us out onto the internet even more, looking for new ways to reach our students…some of the things that worked were not new at all and some of the new things we found we will carry with us beyond the Covid-19 (sur)reality.
For me (and I’d guess I’m very unoriginal here), one of these things is MS Teams. It was initially the environment I defaulted to on account on its use having been encouraged by local educational authorities. Using it I discovered just WHY this was so!
The short answer is MS Teams is awesome.
The long answer is best handled in sections:
- MS Teams lends itself beautifully to Assessment for Learning
- I can send students reminders of their work
- I can add details to the assignment description following queries
- I can review work handed-in before deadlines and make comments and ask questions that will allow students to improve on their work
- I can easily and cheaply create detailed rubrics that guide students in their work answers
- I can re-use my rubrics across similar tasks
- It takes far less hassle to give students a break-down of their marks, allowing them to better assess the strengths and weaknesses of their work.
2. We can have all stake-holders involved more easily.
MS Teams easily lets us create a platform where teachers, students and care-givers can share in the learning experience
As more and more teachers use MS Teams, it is so easy to get new students on board as they would already be used to its environment from previous experience.
3. MS Teams plays very nicely with MS Forms
MS Forms is an excellent way of getting feedback about students’ learning experiences as well as assessing learning. The ease with which these forms can be shared on our class teams make them extremely usable and hence allows us to keep an ongoing pulse on our students’ learning.
In times of remote learning (be it through live lessons, recorded lessons or any other form of home lessons), when other forms of assessing learning may not be so easily doable, this can still help one keep a finger on the pulse of one’s students learning.
4. MS Teams plays very nicely with MS Stream
Recording lessons was an entirely new experience during Covid times and MS Teams easily allows one to record lessons, trim them and set viewer rights within a private environment. As a streaming service, it doesn’t provide many editing features but by running so smoothly through MS Teams it really helped increase my productivity at a time when I’m reinventing learning experiences and every hour counts.
5. We can be prepared.
We have moved on with a realistic acceptance that we may need to teach remotely again in the future, so we realise the importance to be ready for such eventualities. Having our class already connected through MS Teams and having as many of educators already using the same platform could smoothen any such transition.
And pandemics are not the only thing that can get in our way: long-term or short-term student sickness for one, can make having an online presence on MS Teams helpful!
Other baskets
I will still seek to have alternatives up my sleeve: My lesson blogs and websites will always be there – even if now they are also tabs on our class MS Teams. I don’t think it’s ever wise to have one’s whole methodology centring around a single platform – we all remember our occasional off days when MS Teams is undergoing some form of major overhaul or the AWS downtime.
In conclusion
So, yes, MS Teams may be more of A tool rather than the tool, but it sure is one great tool! For me, it is definitely one of the discoveries that has meant the Covid-19 experience might leave us better educators than it found us.
Moving Forward
- I think setting up my team on Ms Teams will be one of the first things I do at the start of an academic year in the coming years, as it is an asset to my methodology.
- It would be an interesting exercise to work with students in co-constructing assignment rubrics.
- [processing ideas]
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