Collaboration in Teams
An Office 365 education tenant has four distinct types of team In. The core functions are the same, but each type has specific features:
- A Class Team can restrict students from posting messages, and has a read-only folder for educators to share resources. There is also an assignment feature for sending learning tasks.
- A Staff Team allows colleagues to work collaboratively on planning, assessment and other files. It can also be used for messaging and has apps such as Planner to organise projects.
- A Professional learning Community team has a shared notebook with templated pages for educators to record personal reflections and keep notes with colleagues acting as a mentor.
- An Other team is suitable for most staff groups.
Communication
Microsoft Teams allows for different types of meetings to be scheduled – for various size audiences and where attendees are either active participants or passive observers of a presentation. The typical scheduled Teams meeting can host up to 300 people with features such as screen-sharing and breakout rooms.
Chat
The chat feature allows 1:1 or group messaging between staff and, where the institution allows, students or external contacts such as parents. Chat and Chat groups are quickly adopted by schools and colleges as it is easily understood by users who have used mobile messaging such as WhatsApp.
Webinar
A webinar is a types of Teams meetings where the organiser can include a registration page collect useful information about those wanting to join before the start of the session.
Live Event
A live event is for large audiences of up to 20,000 people. It is ideal for ‘broadcast-type events where attendees are not expected to speak or share the video feed.