Tag Archives: Teacher Guide

How to create eye-catching announcements in Microsoft Teams

Announcements in Microsoft Teams are great for highlighting content for a whole class or department. In this guide, we show you how to post an eye-catching announcement in your Teams channels, alongside some time-saving tips.



How to post an announcement in Teams.

You can create an eye-catching, customised announcement post with a coloured background in Teams.

  1. Go to the Teams channel you wish to create an announcement for.
  2. Select New conversation.
  3. Select Format (the A with a pencil) to expand the compose box.
  4. Select the arrow next to New conversation and change it to Announcement.
  5. Type a heading to your announcement, followed by a subheading and main body.
  6. Hit Send (the paper plane icon).

Create Eye-catching announcements in Microsoft Teams

How to make your announcements in Teams stand out.

Announcements are a great way to make your content stand out to the whole channel.

Create Eye-catching announcements in Microsoft Teams

Change the announcement header.

Next to the header, there is an option to change the background colour of the header.

You can also Upload an image or Choose an illustration.

Change the background header of your announcement in Microsoft Teams

Format the text.

In Announcements, you can format the text of your message in a similar way to how you can in Microsoft Word.

You can create Bold, Italic and underlined text, change the font colour and add highlights.

Bulleted and numbered lists and quotes can also be added to your message.

Add links and tables.

You can also add other content to your announcement in Teams.

In the video, Keith shows you how to add links from SharePoint and external sites.

You can also add tables and code.

Notify people about your announcement.

When you’re finished creating your announcement, hit Send (the paper plane icon). This notifies everyone in that channel, but you can also @mention the channel name to make sure everyone gets notified.

Similarly, you can @mention specific people in the announcement.

Notify people about your announcement in Microsoft Teams

Mark your announcement as important.

Create an important announcement by selecting the exclamation mark icon.

Choose who can reply to your announcement.

By default, everyone in your Teams channel can reply to your announcements. But you can change this to avoid lots of people responding unnecessarily.

  1. Select the arrow next to Everyone can reply and select who can reply. In this example, we’ve turned off student responses.

Choose who can reply to your announcement in Microsoft Teams

Post in multiple channels.

Sometimes an announcement needs to be shared with multiple Teams channels.

Save time creating a new announcement for each channel by selecting Post in multiple channels. This brings up a dialogue box where you can choose which channels you wish to publish your announcement to.

Post an announcement to multiple channels in Class Teams

The channel names will appear at the top of your announcement and if you need to remove one, hit the X next to the channel name you wish to remove.

Edit your announcement.

To edit your announcement, tap the three dots (…) in the top corner and choose Edit.

  1. Make the necessary changes to your announcement.
  2. Select the tick at the bottom corner of the box to save your changes.
  3. Cancel any changes by selecting the cross.

Found this helpful? Share this guide with your colleagues.

Setting up a countdown timer on Microsoft Forms

Setting a time limit or countdown for quizzes in Microsoft Forms is a great way to prepare students for exam conditions or set a quick, timed comprehension task during a lesson.

In this guide, we show you how to set up a countdown timer for your next quiz.

Set a countdown timer on your Microsoft Forms quizzes.

Quizzes in Forms are a great way to switch up a lesson or help your students revise a topic.

There are so many different features in Forms to help you build an engaging and interactive quiz, from using different answer types to setting a points system. We’ve previously published a guide on tips for creating great Microsoft Forms quizzes.

But, one of our favourite additions to quizzes is the countdown timer.





How to set up a countdown timer in Microsoft Forms.

Once you have set up your quiz, you can set your countdown timer.

  1. Select the three dots (…) in the top corner of the quiz, next to Collect Responses.
  2. Select Settings.
  3. Check Set Time Duration.
  4. In the box, type how many minutes you would like the quiz to be open for. For example, 30 minutes.
  5. Select the three dots (…) to save your settings and head back to the quiz.

Set a countdown timer on your Microsoft Forms quizzes.

Set a deadline for your quiz.

You may also wish to set a deadline for your quiz, which you can do in a similar way to setting a timer.

  1. Repeat steps 1 and 2 above.
  2. Check Start Date and End Date.
  3. Select the start and end date for your quiz.
  4. Select the three dots (…) to save your settings and head back to the quiz.

Set a start and end date on a Microsoft Forms Quiz

Other options for Microsoft Forms quizzes.

There are a few other settings in quizzes that may be useful for teachers.

The Shuffle Questions feature makes the order of the quiz slightly different for each student. Meanwhile, the Show Progress Bar option lets students see how much of the quiz they’ve completed.

Progress Bar on Microsoft Forms Quizzes

As shown in the video, Keith ticks the One Response Per Student box. This is important to note if you don’t want students submitting more than one response!

Found this helpful? Share this guide with your colleagues.

 

10 Must-Have Ideas For Your Class Teams Homepages

Class Teams Homepages have arrived – allowing teachers and educators to create an engaging central hub for their classes within a few quick clicks. In this blog, we’ve rounded up our best ideas for what to include in your Class Teams Homepage.

Not sure how to get started with Class Teams Homepages? We cover how to set up and customise a Class Teams Homepage in this guide.

Class Teams Homepages are automatically now automatically generated, pulling in a lot of pre-existing content and information so that teachers don’t need to worry about spending time building and editing pages for each individual class.

However, it’s always nice to inject a bit more personality into your learning resources – so we’ve rounded up our favourite ways to make your homepages stand out and facilitate student learning.

Create an engaging welcome banner. 

Once set up, your Class Teams Homepage automatically generates a generic welcome banner.  

Make this look a lot more engaging and personalised by editing the image and text.  

Here, we have created a welcome banner for a history class.  

Create an engaging welcome banner for your Class Teams Homepage

Split up your content into sections.

Divide up your content in a more easily-digestible manner by using sections.

Tap the plus icon in the top left corner of the page to add a new section.  

Bonus tip: Use spacers and dividers to break up sections and make your pages more visually appealing.   

Include an area for announcements.  

Add reminders about upcoming exams, revision classes or project deadlines to your Class Homepage.  

The default page includes an area where teachers can add their own announcements, or you can create your own by inserting a text block.  

Make announcements stand out even more by adding an image with text overlay.  

Announce exams, important dates and deadlines on your Class Teams Homepage

Build a resource list.

A must-have on any Class Homepage is a bank of learning resources for your students to access whenever they need to.  

It’s tempting to populate your homepages by uploading lots of resource files to that individual Class Team, but this takes a long time and duplicates a lot of work that will need to be re-done and re-uploaded when you roll over to the new academic year.  

Instead, create a central resource area in SharePoint for all of your learning resources so that you can reuse and reshare them year after year.  

Then, use your Class Homepage to signpost your students to those learning resources.  

You can do this using several web parts, including Quick Links, Buttons, Links and Images.  

Signpost your class to central shared resource areas from their Class Homepage

Alternatively, you could use buttons and linked images to make a certain resource stand out.  

(Here’s a little bit more about centralised learning resources, in case you’re new to our blog.) 

Embed your Class Schedule. 

Class Schedule pretty much does what it says on the tin – it shows upcoming classes and events.  

It’s automatically populated with scheduled meetings for that class.  

This is really useful for students – they can get a quick glance at any upcoming revision sessions or events relevant to your class.  

Cloud Design Box customers get access to our exclusive My Events Web Part that gives students a quick glance at your upcoming events by showing your calendar events from Outlook. 

Embed upcoming meetings and events to your Class Teams Homepage

Remind your class of Upcoming Assignments. 

Teachers can reduce some of the time spent reminding and chasing students for homework by including the Assignments web part on their Class Teams Homepages.  

Similar to Class Schedule, this automatically populates so you can just add and let the technology do the work.  

Cloud Design Box customers get access to our exclusive My Assignments Web Part that allows students to see more of an in-depth view of all their current and upcoming assignments from their SharePoint homepage. 

Remind students of upcoming assignments on your Class Teams Homepage

Answer student FAQS.

Answer some common questions your students might have about the course or module.  

For example, how to submit homework or how/when they can get in touch with you for support.  

You can do this by simply adding a text box to your homepage.  

Cloud Design Box customers can create a more interactive FAQs section with our exclusive FAQs web part.    

Include an FAQs section on your Class Teams Homepage

Introduce yourself.

Did you know you can add a short bio and photo of yourself to your homepage? 

Great for the start of the new academic year to let students get to know you a bit more.  

Don’t be shy – show your face and add a few facts about yourself.  

Introduce yourself and other teachers on your Class Teams Homepage

Say it with a video. 

We all know that video content is a great way to engage students. So, if you have found a great resource on YouTube about your topic, add it to your Class Homepage for your students to watch.  

You could even record and upload your own.  

Show your recent files.

Recent files show up automatically on the default Class Teams homepage. It might be tempting to remove it, but we think this feature is quite useful as it allows students to jump back in and access their most recently opened/modified files.  

It’s all about making it easy for students to access what they need to learn.  

Note: Only teachers and educators can make changes to your Class Homepage, so you don’t need to worry about students making unnecessary changes, and you have total control of what you’d like to share.  

Found this helpful? Share this guide with your colleagues.

Class Teams Homepages: Everything you need to get started

The new homepage feature in Microsoft Class Teams allows you to create homepages within Microsoft Teams for each class, filled with the latest announcements, pinned class resources, upcoming assignments, recently edited class files and much, much more.

The good news is that this doesn’t take much time to set up – it’s mostly automatically generated for you. However, you can customise your Class Teams homepage, which we talk about later in this guide.  



 

Note: Only teachers and educators can make changes to your Class Homepage, so you don’t need to worry about students making unnecessary changes and you have total control of what you’d like to share.  

 

How to set up a Class Teams Homepage. 

  1. Select the class you want to view a homepage for in Class Teams. 
  2. Select Home page in the left-hand side panel of Class Teams.  

As you can see, much of the content is automatically created for you, pulling information and files from that specific class.  

Class Teams Homepages have landed!

The homepage can include most web parts that can be added to a standard SharePoint site.  

Here are some examples:  

  • Welcome banners 
  • Quick links to class resources 
  • Upcoming assignments 
  • Recently edited class files  
  • Images and video 
  • Text blocks  
  • Social media feeds 
  • Yammer conversations 
  • Countdowns
  • News  
  • And much, much more!  

How to edit your Class Teams homepage.  

  1. Select Edit. You can then go ahead and customise each section or web part as you would usually on a standard SharePoint site.  
  2. Add new web parts by hovering over an area of the homepage and selecting the grey plus button, and choosing which web part you would like (see a list of examples above).
  3. Add new sections and change the layout by selecting the plus button in the left-hand corner of the page.  
  4. Remove web parts by selecting the web part you want to delete and then select the bin icon.  
  5. Move web parts around by dragging and dropping.  
  6. Once you’re happy with your design, select Republish to publish it to students.  

We’ve rounded up our favourite web parts to include in your Class Teams Homepages here. 

Important: Use this tip to avoid wasting time on Class Teams homepages.  

It’s tempting to spend hours designing your Class Teams homepages and filling them with useful information and resources for your students. And, if you have the time, why not? 

However, we must remember that currently, Class Teams homepages are only for one specific class – they will not roll over to the next academic year like your other centralised learning resources.  

So, if you’re not careful, you’ll have to duplicate a lot of work next year when creating new homepages.  

Instead, try this tip to save time without compromising on quality.  

Don’t save all your resources in one Class Team, instead create a central resource area in SharePoint that you can reuse year after year.  

Then, use your Class Homepage to signpost your students to those learning resources.  

You can do this in a number of ways, including Quick Links web parts, buttons, links on images, and simply just inserting a link.  

We like how the Quick Links web part is laid out as you can simply keep adding to the list and create a unified list of key resources – all with their own customisable icon.  

Meanwhile, if you want a resource to stand out – perhaps it’s an “ultimate revision guide” you can use an image or button to highlight it even further. 

(Read a little bit more about transforming the way you work with centralised learning resources in this guide.)

Signpost your class to central shared resource areas from their Class Homepage 

Found this useful? Share this guide with your colleagues.

How to cut the chaos when using the collaboration space in Class Notebook

The collaboration space in Class Notebook allows students and teachers to work together on a learning resource in real-time. This is a great opportunity for students to get more involved in working as a group as they can add text, digital ink (drawing) and insert images and videos.

Although letting your class loose on a shared workspace may seem chaotic initially, if you plan ahead and use the tips below, you’ll be able to get everyone engaged in the learning.

Here are a few ways you can streamline your collaboration time:



Assign different areas to different groups of students.

Assign different areas for different students to prevent them from working on the same thing simultaneously and overwriting each other’s work. This can result in a page conflict, which leads to you needing to choose the version you wish to add to the collaboration resource.

Create a separate page for each group.

Work in groups and create a separate page for each group to contribute to. This reduces the number of people working on one resource but allows you to oversee all your students’ work.

Lock and distribute the collaboration space.

Once the collaboration is over, lock it. This prevents students from adding or changing the resource any further. Here’s how to lock a collaboration space:

  1. Go to Manage Notebook.
  2. Select Lock Collaboration Space.

After locking the collaboration space, you can then distribute the resource into your students’ Class Notebooks for later revision or even assign it for further editing as homework.

  1. Select Class Notebook.
  2. Select Distribute Page and then Class Notes.
  3. Hit Distribute. 

When you’ve distributed the collaboration space to Class Notebook, you can now clear the area for next time.

Read our step-by-step guide on sharing and locking collaboration spaces in Class Teams.

New to Teams: View assignment history and hand in student work in Teams  

The ability to hand in work on behalf of students in Microsoft Teams Assignments has been long-awaited by teachers, alongside being able to view assignment history of individual students. 

In this guide, we show you how to view assignment history and submit student work as a teacher in Teams Assignments.



How to view assignment history in Microsoft Teams Assignments. 

Viewing assignment history is particularly useful as it helps you as a teacher get an overview of where the student is with the assignment – whether they’ve viewed the work, if they’ve attempted to complete it or if they need more guidance.  

It also cuts out the excuse of “not knowing about the homework”, because you can now see if they really viewed the task or not.  

  1. Go into one of your assignments in Teams and view the list of students who have been set this work. 
  2. Select a student to open up their assignment. 
  3. In the left-hand side marking panel, select View History. This brings up an overview of where the student is with the assignment.

View assignment history in Teams

In this example, we can see that we set the work on 11/05/2022 at 14:11 and Susan viewed it around 20 minutes later.  

View assignment history in Teams example - viewed

Here’s what it looks like when the student has handed in their work. 

View assignment history in Teams example - handed in

 

How to hand in work on behalf of a student in Microsoft Teams Assignments. 

A much-anticipated feature in Teams is the ability for teachers to take actions on behalf of students – for example, upload files and turn in work for students. 

  1. Go into one of your assignments in Teams and view the list of students who have been set this work. 
  2. Select a student to open up their assignment. 
  3. Select Take action in student view in the left-hand side marking panel.  
  4. From here, you can attach files and select Hand in to hand in their assignment on their behalf.  
  5. The student and teacher have the option to Undo hand-in.  

Turn in assignments on behalf of students

Note: The assignment history will tell you whether the assignment has been turned in by the student or the teacher. 

If you would like to find out more about our Cloud Box platform and how we can help extend Microsoft 365 in your school or MAT, book a free demo today.

How to get a notification every time a student submits a late assignment

The late turn in notification in Microsoft Teams Assignments allows you to be alerted if a student hands in their homework late.

The notification appears in the bottom corner of your screen, as well as the activity bell in the top-left of your Microsoft Teams.

This can be activated per assignment, or for all assignments in your class. It’s a handy feature that enables you to quickly identify if your students have submitted their assignments on time.

Turn on the late turn in notification for one assignment. 

  1. In Class Notebook, select Assignment. 
  2. Create your assignment as you would usually – fill in the information and set a deadline etc.  
  3. Under Settings, there’s an option to Receive notifications for late turn ins. Select Yes. 
  4. Select Assign to send out the assignment. Your late turn in notification is activated for this assignment.  

 

Turning on late turn in notification announcment for one assignment

Turn on the late turn in notification for all assignments. 

There’s also a way to set up a late turn in notification for all your assignments in a class.  

  1. Go into your Assignments in Class Teams. 
  2. Select Settings in the top right corner.
  3. Under Notifications, there’s an option to Receive notifications for late turn ins. Select Yes. 

From now on, notifications for late submissions will be turned on for all your assignments.  

Note: This only applies to your selected class. To activate the notifications for another class, you need to repeat this process in the Class Notebook Assignment tab for your other classes. 

 If you would like to find out more about our Cloud Box platform and how we can help extend Microsoft 365 in your school or MAT, book a free demo today.