Utilising Microsoft (MS) Teams to allow for large class group project delivery; to collaborate, share files, chat and call.
Dr Anson Li and the teaching Team of INFOSYS110 from the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management at the Business School used MS Teams to facilitate group work collaboration for on-campus and offshore students. The tool allows teaching staff and students to interact with one another while also getting students accustomed to experiencing a commonly used industry platform.
Background
Microsoft Teams for Education has been available as a staff productivity tool for a couple of years within the University. In some courses MS Teams has been made available to students to support student group communications as a pilot.
MS Teams offers students an alternative platform (one managed and overseen by the University) for communicating with their peers or project teams. MS Teams is now available to all students enrolled at the University and for all teaching staff to use in their courses in 2023.
MS Teams is an increasingly popular collaboration system in the industry. The 110 team believed that exposure to MS Teams would provide hands-on experience for students and prepare them for their careers.
Video group assessment details from Canvas
Design and implementation
Dr. Andrew Eberhard first presented the idea of using Microsoft Teams as a tool for collaboration and communication between the staff members to the INFOSYS110 team. As the course director, Andrew saw its potential value in the INFOSYS110 course, while Anson, the course coordinator, was rather skeptical, since there exist already numerous collaboration platforms that are freely available to most students. After a short trial with the teaching team, however, Anson found it to be very effective, convenient and user-friendly, and was completely converted. The functionality of MS Teams, as well as its accessibility through desktop and mobile versions, made it easy for the team to communicate with each other anytime.
Given the platform’s focus on collaboration and its relevance in the INFOSYS110 course, the teaching team decided to integrate it into the course’s delivery. This way, students could not only learn about the concept of collaboration systems, but also have the opportunity to use it in a guided practical setting.
In INFOSYS 110, the teaching team used Microsoft Teams as a collaboration tool to facilitate communication and collaboration with their students, and to organise course content. The tool was used primarily in the two-hour weekly laboratory sessions and supplemented with one-hour plenary sessions. The lab sessions were divided into groups of 4 students, with seven groups per lab stream. Each lab stream was assigned a team site, with a private channel for each group and a general channel for the entire stream. Two group assessments were conducted on Microsoft Teams using shared Microsoft PowerPoint files and Microsoft Stream, a video hosting platform.
Each lab group is given its own Microsoft Teams site, with private channels for smaller subgroups within each site. Students can chat with each other, either in private groups (visible to the tutor) or in a general channel visible to everyone in the lab stream. During a weekly lab exercise, students fill in a PowerPoint document (pre-loaded on the file system of MS Teams) and submit it to the tutor for assessment. They are also required to create a video presentation using the Microsoft Stream application. Both submissions are sent to the tutor by starting a chat message with the presentation or the co-authored PowerPoint file attached.
The purpose of using MS Teams for group work completion and submission in this class is to provide students with the experience of using a collaboration system. It is important to note that although these lab sessions are conducted with MS Teams, other official announcements, learning resources, and assessments are still primarily facilitated within Canvas. This is how INFOSYS110 maintains that Canvas is still the official Lecture Management System, while MS Teams is a supplementary collaboration tool.
Image 1: Lab assessments groupings
Image 2: Weekly lab exercises
Image 3: Group video assessment
Image 4: Roles of two platforms; Canvas and MS Teams
Challenges
There have been some drawbacks that the INFOSYS110 team encountered throughout the semesters. At the start, a few students asked if they could use a platform other than MS Teams, such as Google tools, QQ or Weibo. The course’s policy is that MS Teams is a required part of the course offering, and the students were encouraged to use it. Despite their initial reluctance, they eventually adapted to using MS Teams without issues.
Another issue the team has faced is related to the security measures on Microsoft Teams, particularly concerning private teams and the accessibility of student submissions. Sometimes, if students set their security restrictions differently, the tutors may not be able to view their submissions or access video assignments. As a result, the course ended up having to ask students to send the files themselves, instead of a link.
The administration has also encountered some challenges with synchronising MS Teams and Canvas. In the summer semester, they tried to set up real-time synchronisation but encountered delays and lags. They switched to a daily update during the first semester but still experienced some problems. In recent semesters, they have gone manual and are using a CSV file to update the structure of Teams instead. Although this solution is not real-time, it has worked better than the previous automatic systems. The University was working on finding a better solution for this issue.
It is worth noting that Teams configuration may not work for teaching team members outside of the University.
What Worked Well
Overall, the INFOSYS110 team found that using MS Teams in this course has been beneficial. The platform provides a one-stop shop for group work and assignments, streamlining the submission and grading process for students and tutors.
The communication among the teaching team has been much more efficient and organised on MS Teams. Additionally, the tutors have given positive feedback about the facilitation of lab sessions, assessments, and submissions, which have been running smoothly.
Most students have quickly adapted to using Teams as a platform for easy collaboration and communication, as it is a familiar environment for them.
Today, the teaching team still uses Teams for meetings and collaboration. The technology can be scaled up to cater to large numbers of students in groups.
The use of MS Teams, a cross-platform tool with web, desktop, and mobile support, has been a positive experience overall. The implementation of MS Teams will be long-term due to favourable feedback from business school students. The tool has been an excellent resource for collaboration and has given students hands-on experiences with a collaboration system. Despite a few minor difficulties, the results have been positive, and the teaching team plans to continue utilising MS Teams. With more business students becoming familiar with the tool, the INFOSYS110 team staff members intend to use it for other future courses and learning purposes.
From SET evaluations
“Working with peers through MS teams worked really well!”
“The workshops were the most helpful aspect for my learning. The zoom workshops were also the most effective way to carry on with classes during the lockdown. I also found the use of MS teams to be very useful when collaborating with my peers and asking Sunny for any question in regards to what we were learning.”
“Panopto video worked fine and it was very convenient. Working in Microsoft Teams was also very convenient and useful.”
“I found Microsoft Teams very helpful as it allowed me to communicate with my group and have all of our files in one place. It was much simpler than having to share a document on Google Docs with each other and submitting the group work was easier.”
Further resources
Presentation at Innovative Learning and Teaching (ILT) LEARN DO SHARE 2021. Topic: Using MS Teams along with Canvas in a Large class for Group Work Collaborations.