How universities can ramp up remote learning programs quickly with Microsoft Teams

COVID-19 has impacted the lives of people around the world. Many educational institutions around the world are making the difficult decision to temporarily close for the health and safety of students, educators, and staff. Given this, universities are looking for ways to keep students engaged if learning from home.

Here are our top resources to support universities facing closure, including our dedicated Microsoft Remote Learning site.

If you need any support, please reach out to us on aus-edu@microsoft.com or fill in our ‘Contact Us’ form. 

LIVE Q&A Sessions

If you’re educating students online and need some help, drop into one of our virtual Q&A sessions where our expert team will be available to answer your questions.

ON-DEMAND Webinars: Microsoft Teams for IT Pros

View the on-demand webinar series provide key information for schools and IT Pros on how to ramp up quickly with Microsoft Teams: https://microsoftteams.eventbuilder.com/TeamsEducation

Webinars: Microsoft Teams for Distance Learning

There are 3 webinar recordings, intended for any university academic staff, including full and part-time lecturers. We cover Teams meetings (for up to 250 participants), Teams live events (for up to 10,000 participants), and the use of Stream for catchup viewing, or where bandwidth is severely restricted. And we also show how to use live captions and Immersive Reading for improving student understanding

Part 1: Get started with Teams for online learning:

For users (staff and students) who have never used Teams before. This session includes how to access Teams, how to run your first Teams meeting and present content, including screen sharing. We also cover setting your best default settings.

Part 2: Engaging your students in Teams:

How to deliver a remote session with more interactivity – using chat, polling and whiteboard functions.

Part 3: Recording, publishing and language options for Teams:

Recording meetings, publishing on Stream, how to enable live captions, captions on recordings, and how students can access translated captions.

We want to support public health and safety by simplifying remote learning, and empowering educators with tech that helps foster a positive learning environment grounded in collaboration, creation, and connection.

Microsoft Teams brings conversations, content, assignments, and apps together in one place. As a virtual meeting platform, Teams is designed to enable discussion, and its features allow for easy assignment distribution—no matter where people are located. Teams also helps university administrators and staff stay connected and allows for real-time sharing of announcements.

General Questions and Links

Where can I download Microsoft Teams?

Visit aka.ms/GetTeams to download Teams to any PC, Mac, tablet or mobile device. You can also access Teams via Edge, Chrome or Firefox browsers at teams.microsoft.com

Where can I download a printable guide for using Microsoft Teams?

Download the printable Microsoft Teams Quick Guide at aka.ms/TeamsEDUQuickGuide

Faculty Questions and Links

Where can I get a guide for remote learning?

Remote teaching and learning in Office 365 – A guide for educators and students who are learning remotely. Plan lessons, share files, meet virtually and keep up with assignments from your virtual classroom.

How can students get more out of Teams?

Access our Microsoft Educator Centre resource: Microsoft Teams for university students

IT Admin Questions and Links

How can I learn more about Teams?

Designed for IT professionals and decision makers, Teams Chalk Talks provide a unique opportunity to learn best practices and practical guidance around some of the most popular and compelling scenarios in Teams. Facilitated by subject matter experts, these online interactive workshops will arm you with insights to enhance your Teams implementation and provide additional value for end users. Get started: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/chalk-talks-landing-page

Is there a community I can join?

Join the Microsoft Enabling Remote Learning Community, a community for educational institutions around the world looking at remote learning programs with M365 and Teams. Share resources, get your questions answered, and connect with Microsoft engineers about your remote learning needs. Learn more and sign up at: https://aka.ms/JoinRemoteLearningCommunity.

What information can I provide to staff who are planning remote learning programs?

The Teams Quick Start Guide for Education – downloadable PDF showing what Teams can do for remote learning. This might be worth sharing with key staff members involved in planning for remote learning.

How do we get Teams set up at our university?

Get started with Teams – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/remote-learning-edu

How do we set up and get started with using Azure Lab Services?

Access our Azure Labs Services accelerated set up guide

Customer Stories

UNSW uses Teams to increase student engagement

QBot is here creating learning communities supporting inclusion and social learning in Teams

Deakin University drives transparency and equity in team work through Teams

Looking for more distance learning customer stories? Visit our blog: https://edublog.microsoft.com/en-au/category/distance-learning/

If you need any support, please reach out to us on aus-edu@microsoft.com