MS Teams for Teaching

Microsoft Teams supports collaboration, communication and community building in teaching. It is particularly useful for live interaction, group work and student engagement.

Use Teams alongside Blackboard: Blackboard remains the University’s primary platform for course materials, assessments and lecture recordings. Use Teams to add interaction and collaboration, rather than duplicating the main course structure. 

Teams is best used where communication and participation are central to the learning activity. Appropriate uses include: 

  • running live seminars or tutorials 
  • hosting class or group discussions 
  • facilitating collaborative project work 
  • supporting questions and informal interaction 
  • creating spaces for smaller-group activity 

Before introducing Teams, be clear about the purpose it will serve and how it connects with the rest of the unit. Tell students where they should find authoritative course information and materials.

See how to set up your Teams from Blackboard. The integration synchronises student membership with Blackboard enrolments and provides links to the Class Team and its meetings. See also how to:

Before creating channels or asking students to post, decide how the Team will support the learning community.

  • Consider whether students are learning at a distance and how this affects their need for connection.
  • Consider their level and confidence in communicating in a space visible to peers and teachers.
  • Explain why students should use the Team and what value it adds to existing communication channels.
  • Set clear expectations for participation, respectful communication, response times and staff presence.
  • For a large cohort, consider whether smaller groups need their own channels or separate spaces.

Polling can increase participation, check understanding, prompt discussion and collect feedback. Use polls when they serve a clear teaching purpose. The right frequency depends on the session or activity design, rather than a fixed time interval.

Choose a polling tool

  • Use the Teams Polls app for a straightforward poll within a meeting or channel.
  • Use Mentimeter where its activity formats or presentation features better support the teaching approach.
  • Use a simple asynchronous channel poll when students need time to respond outside a live session.

Design an effective poll

  • Use polling early enough to establish participation as normal.
  • Keep questions short and focused to reduce cognitive load.
  • Explain why you are asking the question.
  • Use the results to adapt the session or prompt discussion.
  • Describe questions and response options aloud.
  • Avoid text-heavy or visually complex questions.

Create and launch a poll

  1. Open the Polls app.
  2. Create the question and response options.
  3. Launch the poll at the appropriate point in the session.
  4. Give students enough time to respond.
  5. Share or describe the results and explain what happens next.

A Class Team includes a OneNote Class Notebook with individual student spaces, a teacher-only space and a collaborative space. 

Use it for learning activities

  • invite students to introduce themselves to you 
  • support reflection and formative feedback 
  • record laboratory, fieldwork or placement notes 
  • share and develop ideas asynchronously in the collaborative space 

Understand the limitations

  • Class Notebook may be difficult to manage for very large units. 
  • Synchronisation may not be immediate. 
  • The OneNote quiz feature is not suitable for summative assessment. Use supported assessment tools instead. 
  • Remove or rename default sections such as Quizzes, Handouts and Homework if they will not be used. 
  • Continue to use Blackboard as the main location for lecture and course materials. 

Blackboard can combine enrolments from more than one SITS unit into a single course. The automated Class Team integration does not currently reproduce that Parent/Child structure automatically. 

  • Use the automated Class Team where teaching and collaboration happen at individual unit level. 
  • If staff need one Team for students from several units, create a separate Team and add members manually. 
  • Plan how membership will be updated when students join or leave. 
  • Explain clearly where students should go for materials, meetings and collaborative activity.