A Quick Win

Photo: Pixabay

I have been ever so pleased with my recent experience using Microsoft Teams for assignments and I am keen to share my findings in this short post.

We have recently set our Year 9s some in-class assessments which we did using Microsoft Forms and a simple Word Document. The decision to use these tools was pragmatic.

Students were already well-versed in both these tools which meant that we did not have to spend any time teaching the students how to open the form at the start or submit their work once completed.   Furthermore, Forms has been part of our teaching routine even before lockdown and remote teaching became our norm. In addition, using Forms meant that work was automatically marked and we could limit the amount of marking we needed to do which, when you are spending a lot of time in front of a screen anyway, is a welcome relief.

The second part of the assessment was an essay which the students completed on Word.  They had the choice to write their responses or type it, this latter proved most popular.  I have to admit, I was not looking forward to marking the essays but in fact this is where the process pleasantly surprised me.   

In Assignments, in Teams I was able to see at a glance my whole class and then once I had selected the name at the top of the list, I simply selected Edit Document in App, picked up my stylus and got on with marking. 

I did decide to provide a number of the simpler corrections and used our error code so that students can read through and correct their own work and have made a note of the more common errors to go through as a class.  The marking looked like this:

I was able to write some comments and direction on what went well and so on, and finally, as a little light relief, a memoji which I have collated into a folder to use in my students' work.  Perhaps using memojis do not have much pedagogical impact but I find that in terms of extrinsic motivation it has a part to play.  Here's a few of my favourites:

Feedback in Teams

Having provided my feedback on the document, and closed it, the work is now saved and I can, if I wish, write some more and within Teams.  

There is great benefit from providing feedback in Teams as you can easily have access to this in the Grades Tab and reflect on feedback that has been given over time. However, given that my comments were on the document, I decided not to do this - despite what you see here.  Remember, time was of the essence. 

At this point, from the same section of Assignments, I was able to move down to the next student and repeat the process.   Once I have clicked 'return' my students will be able to see their grades and more importantly the feedback.  For the time being, I will not return the work, not until a discussion has taken back with my colleagues.  Fortunately, I will be able to return the students' work in one go at the click of the button. 

In all, a very simple process and one that has passed more smoothly that I could have imagined.  No papers to lose, easy to provide feedback using my stylus and a variety of colours and of course, my Memoji for a little fun. 

So a quick win - and maybe one that will be useful for you too?  Let me know.