Replies

• 

  Jo Cook December 21, 2020 at 4:39pm

  Hi Dawn,

  Thank you, so glad you got to go virtual this year!

  This thread has some Teams discussions on it. 

  In terms of screensharing your slides, that's the same and works great. What you can't do in Teams at the moment is use annotation tools on top of slides – MAJOR DRAWBACK! Or minor if you never did that.

  Teams does have a whiteboard tool, BUT…. If you are a guest, you can’t even see it, let alone use it. A way around this is to just use chat (we did on a course recently, worked ok) or convert some of your activities to use Mentimeter, Padlet, Jamboard or something similar that your client can access.

  You’ll need to do a test meeting with your client. If they schedule a Teams meeting within a channel, you won’t have access to the chat. They will need to schedule a general Teams meeting, so that you can use chat.

  What’s really nice with Teams chat is that you can use emoticons within chat (but there’s no emoticon response separate, like Zoom has). Also what’s cool is that if someone types in Teams, other people can put an emoticon response (thumbs up, heart, smiley etc) to that individual comment, which is REALLY cool for interaction.

  There is a hands up icon people can click to get your attention. You can’t have an attendee and chat panel open, but you’ll see the notification at the top of the screen and also on their video/name too.
  It’s far from the ideal virtual classroom tool, but with some fettling, you can still facilitate really well.

  What other tips do people have?

  

  Can Office 365 really be used for Virtual Classroom?

  Hi all I'm new to this community. Ive been designing online learning for some time but we've only recently started exploring live online training. I…
  • 

    Dawn Sillett > Jo Cook December 21, 2020 at 6:36pm

    

    Thank You Jo!

    Darn - I like getting participants to write /draw on the slides. So thanks for your suggestions for alternatives. I used Padlet a while ago as a standalone with some F2F groups, so will practise using this within Teams to see how it works. I will also spend time playing with Jamboard (only used it as a participant recently and liked it). As it's a small group - 10 people - chat can be typed or mic and I like the emoticons. 

    As the client is the one using Teams, it looks as though my options are to:

    • Ask them to schedule a test (general Teams) meeting, during which they make me the presenter and hand over the controls
    • Sound them out about using Zoom ;)

    Thanks again :)
    • 

      Jo Cook > Dawn Sillett December 22, 2020 at 11:34am

      

      My pleasure. I'll be honest, it's been painful to use Teams in some ways compared to what Zoom/Connect/Webex can do, but it's what people have, so we have to embrace it. I really do like the emoticon reactions, and also if you have a Word document with formatting, when you copy/paste that into chat it keeps the formatting. That can be really useful for notes/questions or anything you want to call out!

      I love Jamboard, much richer post-it note experience :D Your attendees will need to login with their Google account and you'll need to set the permissions right for them to access, so having a second browser/computer/google account to test it will help you out :D 

      And good options too!
      • 

        Dawn Sillett > Jo Cook December 22, 2020 at 12:32pm

        

        Jo, I wanted to a) thank you for your suggestion and b) share how it worked out in case anyone else is in the same spot. I asked my client for their views on Zoom vs Teams and asked to book a test run with the latter - to try it out with additional apps for greater interaction. 

        Instant reply: let's stick with Zoom!

        Phew.

        And a flag for me to get more practice with Teams!

         

         

         
    • 

      Helen Tyson > Dawn Sillett January 7, 2021 at 9:24am

      

      Hi Dawn,

      If you want your participants to be able to draw/write on a single screen during your sessions you can add a blank PPT to the meeting chat, everyone can open it and use it as a shared document. 

      It's not exactly like the Zoom whiteboard, but it's an alternative if time is tight to master other applications, and most people are familiar enough with PPT for it to feel comfortable for the participants.

      You add a new PPT for each 'whiteboard' and they are saved within the chat so you can go back to them if you need to.
      • 

        Sarah Collett > Helen Tyson January 19, 2021 at 9:28am

        

        Great tip- never thought of trying that! 

        Thank you :)
      • 

        Dawn Sillett > Helen Tyson January 19, 2021 at 5:11pm

        

        Hi Helen, I've been using slides as whiteboards but hadn't thought of sharing a blank and getting people to open/ use it to build a shared resource. 

        Thanks :)
• 

  Jo Cook January 4, 2021 at 3:45pm

  Hi, I know you've already got Zoom organised, but here is a tip for you, and anyone else, about an annoying screenshare bug in Teams:

   

  https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msteams/forum/all/teams-window-...

  

  Teams Window Sharing during call - List of windows does not update

  On Teams client for Windows 1.3.00.28779 as well as 1.3.00.26064 that I've been able to test, when I'm already on a call and click the share content…
• James Booth January 6, 2021 at 4:14pm

  1. My advice would be to ask your client to create you a proper / full user account in their Microsoft directory, this avoids you being a "guest" with all the restrictions that come with that status.
  
  MS Teams is designed for teams of people using the same software infrastructure (the MS OFFICE 365 app stack).  dont fight it, ask (/insist upon) on being "part of the team" in this way.
  
  The client can easily remove your account later.  
  
  2. USE THE MS OFFICE STACK (ie the SOFTWARE)....
  a good example, with Office 365 you can co-edit a word document with the learners.... this is akin to using a whiteboard.   The Office 365 stack is designed for this sort of collaboration.
  
  hope that helps - if anybody wants hands on help sorting out other Teams quandries just reach out

   
  • 

    Dawn Sillett > James Booth January 12, 2021 at 12:19pm

    Thanks James, that's really helpful. Now I understand why the group asked me for Office docs not pdfs :) - at least that makes sense to me.

    So far, the cohort has created their own Group within Teams, but I'm not privy to it. Something to discuss...