Microsoft Teams offers a digital education solution that can help schools encourage collaboration and learning.
With a range of helpful features — including virtual classroom support, digital learning coaches, videoconferencing, and messaging — Teams offers a comprehensive platform tailored to the needs of teachers, students, and parents that can help make learning more accessible and engaging.
As schools continue to integrate digital tools and online learning into their classrooms, Microsoft Teams provides a centralized hub that can enhance the educational experience. Here are the key benefits of Microsoft Teams for education and how it can support every stakeholder in the learning process.
Benefits of Microsoft Teams for teachers and staff
Microsoft Teams isn’t just a communication tool; it’s an all-in-one platform that helps educators set up virtual classrooms, keep track of student progress, and foster an organized learning environment.
Here are a few of the benefits for teachers and staff.
1. Centralize information and lesson plans.
With the Classwork app in Teams, teachers can organize resources in one place — whether files, assignments, channels, OneNote Class Notebook pages, or other resources. Organize courses by study modules, manage the content in the modules, drag and drop it to order it, and publish the modules for students to access when they’re ready.
2. Student attendance and assignment tracking
Tracking attendance and assignments isn’t easy, especially in remote and virtual learning environments.
Microsoft Teams simplifies this process with built-in tools that let teachers mark attendance and monitor assignment submissions. Attendance reports and easily accessible tabs make it simple to see who’s on track and who might need extra support.
The Take Attendance tab lets teachers take attendance, view classroom attendance metrics, and see overall student attendance over time.
The Grades tab in Teams shows all your students and their assignments in one place, allowing you to easily track your classroom’s progress as a whole and individually. You can mark assignments as Turned in, Returned, Excused, and more.
These tools keep schools and teachers informed and can help them ensure no student falls through the cracks.
3. Enhanced collaboration with staff and faculty
Microsoft Teams encourages collaboration among educators. Staff can hold virtual meetings, share lesson plans, coauthor documents in real time, brainstorm ideas, develop curricula, and solve problems together — even when they can’t be in the same room.
Benefits of Microsoft Teams for students
Microsoft Teams provides students with a dynamic and interactive learning experience that extends beyond the physical classroom. From allowing students to connect with peers to giving them the ability to access resources at any time, Teams supports students in their educational journey.
Here are the benefits of using Microsoft Teams for students.
1. Stronger connections with friends and teachers
The chat and video call features in Microsoft Teams help students maintain relationships with classmates and teachers, whether they’re learning in person or online.
Students can engage with each other in supervised group discussions overseen by educators. Teams also allows students to ask questions and get feedback in real time for whatever project they’re working on, enhancing the learning process as they work.
2. Access to Learning Accelerators
Microsoft Teams offers Learning Accelerator tools, like Reading Coach and Reflect, that help support students in their learning journeys.
Reading Coach helps guide students through reading assignments, with support for pronunciation, vocabulary, and other aspects of comprehension. Reflect allows students to express their emotions with help from a Feelings Monster character.
These tools provide personalized feedback and track progress on a number of subjects, allowing students to improve their skills independently. Learning becomes more engaging and adaptive to each individual’s needs, and students with different learning styles can get personalized support.
3. An organized hub for all learning materials
With Microsoft Teams, students can find everything they need in one place.
They’re able to keep all of their work — from class notes and assignments to lecture recordings and resources — in a central location. The platform’s intuitive design helps students stay organized, making it less likely they’ll miss assignments or lose materials.
This structure empowers students to take control of their education, and it can help them create self-discipline and accountability.
Benefits of Microsoft Teams for parents
Parents play a crucial role in their children’s education, and Microsoft Teams helps them stay informed and involved. By bridging the communication gap between home and school, Teams ensures parents can support their children’s learning.
Here are the key benefits for parents.
1. Real-time updates on assignments and deadlines
Parents can easily keep track of their children’s academic progress through Teams.
The platform provides notifications and updates on assignments, grades, and deadlines, giving parents the ability to stay involved and see when they may need to provide support. This transparency helps parents guide their children to meet their academic responsibilities.
2. Direct communication with teachers
Microsoft Teams offers parents a direct line of communication with their children’s teachers, fostering a collaborative approach to education.
Parents and teachers can have meetings and chat discussions in Teams to check in without the need for lengthy email exchanges. This helps address issues promptly, creating a more supportive learning environment for students.
3. Access to class materials and resources
Parents can access class materials and resources directly through Microsoft Teams, giving them insight into what their children are learning.
This feature is particularly useful for parents who want to help with homework or reinforce school lessons at home. By understanding the curriculum and classroom expectations, parents can play an active role in their children’s education and success.
4. Alerts and notifications for important updates
Anyone with kids knows schools have no shortage of information blasts to keep track of. Teams helps parents stay informed with school announcements, upcoming events, spirit days, or changes in schedules.
These timely updates ensure parents are always in the loop, helping them manage their children’s school experience alongside their own busy schedules. Staying informed makes it easier for parents to provide the right support at the right time.
The benefits of Microsoft Teams for education multiply with Jotform
Jotform is a powerful form-building platform that offers a useful Teams integration that can help you manage data collection and collaboration. If you’re an educator or administrator who relies on forms to collect data or e-signatures from parents and students, Jotform’s Teams integration can help you manage important information directly in the Teams environment.
With the integration, form submissions collected in Jotform can be sent directly to a public or private Teams channel or a chat. RSVPs collected through event scheduling forms can also automatically create events in the Teams calendar, which will then be synced automatically with your Outlook calendar.
Jotform offers a 50 percent discount on its standard plans and a 30 percent discount on the comprehensive Enterprise plan for educational institutions, making it an affordable addition to schools’ digital toolkits. Explore other ways Jotform can help educators, with a suite of educational form templates that are free to use and a no-code app builder that can help you centralize educational forms in a single, easy-to-access location.
Photo by Vanessa Garcia
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