Sharing digital notes, instructions, information, and assignments with students can be done easily with Microsoft’s Class Notebook. Creating and using Class Notebook can help you keep all your information in one place, along with creating a localized place for your students’ notes.
When Class Notebook is paired with Microsoft Teams, all of your apps and teaching resources can stay streamlined without integrating many other tools. Maybe you have started using it too, or maybe it just seemed overwhelming to learn yet another tool. However, you don’t need to fret about learning how to use this one. Read or watch on below for a step-by-step guide on using Class Notebook in Microsoft Teams.
What Exactly is Class Notebook?
Class Notebook is a feature of OneNote, Microsoft’s digital notebook application. It is set up similar to Word, but with more freedom in what and where you place content. You can add in text, drawings, images, links, videos, and audio anywhere on these pages. Within this digital notebook, there are four different spaces for you to hold content:
- Collaboration Space – This space is designed for both you and your students to edit and add content. If you are interested in learning more about this space, we have an in-depth view of how to use this space effectively.
- Content Library – This is where you will find yourself adding the bulk of your content. This content can be viewed by students, but only edited by the teacher. For example, you can add a syllabus, lecture notes, or readings to this space for students to review.
- Teacher-Only Space – As the name suggests, only the teacher can view and edit what is in this space. Here, you can place time-sensitive material that you don’t want students to have access to yet. Then, when it is time, move it to the content library or the student notebooks for them to view.
- Individual Student Notebooks – Students can take notes, or add any other content in their own private space. Teachers are also able to add pages to this notebook for their students to review. Every student has access to the Collaboration Space, Content Library, and their own individual notebook.
In addition to these spaces, Class Notebook also includes extra features that are specially made for teachers. Lets’s dive into creating your notebook and how to use those features in Microsoft Teams!
Create your Notebook
To begin, ensure you are logged into your Microsoft EDU account so that you have access to the Class Notebook features of OneNote. There are so many features and tips to get started using Microsoft Teams for online teaching if you are just a beginner. Once you are in your Class Team, under the General Channel, click on the Class Notebook tab at the top of the screen.
If you have not used this feature before, click Set Up a OneNote Class Notebook and choose Blank Notebook. If you have used OneNote before, you can set this up using that existing notebook.
You will be led to an overview page of the different spaces in your notebook. After you have read it over, click Next to set up the different sections in your student’s notebooks. These sections help keep teachers and students organized. Feel free to add or delete any of the premade sections that you wish, then click Create to make a notebook for you and each one of your students.
Creating Sections and Pages
Now that your class notebook is set up, you’ll need to personalize it to make it work for your classroom. To do this, you can add sections and pages inside those sections to any of the four different spaces. This helps you keep track of all your different content.
Let’s add a section to the Content Library and a page beneath it. Start by clicking on the Content Library, and at the bottom click + Section. Give the section and name and hit OK. Now, you will be able to add pages beneath this section to add your content. In the same way, you can add a page with the + Page button or by right-clicking in the section space and choosing New Page.
It is super easy to organize this in the way you want. Pages can be reordered by clicking and dragging the page so that everything is in the order you’d like. Feel free to delete the premade pages and sections Microsoft has added after you have read through them. To do this, just right-click on the page and click Delete Section or Delete Page.
Your class notebook in teams is coming together! You have pages and sections created, but now we need to share this information with our students.
Distributing Sections and Pages
Within your class notebook, you can share content through the content library, in addition to putting pages directly into each student’s notebook. Students can then view and edit them as needed.
Distribute content you want students to work on so that you can review it, but you might not necessarily grade, right into their notebooks. If you want to grade a class notebook Page, check out how to integrate Class Notebook and the Assignments tab in Teams.
Distributing content is one of the extra features of the class notebook. In the top ribbon of the Notebook, head into the Class Notebook tab. Here, you can not only distribute Pages but whole Sections as well.
To distribute a page, you have a couple of different options. You can distribute the page to all students, certain students, or groups of students if you have groups of students for different days, classes, or different testing groups. There is also a Cross Notebook Distribution option. This is handy if you have 2 classes for the same grade or subject and they share content. Instead of having to create all the content twice, you can just share it between the notebooks.
After you choose how you are going to distribute the page, you will need to choose where to place the page in the student’s notebooks. When that is complete, that page will automatically be put directly into the student’s notebooks.
Another way you can move a page to another part of the notebook is to right-click on the page and choose Move/Copy. Then choose where you would like to place the page and if you want to just move it there or make a copy of it there.
Review Student Work
After you have distributed pages to students, you can now go ahead and review their work and leave feedback.
To do this, click on Review Student Work in the Class Notebook tab. Go to the correct Section and Page that you want to review. Then, you will be able to easily jump between students to view their work on that page. When their name is clicked, their work will appear on the left.
Don’t forget to leave feedback on their page! You can do this in a variety of different ways. Add an image, a video, drawings, or even an audio clip to let your students know how they did.
If need be, you can lock the page so that students cannot make any more edits. They can still go back and view the feedback you left, but they won’t be able to add more information. The option can be changed at any time by you, so nothing is set in stone.
Manage your Notebook
Lastly, some housekeeping tasks for your class notebook. To update or customize any settings in your notebook, under the Class Notebook section on the far right, click the three dots and then Manage Notebooks.
Here, you can create new sections for your student’s notebooks and turn off the Collaboration Space if needed. Keep in mind when you are creating sections and pages in the collaboration space, students are able to edit and add their own pages and sections as well. If you want to disable them from doing so, this is the place to do so.
The Collaboration Space can be turned on or off at any time, so maybe you use this space at certain times, and have it off for the rest of the time.
And that my friends, is your brief tutorial on how to begin using Class Notebook with Microsoft Teams. If you have any other questions on Microsoft’s Class notebook, let us know in the comments below, we will be happy to help you out!