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Pandemic happened - City created Teams sites for every active SITS module to support students’ group work, collaboration, and communication. These sites were intended to complement Moodle and staff and students were automatically enrolled. Yet the sites were not visible to students until activated by an academic team owner.

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Small-scale study on how Teams Sites were used for teaching and learning. Involved module leaders/lecturers and students on the relevant Moodle Modules.

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We had limited data to establish which schools/Modules had Teams Sites activated.

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In summary, we spoke with 8 staff from across different schools including Law, Health, Business, Engineering and LEaD’s  MA in Academic Practice.  1 (UG) – Bayes, 3- SMSCE (3 UG), 1 - School of Health Sciences 2 – City Law School (1 UG and 1 PG), 1 SASS (UG).
12 students agreed to partake in the focus groups.

Students interviewed: City Law school (3 UG and 4 PG), SMCSE (2 UG and 1 PG), and School of Health Sciences PG), who were also doing the Masters in Academic Practice.

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Teams Sites; user-friendly, and intuitive with a simple interface that integrates with the Office 365 tools.

A Teams app; useful for students on phones and accessible from any location.

Easier to set students into smaller groups

Some used the teaching on Teams as an opportunity to redesign their learning activities; flipped learning and synchronous teaching, Just In Time support, and group-led activities.

Teams Site for active learning is a good thing. However, staff didn’t know where to turn to for support, especially around engagement and collaborative strategies to support students.

If lecturers were confident in facilitating group activities students felt more engaged.

A few lecturers used various types of collaborative activities such as peer review, break-out rooms, online quizzes, chat functions, and group presentations.

A few lecturers noted that they found Teams easy to use. However, staff found it challenging to support and encourage students to make use of integrated tools within Teams

Build interactive sessions and conduct group assessments. It would be helpful to encourage the interactive aspects of Office 365 tools within Teams Sites.

Positive replies when asked about the use of other tools within Teams. Additional tools that integrate with Teams sites. Tools such as Flipgrid, Streaming Videos, Visio, Group chat, Shared documents, OneDrive, Polling, Presentation, and Office 365 tools.

Mixed response in terms of administrative processes. The administration of large groups of students was challenging and was commented on by several lecturers. Yet, some advantages included efficiency and being able to expand student numbers globally as well as facilitating external and internal specialists.

Lack of communication among student groups on Teams was a challenge for some lecturers, who believed that this was due in part to students' use of WhatsApp outside of the course.

There was some frustration from lecturers about their students not being able to grasp basic digital literacy skills.

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Integration between Teams and Moodle could be further improved to support group work. There was a mixed response from students around an understanding among staff about how to fully utilize the potential of Teams spaces. For example; staff not fully exploiting the collaborative potential of working on a common resource in Teams space.  This suggests a need for training to help staff better understand and use the platform's features and functionality.
Some students expressed disappointment at the lack of engagement and ineffective use of Teams by some lecturers. On the other hand, some students felt that their lecturers used Teams Site with confidence and managed the discussion flow appropriately which in turn, gave them more confidence in using the tools.
The lack of participation and engagement, mentioned often by academics, was something that students themselves also found very difficult to deal with.
In the main, WhatsApp was heavily used for communication although one possible reason why students continue to use WhatsApp may be that they are not aware that they can set up private study groups in Teams that are not visible to others, including lecturers.
With respect to flexibility, students, overall, were positive about Teams being utilized in a non-hierarchical way and enjoyed coming together in groups to learn.
A few Office 365 tools were mentioned, such as sharing documents using One Drive and SharePoint and the calendar app.
The issue of technical problems was mentioned repeatedly by students. Students complained of the internet crashing and of time lags. Issues also seemed to occur more often if other tools were being used.
Some students commented that Teams Sites were utilised well by some tutors to give them a more personalised learning experience.

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LEaD work even more closely with teaching teams to support effective learning design.  Specifically to do with the design of Teams Sites for teaching and learning.

Guidance that meetings should be held in Teams channels, rather than in separate meetings.

Further, develop established communities of practice that provides just-in-time guidance and training for lecturers. This community should be user-led and facilitated by LEaD/IT.

Team sites should be introduced into all staff induction programs.

Just in Time guidance on using Office 365 tools.

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Guidance to students on how to set up their own private team groups in a safe and inclusive way.
Team spaces should be introduced into all student and staff induction programs.

Actively promote Student digital advisers to support students' digital skills; for example, with the use of Office 365 tools that are integrated in Teams spaces.