Ideas for a teams Education Starter kit

[andikrueger]

With schools shutting down due to COVID-19 there is a real need for schools to be able to deliver educational material remotely.

Let’s collect ideas for a starterkit for Teams education.

[ccaragol]

What should the outcome look like and how would it be distributed? Were there thoughts already there? I took a look at this and this already created by Microsoft and I liked them, but wondered if we could be more specific for Elementary, Middle, or High School? Thoughts have been bouncing around my head around things the the importance of attendance and continued connection with students to make sure they're OK and not just thinking of this as extra vacation. Maybe step by step examples on posting a read-only assignment that kids can't accidentally edit. Maybe consider work that could be completed on a mobile phone as some families wouldn't have a full computer at home, or the parents may need the computer for their own remote work and mobile is all that's left. Take a picture of your math work in a Teams chat for your teacher, etc.

[ragnarheil]

it would offer massive extra value if we could package this Corona Crisis Communication Solution (based on SharePoint, PowerAutomate, PowerApps and Teams) into a Starter Kit which is easier to deploy -and translate it (e.g. to German) https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/coordinate-crisis-communications-using-microsoft-teams-power/ba-p/1216715

[andikrueger]

As mentioned here, there are several challenges.

• Having technical readiness
• Meeting federal, state and country laws and regulations
• Enabling students and teachers
• Establish and drive adoption
• Governance

Compared to a regular Teams project we do not have much time to define settings. There should be a very easy guidance or technical supporting function, to setup a tenant, Teams and Users for this new experience. Additionally I’d like to see some user (kids, parents, teachers) guidance.

[ccaragol]

This could become a book, and perhaps it should after this for the next pandemic (educational technical continuity planning book, another fun project). I have a fault where I suggest the six ways you could accomplish something rather than just suggesting the one I think is best. Not sure if others share that fault, but more for myself here: schools are shutting down or have already shut down and need info fast, so pick one and move forward, then perhaps link to others.

That said. Are we thinking a document? A website? A post or series thereof on TechCommunity?

[andikrueger]

We could go with a very simple website hosted in this org. I think that’s the beat approach to have many authors contributing to a big picture.

We should link as much content as possible to have the information needed for schools and their stakeholders in one place.

[ccaragol]

Wanted to start thinking of an outline:

Overview and Why Teams? (because you own it, it does what you need, and you need to move now)
Setting Up A Tenant (is the licensing hurdle too far at this point, should this be assumed or an appendix)
Laws and Regulations (we can't do much here, perhaps note that it should be cleared with local boards in the overview? Are school boards and American thing or a worldwide thing?)
Enabling Students and Faculty (how do they get it? what platforms? print and email quickstart templates for both? be ready for mobile and web only)
Establish and Drive Adoption (Set expectations of teachers and students at the school level, all teachers need to buy in, have regularly scheduled staff check-ins to discuss what's working and what's not, establish communication with student families outside of Teams)
Governance (One Team per class? One channel per subject, or keep it simple? Who can edit documents - don't let kids accidentally edit)
Live and Recorded Lesson Guidance
Assignment Posting Guidance
Homework Submission Guidance
Test taking? Proctoring will be difficult with larger classes.

[ccaragol]

I'm biased towards American upper-middle class elementary because where technology is abundant because that's where my kids are. I'm trying to not let that get in the way but it's tough.

[millh0use]

A lot of my thinking is centered around higher ed, mostly because that is the environment I live in most of the time. Probably need to think about whether we want to get into detail on the admin side with stuff like School Data Sync (I suppose no with timing being critical), and at least consider that some in edu have locked down Group creation. If nothing else it may be worth a mention so a teacher doesn’t just give up because they can’t create a Team.

[andikrueger]

Group creation should be available to the teacher group. (Security group)

There should be a org wide team with moderation.

User should not be able to share content outside their school.

School data sync - out of scope for now.

[andikrueger]

Display names for users should differ: (Teacher) (Student)

Third party apps in teams should be disabled.

File should only be stored within Office 365.