Ever since the pandemic hit, both educators and students have been affected adversely. As a result, Microsoft Teams has been been on the receiving end when it comes to features and updates that will help the student thrive in school regardless of these unfavorable circumstances.
A notable feature that has made it to Teams with the aim of facilitating this goal is New Assignments and Grades report in Education Insights. This feature is in place to bridge the gap created when carrying out these learning sessions virtually, in that the students are able to interact with the course facilitator. With this in place, the teacher will be able to identify students that need more assistance in a particular area.
Besides that, the feature is more comprehensive and detailed. The course tutor is able to track the student’s progress over time, which gives them more insight in regards to their performance and whether the mode of teaching they are using is efficient. Teachers can filter through and check which assignments had the highest performance index and those that didn’t, which therefore allows them to make adjustments accordingly.
According to the blog post, the feature “provides additional data about students’ progress, including their grade trends, categories, and group assignment information. And teachers can use the class overview to zero in on data specific to a student or assignment, or to compare a student to the entire class”.
Moreover, the app gives the course facilitator access to the students’ assignments dashboard where they can check the progress the students have made on the tasks assigned and even provide support to those who are stuck. The new Teams color coding has also made it easier for the teachers to keep track of these assignments.
To access these features, you will need to navigate through Teams by clicking on the Insights Tab, then heading over to the Assignments report where you will now be able to view all the data regarding the students’ learning progress.
And finally, the Immersive Reader has been made more “inclusive and accessible” to help enhance the learning process by helping students brush up on their reading skills. “Microsoft is making the tool freely available to all PowerSchool Unified Classroom® Schoology Learning customers”. Be sure to also check out our expert guide on how to use Immersive Reader.
In the blog post, Microsoft indicated that Rubrics will be rolled out soon in Assignments that can be linked to Insights. They also intend to provide tutors with visual representations of grading that will help them identify topics that students did not perform well in. A resource accessed tab will also be introduced where course facilitators can attach reading material that they would like students to reference before class or for a particular topic. The twist here is that they will be able to tell which resources students are currently using.
