Microsoft Teams is a core collaborative platform within the Microsoft 365 suite, available to all University of Queensland (UQ) staff and students. It supports communication and collaboration by providing a shared digital space where students can engage in discussions, exchange ideas, and work collaboratively on group projects.
In the context of contemporary higher education, where blended learning approaches combine online and face‑to‑face delivery, Microsoft Teams plays an important educational role. It enhances the social presence of learning by enabling ongoing interaction beyond the classroom, supporting peer collaboration, and fostering a sense of community among learners. As such, Microsoft Teams contributes to more connected, flexible, and engaging learning experiences for UQ students.
Microsoft Teams for Teaching and Learning
A Microsoft Teams site is available for teaching and learning for every course at UQ. However, the use of Microsoft Teams in course delivery is optional and determined at the discretion of the Course Coordinator.
The Course Coordinator, along with other teaching staff who have an Instructor role in the corresponding Learn.UQ course will be added to the course team as team owners. If the Course Coordinator chooses to use Microsoft Teams for a course, they are responsible for activating the course team.
Microsoft Teams for Group Assessment
Group assignments (or group projects) are a commonly used form of assessment at UQ. They cultivate essential teamwork skills by requiring students to collaborate in problem-solving and work collectively towards a final product. Increasingly, group assignments are designed to assess not only the final product but also the collaborative process undertaken by students. This shift necessitates the use of appropriate technologies that enable instructors to effectively evaluate both the learning process and the final outcomes of students’ work.
Microsoft Teams, as a collaborative platform, can enhance the assessment of collaborative processes in several ways. First, it is one of the most widely used communication and collaboration tools in contemporary workplaces, providing students with opportunities to engage in practices that closely resemble their potential future professional environments. Second, students can be organised into private channels within their course Microsoft Teams site, where they can interact and work collaboratively on group projects. Within these private channels, students can post messages, hold online meetings to discuss their work, and co-author files such as Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and Excel spreadsheets. These features allow instructors to gain insight into students’ collaboration, communication, and contribution patterns throughout the project lifecycle.
Staff guides on Microsoft Teams
Below are some of the guides for staff to use to enhance the implementation of group work for students as well as to gauge insights into how students work in teams for their final product.
Channels in a Team
- General channel in course team
- Standard channels in course team
- Private channels in course team
- Channel settings in Teams
Documents in a Team
- Files in Teams
- Create and share Microsoft documents
- Find and filter files by Microsoft
- Work on a file together by Microsoft
- Co-editing documents in Teams
Student guides on Microsoft Teams
Staff should provide students with relevant guides on the use of Microsoft Teams for the group assessment task.
Students: Getting started with Teams
- Access your course Team site
- Notifications in Teams
- Filter your activity feed by Microsoft
- Clear your Microsoft Teams cache by the University of Vermont
Students: Channels in Teams
- Course Team site channels
- Channel visibility in your course Team site
- Standard channels in your course Team site
- Private channels in your course Team site
- Microsoft Lists to assign group work tasks
Students: Communication in Teams
- Create and format a post by Microsoft
- Get attention with @mentions by Microsoft
- Save a post or a message by Microsoft
- Start and pin chats by Microsoft
- Make calls by Microsoft
- Hide chats and delete messages by Microsoft
- Group chat for collaboration in Teams