Microsoft OneNote

You can set up a shared notebook in Microsoft Teams that can be edited by you and the students with Microsoft OneNote. OneNote allows you to create rich documents with built-in pages and tabs for students to build resources and collaborate with their peers. If you have not downloaded the Microsoft Teams app, see the Getting started with Teams guide.

Examples of activities using OneNote:

Create rich documents with built-in pages and tabs for students to build resources and collaborate with their peers.
Provide one central location for real-time collaboration in pairs or groups or even for whole class activities, like brainstorming or collective research.
Guided notes for those students who need additional support.
Concept maps (mind mapping)
Guided worksheets where students provide answers collaboratively to a series of questions.
Minute paper (reflections based on video, readings or previous activity)

Whole class group collaboration

For whole class activities, like brainstorming and collective research, you can create one collaborative document available for everyone in the team or channel.

Navigate to the Team, Channel or Chat where you would like to add a collaborative OneNote document.
Click on the plus in the top toolbar.
Type OneNote in the search field and select OneNote.
Click + Create New Notebook and enter a name to create a new OneNote or select an existing OneNote document from the list, the click Save.
The OneNote document will be now added as a tab in your Team or channel, which all members in the Team will be able to access.
Note: If you want the OneNote to be accessible only by a specific group of students, you can create private channels for each group. See Small group collaboration below.

Small group collaboration

For group work you might want to one or more collaboration documents with restricted access. It is recommended you pre-assign the groups prior to the online activity to avoid any technical issues.

You can create private channels that are accessible only to specific group members and create a OneNote document in each group.
1. Navigate to your Team, beside the team name, click on the ellipses.
2. Select Add channel.
3. Give your Channel a name, for example Group 1,2,3… etc.
4. From the Privacy dropdown list, set the channel to Private— Only accessible to a specific group of people within the team, then click Next.
5. Add members by entering student names or email addresses. You can add multiple students at one time. Then click Add.
6. When finished, click Done.
7. Private channels will be indicated in the teams panel by a closed lock next to the channel name.
8. Click on private channel to open it.
9. You can now add a OneNote document as a tab but clicking the plus which will only be accessible to students within the private channel.
1. Navigate to where you have added your OneNote document as a tab and click on your OneNote tab.
2. In the toolbar, select Open in browser.
3. From the dropdown menu, click Open in browser.
4. Once your OneNote has opened in a new web page, click on File in the toolbar to expand the side menu.
  Note: You can click on Tiles icon and select OneNote to view a list of all your OneNote documents.
5. Click on Share and then Share with People.
6. Click to expand the link sharing opens and select Specific people. You can choose to Allow editing with the checkbox. Then click Apply.
7. Enter student names or email addresses. You can add multiple students at one time.
8. When finished, click Send.
9. Students will receive a message and a link.

Edit a OneNote document

Navigate to where you have added your OneNote document as a tab and click on it.
In the toolbar, select Open in browser.
From the dropdown menu, you can choose to Open in browser or Open in app. It is recommend that you edit in the app if you installed it previously, as editing in browser will open a new window.
Your OneNote document will autosave your changes to the cloud, as indicated by the sync status icon in the top right corner. You can click on the sync status icon to check the save status.

Educator tips:

When using collaborative documents with students, clearly explain your expectations for the activity and what content is/isn’t allowed to be shared. It is recommended that you write task instructions inside the OneNote document.
Students' inputs into the content sometimes can be disorganised and the final document will look messy. In order to avoid that you might want to provide a table or a template (for example, by integrating a spreadsheet) to structure students’ answers the way you want it.
For better navigation, use coloured tabs to divide content into sections, chapters or student groups. Within each group/chapter you or students can also create multiple pages for more extensive collaborative projects.

Learning and Teaching: Teach HQ

Learning and Teaching: Teach HQ

Microsoft OneNote

Whole class group collaboration

Small group collaboration

Edit a OneNote document