More than ever, students are now accessing and engaging with learning through their own mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets. One of the main benefits of using podcasts, are that they don’t require the consumer of the content to be viewing a screen. This can often prove both flexible and convenient, particularly as the files can be listened to in a variety of settings – e.g. while out exercising, or even when relaxing in the evening.

So, the concept sounds great – but how do you actually create a podcast? This blog will take you through some key steps to creating your very first podcast, using many tools available within the Microsoft Office 365 suite.

1) Planning the content for the podcast

Before starting to record a podcast, there are some key factors to consider:

• • Who are the intended listeners?
  • How might they be accessing the content?
  • Are you recording ‘solo’, or wanting to capture a conversation with multiple participants?
  • What recording setup do you currently have?
  • Are you likely to require any further equipment?

Addressing these points will help ensure that you are prepared to record your first podcast.

2) Recording the podcast

The main hardware requirement for getting started with podcasting, would be either a smart phone, tablet, laptop or PC with a built-in microphone. A dedicated external microphone will likely enhance the quality of audio, but is not essential to the recording process. A set of earphones or headphones can also be useful for blocking out unwanted background noise during the recording process.

If you are simply looking to record ‘solo’, then you can use the Voice Recorder app built into Windows 10. This provides basic recording and editing features, and is one of the simplest ways of capturing audio content. Most modern mobile devices also come with their own built-in app, which will have a similar level of functionality.

However, if your aim is to capture a conversation between multiple participants e.g. between a host and several guests, then Microsoft Teams can offer a suitable solution.

Firstly, you will need to arrange a Microsoft Teams meeting to host the conversation, and then invite in any other participants. Once in the Teams meeting, you can select Start Recording by clicking ‘…’, which will begin recording any audio and video being shared by the participants. Once finished, you can follow a similar process to Stop Recording.

Although you are not likely to need any visuals for an audio podcast, it can be useful to have cameras switched on as a visual aid throughout the recording process. This really helps with making a virtual conversation feel much more natural – as participants can often benefit from seeing body language and visual cues.

3) Editing the content

It’s not always essential to edit a podcast. However, you may wish to tidy up your recording before publishing. If using Voice Recorder, this is possible within the application itself.

If you have recorded within a Microsoft Teams meeting, you can use the Trim video function within Microsoft Stream. If you want to retain the video captured within the podcast, then sharing as part of a Microsoft Stream channel (within your organisation), may prove a suitable option.

If you are wanting to extract just the audio from your recording (to be hosted elsewhere), or wish to do some additional editing, such as adding background music or adding an intro/outro – this will likely require the use of audio editing software. You could check with your organisation to see what software you might already have available to you. Audacity is a free open-source alternative, which provides plenty of functionality for anyone looking to get started with audio editing.

4) Hosting the final podcast

Once you have recorded and edited your podcast, your next consideration is where to host it. There are many ways that you can host a podcast online. One way of doing this via your Office 365 account, would be to use Microsoft Sway. Sway is described as Microsoft’s digital storytelling tool, and allows great flexibility to embed different types of multimedia content – including audio. Here are a few simple steps to get started with your podcast in Microsoft Sway:

1. 1. Select Create New
   2. Source a suitable image to use as cover art, and Insert as an Image Card
   3. Set the image Emphasis, as appropriate
   4. Create an Audio Card, and upload the relevant audio file
   5. Add any additional info (episode no., topic, guests etc) into the Caption box
   6. Use the Group function to link both the Image and Audio

These steps can easily be repeated to add further podcast episodes within the same Sway.

Using the Styles option within Design, will also allow you to customise the way that your Sway looks and feels. Selecting the Slides navigation mode often provides a clear and simple way of navigating between individual podcast episodes.

The Play button will provide a preview of how your Sway looks, and once you are happy, you can click the Share button to obtain a shareable weblink. This can very easily be embedded within a Team, using the Website option when adding a new tab to a channel.

Putting the steps into practice

Our DigiLearn podcast might give you a bit of inspiration to support you on your own journey to creating and sharing podcasts with your students.

Below is a quote from Nicky Varley – an MIE Expert and Lecturer in Children’s Nursing at the University of Central Lancashire, who has started exploring the use of podcasts within her teaching.

“The podcast was recorded via Microsoft Teams and then uploaded to our Virtual Learning Environment for the students to listen to. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, and they appreciated that we could share our stories within the podcast – something the students said they had really missed from the classroom. The trouble with no longer being face to face, is you miss that interaction with students, and sometimes online teaching can feel a little cold. Within nursing, sharing our past experiences really helps to paint a picture for our students. This is something I know I have really struggled to recreate with other forms of technology, but now podcasting seems to have changed that. By using this approach, not only are we being inclusive, we are also being creative.”

There are many different approaches to creating and hosting podcasts utilising many of the tools within Office 365, and we would encourage you to share any of your own innovative approaches with the wider #MicrosoftEDU community.

Find out more

How to use Voice Recorder

Recording a meeting in Teams

Create channels in Microsoft Stream

Digital storytelling with Microsoft Sway

Recording a podcast for accessible learning

About the author

Chris is a Senior Learning Technologist at the University of Central Lancashire, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Since 2018, he has led development of UCLan’s innovative and sector-endorsed DigiLearn model and programme – to support, recognise and reward colleagues in relation to their inclusive and innovative digital practice. Widening collaboration across the sector, Chris also co-ordinates UCLan’s DigiLearn Sector – an active community, connecting over 1000 digital practitioners across HE, FE, schools, and beyond. As a Microsoft Learning Consultant, he now works with other institutions – supporting their adoption of Microsoft technologies to improve both staff and student outcomes. Chris also makes regular appearances presenting at both national and international education conferences. You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisLearnTech.

The post New ways of learning: 4 steps to record and share a podcast with your students appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Sometimes, having a lesson plan is the easiest part and recorded and uploading the lesson can be daunting. But we’ve got a step-by-step guide on how to record, upload, and share your presentations.

We’ll be doing this through PowerPoint and Microsoft Stream, which makes it easy to use and accessible, with transcripts and captions.

Add narration and record your PowerPoint presentation

PowerPoint has a really great feature to help you easily develop new content by adding audio narration to existing slides. This can also prove really useful for students when recording assessed presentations.

Top tip: Presentation Coach helps you prepare in private to give more engaging presentations.

1. Setting up the Recording tab in PowerPoint

Before you can use the Recording feature, you will need to make sure it’s in your main ribbon in PowerPoint.

1. Go to File, then Options, choose the Customise Ribbon tab.
2. On the list on the left hand side, change Popular Commands to All Tabs and find the Recording tab. Press add and it will move to your Ribbon. Press OK.
3. On the main ribbon tab, go to Slide Show, and it should be there.

2. Recording audio narration over your slides

Once you have added the Recording tab, you can then use the Record Slide Show function. This will allow you to record audio and video, over each slide in the sequence. You can pause or stop at any time, and re-record any sections that you are not happy with.

3. Exporting your slides as a video

Once you’re happy with the audio-narrated slide content, you can then proceed with exporting it to a video. This can either be exported locally to an MP4 video file, or alternatively, published directly to your Microsoft Stream account when using Office 365.

Effectively sharing your virtual lesson on Stream

Once you have uploaded your presentation to Stream, you will want to share them with your learners. You also might want to share other videos with colleagues or learners. These could include Microsoft Teams Meeting recordings, or other content.

The great thing about Stream is it can autogenerate captions using Automatic Speech Recognition technology. These are also available as a transcript so users can look for specific points in the video later on.

Top tip: Make your lesson more engaging by adding a quiz using Microsoft Forms.

1.      Turn on captions on your video

If you’ve already uploaded a video, you can go to the Edit Video option. Otherwise, you can do this as you’re uploading a video. In the Details section, select your supported language.

On the Options tab, set Autogenerate captions to On.

It may take a while for the captions to generate – It typically takes 1-2 times the video’s duration. For example, a one hour video, could wait around two hours to finish processing.

2. Sharing an individual virtual lesson in Microsoft Stream

Once signed-in to Microsoft Stream, your video content can be found under My Content. Individual videos can be shared easily via web-link, email or embed code.

3. Curating and sharing a Channel of Stream video content

By creating a Channel in Stream, you can group related video content for easy access and viewing. This can prove particularly useful for curating collections of video-based learning resources.

4. Adding your virtual lesson to Microsoft Teams

As well as sharing your Videos and Channels using a link, email, or embed code – you can also embed content directly into Microsoft Teams. This helps maintain a streamlined experience for your learners, and ensures content is organised and accessible within the learning environment.

Creating engaging virtual lessons

By using PowerPoint and Stream, you can deliver engaging, accessible virtual lessons that you can share to your Class Teams, or share with learners and other educators. This will help create a fun, smooth learning experience for everyone, no matter where they are.

Find out more

Discover our remote learning resources

About the author

Chris is a Senior Learning Technologist at the University of Central Lancashire, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Since 2018, he has led development of UCLan’s innovative and sector endorsed DigiLearn model, to recognise and reward the inclusive digital practice of academic colleagues. Widening collaboration across the sector, Chris also co-ordinates UCLan’s DigiLearn Sector – a community fostered to connect digital practitioners from across HE, FE, schools, and beyond. As a Microsoft Learning Consultant, Chris now works with other institutions – supporting their adoption of Microsoft technologies, to improve both staff and student outcomes. He is also producer and co-host of the EdTech Talks podcast, and you can follow him on Twitter @ChrisLearnTech.

The post How to make engaging virtual lessons for students appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

1.      Start with a community – people first!

The most important aspect of any programme of digital development should always be the individuals partaking in the development journey. Before designing CPD activities, look at how you can build a community to encourage and develop a culture of sharing experiences and best practices.

Microsoft Teams provides an ideal collaborative workspace. It also has the ability to create numerous channels for different topics of conversation e.g. assessment, content, collaboration etc.

2.      Empower your digital champions

Most organisations will often have early adopters of technology. Given the appropriate platform, these innovative colleagues can become authentic digital leaders – within and across organisational departments. Encourage a one-on-one mentoring system within a CPD programme. This adds relatability, as colleagues can learn directly from their peers.

Set up a Flipgrid topic as a space for your technology champions to discuss ways which they can support others. This can be a great method of facilitating the mentoring process. For example, colleagues are able to respond and start a mentoring dialogue through the engaging medium of short video clips.

3.      Design structured and flexible pathways

We all like to have structure in our own professional development journeys. There are so many different training resources out there. Without any direction, the whole experience can become really overwhelming for anyone. It is often common for questions such as; “Where do I start?” and “What am I aiming for?” to arise. However, by aligning learning activities, CPD can start to take a structure, adding clarity to end goals.

Flexibility in delivery is also important, as people often have different learning preferences. Some colleagues might prefer to attend a physical workshop with peers. Others might prefer a more individual self-paced approach, or even to remotely drop-in to online webinars. Providing alternative pathways can help to ensure that all learning needs are catered for.

4.      Gamify the process – make it fun!

It is common knowledge that if we enjoy the leaning process, then we are much more likely to engage! Gamification and badging are some great ways of putting the fun into CPD and can actually encourage healthy competition between teams and departments. Reward and recognition are really important in helping to instil a sense of confidence and pride in colleagues for their digital achievements.

The Microsoft Educator Community (MEC) provides a vast array of free CPD learning packages – some of which are app specific (Teams, OneNote), and others are more pedagogically focussed (21^st Century Learning Design, Dyslexia Awareness). Members can complete courses to earn points and work towards badges, including Certified Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE), and Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIEE).

This video demonstrates some of the benefits of MEC membership:

A successful culture of learning

By continuously engaging people, empowering your digital champions and building fun and interesting learning pathways, you’ll create a successful culture of innovative, supportive, and collaborative employees.

Creating a culture of learning is an on-going process, and won’t happen overnight. However, building on these tips and working them into your own CPD programme, you’ll be well on your way.

Find out more

Sharing a transformational approach to practice-informed TEL

About the author

Chris is a Senior Learning Technologist in the UCLan TELT team, and digital learning lead for the University’s Faculty of Health and Wellbeing. He holds Fellowship with the Higher Education Academy and has completed a PGCert in Digital Education with the University of Edinburgh. Since 2018, Chris has led development of UCLan’s innovative and sector-endorsed DigiLearn model – to recognise and reward the inclusive digital practice of academic colleagues. Keen to widen collaboration across the sector, he established UCLan’s DigiLearn Sector – a community fostered to connect digital practitioners from across FE, HE and beyond.

Chris is also an active member of the Microsoft, Jisc and ALT communities – regularly contributing to their respective blogs and presenting at various sector-level events. He is a lead contributor to UCLan’s own Technology Enabled Learning and Teaching blog, and has his own blog – #edtechthoughts. As a Microsoft Learning Consultant, Chris now works with other institutions – supporting their adoption of Microsoft technologies to improve both staff and student outcomes.

The post 4 tips for delivering a successful staff CPD programme appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Working with academic colleagues at the University of Central Lancashire, we have been exploring the use of Teams with our students for just over two years now and have learned a lot throughout that time.

Here are some of the main ways that Microsoft Teams can transform the student experience based on learnings from our own journey.

1. Fuel collaboration

Collaboration is vital to a student’s growth, helping them engage with subjects, improve inter-personal skills, and even become more creative. Microsoft Teams allows students to collaborate on documents together in real time whilst giving them the ability to engage in multiple forms of communication – from text, to voice and video conferencing. This helps them seamlessly trade ideas, leading to better, more informed work.

2. Foster community

Teams actively supports the facilitation of organic student learning communities, where students can really start to grow connections with their learning peers. The nature of Teams means that, no matter where students are, they can come together as a group and support each other as they pool resources and knowledge.

3. Encourage social learning

It helps those who may not have an active voice in the ‘traditional classroom’, by allowing them the time to think and reflect before sharing their own views. These students are able to observe, and offer their own input in their own time, and in their own way.

4. Facilitate peer-to-peer support

The tech’s active environment encourages students to support and respond to each other’s queries and concerns – depending less on the academic team and increasing transparency across the group’s communication. Not only does this alleviate some of the pressure from faculty members, but also helps all students involved consider new ways of thinking about different topics.

5. Develop netiquette skills

Teams is a safe, digital space for students to start to develop their own professional online voice and presence. This can be particularly important before they begin participating in more public social arenas, such as Twitter. It’s almost like a training ground for what is and isn’t permissible online – and it’s completely secure, too.

6. Create an inclusive learning environment

Students access Teams using their university accounts – either via their own devices or their institution’s IT and library facilities. Its ease of usability encourages more out-of-hours and flexible working, fitting more easily around any other personal or work commitments. All a student needs is their phone and they’re instantly connected via the Teams app. This should make it less stressful for them, giving them more freedom to work their way and on their terms. Because great ideas don’t come strictly during working hours.

7. Help students take control of their own learning

In some cases, students are pro-actively setting up their own spaces for formative feedback and adding in their tutors as moderators. Simple polling features can allow students to voice what it is they would like to learn about or discuss next, as they start to really take ownership of their own learning. This is at the core of what learning, particularly in higher education, is about. Teams helps nurture this mindset, granting students the tools they need to own their work.

8. Provide a familiar learning environment

Teams can harness the often-familiar characteristics of contemporary social media platforms, but in a safe, private and professional environment. This can have a substantial impact on both raising and maintaining student engagement with the learning platform. There isn’t the fear of being ‘exposed’ and ‘open’ that comes from other social media platforms – and unlike those sites, Teams is designed to increase productivity and teamwork through a secure app, rather than feed into the vanity narrative.

9. Prepare students for the future digital workplace

Students are encouraged to develop a range of transferable, work-ready skills. One example of which, often includes their ability to effectively communicate and collaborate with others in online environments. As the modern workplace continues to evolve, with digital transformation at its heart, equipping students with the right skills is vital to everyone’s success – as individuals and as future employees.

Find out more

Moving from ‘learner management’, to learner autonomy and skills for the future

Microsoft Teams: Top 10 tips for learner engagement 

How can technology support inclusive and participatory learning? 

Cultivating collaborations with learner communities in Teams 

About the author

Chris is a Senior Learning Technologist in the UCLan TELT team, and digital learning lead for the University’s Faculty of Health and Wellbeing. He holds Fellowship with the Higher Education Academy and has completed a PGCert in Digital Education with the University of Edinburgh. Since 2018, Chris has led development of UCLan’s innovative and sector-endorsed “DigiLearn” model – to recognise and reward the inclusive digital practice of academic colleagues. Keen to widen collaboration across the sector, he established UCLan’s “DigiLearn Sector” – a community fostered to connect digital practitioners from across FE, HE and beyond. Chris is also an active member of the Microsoft, Jisc and ALT communities – regularly contributing to their respective blogs and presenting at various sector-level events. He is a lead contributor to UCLan’s own Technology Enabled Learning and Teaching blog, and has his own blog – #edtechthoughts. As a Microsoft Learning Consultant, Chris now works with other institutions – supporting their adoption of Microsoft technologies to improve both staff and student outcomes.

The post 9 ways to transform the student learning experience with Microsoft Teams appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

I became an MIE Expert last August after becoming more involved with the Microsoft Educator Community. At our institution, we have heavily invested in Microsoft technology solutions. This has seen us equip every member of academic staff with a Surface Pro and transform our learning spaces to support more innovative teaching methods. Office 365 has provided a suite of applications we have successfully embedded across the learner experience to setup e-portfolios, start online communities, and create more engaging and interactive learning materials. In March this year, I was fortunate enough to present at the Microsoft Transformational Technologies conference hosted at our institution. The presentation looked at the impact of using Microsoft Teams to create active learner communities within the School of Nursing. Fantastic feedback after the event highlighted that colleagues from other institutions have since been inspired to start running their own pilots with Teams. As an MIE Expert, I aim to showcase the work that we do, share good practice and hopefully inspire others to adopt new and innovative digital approaches.

My journey with Microsoft Teams

The introduction of Microsoft Teams as part of the Office 365 application suite has drastically changed the way in which learners can communicate, collaborate and access content online. In an age where smart phones are becoming the essential device for students, it is ever increasingly important to address their needs for much more accessible and instant learning experiences.

When students begin their journey, it is vital that they are able to connect with their peers and form meaningful relationships around their studies. For some students this can be challenging and there are number of different factors that can have effect.

Through a Faculty of Health and Wellbeing pilot, we have evaluated Teams’ effectiveness in student participation and the way in which learning has become much more accessible and able to take place outside the traditional classroom setting.

We were able to address two clear concerns for academic staff in relation to the learner experience:

1. A drop in student engagement with existing chat/discussion tools available via the Universities VLE. Student expectations have shifted towards a much more instant and accessible learning experience that meets their needs.
2. The creation of numerous social media sites (e.g. Facebook) linking to academic courses and groups. Usually brought about by students and sometimes staff, they have become increasingly difficult to police with no one quite knowing who has ownership. This leads to inconsistency across the student experience and puts staff and students in a difficult position; What if learners do not have an associated user account to engage with the platform? Supposing they do, what if they still don’t wish to interact with university groups in the same online space where they connect their own private social lives?

Teams provides a free to access mobile/desktop application which all students and staff automatically have access to through the universities Office 365 license. This platform promotes digital professionalism and provides an opportunity for learner’s voices to be heard in a secure and private environment.

The accessible and appealing mobile interface of Teams has helped bring students together with staff, taking learning outside of the traditional ‘classroom’. The student buy-in lies with the parallels drawn between Teams and contemporary social media platforms. The new-look online communities galvanise the student learning experience by complementing the existing University VLE. Cohesion between these two core systems is key to overall engagement for both students and staff.

• “I can use it anywhere and I am able to share information quickly.”
• “It’s handy for supervision; I don’t have to travel to University.”
• “Accessibility and group support from peers.”
• “Keeping in touch and sharing ideas. It’s easy to use and navigate.”
• “The phone app is so easy to access! It’s useful for sharing information and seeking support.”
• “It’s good to get to know people before I started.“
• “Teams has allowed me to keep track of stages on the module and share questions or answers.”
• “Discussions could continue from lectures and it enabled group supervision at any time.”
• “Everyone is on the same page.”
• “Very good for communicating with lecturers.”

So, if you are looking for a platform to communicate, collaborate and share content with colleagues or learners – Teams has the answer!

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About the author

Chris is a higher education professional possessing extensive skills and experience across a broad range of digital approaches and applications to learning, teaching, and assessment. With particular emphasis on collaborative tools, mobile technologies, video capture and virtual learning environments. He is passionate about enhancing teaching and learning through staff development and collaboration, playing an instrumental role in the deployment of Microsoft Surface technology and Office 365 at UCLan. Follow him on twitter.

The post Cultivating collaborations with learner communities in Teams appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.