Microsoft is thrilled to stand alongside the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) and Government Technical Cloud Community in inspiring you to expand your horizons and validate your expertise through certification.

Certification isn’t just a badge; it’s a game-changer for you and your team. According to a recent study by Pearson VUE, 92 percent of participants reported boosted self-assurance after achieving certifications. In addition, 79 percent felt a surge of respect from their colleagues, and 74 percent gained greater autonomy in their work.

Managers, take note – certified candidates bring substantial advantages too. 81 percent deliver higher-quality output, 72 percent exhibit enhanced efficiency, and 82 percent excel in mentoring and supporting their peers. To discover more, download the Pearson VUE 2023 Value of IT Certification report.

Whether you’re a tech-savvy pro or a beginner, we offer a range of learning opportunities to propel you toward certification success. From self-study resources to interactive virtual classes led by expert instructors, our offerings cater to various learning styles. And we’ve teamed up with our valued learning partners to provide even more options.

Who can access these training resources?

Civil Servants with a gov.uk, gov.scot, gov.wales, nhs.uk, police.uk or sch.uk email domain are eligible to claim exam discounts, access ESI training and submit a claim for a certification prize. Additional training opportunities on this page, including Cloud Skills Challenges, Virtual Training Days and our Azure Connected Learning Experience, are open to all.

Learning resources on this page

Let’s start with AI

• AI skills challenges
• Cloud skills challenges*
• Azure Connected Learning Experience*

Exams and certifications

• Discounts
• Practice assessments and support*
• Certification prizes**

Live training sessions

• Virtual Training Days*

Additional support

• Microsoft Learn*
• Microsoft Learning Partners**
• Achieve more with Microsoft

*Open to all
**Eligible participants only

Getting started

There’s a world of learning available for you from Microsoft, but knowing where to start can be daunting. This page brings together some great resources to help you get certified in October.

Where to start will depend on what you want to learn, and how:

• Our Fundamentals certifications are great for IT pros looking to start their certification journey from the beginning – or for anybody else that wants to learn more about an area, or understand the art of the possible. These are broken down by area: certifications are available for Azure Fundamentals, AI Fundamentals, Data Fundamentals, Power Platform Fundamentals, Security Fundamentals and more.

• Prefer to learn through self-study?  Sign up for one of our free Cloud Skills Challenges that offer a curated collection of content that gives you the knowledge you need to pass the exam. These skills challenges run until the end of October and you can join as many as you like. Looking for more advanced content for self-study? Check out the content on Microsoft Learn or email us at OctCertHelp@microsoft.com and we’ll help you find what you need.

• Prefer video-based learning? Our Virtual Training Days are just for you. Offering a range of Fundamentals and non-certification content, these free classes are open to all. Look out for the non-certification classes if you’re looking for something more specific and technical.

• Need a little help with exam preparation? Our Azure Connection Learning Experience offers curated learning and exam preparation for a number of Microsoft certifications if you need extra help getting across the line.

• Check out the free sessions and other training from our valued learning partners. These links will take you to additional free classes that can support your learning. They include webinars, instructor-led classes, such as free Azure Administrator and Cybersecurity Architect training from Fast Lane.

When you feel ready, try one of our Practice Assessments to test your readiness before booking your exam. Don’t forget to utilise your ESI exam discount (50%) when booking. Make the exam free by claiming an additional discount and once you’re certified, complete the CCDO form for a chance to claim some great Microsoft swag.

Let’s start with AI

We’ve pulled together a wide array of learning opportunities, from foundational to more advanced role-based content. This includes some great study fundamentals on Azure, Data, AI, Power Platform and Security, together with some exciting content around Generative AI.  

AI skills challenges

There is a massive amount of interest in this area currently, and it’s worth hearing from Angie Heise, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Worldwide Public Sector, on how Artificial Intelligence could support public sector organisations. Read this post from Angie Heise to understand some of the potential implications that advanced AI can have for the public sector, especially in areas such as citizen services, internal efficiencies, working with deep data and creative support.

To further expand your AI understanding and skills:

• Register for our Microsoft Build: AI Day at ExCeL London on October 19, 2023. This free one-day, in-person event helps developers discover new opportunities with AI and enhance their knowledge and skills to deliver more value using AI and Microsoft Azure. Join Microsoft product and engineering experts, and industry disrupters, to share ideas and unleash creativity with the power of AI.
  
• Register for our Career Essentials in Generative AI course and gain a Professional Certificate. This free course explains the core concepts of Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI functionality, preparing you to apply Generative AI in your own career.

• Register for our 1-day Master Class: OpenAI ChatGPT Capabilities, Use Cases and Integrations on October 27, 2023. This exclusive one-day (Fast Lane developed) course provides AI users and business decision-makers with a comprehensive introduction to the technology, key functionalities and pricing, an understanding of its capabilities and limitations, best practices, and the chance to find out how you can incorporate ChatGPT technology to support your business today.

Keen to find out more about AI and Azure? Check out these great resources to get you started:

If you’re looking for even more content on Generative AI, please check out this AI Learning Companion pathway.

Cloud skills challenges*

You can also invest in your learning by participating in our fun and friendly cloud skills challenges.

Compete Track your progress using the leaderboard as you navigate Microsoft’s digital learning platform Microsoft Learn.

Learn Sign up for one or more challenges and work through the content at a time that works for you.

Develop Skills Check out the practice assessment on the exam page to make sure you are exam-ready before taking advantage of exam discounts to get certified.

Choose your challenge:

Azure Connected Learning Experience*

Microsoft Azure Connected Learning Experience (CLX) is an experiential training programme that sets a path for you to become an Azure expert. The CLX programme offers a personalised journey that aims to optimise your learning experience while maximising your return on time invested. 

The four-step programme is designed to deliver exam readiness with a personalised learning journey that’s curated to meet your needs.  

• Register to receive recommendations on specific modules to study, elevate your understanding with practice tests and comprehensive Microsoft Learn study materials, and access on-demand hands-on labs and interactive guides to elevate your practical insights.  
• Join multiple instructor-led cram sessions hosted by world-class industry experts who will guide you to be ready for your first or next Azure certification exam.  
• Prepare at your own pace and crack your Azure Certification Exam efficiently. 

Register for the Microsoft Azure Connected Learning Experience

Exams and certifications

Discounts

If your organisation is enrolled in the Microsoft Enterprise Skills Initiative (ESI) you’ll have access to a 50 percent discount on a range of exams, making your certification journey even more accessible.

Our Claiming Your Exam Discount guide walks you through the steps to claim your discount and schedule your exam. We’ve even reserved a limited number of exam vouchers that stack on top of the ESI discount, reducing your exam cost to zero.

Don’t miss out – secure your spot by completing the Microsoft exam voucher application form.  

The additional vouchers are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you’ve missed the opportunity, you might be able to reclaim this balance payment from your Learning and Development (L&D) team, if the certification supports your current role. Please check with them first.  

If you have any questions about the programme or claiming your exam discount, please contact us at OctCertHelp@microsoft.com.  

Practice assessments and support*

You can gear up for success with our range of free practice assessments. These invaluable tools allow you to fine-tune your skills before the big exam day. Check out the exam page for each assessment to access these practice resources – or follow the links below for some of our most popular ones:

Need help or advice on what content you should start with, or what is most relevant to your role? Perhaps you have a technical question or want to discuss your project with a Microsoft SME. We’re only an email away at OctCertHelp@microsoft.com. Alternatively, why not join one of our many drop-in sessions running through October:

Certification prizes**

We believe in celebrating your achievements, so we’re also delighted to let you know about our certification prizes. Simply complete the certification prizes claim form provided by CDDO, who will then share your details with us. The first 200 to correctly provide the requested proof of a certification achieved in October 2023 will receive a special Microsoft swag voucher in their inbox.

Please note that prize claims are subject to the following terms and conditions:

• Claims will only be accepted from customers of a participating government department. Personal email addresses won’t be considered.
• By completing and submitting the CDDO form, you agree to us validating your certification and contacting you about your claim.
• Certificate prizes are limited to the first 200 submissions and will be sent to UK postal addresses only.
• One prize per customer, regardless of the number of exams passed during the event.
• Claims must be submitted by Friday, November 10, 2023, 12:00 p.m. (GMT+1). Claims received after this date won’t be considered.
• Prizes are non-negotiable, non-transferable and non-refundable. No cash alternative is available.

For any questions, please contact OctCertHelp@microsoft.com.

Live training sessions

Virtual Training Days*

Microsoft Virtual Training Days are free, in-depth virtual training events covering foundational concepts, terms, and capabilities. A great alternative (or complement) to self-study to get you ready to earn your Fundamentals certification.

Additional support

Microsoft Learn*

Microsoft Learn. Spark possibility.

Build skills that open doors. See all you can do with documentation, hands-on training and certifications to help you get the most from Microsoft products. Access a range of self-study resources at Microsoft Learn. For a collection of Microsoft resources aligned to role and certain products, please also see www.aka.ms/pathways.

Microsoft Learning Partners**

Microsoft Learning Partners can help you get the most out of your organisation’s technology investment, building knowledge and new skills in Microsoft technologies through classroom training or Microsoft Official Courses On-Demand. Our learning partners are proud to support this skills initiative – please check their details below.

Fastlane

Fast Lane is uniquely positioned among a select few globally, having achieved all six Microsoft solution designations. Fast Lane’s approach is not just about education; it’s about practical, hands-on skilling that tackles the intricate realms of Cloud, Data, AI, and Security. With a highly targeted and tailored approach, Fast Lane doesn’t just teach – it solves real-world challenges. Through precise alignment with and a deep understanding of Microsoft’s ecosystem, Fast Lane empowers individuals and organisations with the skills needed to thrive in today’s complex technological landscape.

Find out more about Fast Lane’s support for this skills initiative and also register for its free ChatGPT 1-day webinar and free virtual instructor-led classes on Azure Administrator (AZ-104) and Cybersecurity Architect (SC-100).

Firebrand

Firebrand is proud to be a Microsoft Cloud Partner. It is one of a number of companies in the world to have received this badge through proven expertise in delivering quality solutions across six specialist business areas: Business Applications (Dynamics 365 and Power Platform), Data & AI, Infrastructure, Digital & App Innovation, Modern Work and Security.

Find out more about Firebrand

QA

QA is one of the largest Microsoft Learning Partners in the UK, and one of the only Microsoft Learning Partners to be recognised as a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Microsoft Cloud. QA offers a broad range of training in Microsoft technologies and applications, including cloud technical skills (from Azure to Office 365) and office apps (from Excel to Power BI).

Find out more about QA

Skillsoft

(Coming soon.)

Achieve more with Microsoft

We’re genuinely excited for you to seize this opportunity to embark on a transformative learning journey. As you equip yourself to learn and take on new career challenges, you may soon be ready to distinguish yourself as a public sector change agent.

If you have any questions or need guidance on where to start, our dedicated team is here to help. Please reach out to us at OctCertHelp@microsoft.com, and we’ll be delighted to help you on your path to success.

Let’s elevate your skills and make your mark together!

*Open to all
**Eligible participants only

About the author

Paul is the Microsoft UK Public Sector Skills Lead with over 20 years of experience in the IT industry. He is passionate about cloud computing, and how learning can power digital innovation and transform careers. Paul is currently leading the development of training programmes for Microsoft’s public sector customers across Central Government, Local Government and Policing, helping individuals and organisations realize the benefits of their investment in Microsoft solutions.

The post Introducing a world of opportunities: advance your skills with Microsoft appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Exeter Cathedral School (ECS) was founded in 1179 as a choir school. Nowadays, the School is a co-educational day and boarding school which prides itself on being a nurturing and purposeful school for some 260 pupils. Earlier this year, after the Prime Minister’s announcement that schools across the country were required to close, the School’s management team met to prepare for remote learning for the first time in the School’s 841-year history. We agreed on a three-phase approach.

• Phase 1: Help pupils, parents and staff navigate the three remaining days of the term.
• Phase 2: Provide immediate and long-term on-site support for key worker families.
• Phase 3: Research, prepare and launch a home learning platform to allow for a longer-term closure.

As a small school, we are mindful of budgets and of the need to be able to develop and manage our remote learning platform in-house. All of our requirements led us to Microsoft and to Microsoft Teams. 16 days later, we launched our first ever virtual learning environment: ECS:Learning@Home.

8 principles to delivering a balanced approach to remote learning

Remote learning was new to us and to our pupils and families. We knew what we asked of them needed to be realistic, doable, worthwhile and stimulating. So, we established eight founding principles that would underpin ECS:Learning@Home.

Meaningful and manageable

We worked hard to set up programmes that allowed uncomplicated access to our curriculum across the age groups. We ensured that our online learning was rich, purposeful and clear.

Enriching

School is about much more than classroom learning. Through our home learning programme we were able to come together as a school for assemblies, form times, quizzes, sports days, guest speakers, Speech Day and more. This allowed us to add the important touches to a child’s day ‘at school’ and to create space for pupils to be recognised for their work and have fun with their peers.

Rigorous, balanced and flexible

We attach great importance to a broad and balanced school experience andwanted to make sure that our ‘real life’ breadth of opportunity and high standards continued to be offered remotely.

Equally, a one-size-fits-all approach was clearly not going to be good enough – each family’s circumstances were different. So we empowered pupils and parents to access our full daily offerings as they saw fit and to build in screen-free time to their routines.

Interaction

Interaction is absolutely fundamental for effective learning and teaching – and of course for first-rate pastoral care. We wanted to use a digital platform that could replicate, as closely as possible, a classroom experience. We were determined to be live, interactive, and reactive to pupils’ needs while online. Teams allowed us to do this and to achieve a coherent model of home learning and pastoral care across the school.

Creativity

And as a school which has its foundations in performance, music and spirituality, we wanted to continue to be a shining light for creativity. As well as daily wellbeing sessions run by our sports department, visual and performing arts featured heavily in our programme. Each afternoon our Creativity Hub opened up and gave our pupils access to lessons and activities in music, art and design and storytelling. We even launched ECS:Choristers@Home to keep our core strands of Choristership alive.

A day in the life of a pupil in remote learning

We streamlined the timetable so that busy families could easily keep track of the daily pattern. Every pupil started their day with live ‘morning welcome’ sessions with their form teacher and friends. This was the backbone of our online pastoral provision and allowed us to continue to be a school where people matter.

Supporting staff, parents and families

Staff training was integral to the success of remote learning. We ran training events to allow teachers to learn about Teams and provided time to practise in designated Training Huddles. All of this was, of course, done remotely! We also provided parents with a weekly evening training session.

We sent out a weekly ECS:Learning@Home update, complete with videos and snippets from the week, and – crucially – a ‘You Said, We Did’ feature: this gave parents and pupils a voice, and helped us to unify our efforts and build a cohesive home-school community committed to improvement.

Pupil and staff outcomes in remote learning

Using Teams allowed us to keep doing what we love – coming together each day as a school community. We genuinely stayed connected and, in amongst all of the learning, had a whole lot of fun!

As a staff body we held games and quizzes, kept the banter flowing through Teams chat, and even had a lipsync battle with senior pupils. Teams also meant that our pupils were able to take their public exams. In fact, the class of 2020 equalled the School’s best-ever public exam results.

The success of our ECS:Learning@Home programme seems to have resonated locally and more widely. We currently have more enquiries than ever before from families who want to explore an ECS place for their child.

How remote learning impacts our future plans

We have now adopted a blended-learning approach to our curriculum with the support of Teams, using it to further pupils’ independent learning skills. Live speakers are now joining us for assemblies and Enrichment Talks via Teams to speak about topical issues and our Pupil Voice initiative continues to thrive digitally.

We see our blended learning approach being integral to our provision over the coming months and years – it’s here to stay.

Find out more

Discover more about ECS’s journey

Get started with hybrid learning

Learn about remote learning

About the author

James Featherstone is the Headmaster of Exeter Cathedral School. His job is to lead and manage the School, look after the team of staff, and to make sure that the 260 pupils and their families have the best possible educational journey. Before joining ECS, James was on the Senior Leadership Team at the Perse School in Cambridge.

Outside of school James enjoys singing, travelling through France (he’s a linguist by training), and doing his best to keep up with his two children on their adventures together.

The post How to deliver a balanced approach to remote learning appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

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.

At Wilberforce Sixth Form College, we encourage staff to provide constructive feedback while collaborating. This environment means people can share what works or how something could work better. By encouraging staff to practice and develop their confidence, it enables them to share hints and tips with each other.

Although there is a need for whole staff training, to run an online live event, peer-to-peer training is far more effective. It helps get a consistent message across by having colleagues training each other.

We were running Teams live Welcome and Taster days for the College. In the build-up, we worked with about 15 staff members to help them practice for their event and build their confidence. When things went wrong, we laughed about it, and worked together to fix it.

“It was an amazing experience for us to be involved in. It helped to build our confidence with digital technologies but also actively encouraged us to think of creative and innovative ways to work.”

Kelly McGurk

How to make sure everyone is safe during an online live event

Have a safeguarding policy and share it with staff regarding online live events. Provide best practice guidance for recording and co-producing events. Talk about how to protect personal information such as background and surroundings. We also have guidance for students on how to respond and act appropriately online.

If you’re producing the events, it’s best to ensure pressure is minimised as much as possible. Ensure staff training is for all abilities and confidence levels.

How Teams has enabled us to put wellbeing at the forefront of our digital transformation

We have work channels with a professional tone. This meant that teachers could work from home. However, we also have social channels too. This gives staff the chance to reconnect and gain back some of the social aspects of their life missing with the shift to remote learning.

Meetings, events and open days are always a team experience. People can feel overwhelmed and daunted at the prospect of doing these remotely. With Teams Live Events, staff can still easily collaborate from anywhere, ensuring staff felt comfortable, confident, and supported.

How to train staff to stream an online live event

1. Meet with your Tech Team to discuss the best way forward with regards to hosting online live events. In our case, the decision was to use Teams Live Streaming.
2. Give staff training on how to use Teams Live. We used Teams itself, and rolled out training to all staff over two days. We also ensured these were recorded for staff to view after the event.
3. Reassure staff that others will be on hand to help if anything goes wrong. By doing this, we were able to minimise the pressure around the events.
4. Encourage staff to practice setting up Teams Live Events with each other, taking turns to be a presenter and a producer. Ensure the Tech Team are also on hand to help.
5. Create a culture of shared risk. This will foster the approach of having a go and to continually keep practising. Reassure staff that if things do not go to plan, it is not the end of the world.
6. Don’t overwhelm staff with too much all at once. Provide step by step guides and video tutorials that are done in smaller chunks and build up as staff can increase their confidence.
7. Constantly refer to parallels with technology that staff are already comfortable with. For example, if they have done Teams meetings then reassure them that a Teams live event is very similar. Get staff feedback on their preferred methods of training and buddy up staff within their faculties/wider college environment so those who are more technical minded can help those who are less confident.
8. Make sure staff are set up using two monitors. This was decided as the preferred method of working for us and made the live event run smoother.
9. Trust staff to deliver their online live event where they feel most comfortable – whether at home or in a work setting. We were able to deliver 66 events throughout the day. These were attended by 2000+ students both live and on catch-up. During the event, the Tech Team were on hand to support staff if needed.
10. Immediately after the event staff were encouraged to share their experience with others. If any events were not how the presenter wanted them, these were removed from the website to be re-recorded later.

How to run successful online live events

One of the reasons we were so successful in such a short space of time was because the college management placed their trust in the abilities of our teachers to adapt to change and plan the strategy.

From a teacher’s perspective, our training really helped to bring staff together and working in complete collaborative and developmental ways. This is not the usual way for teaching to occur, due to time and location constraints.

“I would never have believed that such a wide variety of staff would have been able to deliver such a consistent and engaging experience for external students. It has given me the confidence to see that through teamwork there is no limits as to what can be achieved”
– Helen Appleby

Find out more

Learn how to run a live events

Explore resources to support remote learning

See how we set up our Welcome and Taster days

About the authors

Jon has been assistant principal at Wilberforce Sixth Form College for two years. His main roles are the development of teaching and learning including digital skills. Jon also manages the data and IT team. His main passion is teacher training and seeing colleagues learn new things and go on to pass these on to their students and colleagues. More recently, this has been centered around upskilling staff with Microsoft 365 and transforming the curriculum to make it more accessible via Teams.

Kelly is currently the Cross-College English Coordinator at Wilberforce Sixth Form College. Her lead role is to help develop levels of literacy (English) across the college. She is also interested in looking at how they can develop digital skills and digital literacy. Kelly has been involved with the TLA team in the past few years and has done a range of training sessions on how to develop the use of digital tech within the classroom. She is currently studying for her Masters in Education, specialising in digital technology and leadership. Her main passion is innovative and digitally centred teaching and learning, teacher training, and developing a wider skill set in all staff across the college.

Helen has been working at Wilberforce College for the last 20 years and has always had an interest in TLA. This has led to becoming a lead practitioner for TLA, as well as being involved with the coaching and mentoring of new staff and assisting staff to complete their NQT and QTLS status. She has delivered staff training in a variety of subjects from differentiation to using Microsoft applications. Many years ago, Helen completed an MSc in Teaching and Learning, focussing on the impact using technology has on student achievement in the classroom and the impact it has on student engagement and motivation. She is particularly interested in how coaching can help support teaching and staff confidence in the classroom.

The post Ten tips to help educators run live events on Teams 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.

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Teams is built with intelligent security by design. As it’s our one main online portal, once signed in, we can access everything we need. This means no longer do we have to remember multiple logins for different websites.

Getting time back to support teachers

As teachers, we often don’t give professional development the time it needs. I’m just as guilty as most when it comes to this! But we can use this technology to help us gain back valuable time to focus on our development and help our students achieve better learning outcomes as a result.

Ensuring all staff are sufficiently trained to utilise new technology is often a thought that raises questions for school leaders. We introduced Teams in training sessions for our teachers and support staff, using the following five steps.

1.      Share your vision

Firstly, you need to share your rationale on using Teams, and why it is important. Earning trust in this step will set you up for success down the line. We prepared Teams by putting current and relevant versions of the files and documents relating to teaching on Teams. For classroom support staff, have resources, information on pupils etc. on Teams.

Within our school Teams, we have set up different teams. For example, we have a whole staff Team and subject teams. You can control who can have access to different Teams within your school.

2.      Learn the basics

Once all our staff members had an understanding of Teams, we then talked to them about the basics, such as creating Channels. These can be created within the Team for topics, units, and more. They are where you share information and communicate with your team. We focussed on Posts, Chats and Files to show how staff how to get the best out of Teams, quickly.

Chat: You can send messages quickly and easily to individuals or groups. You can also make audio and video calls. During the school closure period this function has been crucial to keep communications. Not just meetings, but we have even had staff quiz nights over Teams for a bit of fun and to boost morale.

Posts: To me, posts are the virtual version of a staffroom noticeboard. They’re visible to everyone in the Team. This has been very helpful for myself and other members of staff to give key messages to everyone, and easily allows quick conversations and file sharing. In both Chat and Posts you can also attached documents, websites, pictures, video clips.

Files: You can upload and organise documents within the Files. These can be accessed, edited (both individually and collaboratively) by any member of staff, from any device, and any location. Because it automatically saves the latest version, there is no confusion about different versions of the same document. For us, we can regularly update documents such as our Childcare Provision register and staffing rota, and because these can be accessed on any device – everyone who needs to can still read and check these documents.

Within Teams you can also use a range of other Microsoft tools such as Forms, Sway, Flipgrid, and link to third party apps such as Wakelet and KaHoot.

3.      Add OneNote to your channel

All staff have their own OneNote Notebook, but we also have different sections and pages within these notebooks as a collaboration space, which everyone can access and add to. As a Headteacher, I now keep all of my notes on OneNote, so that I can access them at any point in the day. In our Senior Leadership Team, we are using OneNote to create agendas and take minutes from our conversations and meetings. This helps us prioritise our actions to stay on track and to collect ideas for training and future Strategic Development Priorities.

4.      Provide training and education

We introduced staff to the Microsoft Educator Center, which provides a wide range of on-demand courses and learning pathways, including for Teams. We asked staff to undertake the first two Microsoft Educator online course, which would help develop their understanding and use of Teams, and also give them MIE (Microsoft Innovator Educator) accreditation. These courses were: Transform Learning with Microsoft Teams and Getting started with OneNote. All of our staff did this and are really engaging with becoming a MIE.

5.      Assign them a task

To get teachers used to Teams, we asked them to upload all their planning from the school year and their mid-year reports by a certain time. We had already uploaded the latest data (both Core and Foundation curriculum) and the associated documents onto Teams, so we asked them to update these versions from now on, as this would enable easier access for them and other colleagues.

These first small steps have given our teachers confidence in using Teams. Not only does Teams make the classroom easier, but it helps our staff to communicate quickly. It also helps us store files safely, developed documents collaboratively, and is accessible anywhere, on any device.

Find out more

How to unlock anywhere learning by setting up a Teams Class

Join a Teams webinar

About the author

Tim is Headteacher at Cornerstone CE Primary in Hampshire. Part of his role is to support his team to continue to review, develop, and refine their approach to teaching inspiring engaging and meaningful learning experiences for students and teachers. He is passionate about professional development and networking, fascinated by teaching and learning, and driven by the needs of his pupils. You can follow him on Twitter here.

The post Five steps to introduce Teams to your educators appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

At Cornerstone Public School, we decided to implement Teams across the whole school to make it easier for students and teachers to access the information they need, when and wherever they are.

Having access to planning is a key aspect of teaching. In Teams, these documents can be accessed securely, while meeting GDPR guidelines.

Giving your students’ access to anywhere learning helps them gain confidence and digital skills, preparing them for their future.

It’s easy to set your class up on Teams. Normally, your IT team will have added your students to a class group and you can then add this to your Class Team. If not, add your student’s Office 365 Education names.

1.      Organise your class Team

Every team comes with a general channel, which has the following tabs: Posts, Files, Class Notebook, Assignments, and Grades. You can add more channels if you need to and set their privacy to be accessible to all students or just some.

2.      Communicate with your students

Use Posts to message your entire class or Channel – I tend to do this for news and to share information. The Announcements feature is great for when I need to draw student’s attention, for example to share an assignment. If you need to talk to a student or colleague one-to-one, you can use the chat function to send text messages, audio messages, and video or audio calls.

3.      Share and organise documents

You can upload, create, and share key documents for either pupils or the whole class to edit collaboratively. You can set files to read only when you need to use them as reference to complete assignments. The documents can be all stored securely in one place making it easy to find.

4.      Class Notebook

Class Notebook gives your students a place to take notes and collaborate with the class. A variety of media can be embedded within a page on a Notebook supporting students’ learning experiences. For group work, the collaboration space provides a space where groups can work together.

Assign students their own OneNote notebook. Splitting the notebook into different categories helps the work stay organised. Each section acts like its own book collating all the work that a student completes.

5.      Assignments and grades

This brings us to Assignments and Grades. You can set students assignments through Teams, either for the whole class or particular pupils depending on differentiation. You can even add the assignment instantly into a student’s particular section of their Class Notebook.

The Grades tab lets you track student progress and view the status of their work. You can grade individually via the Grades tab, or collectively through the Assignment tab, adding feedback and points.

Using Microsoft Teams, creates independence, particularly for students in the older years of primary school. With the majority of secondary schools using an online platform for learning, this prepares them for this experience, as well as their future in further education and the workplace.

Find out more

Five steps to introduce Teams to your educators

Join a Teams webinar

About the author

Henry is a digital leader and Year 6 teacher at Cornerstone Primary School and an MIEExpert. He is passionate about developing technology in the classroom and equipping students with the best skills to prepare them for the future.

The post How to unlock anywhere learning by setting up a Teams Class appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.