Throughout the pandemic, educators continue to adapt and find ways to keep their students engaged and learning while remote, at school, or a combination of the two. But being more distant can make it harder to connect and help each individual student grow and succeed. That is why we’re delighted to announce updated capabilities to Education Insights in Microsoft Teams for Education. Insights are designed for and inspired by educators to help understand, identify, and take action to support the individual student’s needs.
Now educators can see a new, tailored view that distills the key story and trends behind the data to better inform engagement with students and class outcomes. With Insights, educators can closely track the engagement and progress of students over time and across their classes. This includes seeing the number of inactive and active students per day, missed online classes, and missed assignments. And when needed, educators can see the specific engagement data within the overview.
Within a specific class, educators can see spotlight cards to show trending student behaviors they may want to take action on. These spotlight cards are rolling out now and will be fully available by mid-December. With access to data showing how students are engaging—like meeting participation, communication, and assignment activities—educators can monitor progress and make faster, informed decisions on which students need immediate learning support.
Here is what educators are saying about Insights:
“Insights for classroom Teams has become an essential part of how I understand and connect with my students. It offers world-class actionable learning analytics, deployed in one click, that is deeply integrated into the way we communicate with students. It has helped me connect with struggling students on a personal level, and to understand the broader trends in my classroom. Every teacher, professor or instructor on Teams has something to learn from Insights.”
– Dr. David Kellermann, School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, UNSW
“Our teachers think Insights is extremely useful to gauge, evaluate, and customize their instruction for each student’s individual growth. Teachers can help make sure each student is communicating, connecting and learning in class. They can clearly see their student’s educational day including assignments, posts, and meetings in Microsoft Teams.”
– Jeni Long and Sallee Clark (aka Jenallee), EdTech Consultants and Instructional Technologists with Eagle Mountain Saginaw ISD
“Insights is a game-changer for how we teach and help our students. We can see the data behind how our students are engaging and use it to personalize learning to meet their needs. It’s especially critical now with many of our students learning from home, or going between home and the classroom. We can still gauge how they’re doing.”
– Alberto and Mario Herraez, eTwinz and Global Educators
Insights ensures security and protection of students’ sensitive information. Classroom data is only available to approved staff members given permissions by the IT admin, and the information collected and shown meets more than 90 regulatory and industry standards, including GDPR and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). For more technical information, visit the Insights IT support page.
To learn more about how to use Insights in the classroom and find professional development resources, visit this in-depth post. To learn how to get started today, visit the Insights support page.
