Microsoft Classwork: The secret to less stress for teachers

n a recent episode of the Cloud Design Box podcast, Max Fritz from Microsoft sat down with Darren Hemming to talk about Microsoft Classwork – an innovative addition to Microsoft Teams for Education, designed to streamline lesson organisation, improve student engagement and reduce teacher workload.

What is Microsoft Classwork?

Microsoft Classwork is a powerful tool within Teams for Education, enabling teachers to structure learning materials into organised modules.

With seamless integration into Microsoft Class Notebook and Teams Assignments, Classwork ensures that your learning resources are easy to manage, access and reuse across multiple classes.

Darren and Max highlight how Classwork provides a streamlined digital learning environment, making it easier for teachers to focus on instruction rather than administration.

“Teachers were using Assignments to share non-graded materials, causing confusion for students and parents. Classwork provides a dedicated space for organising learning resources, making everything clearer,” explains Max.

Key features of Classwork that enhance your teaching

For teachers, Classwork offers a number of useful tools and features:

Drag-and-drop functionality

You can quickly organise lesson resources with an intuitive interface.

Publishing controls

You can decide when students can access content, allowing for better lesson pacing.

“Classwork allows you to organise materials that are meant to be consumed and read by students into a logical manner,” Max explains.

Pinned modules

Classwork highlights key learning materials to ensure students focus on the most important content.

As Max points out:

“With Classwork, students can navigate resources without confusion, making it easier for them to stay on track with learning.”

Reusable modules

Teachers can duplicate and modify past lesson structures for future use, saving time and effort.

Integration with Teams and Class Notebook

Keep all your resources in one place, streamlining the teaching and learning experience.

“We didn’t want Classwork to be just another silo. That’s why it integrates deeply with Class Notebook, Teams Assignments, and more,” Max continues.

Solving school and MAT challenges

For school leaders, Classwork offers a structured approach to improving student outcomes, while ensuring compliance with school policies and Ofsted standards:

Better resource management

Classwork simplifies how materials are structured, shared, and accessed, reducing administrative overhead and allowing educators to focus more on teaching rather than document management.

Scalability across years, classes and departments

Schools can reuse and adapt learning materials across different terms, ensuring consistency in curriculum delivery while reducing the need for recreating content from scratch.

Data-driven insights into student engagement

Integrated analytics provide teachers and administrators with valuable insights into student participation, allowing for data-informed decisions that enhance learning outcomes and identify areas for improvement.

Get the most out of your investment in Microsoft 365

At Cloud Design Box, we help schools and multi academy trusts (MATs) in the UK get the most out of Microsoft 365, Teams and SharePoint.

By creating a centralised SharePoint intranet, we improve whole-school and trust collaboration, streamline workflows and enhance the learning experience for both students and teachers.

Interested in transforming your school’s digital learning environment?

Contact Cloud Design Box today to find out how we can

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