As schools around the world respond to COVID-19, the need for remote learning tools has never been more urgent. To make the transition to distance learning easier, Microsoft have created resources; training and how-to guides that we hope will help schools, educators, students, and their families in Nepal as they incline towards “new normal” or “post COVID19” environment.

To start with, ask the following questions to yourself if you need an URGENT SWITCH from platform that you’re using currently to Microsoft 365 or not..

Do platform that you’re going to roll-out have answer to all these questions?

1. Traditional online class solution may cost you around NPR 15,000/User/Year? If you have 50 teachers, it may cost you NPR 750,000 per year, are you aware?
2. How can student have daily routine with easy to access class anytime, instead of random time and link for each of the class they attend?
3. What’s your take on 40 minutes disconnection issue on the traditional “FREE” virtual conferencing platforms available?
4. How the students are taking missed class who could not join due to electricity or internet bandwidth issues?
5. Is there any provision of taking daily assignments? Any features of viewing monthly, quarterly, or annual reports of class performance in the platform you’re using currently?
6. How does a educational institution take fair quarterly/yearly exam & response to Continuous Assessment System (CAS) like in TU affiliated or constitute colleges?

Microsoft in Education A1 plan has answer to all these questions.

From remote to hybrid learning: Role of Microsoft 365 Education.

Microsoft has found a groundswell of interest in the question, “How best to take advantage of the new opportunities arising from the disruption?” Discover how to find pathways of action that can deepen learning for students and teachers and to engage in new ways of learning that result in better outcomes.

Exchange Online allowed us to be able to get all faculty, staff, and students on one system so we could easily exchange information, schedule meetings, and enhance collaboration.

– Craig Jackson: Director of Infrastructure, Operations, and Networking, Illinois State University

Overview of Microsoft Strategy for Remote Learning Context (COVID19)

In times of local or global crisis, remote learning may be the only safe way to ensure students continue to learn. Microsoft is working closely with education customers and countries in all stages of development to deploy technology for remote learning. Microsoft is giving every educator and student the power of Microsoft 365 Education on all their devices, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Microsoft Teams, and free classroom tools.

Familiar applications and always-accessible files update in real time to make building your curriculum seamless and easy on Android, iOS or Windows devices.

Why Microsoft 365 is perfect solution for education institutions in Nepal?

One place for all schools, Teachers and Students

All teachers, students and staffs will be under the controlled environment of your school/college as central controlling entity. For that, educational domain is must to get free plan from Microsoft 365 Education, like schoolname.edu.np.  Emails will be provided to students and teachers of all. For example: students and teachers from school named “ChandraSurya Boarding School” will get @csbs.edu.np email IDs to log into their classroom.

By doing so, as a Microsoft Partner agency, illionSo Technologies will facilitate all the cumbersome process of online schools creation, domain request and hosting(free of cost), Microsoft 365 Verification, classroom setup and training programs from certified trainers. With this plan, all the students, teachers and concerned stakeholders of school named “ChandraSurya Boarding School” shall get @csbs.edu.np email IDs to log into their classroom.

Access anytime, anywhere, from any device

No hassle of creating links for classes in frequent basis. Bring conversations, content, and apps together all from a single Office 365 Education experience. Collaborate in real time without boundaries, and without worrying about lost formatting.

Simplify class management

Create classes and groups for Teams, Intune for Education, and more for free with School Data Sync.

Drive a fast transition

Find the strategies, resources, and technology to quickly create online classrooms that help students, teachers, and faculty find new ways to connect and learn.

Build confidence on any device

Bring together face-to-face connections, assignments, and conversations in a single hub that’s free for schools and universities.

Keep students engaged

Get free tools you need to keep students energized, engaged, and on the path to learning and growing.

Collaboration

Co-author files and share resources with built-in Office 365 apps. With more than 300 applications from Microsoft itself and many other third party applications, you’ve more power to automate anything you want.

Communication

Stay connected with persistent chat, channel conversations, and meetings in Microsoft Teams. Either it be teacher-to-teacher communication or teacher-to-student communication or even parent-to-teacher communication, Microsoft Teams as name suggest facilitate peer-to-peer as well as team communication.

Personalization

Personalize Teams with your favorite education and organization tools. More power can be utilized with Power Apps in Microsoft Teams and other Office 365 tools.

Tools to save time and money

An affordable suite of powerful tools built for educators and students, Office 365 is accessible from your favorite devices.

Preparing students for success today & tomorrow

Universities around the world are adopting Microsoft 365 plan and its long way to go that we should be thinking about. Using Microsoft 365 and Teams in the classroom, our students shall learn a suite of skills and applications that employers value most. Whether it’s MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access or OneNote, prepare students for their futures today.

Cloud services to create a modern classroom

Create collaborative classrooms, connect in professional learning communities, and communicate with school staff with the power of OneDrive, Teams, Skype, and more — all from a single experience in Office 365 Education.

MICROSOFT 365 A1 PLAN AND VALUE

Office 365 A1

This free online version of Office includes everything you expect from Office, plus Microsoft Teams.

Value for teachers:

• Work together with real-time coauthoring, auto saving, and easy sharing in your favorite web apps, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
• Stay on top of your email with Outlook for the web and a 50 GB mailbox.
• Leverage Microsoft Teams, your digital hub that integrates the conversations, calls, content, and apps your school needs to be more collaborative and engaged.
• Improve learning outcomes with built in accessibility features and Learning Tools that support reading, writing, math, and communication.
• Keep organized with OneNote, your digital notebook.
• Stay connected with your colleagues with Class, Staff, and PLC Teams and OneNote Notebooks.
• Conduct and take authentic assessments with Forms.
• Enable digital storytelling with Sway.
• Never run out of space with unlimited personal cloud storage.

Value for faculty and staff:

• Inform and engage with communication sites and team sites throughout your intranet using SharePoint.
• Support compliance with solutions from the unified eDiscovery center.
• Stay protected with rights management, data loss prevention, and encryption.
• Create, manage, and share videos securely across your school with enterprise video service.
• Develop apps without writing code to extend business data quickly with custom web and mobile apps.
• Utilize workflow automation across apps and services to automate business processes without writing code.
• Communicate easily with HD video conferencing.
• Unlimited email storage with in-place archiving.
• Get advanced email with archiving and legal hold.
• Maximum number of users: unlimited.    

Value for students:

• Work together with real-time coauthoring, autosaving, and easy sharing in your favorite web apps, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
• Stay on top of your email with Outlook for the web and a 50 GB mailbox.
• Leverage Microsoft Teams, your digital hub that integrates the conversations, calls, content, and apps your school needs to be more collaborative and engaged.
• Improve learning outcomes with built-in accessibility features and Learning Tools that support reading, writing, math, and communication.
• Keep organized with OneNote, your digital notebook.
• Stay connected with Class Teams and OneNote Notebooks.
• Take authentic assessments with Forms.
• Enable digital storytelling with Sway.
• Never run out of space with unlimited personal cloud storage.

Frequently Asked Questions | Teams Integration in Nepal

Who manages the Microsoft 365 School account provided?

• The School account will be associated with the respective school domain and should be used for school-appropriate content. Permissions and access can be changed by the school’s IT administrator at any time.

What illionSo Technologies will be doing as a Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Member and Facilitator?

We’ll Plan Educator Development Based on the pedagogical model, the training plan can be outlined that:

1. Plan, deploy and create classrooms on Microsoft 365 platform using Teams.      
2. Defines the types of training content needed for teachers, students, and staffs under your institution.
3. Identifies the teacher or school leaders who can be trained as “Local Educator Champions” and trainer.
4. Establish a timeline that aligns with the technical implementation of the Teams Platform.
5. Train School IT Administrators to leverage freedom from dependency to IT partner.

Below is a list of tasks relevant for initial launching of remote learning on the Teams platform and within 15 days from our agreement, illionSo Technologies will provide ready-to-use platform for your educational institutions with Team Classrooms and third party applications integration.

Also, Microsoft Teams Video Tutorial in Nepali Language on the following topics shall be provided to teachers in case if you need.

1. Sign in to Microsoft 365 and Teams.
2. Set up Office apps and email on a mobile device
3. Getting started in your Class Team  
4. Microsoft Teams Essentials for Students
5. Remote learning with Office 365 for students
6. How to login and use Teams app from mobile phone
7. Signing into Microsoft Teams for the first time for student
8.  Connecting with Microsoft Teams as a student Basics for Families
   1. Guidance for parents and guardians
9. Other key resources to consider using:
   1. Teams EDU Quick Start Guide
   1. How to Manage Class Meetings in Teams
   1. How to create Assignments in Teams

With best regards,
illionSo