This tip describes a potential use of Microsoft Sway to support teaching. As Sway is a visual tool, the course homepage was created to also serve as a promotional page.
How was it done?
A course homepage was created using Sway, which is included in the O365 suite. The idea was to create an open course homepage that also serves “promotional” purposes. As the expected learning outcomes, the course structure and detailed descriptions of course content were made openly available in advance, students could read more about the course before deciding to attend.
During the course, the course page in Sway functioned as a gateway to the necessary tools and resources as well as the virtual learning environments where students completed the activities and interacted with the teacher and their fellow students. Only the students enrolled on the course could access these tools, so only those participating in the course were able to move forward from the course homepage.
The teacher wanted to use the Office 365 tools during the course but still create a course page that follows a similar structure as Moodle pages, with all the tools and functions available on a single page. The link to the page in Sway can be shared, so users who know the link can access the page without signing in. The link was included in the course description.
What should I take into account?
Sway is part of Tampere University’s Office 365 suite of applications. Sway works well with mobile devices, but printing is not supported. The teacher can grant editing permissions to other users in Sway, so they can also edit the course page. As Sway offers a broad variety of ready-made templates, you can easily create visually striking Sways.
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As the course teacher, you have the option to try an unorthodox approach: ask you students to demonstrate their learning via Sway. You can for example give the link to your student’s and ask them to present their knowledge with a Sway presentation. Check out the tip!
And tip to all you teachers: Sway’s analytics tool shows you how many times your presentation has been viewed.
If you do not want to use Sway or Moodle as you course homebase, try Teams.