Constructive​ ​Merciless ​Criticism: Microsoft Teams Edition

The transition from physical classes to online classes may seem like a blessing for students who
enjoy the luxury of staying at home. For some others, it may be a daunting experience alongside the
horrors of COVID-19 news headlines. Students of the VSB district are now learning via conference calls
on Microsoft Teams. As with most other collaboration platforms, there are flaws or undesirable user
interfaces.
Firstly, students may find that there are an excessive amount of teams and channels. Having an
average of eight teams with an estimate of two channels per team gives students at least sixteen different
sites to visit.
Secondly, there are way too many notifications to check per day. Although this can be minimized
by muting channels, students may miss the more important information. Also, the default notification
setting for conversation threads should not be set on. This prevents notifications from being sent every
time a student replies to a teacher created thread for attendance (or etc.).
Finally, the administrators eliminated the ability for students to directly message and chat with
teachers or fellow peers within Microsoft Teams under the “Chat” tab. Many students had already begun
conversations with people in the chats however, those conversations are no longer accessible to students.
Many of these problems can be considered “First world problems” or trivial issues. Either way,
making an easier transition into Microsoft Teams for online learning will take time to smooth out the
problems.