Microsoft OneNote

Class and Professional

Microsoft OneNote is a digital notebook that provides a space for notetaking, individual artefact creation or for groups to engage, exchange ideas and build resources. There are two options; Class and Professional. Class OneNote can be used in teaching and learning and has distinct sections. Professional OneNote, however, is focused on productivity and collaboration for professional and personal settings.

Class OneNote allows users to:

Collaborate: Teachers and students can work collaboratively in this space.
Add Content: this is non-editable content for students.
Teacher-only section: A private space for teachers only to create and collaborate.
Student notebooks: A private space for each student.

AI elements

Microsoft OneNote leverages AI for note-taking, organisation, and collaboration. To do this it users Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to recognise and extract text from images and handwritten notes; natural language processing (NLP) for audio transcription, text search, and smart tagging; and machine learning (ML) to analyse input, and convert them to text.

Microsoft OneNote is more than a digital notebook, it is available across multiple devices, it can convert images to text, and you can password protect selected section. These are just some of the features that you can use in Class OneNote.

List of functions

Class OneNote features are:

Teacher specific section to collaborate;
Student specific section to share their work over time;
Collaboration section for users
Ink to math: convert handwritten ink to math equations;
Ink to text: convert handwriting to typed text;
Translation features;
Ability to record various multimedia resources; and
Text search.

Recommendations for using Class OneNote are:

Planning and organising: a digital notebook for you to plan and organise lesson plans, resources, and content in an accessible format
Portfolios: if students need to evidence their journey across a period, OneNote can submit tasks, and receive personalised feedback progressively.

Support resources

Deakin Resources:
Microsoft OneNote: A step-by-step guide of why and how you can leverage Microsoft OneNote.

Vendor Resources:
Microsoft Learn (external): explore the different features and functionality of the M365 suite completing modules at your own pace.

Examples

The use cases below showcase some ways in which you can use Microsoft OneNote in your practice:

Knowledge Acquisition

Teacher-created content – design and create content in a digital notebook space

As a teacher I can scaffold content so learners can engage with key ideas in different ways to acquire knowledge.

My students can review content and write notes in a digital space, ready to refer to these notes in the future to review key ideas.

Example design considerations when creating content using OneNote:

Create content with digital ink, handwritten notes, sketch diagrams, images, videos and other multimedia resources.
Organise content by dividing into key sections and pages, with navigation and search features.
Access and edit your OneNote notebooks across devices and from any location.
You can develop a Class Notebook that provides read-only sections for students, and collaboration spaces to support learner-to-learner and learner-to-teacher interactions.

Collaboration

Student-created artefacts – design and create artefacts in a digital notebook space and peer review

As a teacher I want my students to design and create artefacts to demonstrate their learning, collaborating with others to give and receive feedback to refine their conceptual understanding.

My students can create their artefacts in an organised manner to represent their learning, share their artefact with others to receive peer review, and improve their artefact in response to feedback.

Example design considerations when students collaborate using OneNote:

OneNote can provide a personal workspace for every student.
Students can share their OneNote content with peers for real-time or asynchronous collaboration for collective development or peer review processes, for students to engage in this digital space and exchange ideas.
Students can track their revisions with type, highlighting, ink annotations, or sketch diagrams.
In teamwork, students can evidence what has been completed by the different team members.

Production
Practice

Evidence and reflect on experience – free-form representation of practice, production, or performance experiences

As a teacher I want my students to curate resources that represent their experiences and to reflect on their experiences.

My students can curate their resources using a mix of media to represent their experiences, in a flexible digital space from any on- or off-campus location, and annotate this with their reflections on practice, product development, or performance.

Example design considerations for curation and reflection using OneNote:

OneNote provides an opportunity for students to organise their thoughts on learning experiences, and to present key ideas.
Students have flexibility in media choice to represent their learning experiences, such as recorded audio notes, embedded videos, added files, and website excerpts using the OneNote Web Clipper.
Reflections might present as annotations, e.g. type, highlighting, ink, or sketches.