Microsoft Planner
Microsoft Planner is a project management tool that provides an intuitive, collaborative, and visual task management experience for completing projects. It helps or organise work, assign tasks and track progress in a user-friendly interface.
Microsoft Planner allows users to:
- Create visual Kanban boards;
- Create oversight of projects, the tasks allocated within, and how projects are tracking; and
- Generate reports of the tasks seamlessly.
AI elements
Microsoft Planner provides a comprehensive planning tool that enables you and your students to create and track projects and provides graphical insights into the projects.
List of functions
Key features of Microsoft Planner are:
- Kanban boards to visualise tasks;
- Ability to create to-do lists and allocate time;
- Collaborative task management: team members can contribute to tasks and attach files in Outlook ad Teams;
- External access to planner tasks; and
- Email notifications to set reminders for users.
Recommendations for using Microsoft Planner are:
- Project based learning: use kanban boards to manage projects, enabling students to visualise task progression and collaborate effectively
- Peer review and feedback: leverage task management for peer-to-peer review where students can provide feedback within the tool
Support resources
Deakin Resources:
Microsoft Planner: a step-by-step guide of why and how you can leverage Microsoft Planner.
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 Planner in your practice:
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Collaboration
Collaborative project planning – students plan their team projects
As a teacher I want my students to demonstrate their ability to collaboratively manage their projects in a timely manner.
My students can allocate tasks within their group and track their team project while highlighting any risks/concerns.
Example design considerations when project planning using Planner:
- A student-centred approach can allow teams to have control of planning for their project, from creating their plan, assigning tasks, and tracking progress through to completion, while collaboratively developing their planning skills.
- Provide timely support when students are off track or lagging in their project work.
- Students who are working in Microsoft Teams can use the Tasks app (also known as the Planner app).
-
Production
Planning product development – student recording of product development processes for iterative teacher feedback
As a teacher I want my students to not only develop a product (academic artefact or industry-relevant product) but to capture their planning process and evidence their project management skills.
My students can keep track of their product development progress, receive timely in-development teacher feedback, and reflect upon the process.
Example design considerations when recording product development processes using Microsoft Planner:
- By creating and following a Kanban board, students can organise their workflow visually, allowing task progress visibility and reflection.
- Students can use Microsoft Planner: to plan an event, e.g. a product launch.
- Microsoft Planner: supports structured planning and tracking of product development progress.
