Imperial College in London’s upmarket South Kensington district is using Microsoft Teams to help both students and faculty members communicate during the COVID-19 crisis.
The public research university that dates back to 1845 has now established an online “common room” in Teams, giving students 24-hour access to collaborate on coursework and chat with their fellow classmates.
Cutting-edge tools for greater learning
The new initiative is a part of an extensive rollout of innovative Microsoft solutions at the university to keep pupils studying and help staff work with each other effectively during the outbreak.
Microsoft’s communication and collaboration tool Teams is now being used at Imperial college by over 22,000 people. The university is also employing Office 365 to deliver an excess of 18 million messages into email inboxes every month and using the powerful OneDrive for Business to house more than 430TB of data.
Microsoft Relationship Manager for Imperial College, Adrian Mannall, commented:
“Before the coronavirus pandemic, almost all teaching was on-campus. We are now using Teams to bring classes together, or even entire year groups of 150 students. They are also using Teams to discuss subjects with teachers and their assistants. Students in all year groups can also use Imperial’s virtual common room at any time of day to chat or hold video calls with each other, as well as get help and support.”
Microsoft products like Office 365 and Teams have now become regular elements of college life and students are keen for Imperial to acquire more new technology they can take advantage of for learning.
Education Director for Microsoft, Chris Rothwell, said:
“Continuing to communicate and collaborate with friends and colleagues when they are unable to be together is incredibly important, especially at this time.”
Clear communication across the globe
Imperial College is world renowned for its medicine, science, engineering and business work, and is presently focused on tracking the global spread of coronavirus. Using Teams, the university has held live events relating to COVID-19 and its effects along with a large-scale cardiologist’s conference featuring 32 individual speakers and a dedicated seminar for neonatal experts.
Other healthcare events broadcasted live by Imperial via Teams have been viewed by specialists around the world in Hong Kong, Japan, Ireland, and the United States.
The university’s Centre for Academic English, set up to assist students from overseas with requirements in English Language is also benefiting from Microsoft technology. As well as Teams, the department is using Forms in Office 365 to deliver support to students, enabling them to learn from one another while working together.
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