What are co-authoring apps?
Co-authoring apps, or collaborative work spaces, are applications that allow real-time collaboration in a shared work space.
They can be used for:
- in-class worksheet activities
- document collaboration/annotation
- wikis/portfolio tasks
- thought shower and creative thinking activities
- synchronous/asynchronous project work
Co-authoring apps are particularly helpful for pre-prepared group work and webinar activities that require minimal set-up. Some applications also allow template creation for more complex activities.
What Office 365 technologies can I use for co-authoring activities?
With Office and OneDrive, multiple people can work together on a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or PowerPoint presentation. OneDrive is part of the Office 365 suite of apps. Saving files to OneDrive allows you to share them with other University members and collaborate in office.com in real-time.
OneNote
OneNote allows live co-authoring and worksheet annotation. It can also be used for portfolio or wiki-style activities, or more complex class/individual projects using Class Notebook. OneNote supports ‘inking’ mark-up, audio/video embedding and has an in-built equation editor. OneNote has a limited ability to record section contributors, and can be used to check individual activity within a collaborative exercise if necessary.
PowerPoint Online
PowerPoint online allows live co-authoring and can be used for presentation or poster creation activities. Some features of PowerPoint may not be available in PowerPoint online, compared to the desktop app. You may wish to use PowerPoint online for whiteboard activities.
Teams
Uploading files to a shared Teams space allows you to share them with other University members and collaborate in Teams in real-time. Changes are saved automatically and a version history can be accessed if necessary,
What information is available on ‘free/freemium’ co-authoring apps?
TEL cannot provide technical support for the use of free/freemium technologies, and users must be aware of the risks when using unapproved technologies with their students. Please see considerations when using free apps before signing up to use an online platform.
