HomeWinBuzzer NewsMicrosoft OneNote Class Notebook Updated with Web Tool

Microsoft OneNote Class Notebook Updated with Web Tool

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The OneNote Class Notebook has been given an extensive update that introduces a new web tool for IT admins and Partners.

It can be argued that sometimes does not push its services in the best way, sometimes ignoring some key features of functionality. Take OneNote for example, which for the most part is pushed as a cross-platform consumer oriented product for taking notes and organizing.

It is all things of course, but it is also a powerful tool for within an enterprise or educational organization, and Microsoft does not always highlight this enough.

However, Redmond has been pushing OneNote as a true productivity service more recently, including the launch of OneNote Class Notebook APIs in preview form. The company says the response to the APIs has been resounding and that there has been plenty of buzz from IT admins and Microsoft Education Partners.

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Microsoft is now enhancing the automotive processes in OneNote, responding to feedback the company has launched a new web tool for admins and Education Partners to test the APIs. The company announced the tool on its MSDN blog:

To make it easy for IT admins and Partners to try out these new APIs, we created a simple tool for anyone to use. For example, IT admins can use the tool to easily add a Teacher Only section group to the Class Notebooks of the teachers who ask for this functionality.

The web tool is not the only new thing Microsoft has introduced for OneNote Class Notebooks, with a new update adding a number of features:

New Teacher Only section group—The Teacher Only section group is a private space where only the teacher can see what is inside—students cannot see anything. This has been a top request from teachers and schools. This API allows Teacher Only section groups to be provisioned by the new Class Notebook API, or you can also add a Teacher Only section group to existing Class Notebooks.

Collaboration Space Lockdown—A top request we had is the ability for a teacher to make the Collaboration Space read-only (or lockdown) to disallow any students from editing. This API allows the lockdown of the Collaboration Space as read-only but also allows the ability to easily unlock it.

Permissioned groups within the Collaboration Space—This is the ability for a teacher to create specific sections in the Collaboration Space that are assigned to specific students. This allows small groups of students to work together, but other students can't change what other groups have done. It also allows sections to be completely hidden from other groups if that is desired.

Custom permissions for feedback and grading workflow—One of the most common requests we heard is to allow the lockdown of reviewed or graded pages, so students cannot change the content after the teacher has reviewed the work. Our new Permissions API allows for this type of scenario. Cal Armstrong from Appleby College has done some great examples of this to automate this workflow.

Content APIs—Many schools are looking for the ability to mass-deploy curriculum into the content library of Class Notebooks. With this new Content API, OneNote sections can easily be provisioned along with new Class Notebooks. The first iteration of the API allows for .ONE section files to be inserted into the Content Library, and in the near future, the API will also allow using public notebooks that live on docs.com. In addition, this new Content API allows an IT admin or Partner to customize the Welcome section, default Content Library section or the default Collaboration Space section.

Delete Class Notebook API—We have added the ability for IT admins and Partners to delete Class Notebooks through our API.

Option to not send email when creating a Class Notebook—When using our new Create Class Notebook API, you can now specify whether or not to send the Welcome Email message. This helps cut down the spam mail when automating lots of Class Notebook creations.

Teacher Transfer script—Last month, we published a script and code sample to allow IT, admins and partners, to transfer ownership of a Class Notebook from one teacher to another. We put this script out to be used with the intention that this functionality will be built into Office 365 SharePoint Admin in the near future. To learn more, check out GitHub.

Luke Jones
Luke Jones
Luke has been writing about all things tech for more than five years. He is following Microsoft closely to bring you the latest news about Windows, Office, Azure, Skype, HoloLens and all the rest of their products.

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