When students work on group projects, they may need to present a summary of their outcomes to the wider class. Or, they may be tasked to produce an item such as a newsletter or marketing pitch as a way of demonstrating and applying their understanding. PowerPoint slides are often the to go-to method for presenting content. However another option that you could encourage them to use is Microsoft Sway.

What is Sway?

It’s a collaborative content creation app, available as part of Office 365, for making multimedia newsletters, presentations, portfolios or tutorials. It comes with built-in styles making it easy to quickly create an engaging design.

What are the advantages of using Sway?

• Multiple people can edit a Sway at the same time making it ideal for co-creation.
• Because a Sway is stored on the web, students can share a link with anyone in DMU or externally to allow them to view it. Sways can also be embedded into webpages .
• It’s easy to produce an impressive end-product without having a flair for design by making use of in-built themes and templates.
• Students can embed all kinds of media into their Sways including YouTube and DMU replay videos, audio recordings, copyright-free images and slideshows.
• Sway creators can access basic analytics of how many people have viewed and for how long.
• Like all Microsoft products it comes with an accessibility checker and viewers of the end product can access an alternative ‘accessibility view’ which disables any animations, uses high contrast colours and supports keyboard navigation for screen readers.
• Learning how to use a tool like Sway can add to students’ digital skills, enhancing their employability.

Find out more about Sway from this Getting started with Sway article from Microsoft