Outlook helps you manage student communication, schedule supervision or feedback appointments, and keep follow-up visible across a course. You can use email, calendar invitations, booking options, reminders and Teams meeting links to support teaching-related communication and coordination in one place. This makes Outlook most useful when course communication, individual feedback or supervision is handled through email and calendar-based follow-up rather than entirely inside Canvas.
- Functions
- Teacher feedback | Teaching coordination
- Access
- Standalone
- Difficulty of use
- Easy to use
Examples of use in your education
Use Outlook when important course communication or individual feedback is handled through email rather than only through Canvas.
You can apply this tool in your teaching in several concrete ways:
Student communication - Use Outlook when you need to reply to individual student questions, clarify course-related issues or communicate about supervision, deadlines or assessment in a way that remains easy to retrieve later.
Feedback by email - Use Outlook when feedback or grading-related communication is sent directly to students by email, for example in courses where written comments, clarifications or follow-up exchanges do not take place inside Canvas.
Course message structure - Use folders or categories to separate supervision, assessment-related communication and general course mail, so student communication stays manageable during busy teaching periods.
Searchable record - Use Outlook search when you need to find earlier student questions, feedback exchanges or email agreements quickly, especially across a longer course or thesis trajectory.
Tip 1
Use a small number of clear categories or folders, for example [supervision], [assessment] and [course administration], so student communication remains retrievable without creating an overly complex system.
Tip 2
Keep email subject lines specific by including the course name, assignment or student group where relevant, so you can later find messages quickly and students can recognise what the message refers to.
Use Outlook when you need to plan supervision, feedback appointments or other student-facing meetings in a structured way.
You can apply this tool in your teaching in several concrete ways:
Supervision scheduling - Use Outlook calendar invitations when you need to schedule supervision meetings, feedback appointments or group consultations and keep track of who accepts.
Teams meeting links - Create Teams meetings directly from Outlook when you want students or colleagues to join an online meeting through the same invitation and calendar workflow.
Booking availability - Use Outlook booking or appointment-based scheduling options when you want students to book a meeting with you within the time slots you make available.
Reminder planning - Use appointments and reminders when you need to keep track of recurring teaching moments, preparation tasks or deadlines connected to meetings with students.
Tip 1
Use descriptive meeting titles and one short agenda line in the invitation, so students know whether the meeting is about supervision, feedback, practical questions or something else before they accept it.
Tip 2
When you offer bookable meeting moments, decide in advance whether they are for specific purposes such as thesis supervision, assignment feedback or practical course questions, so students know what kind of appointment they are booking.
Use Outlook when you want communication with students to lead to clear next steps instead of disappearing into email threads or calendar invitations.
You can apply this tool in your teaching in several concrete ways:
Follow-up actions - Turn important outcomes from meetings or email exchanges into visible next steps, for example by flagging an email, setting a reminder or immediately planning the next appointment.
Reminder-based follow-up - Use Outlook reminders when you need to return to pending student questions, promised feedback or administrative steps after a meeting.
Contact continuity - Keep relevant student contact and meeting information together when you supervise over a longer period, for example across a thesis, project or multiple feedback moments.
Integrated coordination - Combine email, calendar invitations and reminders when you want one clear teaching-related communication flow instead of relying on memory or scattered notes.
Tip 1
After an important student meeting, decide immediately what the next step is, for example sending a summary, planning a next meeting or setting a reminder for yourself, so the follow-up does not disappear into the calendar entry.
Tip 2
Use only a few recurring follow-up routines, such as flagging emails that still need action or setting reminders after supervision meetings, so Outlook supports your teaching workflow without becoming a second administrative system.
How-to videos
Microsoft Outlook Tutorial for Beginners
How To Use Microsoft Outlook Calendar for Beginners (2026)
How to Schedule a Microsoft Teams Meeting in Outlook
Getting started
- You can find the official Microsoft Outlook Help Center here.
- You can find Microsoft’s guide to Outlook calendar scheduling here.
- For EUR-specific guidance, you can also use the Microsoft 365 Community. This site provides manuals, tips and explanations for Microsoft 365 applications used by EUR employees (internal only).
Support
In case of educational questions, please contact your learning innovator or web team from your faculty.
In case of technical difficulty, please consult the official Microsoft Outlook Help Center first. Microsoft’s Outlook help page explicitly includes training videos, how-to articles and support content.
