Case Study: O'Dea High School achieves streamlined digital collaboration and higher student engagement with Microsoft Teams

Seattle school brings education into the digital world for students who are digital natives

O’Dea High School in Seattle needed to modernize a largely analog environment where a single computer lab and manual processes hindered teaching and learning. To bring coursework into students’ digital lives, the school adopted Microsoft Teams as part of a broader Office 365 deployment (including OneNote, School Data Sync, Microsoft Stream, Surface Pro devices, and Windows 10) to address roster management, assignment submission, and collaboration challenges.

Using Microsoft Teams alongside School Data Sync and OneNote Class Notebooks, O’Dea automated class roster updates, eliminated manual PowerSchool exports, and enabled electronic assignment submission and group collaboration. Teachers set up classes and content (all classes were provisioned in July for 2017–2018), almost all instructors now use OneNote, and students submit work digitally and create videos with Microsoft Stream—reducing lost homework, saving teacher time, and boosting student engagement and accountability.

O’Dea High School

David Olinger

Director of Educational Technology