• IT Skills for Students

    Using Outlook

    Outlook is part of Microsoft Office 365 and is an email, calendar and tasks app.

    Outlook has been around for a very long time and whereas it may not be the most exciting of apps, it certainly is one of the most useful.

    As a student, email is still probably the most common way of receiving messages from your tutor or institution. The calendar feature allows you to schedule your class times and appointments, and the tasks feature allows you to set reminders when important events and actions are due.

    • Activity 1

      Basic Tasks in Outlook

      Allow 90 minutes

      The set of tasks in this activity will help get you familiar with the basic functions and features of the Outlook application, especially those related to email.

      There are quite a few tasks in this activity, but don't worry - most of them are quite brief.


      Task 1: Overview

      Work through the resources on this website, then have a go at the challenge.

      Link: Welcome to Outlook on the Web

      Challenge:

      • Sign into your online version of Outlook
      • Familiarise yourself with how to access the different parts of the application mentioned in the article

      Task 2: Email

      Work through the resources on this website, then have a go at the challenge.

      Link: Using email in Outlook on the Web

      Challenge:

      Send an email to yourself with a subject line 'Practise', i.e. send it to the same email address as you are using.


      Task 3: Contacts

      Work through the resources on this website, then have a go at the challenge.

      Link: Using Contacts and People

      Challenge:

      • Add a variety of people, including their contact information to your Contacts
      • Create at least three Contacts lists and add contacts to the lists - this could include friends, family, workmates, tutors 

      Task 4: Message Folders

      Another really handy feature of Outlook is to be able to create folders for your emails. Work through the resources on this website, then have a go at the challenge.

      Link: Working with message folders

      Challenge:

      • Create a folder called 'From Me to Me'
      • Create a folder for each course you are enrolled in

      Task 5: Working with Emails

      Work through the resources on these webpages, then have a go at the challenge.

      Link: Attach files to email messages and calendar events

      Link: Inbox rules

      Challenge:

      • Create an inbox rule to send emails from yourself to the 'From Me to Me' folder
      • Send an email to yourself with an attachment and check that the rule above works

      Task 6: Outlook on your Computer

      You will find Outlook on your computer under the application name 'Outlook 2016'.

      Work through the resources on this website and then have a go at the challenge.

      Link: Basic tasks in Outlook

      Challenge:

      Perform some similar tasks as you have done in the previous five tasks , but this time complete them from within the Outlook 2016 application.

    • Activity 2

      Getting Organised with Calendars and Tasks

      Allow 60 minutes

      The calendar and tasks feature of Outlook is a great way to organise your schedule, appointments and to set reminders. The tasks in this activity will familiarise you with these features.


      Task 1: Calendar

      Work through the resources on this website, then have a go at the challenge.

      Link: Using the calendar

      Challenge:

      • Add your birthday and set it up as using the 'all day' and 'repeat every year' options
      • Add the holiday/break periods using suitable repeat and 'all day' options
      • Add the times for your regular classes. Use the 'repeat' options to set up recurrences
      • Add your assessment timetable
      • Add your assignment due dates and set a reminder for 2 days before it is due

      Task 2: Tasks

      Work through the resources on this website, then have a go at the challenge.

      Link: Using tasks

      Challenge:

      • Create a task for each of your upcoming assignments
      • Create a 'category' for each of your courses and assign each task to the correct category
      • Assign each of your calendar events from the previous task to a category

    • Checkpoint

      Outlook Self-Assessment

      Now that you've completed the activities in this module, take the time to complete this self-assessment of how competent you think you are in using Outlook.

      Follow the instructions by clicking the link below.

    • Outlook Self-Assessment Quiz
      You have to add at least one completion condition.

    • Discussion

      Outlook Forum

      Using the forum below, click the 'Add a new discussion topic' button and perform the following tasks.

      1. Using a PNI format (Positive, Negative and Interesting) post something that you found useful, something that you found difficult or confusing, and something that you would like to find out more about relating  to the activities in this part of the module.
      2. Share at least one additional resource (web link, video etc.) that you think would help any other students working through this module.
    • Outlook Forum