The OneNote Class Notebook is an app that helps you set up OneNote in your class. This app will create a class notebook, which includes three types of sub-notebooks:

  • Student Notebooks — private notebooks that are shared between each teacher and their individual students. Teachers can access these notebooks at any time, but students cannot see other students' notebooks.

  • Content Library — a notebook for teachers to share course materials with students. Teachers can add and edit its materials, but for students, the notebook is read-only.

  • Collaboration Space — a notebook for all students and the teacher in the class to share, organize, and collaborate.

In addition, we have released the Class Notebook Add-in, which is a useful tool to help make Class Notebooks even more efficient for teachers. This add-in is freely available for users of OneNote 2013 and 2016 for Windows, and is also built into OneNote 2016 for Mac. To learn more, please see these Support articles:

  • Class Notebook add-in for OneNote for Windows

  • Class Notebook Tools for OneNote 2016 for Mac

What you'll need

  • An Microsoft 365 subscription for Education that includes OneDrive for Business. If you're not sure you have this, please contact your IT administrator to verify.

  • An organizational account for yourself (the teacher) with permissions to use the OneNote Class Notebook app to create the class notebooks.

  • Your students must have an Microsoft 365 organizational account.

We recommend Internet Explorer 10 or Internet Explorer 11 to use the OneNote Class Notebook app. Other modern browsers should also work.

GETTING STARTED

Launch the OneNote Class Notebook

  1. Sign in to Office 365.

  2. Click the app launcher in the upper left, then All apps.

    The Microsoft 365 app launcher

  3. In the list of apps that appears, click the Class Notebook app.

Create a Class Notebook

Create a Class Notebook in OneNote

(Optional) Add another teacher to your Class Notebook

Add or remove co-teachers in Class Notebook for OneNote

Add your students to your Class Notebook

Add students to a Class Notebook in OneNote

Managing Class Notebooks

To manage other capabilities for your Class Notebooks, click the Manage notebooks button from the Class Notebook wizard.

Screenshot of the Notebook Lists icon.

This displays a page that shows all class notebooks created by you, as well as information for customizing each one.

Options include:

  • Renaming student sections — To rename any student sections, click the little pencil icon, and then type the new name of the section. Be sure to click Save after renaming student sections.

  • Adding student sections — To distribute a new section to all students, click the Add section button. Be sure to click Save after adding student sections.

  • Enabling the Teacher-Only section group — The Teacher-Only section group is a private space where only the teacher can see what's inside. To add a Teacher Only section group to your Class Notebook, click Enable Teacher-Only section group. Other teachers that have access to your Class Notebook will also have access to the Teacher-Only section group, but students cannot see anything here.

  • Locking the Collaboration Space — Enabling this option changes the Collaboration Space to read-only (or lockdown) to prevent any students from editing. You can toggle the switch from locked to unlocked at any time.

  • Opening the Class Notebook — Click Open to open the Class Notebook.

  • Sharing a link to the Class Notebook — To send a link to the Class Notebook to your class, select and copy the text in the Link box, and then paste it into an email.

Options for managing notebooks

Help your students find their Class Notebook

Find and share Class Notebook URL

TROUBLESHOOTING

Troubleshoot Class Notebook

I don't see the OneNote Class Notebook icon in my app launcher. What's wrong?

Try the following:

  1. Make sure you have one of the following licenses:

    • Office 365 Education for Faculty

    • Office 365 A1 Plus PLUS for Faculty

    • Microsoft 365 Faculty Individual Sign Up

    • Office 365 A1 for Faculty

    • Microsoft 365 Plan A2 for Faculty

    • Office 365 A3 for Faculty

    • Microsoft 365 Plan A4 for Faculty

    • SharePoint (Plan 1) for Faculty

    • SharePoint (Plan 2) for Faculty

    • Office Professional Plus for Faculty

    • Office Web Apps (Plan 1) For Faculty

    • Office Web Apps (Plan 2) For Faculty

  2. Check that the OneNote Class Notebook app is not disabled in the Admin Portal:

    • Open the app launcher and then click Admin.

      The Office 365 app launcher with the Admin app highlighted

    • In the left navigation pane, under Admin, click SharePoint.

      Screenshot of the Admin navigation pane

    • On the next screen, in the left navigation pane, click Settings.

      Screenshot of the Site Collections task pane

    • Check that OneNote Class Notebook is set to Show.

      Screenshot of the Show/Hide options

  3. If you still don't see the OneNote Class Notebook icon after following the preceding steps, please file a support ticket at https://aka.ms/EDUSupport.

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