Microsoft adds another new API, this time to automate OneNote staff notebooks

Dave W. Shanahan

OneNote, Staff Notebooks

As we get closer to a new school year, Microsoft has a new OneNote Staff Notebook API for Office 365 out today. With the release of OneNote Staff Notebooks last year, the only way to create a staff notebook was through the OneNote Staff Notebook app on Windows 10. Based on feedback from teachers, school IT admins, and Microsoft Education partners, OneNote staff notebooks can now be created a different way.

In addition to the Class Notebooks update and add-in released yesterday, now school IT administrators can allow OneNote staff notebooks to automatically create and update OneNote staff notebooks for a school or entire school district. The OneNote team created this OneNote Staff Notebook API to save time for teachers and school IT staff.

According to Microsoft, the new OneNote Staff Notebook API works like in a scenario like this:

“Suppose you are the IT admin of your school. Wouldn’t it be great if teachers came in on the first day of the new semester and found a OneNote staff notebook created for the school staff? With the new OneNote Staff Notebook API, you can do just that! If you have the rosters of your school staff, all you need is a simple script that calls the OneNote Staff Notebook API to create a staff notebook with the proper people pre-added.”

At this time, the OneNote Staff Notebooks API, allows staff notebook creation in the following three locations:

  1. Notebooks on OneDrive for Business
  2. SharePoint site notebooks
  3. Unified group notebooks

There are a number of additional scenarios that Microsoft provides a list of “Additional scenarios for the Staff Notebook API” that teachers might find helpful. There is additional information available for school IT administrators looking for how they can use the OneNote Staff Notebooks API. As always, the OneNote team values your feedback. You can contact them directly via email here or @OneNoteEDU on Twitter.