Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a powerful tool that allows you to stay connected with your faculty colleagues and students, bringing together simultaneous document editing, chat, video conferencing, project management tools and third-party apps into one shared workspace.

Microsoft Teams Resources

Microsoft Teams is a great tool for fostering class collaboration. Here are a few resources that provide support.

GENERAL OVERVIEW:

• Basic introduction to Microsoft Teams

GETTING STARTED:

• Login to Teams: access O365, go to Office.com and sign in with your bannerID, followed by @durhamcollege.ca (i.e. 10012346@durhamcollege.ca) and your network password. Step-by-step instructions are available here.
• Resource: How to create a Team for your course
• Resource: How to share your Team with your students with a ‘join code’
• Resource: Invite external guests to your Team
  • External guests are guests who do not have a durhamcollege.ca email account. Once they are members of your Microsoft Teams workspace, guest users can access files, join meetings, engage in chats, etc., just like other members in the workspace.  When adding the users, do not add them by name, add them using their full external email address

How to Make a Call

Making a call in Microsoft Teams is easy. Here are the steps required in order to make a call. You do not have to be a member of a Microsoft Team in order to make a call using the application.

Step 1: Once you have logged into Teams, click the ‘Calls’ icon on the left-hand side of the page

Step 2: At the bottom of the left task bar, you will see a 'Make a call’ search field. Type in the name of the person you want to call and select the correct name from the list. The name will then appear in the search bar.

Step 3: Select one of the call options at the bottom of the page. The phone icon can be used for audio calls and the video icon for video calls.

Step 4: Once you have finished your call, click the red phone button to end the call.

HAVING A VIDEO MEETING:

• Resource: How to start a video meeting in your Team using ‘meet now’
• Resource: How to share content (PowerPoint/Whiteboard/Screenshare) in a video meeting
• Shareable PDF for your students: How to Join a Team and a Video Meeting
• Create and Schedule Teams Meetings in Outlook:
  • Schedule Teams Meetings in Outlook on a Windows PC
  • Schedule Teams Meetings in Outlook on a Mac

How to Create breakout rooms:

• Breakout rooms are a great way to split a class into smaller groups for collaboration and discussion
• Resource: How to Create and Manage Breakout rooms
  • Please note, DC does not have the "Calendar" function, you will need to start your meeting by using "meet now"
  • Please note, this documentation uses the term "Open room" to start a breakout room, the updated button says "Start room"

Important notes:

• Only the host (meeting organizer) can start the meeting
  • If you're using a Teams channel this means whoever presses "meet now".
  • In a scheduled meeting from outlook, it is whoever scheduled the meeting.
  • Breakout rooms will not work from calling individuals directly through Teams, you must use the "meet now" option in a channel or a scheduled meeting through Outlook.
• The host must be using the desktop version of Teams
• Maximum number of breakout rooms - 50
• Can randomly assign individuals to breakout rooms, or manually assign specific people to rooms
• There is a 10-second countdown that students see after you press "start rooms"
• There is also a 10-second countdown that students see after you press "close rooms"

TEAMs RECORDINGs:

• IMPORTANT NOTE: As of April 18th 2022, new Microsoft Teams recordings will have a default expiration of 150 days, after which time the recording will be deleted unless the owner overrides it. The default expiration applies to all recordings - Team channel meetings and scheduled meetings (Outlook).
  Learn how to Remove or Extend Expiration on Teams Recordings (PDF).
• Resource: Sharing a Teams Recording in DC Connect

TEMPLATE FOR FACULTY COMMUNICATION TO STUDENTS ON HOW TO JOIN A TEAM

• Faculty Communication to Students Template
• Shareable PDF for your students: How to Join a Team and a Video Meeting

Microsoft Teams help & learning From Microsoft

Are you looking for additional information on Microsoft Teams? Visit the Microsoft Teams help & learning website for additional articles and tutorials.

HOW IS MS TEAMS DIFFERENT THAN Zoom?

Both are excellent tools used for very similar purposes, but each one may have advantages that the other doesn’t. Check out our Microsoft Teams VS. Zoom comparison page to find out which platform might work best for you.

REMEMBER: DON’T FORGET ABOUT CAPTIONS

All videos need to have captions for your class.

Live - With Microsoft Teams, students and faculty can choose to turn on live captioning for synchronous classes or meetings by downloading the desktop Teams app (this feature is not available in the online version of Teams).  Students/participants are responsible for turning on the live caption preview on their own device. The faculty member or meeting host do not need to do anything to enable live captions for their viewers.

• Download Teams to your desktop

Using the desktop Teams app will allow faculty and students to benefit from full functionality - including the live captions option. Faculty who are planning to use Microsoft Teams should use the desktop Teams app to start the video meeting.

• Resource: How to turn on live captioning for your videos
• Remember, this will only work if you use the desktop app and the ‘Meet’ option as described in How to start a video meeting in your Team using ‘Meet’

Recorded - If you are recording a class in Teams, the recording is now automatically made available to your students with captions. No additional steps are required to generate and apply the captions. When Start recording is selected during your Team meeting, a transcript will automatically be generated and then added to the recording as captions. (see the steps below)

Step 1 – Start a Meeting

• Start a meeting in the Teams channel using the Meet icon as usual.

Step 2 – Record Meeting

• Open the More actions menu (3-dot icon) and select Start recording. A transcript will automatically be generated and then added to the recording as captions.

Step 3 – Locate & Watch Recording

After the recording has been stopped, the video file can be found in the Files area of the MS Teams channel within a folder called Recordings, or in the Posts area where the meeting was started.

Once the captions are available, there will be a CC button on the player that students can use to turn them on. If you do not see this button immediately, the captions might still be processing in the background. Allow time for the captions to be prepared and then check back.