Microsoft Teams supports learning experiences that are learner-centred, collaborative and practice-led. At UWE, Teams is now available alongside Blackboard for use in teaching, learning and formative assessment.

Overview

In this first section, Getting Started, there is information on how Teams can support your teaching, learning and assessment practices and information on setting up a Team through the new Blackboard integration tool.

In the second section, Online Meetings, you will find out about different ways of setting up a meeting, and useful information on features such as breakout rooms.

The section Setting up the Space covers other features of a Class Team such as the home page and class notebook.

We hope this guide will give you everything you need to know to add Teams to your repertoire, but if you have any questions about using Teams for teaching, see the Further Support section (including ways to contact your local Digital Learning Service team).

 

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As an instructor, you need quick and easy ways to check student understanding. Microsoft Teams provides built-in tools to help you gauge comprehension, provide timely feedback, and adjust your instruction to maximise student learning.

Traditionally, assessments have been viewed as a way to measure students' knowledge, understanding and skills after a period of instruction. These assessments are often conducted in a formal and summative manner, with grades or scores given as the outcome.

However, the approach of "Assessment as Learning" shifts the focus of assessment from being purely evaluative to being formative and constructive. It means that assessments are integrated into the teaching and learning process as ongoing, interactive experiences that contribute to students' learning and growth.

Teams can support this integrated approach to teaching, learning and formative assessment both within and outside the classroom, for students working independently or collaboratively.

]]>Whether your session is online, or in a face-to-face classroom where students have access to computers or mobile devices, Teams can support the learning experience.

Read this article on getting students to share their screens in a classroom.

Students can also use Teams to help them work in groups while in the classroom, or in online breakout rooms (see also Collaborative Learning below).

Live ‘Assessment as Learning’ Opportunities

Here are some ways you can use real-time or "live" assessments as opportunities for learning and skill development for students.

]]>Independent learning opportunities refer to educational experiences that allow individuals to take charge of their learning process, explore topics or subjects on their own, and engage in self-directed learning activities. These opportunities encourage learners to be proactive, responsible, and motivated in their pursuit of knowledge and skills. Independent learning empowers individuals to set their own learning goals, manage their time effectively, and take ownership of their learning journey.

Useful tools for independent learning:

Assessing Independent Learning

]]>Collaborative learning can benefit students by fostering active engagement, diverse perspectives and social learning. Working together encourages improved communication, problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and prepares students for real-world teamwork. It enhances retention and understanding of concepts, stimulates creativity and promotes responsibility and accountability among students. At its best, it can create a positive learning environment where students support each other’s growth and build strong interpersonal skills essential for academic and future success (see Teams as a student-led space for more information).

Useful tools for collaborative learning:

Assessing Collaborative Learning

When assessing collaborative learning, you may want to look at individuals or the group as a whole. Here are some ideas.

  • Class Notebook – toggle contributor names in a collaborative notebook page by going to the View tab and selecting ‘Show authors’.

    View tab with three dots menu selected
  • Posts and Chat – Use channels as structured discussion boards, with clear expectations of how, and how often, students should contribute. Using Insights will help you assess student engagement.
  • Forms – Collect peer feedback and personal reflections to assess contributions to group work.
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Collaboration and peer learning are great ways for students to develop their knowledge of a subject by working with concepts and sharing their insights as part of a learning community. Teams is a good platform for this, because it allows students to manage themselves independently. Unless you choose to disable the settings, students can discuss with each other in the chat, have video calls and even set up their own channels, as well as share and work on files together and allocate tasks to each other.  

See a case study on how UCLan used Teams to develop learner autonomy. 

You may have concerns about supervision of the space – but you don’t have to moderate all of your students’ conversations. As long as you are clear with students how you will interact with the space and let them know how they should communicate with you, you don’t have to be present to answer all of the questions that may come up in peer-led discussions. Also remember that all students have signed a Code of Conduct. There is already an expectation of how they should behave in conversations with each other. 

Of course, students may still decide to create their own WhatsApp groups or use other tools to communicate with each other. But with Teams you can ensure that all students have access to a group discussion space and are not excluded. 

Remind your students: 

Let them know: 

  • Do you have access to the space? Will you join in discussions? 
  • Will you answer questions, and if so, how long should students expect a response to take? 
  • What should they do if there are issues, or someone behaves inappropriately? 

Suggest: 

  • They discuss and agree their own guidelines 
  • They consider inclusivity and make sure everyone has the opportunity to contribute. 

If you still have concerns, it is possible to disable certain settings and set up moderation. See the following Microsoft articles: 

Keeping students safe while using Teams 

Moderation in Microsoft Teams 

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You can create a Team that is linked to a Blackboard module, programme or group. Staff and students will automatically be added to the Team. The integration will also allow you to set up online meetings from within Blackboard (see Online meetings - set up through Blackboard).

Note: your module must be available in Blackboard (i.e. not hidden from students) in order to set up the integration.

]]>Go to your Books & Tools menu on the right in Blackboard and select ‘MS Teams’. The first time you do this, it will give you the option to create a Class Team associated with the module.

Click on ‘Create Course Team’. It will then change to ‘In Progress’.

However, students will not be able to access the Team until you ‘Activate’ it. This gives you the opportunity to add materials, create a home page and think about how you want students to interact with it.

The following banner will appear in your Teams site:

Your class isn't visible to students yet - Activate

Students and staff will also be able to access the Team from their Teams dashboard in Office 365. Note that all staff on the Blackboard module will be enrolled as Team owners, and students as members.

You may also want to create content areas in the student content menu on Blackboard, from which students can access the class Teams site. In Blackboard Ultra, the integration tool does not automatically create this, but you can refer to UWE's guidance on how to create one manually.

You can also create an area from which students can view and access their Teams meetings for the module. For instructions on how to do this, see UWE's guidance on creating a link in Blackboard to class Teams meetings.

]]>Blackboard tab 

On a Team integrated with Blackboard, you will see a Blackboard tab at the top of the page. This will give you and your students an overview of recent activity in the Blackboard course including: 

  • Content, with the option to click through and open in Blackboard 
  • Announcements 
  • Blackboard Assignments 

You can view these chronologically or search for specific items. 

Layout of Blackboard tab in Teams

Blackboard links in Chat

You can use the chat to point students towards content items in Blackboard. Start a new conversation or Reply to a thread, then click on the three dots on the toolbar.

Chat toolbar

UWE Blackboard will appear as an app in your options.

App list showing UWE Blackboard

When you click on it, you will be able to search for items in the Blackboard course. They will appear in the chat with a link to view on Blackboard.

View of a Blackboard item in Teams chat

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Online meetings can be created by starting in your calendar, either in Microsoft Outlook or Teams.

]]>This is a good option if: 

You do not want a Class Team associated with your module

Note that when you enable the Blackboard/Teams integration, a Class Teams site will immediately become available to students. If you want to avoid this, use the following method to set up meetings, and invite your class via a guest link.

To find out more about the benefits of using Class Teams, read this article on Teams for teaching and learning.

You want to arrange private meetings with individuals or small groups of students

Even if you set up a Class Team, some meetings (such as vivas, tutorials, office hours) may be better scheduled outside of the Team. This way, they will not appear to all students in the Blackboard schedule. For this scenario, include participants' individual email addresses in the 'Invite attendees' section of the Outlook setup.

You want to invite externals or guest speakers to a session

For one-off sessions where you would like someone external to UWE to present to students, this is a good option. Invite your guest by including their email addresses in the 'Invite attendees' section of the calendar setup. By default, external guests will arrive in the lobby and need to be admitted. Once admitted, they will be able to share their screen or slides. They will have access to the chat while the meeting is in progress, but will lose access once they leave.

You can also invite external guests to sessions set up through the Blackboard interface by using a guest link, but they will by default have ‘attendee’ permissions and may need promoting to ‘presenter’. In a meeting set up through your calendar, they will have ‘presenter’ permissions by default.

You are working across different modules

If you want to run a session for multiple modules, programmes or cohorts, this is the most straightforward option. You can invite all the students using a guest link in the relevant Blackboard sites.

You could use the Blackboard integration from one of the modules, but you would still need to use a guest link, at least for those on the other module. These students would then enter by the lobby and need admitting manually.

]]>Creating an online meeting for students in Teams can be done in the same way as you may have done when meeting with staff. See Microsoft’s online support for more information.
The main difference is that for large cohorts you are unlikely to want to add all the students’ emails individually. Instead you can use the equivalent of a Collaborate guest link and post it on Blackboard. To get this link:

  • Set up the meeting and save
  • Either:
    • In Outlook, re-open the meeting and copy the ‘Click here to join the meeting’ text that will have appeared in the description.
    • In Teams, go to your Calendar. Right click on the meeting in your calendar and select ‘Copy link’.

Note that this will not add the event to the students’ calendar. 

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Online meetings can also be created from within Blackboard.

]]>This is a good option if: 

You want a single place in Blackboard where your students can access all the links to their online classes

With Collaborate, students had a single place on Blackboard where online sessions were listed. If you want to keep this functionality, the Blackboard - Teams integration can provide this. The display will look something like this (though students will not be able to add or edit meetings):

Students will still see and be able to access meetings they have not been specifically invited to, but will have to wait in the lobby if they have not been invited, and be approved by a presenter.

You want to add all students on a module to a meeting invitation so it appears in their calendar

If your sessions are for the whole cohort and do not run across modules, you can easily set up a meeting that will appear for students in their calendar as well as on Blackboard.

Click on the "Add all students" button to add all students on the module to the meeting invitation.

You are using (or want to use) a Class Team for teaching and learning

If you are already using Class Teams for teaching, or planning to do so, you will probably find it useful for the Team to be connected to your Blackboard module. The integration will mean all the students on your module are automatically enrolled on the related Teams site.

Watch this video about how the integration works from our Blackboard Support colleagues, if you want to find out more.

Read this article about using Class Teams for teaching and learning to find out more.

]]>What is a Class Team?

A Class Team is very similar to an ordinary Team but with extra features that make it particularly useful in education. For a full comparison of different Team types, see the Microsoft Support pages on choosing a team type.

It is important to note that all Teams created through the Blackboard integration will be Class Teams.

]]>First, you need to set up the integration.

Once the integration is set up, you will have the option to create a content area in the student content menu from which they can access the schedule of meetings (but not create new ones). To do this, follow the UWE guidance on creating a link to the Teams meetings list. 

To create a new meeting, click on the 'New Meeting' button.

Add the title, dates and description. You can choose the Teams channel (here set to General) that the meeting notification will be shown in.

Under the 'Options' tab, choose if you want students to use their microphones, cameras and chat.

Editing a meeting - Options tab

Click 'Submit' when ready.

All students will have access to the meeting through the 'Teams meetings' tab on Blackboard.

]]>IMPORTANT:  Cancelling meetings made through Blackboard

If you set up a Teams meeting/online lecture through Blackboard and then need to cancel the meeting completely, you must cancel the meeting through Blackboard.  

If you cancel the meeting through your Teams or Outlook calendar, the meeting and its link will still show in Blackboard (despite a cancellation message going out to invitees and the meeting no longer appearing in Teams and Outlook calendars). This means that invitees could inadvertently join a cancelled meeting by clicking on the link in Blackboard.  Once you cancel the meeting in Blackboard, the meeting link will disappear across all platforms and the meeting will also no longer appear under Microsoft Teams Meetings in Blackboard.

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Even if you don't use the Blackboard integration to set up meetings, you still have control over the meeting options.

Meeting options are a group of settings that enable, limit, or turn off certain capabilities during a meeting. Meeting organisers can change meeting options to affect how participants engage and interact during a meeting.

Find out more about roles in a meeting.

How to set options when creating a meeting

You can change the UWE default settings to better suit your purpose when scheduling a meeting from your Teams calendar. Open Teams in your desktop app or browser. Click on the Calendar icon in the left-hand navigation bar, then click on the ‘New meeting’ button or select a slot in your calendar. The meeting options can be found at the top right of the scheduler.

 

How to change options before a meeting goes live

Already created your meeting but forgotten to change the meeting options? That’s not a problem, you can change the meeting options at any time before it is due to start. Simply open your Teams calendar and edit the meeting. The meeting options can be found at the top right of the meeting editor as above.


How to change options during a meeting

Started your meeting and discovered that participants can’t engage as you expected? It’s easy to change the meeting options whilst it is live. From the room actions bar select More > Settings > Meeting Options.
 

Finding options settings during a meeting

This article explains microphone and camera settings before and during meetings - ‘Manage attendee audio and video permissions in Microsoft Teams meetings’.

 

What do the meeting options do?

A breakdown of what each meeting option does, and recommendations of when to use, can be found on the Microsoft Teams Support: Meetings Options page.

Please be aware that the meetings options available to you are different when creating a meeting from Teams to those when creating a meeting from your Outlook calendar.
 

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IMPORTANT: It is not possible to invite a guest with a non-UWE email address through the Blackboard interface of the Teams Integration Tool (this could be a guest lecturer, for example). You can add or invite such guests, either as required or optional, through the Teams meeting settings screen.

Key points to remember:

  • If you assign a non-UWE guest the role of presenter in the meeting settings before a meeting takes place, when the non-UWE guest joins the Teams meeting, they will revert to attendee status. You or another UWE co-organiser will then need to assign the role of presenter, as required. 
  • It is therefore crucial that a UWE organiser or co-organiser is at the Teams meeting and can assign the appropriate role to the guest colleague when the meeting starts.  
     

If a non-UWE colleague is going to be participating as a presenter at multiple online UWE lectures, it is advisable to speak with your Programme Lead about the possibility of the guest lecturer being assigned with a temporary worker IT account.

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You may need to hold large online sessions for students across different modules or programmes, and advertise them with a guest link. This could be useful for things like induction sessions in Starting Block, careers talks or academic skills lectures.

When holding large sessions, you should consider in advance how to best to set up participant permissions.

Set up a meeting from your Teams account

Some meeting options are not available through Outlook Calendar in your browser, so we suggest the following method. Note this does not associate the meeting with any particular Team. You will be the owner of the meeting, and any associated files such as recordings will be saved to your OneDrive.

Open Teams and click on the Calendar icon in the left-hand navigation bar, then click on the ‘New meeting’ button or select a slot in your calendar. Under ‘Add required attendees’ include any co-organisers and presenters. You do not need to add students/attendees here as you will provide them with a guest link.

Access the meeting options as described previously.

Who can bypass the lobby? – we suggest setting this to ‘everyone’ unless you have a specific reason and the resources to manually check everyone who is entering without a UWE account. If 'everyone' is not selected then anyone in the lobby will need to be manually checked and admitted.

Choose co-organisers - important: ensure you have at least one co-organiser listed. This will ensure that someone else can access the meeting options if you are unavailable on the day. It is also useful to have at least one other co-organiser to monitor Q&A and verify any guests in the lobby before admitting them. The organiser or co-organisers are also the only people who can set up breakout rooms (remember you need to be using the desktop app to do this).

Who can present – choose ‘Only organisers and co-organisers’ if they are the only ones who needs to present. If there are other presenters, you can choose ‘Specific people’ and then add them from your list of attendees.

Allow mic/camera – consider whether you want to allow students to use these; they may be disruptive in large meetings.

Record automatically – we suggest manually recording sessions where possible to ensure that unnecessary parts are not recorded and it is securely stored in your Recordings folder in OneDrive. Remember to upload it to Panopto afterwards if you want the recording to be kept long-term.

Meeting chat – again, consider whether this might be disruptive in a large meeting. You also have the option to limit it to in-meeting only, so the chat stream will not persist after the session.

Q&A – You may wish to use the Q&A function alongside, or as well as, the meeting chat. There is a separate set of options for this, see Q&A in Microsoft Teams meetings for more information. Alternatively, you could use Mentimeter for Q&A.

 

Once you have set up the session, click on it again in your Teams calendar and select ‘Copy link’ at the top. You can then paste this link into an email or Blackboard course to send to your students.

Set up a meeting from a shared calendar

If you set up a meeting from your Teams account, it will appear in your Outlook calendar. The only way around this is to set it up from a calendar linked to a group; for example your team’s generic email address.

To do this, you will need to use the Outlook desktop app in order to be able to access all the meeting options.  See how to set up meeting options in the desktop app.

The same meeting options apply as above, but if you set up a meeting from a shared calendar, ‘Choose co-organisers’ is especially important – make sure you add yourself as a co-organiser as well as a standby, otherwise you will not have the correct permissions when you enter the meeting from your personal account.

 

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IMPORTANT: If you do not see the Rooms icon Breakout rooms iconin Microsoft Teams, please ensure you are running the latest version of the desktop app. Breakout rooms cannot be created from the web version of Microsoft Teams.
Using breakout rooms in your classes promotes active learning and engagement by encouraging small group discussions and collaboration amongst students. It fosters a more inclusive learning environment, allowing quieter students to participate and share their ideas. Breakout rooms also provide opportunities for peer teaching, enhancing comprehension and retention of the material.

Please see Microsoft's guidance on the use of Breakout Rooms.

 

 

]]>Who can set up breakout rooms?

Breakout rooms can only be managed by organisers or co-organisers of a meeting, and can currently only be created from the latest version of the Microsoft Teams desktop app. The rooms function is not available from the web version of Microsoft Teams. If you are setting up a meeting on behalf of someone else, or if you have more than one organiser, please make sure you add them as a co-organiser. Please note that organisers and co-organisers cannot be assigned to rooms, however they will get chat notifications from all breakout rooms and have the ability to manually join any room.

Who can manage the individual breakout rooms?

You can set individuals to manage each breakout room, however they must be set as a presenter rather than an attendee. Please make sure that you make them a presenter.

How do I assign attendees to breakout rooms?

Organisers or co-organisers can assign participants to rooms either automatically or manually. If you assign automatically this can be customised before opening the rooms. Please see the guidance from Microsoft above.

Can I pre-assign attendees to breakout rooms before my session?

Yes, you can create breakout rooms before your session starts and pre-assign your participants. If you choose to do this all attendees will still enter to the main room in the first instance and the breakout rooms will only open once you choose to do so.

Watch a YouTube video on pre-assigning breakout rooms.

What does it mean to automatically move people to rooms?

When this option is selected your attendees will automatically be taken to their breakout rooms. If you leave this option unticked, they will just be invited to join the breakout room.

If I use breakout rooms more than once in a session, are attendees kept assigned to the same groups?

Yes, all attendees will stay assigned to the same groups unless you choose to clear and re-assign participants.

Can students choose their own breakout room?

It is not possible for students to select which breakout room they will be in during a Teams meeting. See an alternative method below.

]]>Can I make announcements?

As an organiser or a co-organiser you can make announcements to all breakout rooms using the Announcements feature, which will appear in the chat box of all rooms. Please note that hyperlinks are not supported in notifications, so you will need to manually add it to each room chat. You can also use this feature to ensure that all breakout rooms appear in your main chat window in Microsoft Teams.

How do I set timers for the breakout rooms?

You can set a timer for your breakout rooms using the rooms settings. When you do this a countdown timer will appear in the top left of the screen and participants will automatically return to the main room at the end of the countdown. This is a very useful feature to ensure that all participants come back to the main room at the same time and you can keep your session running to time.

Can I use breakout rooms in a hybrid session?

Breakout rooms can be used in a hybrid session (with attendees both on-site and remotely), however it is very important to consider how noise and audio feedback can be minimised with multiple people in the same room. If you choose to do this, it’s important to send an announcement to turn off microphones before returning to the main room to minimise audio feedback.

What features are available in breakout rooms?

You can use most Microsoft Teams features (e.g. captions, whiteboard, PowerPoint live, speaker coach, polls) within breakout rooms, however there can be issues with these when using Firefox, so it's recommended that all users use the Microsoft Teams desktop app or join on the web using Google Chrome. Meeting Notes are currently available in breakout rooms, however it is inconsistent across different versions. It is recommended that you use an alternative, such as OneNote or a shared OneDrive document.

Can I record breakout rooms?

When you record your session it will continue to record the main room during breakout sessions, and you will need to record each individual breakout room separately. Breakout room recordings will be saved to the Recordings folder in OneDrive of the person who clicked record, and organisers will be able to access the recordings via the breakout room chats. If your session is set to auto-record, the recording will be stored in OneDrive for the first person to enter the room. It's important to carefully consider who is responsible for recording sessions and manage this manually where possible, as they may be deleted unexpectedly by the person who owns them.

How can I manage breakout room notifications as an organiser or co-organiser?

As an organiser or co-organiser you will receive notifications for all breakout rooms chats, however you can mute chats in the chat area. If you choose to do this, it's important to let people know to message you directly or tag you in messages that they need you to see. Participants can also post messages in the main room whilst in breakout rooms by going to chat area of Microsoft Teams.

]]>I cannot see the Rooms function in Microsoft Teams

Please make sure you are running the latest version of the Microsoft Teams desktop app. The rooms function is not currently available in the web version, however participants can be assigned and join breakout rooms from any version.

I cannot present slides to breakout rooms

Unfortunately this feature is not available yet. You will need to provide a file or link in the breakout room chats instead.

Some functions (e.g. captions, polls, menti) aren't working properly, or Microsoft Teams is glitching

If you are using the web version of Microsoft Teams, please use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. During testing we encountered several problems especially whilst using Firefox.

If you are using the desktop app, please ensure you are running the latest version.

]]>If breakout rooms do not meet your needs, for example if you would like students to meet together in self-selected small groups during a Teams meeting, you could consider setting up a series of channels (as shown in the example image below).  


 Four channels named with colours


Students could then be directed to go into their chosen channel with one student per channel starting a meeting by clicking on the Meet button in the top right-hand corner.  Once a meeting has been started in a channel, a blue video icon will appear (as in the image below), making it easier for organisers and students to see where meetings have already started. 

 

Meeting icon shown against Channel 1 - Blue
 
If students want to join an in-progress channel meeting (such as the one in progress above), they can click on the channel name and then click on Join in the blue meeting bar that will be visible whilst a meeting is in progress (as in the image below).  


Join button


Organisers and co-organisers can then join and leave the channel meetings, to check on progress or answer questions, for example.  Clear guidance will need to be given on how long students should remain in their channel group meetings as you will not be able to end these like normal breakout rooms.

Be aware that chat in these channels will be visible to all and will remain after the meeting. You can however delete these channels once you have finished with them. 

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Staff can record meetings in Microsoft Teams. Full information can be found on the Microsoft support page Record a meeting in Teams.

If the meeting was set up in a Teams channel, the recording will be saved to the SharePoint site for that Team. If it was set up from a personal calendar, it will be saved in the OneDrive folder of the person who started the recording. 

]]>Make sure you are aware of UWE's Audio-Video Recording for Educational Activities (PDF) policy.

Although recordings will stop when the meeting ends, it is a good idea to stop the recording manually when the part of the session that needs recording is finished, to prevent any chat and potential personal information being captured. 

 

]]>IMPORTANT: Note that UWE's policy is currently set to cause meeting recordings to expire and be deleted after 30 days. However, you can change this date manually (or remove an expiry date altogether). See Manage the expiration of a meeting recording for more details.

]]>You may wish to upload individual recordings to Panopto, so that they are available to students alongside other video resources for the course.

For meetings from your personal calendar:

  • Record your meeting as normal in Microsoft Teams. After the meeting, a video file with the meeting name and date will be saved in the ‘Recordings’ folder of your UWE OneDrive.

For meetings in a Teams channel:

  • Find the file in the meeting chat:
    1. After a recorded meeting ends, a thumbnail appears in the meeting chat or channel conversation. Allow the recording to save.
    2. Right click the three dots (‘…’) in the thumbnail preview of the recording and click ‘open’ to view the video in your web browser.  
      Meeting thumbnail in chat with options menu
    3. Click the three dots on the tool bar at the top of your web browser window and choose ‘Download’.
  • Alternatively, locate the file by going to the General channel, selecting the Files tab and finding the Recordings folder.
  • Download and save the video file to a secure location on the computer (e.g. your University OneDrive folder).

If the recording or the option to download does not appear, you might need to ask the recording owner (who initiated the recording) to move your video to Panopto. 

Uploading to Panopto

  1. Sign into Panopto in your web browser - https://uwe.cloud.panopto.eu/
  2. With Panopto open, click the ‘Create’ button (top left).
  3. Click ‘Upload media’.
  4. From the drop-down menu at the top, choose the save location (this will usually be the appropriate module folder - note all students on the module can view recordings stored here).
  5. Either drag the MS Teams recording file into the upload area or click the area to open your file browser, locate the MS Teams recording file on your computer using File Explorer (Windows) or Finder (Mac), and upload. 
  6. You can close the window while the file processes and saves to you chosen location.

Further information on uploading to Panopto 

]]>Please note that the Mentimeter app is not currently recorded in Teams meetings. If you are recording a Teams meeting and start sharing the Mentimeter app, an advisory message will be displayed, that says ‘Use of this app will not be recorded. Support for recording is coming soon’.

Advisory message

You can continue to record the meeting but Mentimeter will not be visible in the recording of the meeting.

For the time being, in order to use and record Mentimeter in a Teams meeting, you can display your Mentimeter presentation in a web browser and share your screen so that the browser is displayed for all participants. Attendees can then input the displayed Mentimeter code either on their mobile phone or through a web browser on their laptop/PC, in order to engage with the Mentimeter element of the meeting.

If your Mentimeter presentation contains any sound, please ensure that the Include computer sound toggle is switched on through the Share menu. This is defaulted to the off position, as shown in the image below, so you will need to switch it on when you initially share your screen in the meeting.

'Include computer sound' under Share menu

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With a UWE device 

Log in to Teams app in the UWE device using your UWE email address as usual. All capability is available to you. 

With a non-UWE Device 

]]>If you are an associate lecturer who needs breakout groups, but you do not have a UWE device, talk to your programme lead. There are two options available to the programme: 

  • Source you a UWE device so that you can log in using the app 
  • Assign a co-presenter who has a UWE device to the session to manage breakout groups 

For programmes with multiple associate lecturers the Programme Lead should contact the Digital Learning Service Team for further advice: 

]]>To ensure that your non-UWE device does not default to your usual work email address, you will need to make sure that you join the Teams meeting from the browser. Sometimes even if you make this selection your device will use your non-UWE work email and you will join as a guest. This means that you may get stuck in a lobby and will not have full access to present. 

To avoid this: 

  • Make sure that you are logged out of O365 in all circumstances of your browser windows (e.g. OneDrive, Online Outlook etc are all closed)  
  • Access O365 (https://www.office.com/) in a Chrome browser and log in using your UWE email address 
  • Click on the link to join the Teams meeting and then select join in browser 

 

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Watch this short video to understand the differences between presenters, organisers and attendees in Microsoft teams meetings.

 

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Setting up your Class Teams Home Page is the foundation to providing an inviting and interactive learning space for your students. Microsoft provides a standard template which is easy to personalise and there are some adjustments that you will need to make as a minimum when setting up your Class Teams and before you Activate to admit students to the Class.  We will focus on these key sections in the following guidance.   
 
Note - You should speak to your Programme Leader to ensure consistency between modules. 

]]>Note – It is only possible to edit a Class Home Page through the Teams app or Teams for the web. It is not possible to edit on mobile devices. 

To get started, go into your Class Team and click on the Home page tab in the left-hand menu. 

Home page section in Teams

Your Class Home Page contains a number of standard sections, which can all be moved, edited and removed.  These are listed below in the descending order in which they appear on the Home Page.  The sections that you should personalise as a minimum are shown in bold:

  • Banner image and greeting
  • Header and announcement space
  • Resources
  • Class schedule
  • Assignments
  • Recent Files
  • About me

You can read about each of these sections at Microsoft’s Set up a home page in your class team webpage.  This webpage also provides detailed instructions on how to personalise and edit your Home Page.

Please note that students will need to look at their Class Home Page in order to view any updates – they won’t automatically be notified of updates made by staff in this space.  Microsoft’s overview for students on Home page offers a useful guide to students and a helpful perspective for staff.  

The below image shows how your template Class Teams Home Page will look when you first enter it. The sections requiring personalisation as a minimum are highlighted in red:

Home Page template

Adding and deleting page sections

You can add or remove any sections within your Home Page by following the Edit and publish changes section on Microsoft’s Set up a home page in your class team webpage. 
 

 

]]>It is important as a minimum to provide students with your contact details and to update this information as required. If you wish, you can also add a link to your profile and provide any further information about you in this section.

In Edit Mode click on the People tab in the top left-hand corner of this section.

About Me section template

A tool bar will then appear and there are two Educator box templates available to begin with.  The easiest way to set up ‘About me’ is by entering your name or UWE staff email address into the second box (on the right).  Your UWE details will automatically be added, including your profile picture.  You can then add a link to your UWE profile and add a description of yourself/your role in free text.  

You can then delete the first (left hand) Educator box by clicking on the X in the top right-hand corner. 

Whilst you are in edit mode in this section you will automatically be presented with an additional Educator box below the one that you are populating in case you want to add an additional Educator.

Remember - Click on Republish to save your changes.

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Tabs are a great way to ensure that key resources are easily available to you and your students. Websites, apps and files that are going to be using regularly can be added as a tab in a Class Teams channel or group chat.

]]>Decide on which channel you would like to use, and click on Add a tab (+) at the top of the Teams shared space.  There are usually two default tabs already available – Posts and Files.

Add a tab in Teams - plus sign

The YouTube video below gives an overview of how to add files, websites and apps as tabs in Class Teams.

This short LinkedIn Learning video also demonstrates how to make an app with an existing Class Teams file, so that staff and students don’t have to go into the Files space every time they want to access a frequently used file.  

Microsoft’s Use an app in a tab in a channel or chat in Microsoft Teams webpage shows you how to complete quick tasks such as removing a tab. 

]]>A great way to track and manage tasks for a project or other piece of collaborative work within Teams, is to use the Planner app.

Click on the Add a tab (+) and find the Planner app in the app menu.

When you select the app, you will be presented with the option to either Create a new plan or Add an existing plan. As with other apps that you choose to display as a tab, you are given the option to Post to the channel about this tab, in case you wish to let members of the Team what the app will be used for. Once you have made your selections, click Save.

Once you have added your new plan as a tab, you can start to populate it with 'buckets' and 'tasks'. This YouTube video provides a helpful overview of how to set it up.

Note – You may see Planner also referred to as Tasks by Planner and To Do in some articles and guides.

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Class Notebook is a versatile component of every Class Team and is a powerful tool for educators and students alike.  It provides the opportunity to collaborate both as a group and on an individual student and educator basis.   

There are lots of useful features, for example, you can upload read-only course materials in the Content Library for students to see, as well as distribute worksheets to every student.  You can provide one-to-one feedback to individual students through their own private section of Class Notebook and each student can keep and organise their individual notes in the same space.  The whole Class Team can share ideas in the Collaboration Space and you can create smaller groups of students to work together within this area.   

There are four standard sections within Class Notebook: 

  1. Collaboration Space 
  2. Content Library 
  3. Teacher Only (visible only to educators) 
  4. Individual Student Notebooks (visible only to the individual student and educators) 
]]>If you plan on using Class Notebook with your students, it is a good idea to set it up before you activate your Class Team, so that everything is in order before students gain access.  If you haven’t done this, when your students click on the section they will be presented with a message that says “When your teachers sets up Class Notebook, you’ll get to it here”.    

Inactive class notebook message

However, when you as an educator click on the Class Notebook section, you will instead be prompted to set up a Class Notebook. You can set one up from an existing notebook, or start from scratch (Blank Notebook).

First, you will be shown a summary of the sections described above. This is just for information - there is nothing you need to do on this screen. Click Next to continue.

Next, you have the opportunity to choose the layout of the Individual Student Notebooks. By default, each student will have the following:

  • Handouts
  • Class Notes
  • Homework
  • Quizzes

At this stage, you can add, delete or rename the sections your students will see. If you decide to make changes later this is still possible, through 'Manage' in the Class Notebook tab.

Click Create when you are ready.

Default sections for students' individual notebooks

]]>Select Class Notebook from the left-hand menu in your Class Team.  Then click on the ‘3 books’ navigation button (shown in the image below).  Please ensure that your students are also aware that they need to click on the navigation button in order to access all the sections of the Class Notebook.

Class Notebook tab in Teams

When you click on the navigation button you will then see the standard sections below this – Collaboration Space, Content Library and Teacher Only.  Below these sections you will see the notebooks of all students attached to this Teams Class (no. 4 in the image below). 

Class Notebook sections and navigation button

Microsoft‘s Use OneNote Class Notebook in Teams webpage provides detailed guidance on setting up your Class Notebook.

Microsoft also offers an interactive online learning module – OneNote Class Notebook: A teacher’s all-in-one notebook for students

This article gives an overview of how Microsoft Teams can help your students Prepare, Participate and Practise

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You can join the UWE Microsoft Teams User Community, which includes a channel for Teaching in Teams, to keep up to date with guidance and top tips.  There is also a space to ask for help.  Instructions for joining and information about all the Teams resources available at UWE can be found on the Using Microsoft Teams intranet pages.

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These PowerPoint slides offer guidance for students on participating in Teams Meetings and might be a useful addition to any introductory sessions that you run.

Guidance for students on using Teams is also available on UWE's Study Skills website.

There is also a UWE blog post to introduce students to using Teams.

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MyLearning

Search for Microsoft Teams in MyLearning to fine the latest UWE staff training sessions.

Teams User Community

There is a UWE Teams User Community where you can ask for help and share ideas. Find out how to join.

Online training

Further online training is available as follows:

Microsoft offers an online Microsoft Educator Programme which will take you through all you need to get started with Teams for teaching and learning.

Staff have access to LinkedIn Learning video courses. Here are some playlists that guide you through Teams:

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If you have technical issues when using Teams, please contact IT Services.

If you have questions about how best to use Teams for teaching and learning, you can contact your College's Digital Learning Service team for support:

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  • Guest links are more secure than those in Collaborate, in that anyone outside of the UWE tenancy will enter via the lobby. However, any meeting participant will be able to admit them.
  • Automatic captions are available in Teams meetings.
  • By default, permissions are more open. Unless you set it otherwise, students will be able to use cameras and mics, share their screen or presentation, use the chat and admit guests from the lobby. 
  • The person who sets up the meeting has more capabilities than other staff on the module. If you need multiple members of staff with these permissions, for example to set up breakout rooms, consider adding them as co-organisers.
  • By default, session recordings expire after a certain length of time. If you want to make sure your session recording is preserved, you need to manually change the expiry date or upload to Panopto. 
    • ]]>    Students will need to login to one Teams site on their desktop app and the other through a browser.

    There is Guidance for students that you can share.

    ]]>    Yes – Once you have set up a meeting, you can ‘Copy Link’ and share this with invitees by pasting it into an email or Blackboard announcement.   Please be aware that meeting links expire approximately 60-days after their last use.

    ]]>    Yes - As long as you make the other member of UWE staff a co-organiser so that they have access to the full range of tools in the Teams meeting.  

    Please note that co-organisers cannot make changes to the meeting before it starts and the role of the meeting organiser cannot be changed.  Read more about meeting roles.

    ]]>    You can grant different permission levels before meetings or during a meeting.  
    Read more about meeting roles. There is also UWE guidance on Online Meetings.

    Any attendee can be made a presenter while the meeting is in progress, there is no need to assign this role beforehand.

    ]]>    It is important to have at least one other co-organiser for a Teams meeting when it is set up.  This is so that another co-organiser can run the meeting in your absence and be available to help with areas like Chat, ending meeting for all and admitting entry to people in the lobby, as needed.  Find out more at Add co-organizers to a meeting in Microsoft Teams.  

    Only colleagues with UWE login credentials can be co-organisers.

    ]]>    If you enrol another lecturer onto the Blackboard module, they will gain access to the Class Team overnight.  

    Alternatively a member of staff who is enrolled on that team, can manually add a lecturer to the team, however, the manually added lecturer will lose access overnight, as the syncing between Blackboard and Teams will default back to who is enrolled on the Blackboard module.

    It is important to have more than one owner of a Class Team, so that if one owner is unavailable, another owner can temporarily add another staff member to the team, if needed.

    ]]>    Please read this guidance on Associate Lecturers in Teams meetings.

    ]]>    Yes – If someone shares a link that they have received, then another person can use this to try to access the meeting.   However, the default setting in a Teams meeting is to keep anyone who hasn’t been invited in the Lobby.  Therefore, this will depend on your Meeting option settings. 

    If you change the meeting settings so that anyone can bypass the lobby, anyone with a link to that meeting can join the meeting directly.
     

    ]]>    You can re-use Teams meetings links, however, be aware that they will expire approximately *60-days after they are last used. (*subject to any Microsoft changes).

    Please note that anyone clicking on the link to join will have access to any chat that happened before they joined and will continue to have access after the event. This has GDPR implications so if you reuse a Teams link you should either disable all chat or only use it with the same group of people. 

    For different groups create different links.
     

    ]]>    Yes – Please see the Microsoft Teams guidance for students on scheduling meetings. 

    ]]>    Yes – Once they have been attached to the Blackboard module, they will be rolled into the Class Team overnight.

    ]]>    No – Pre-arranged Blackboard/Teams meetings won’t appear in the new student’s calendar, but they will still be able to join the Teams meeting by clicking on the meeting link in Blackboard.  If this link is not available in Blackboard or the meetings have been set up in a different way, they will need to speak to their Module Leader regarding access to the meeting invite.

    ]]>    Currently the Teams Integration Tool has only been tested on a module basis.  The functionality exists for programmes, however, careful consideration needs to be given to the membership, the reach of the communications, and manageability.   

    You can organise a large online meeting/lecture across different modules or programmes and advertise them with a guest link.

    If you have a very large cohort, it is advisable to speak to your College’s DLS Team about using a Teams webinar instead: 

    • CATE: dls.cate@uwe.ac.uk
    • CBL: dls.cbl@uwe.ac.uk
    • CHSS: dls.chss@uwe.ac.uk
       
    ]]>
    No – A student won’t need to accept.  They can just attend using the meeting link.

    ]]>    The maximum amount of attendees in a Teams meeting depends on licencing.  The current limits are: 

    •    300 attendees if you are an Associate Lecturer
    •    1000 attendees for all other staff

    There is also a limit of 20 people in an ad-hoc video call.  However, please refer to Microsoft’s guidance, to ensure that you keep up-to-date with any changes.

    PLEASE NOTE: Breakout rooms can only be created in Teams meetings that have fewer than 300 attendees.

    If you have a very large cohort, it is advisable to speak to your College’s DLS Team about using a Teams webinar instead: 

    •    CATE: dls.cate@uwe.ac.uk
    •    CBL: dls.cbl@uwe.ac.uk
    •    CHSS: dls.chss@uwe.ac.uk
     

    ]]>    Yes – Find out how to set up Teams Breakout Rooms.

    ]]>    Yes – Organisers, co-organisers and presenters can share their screens and PowerPoint presentations.  It is important to ensure that the correct roles are assigned to participants in Teams meetings so that the relevant people can make presentations.

    ]]>    No, but you can add a PowerPoint to the meeting’s Whiteboard where students can annotate. Click on the three dots at the bottom of the Whiteboard and select the slides that you want embedded. 

    ]]>    Yes - Each Teams meeting has a Whiteboard attached to it.  Find out more in Whiteboard in Microsoft Teams and Use Whiteboard in a Teams meeting.

    You can also add the Whiteboard app to any channel in Teams for asynchronous interaction and brainstorming.  You can add Whiteboard using Tabs.
     

    ]]>    Find out which students will need presenter rights in the first group of students and manually assign presenter rights. Read more about Meeting options.

    If in a large session this is too onerous a task, you can consider giving all attendees presenter rights during the meeting set-up, giving clear instructions to students to avoid any disruption that might be accidentally caused during the meeting.  Read more at Teams as a student-led space.

    ]]>    Yes - Open the participants pane whilst the meeting is in progress and click on the 3 dots next to the attendee’s name and select remove participant.

    Please note that the person can rejoin again if they have an invitation and if they do not have to bypass the lobby to join.  If the meeting has been set up so that they need to enter the lobby first, you can deny access when they try to rejoin.

    This YouTube video show you how to remove an anonymous attendee and it is the same process for removing an invited attendee.

    ]]>    Yes – This is particularly useful when someone steps away from their PC and forgets to mute themselves, potentially allowing unwanted sound into a Teams meeting.  

    It is possible to prevent both mic (and camera) use for attendees when setting up a Teams meeting and also mute and disable mics during a Teams meeting.  Find out more at Manage attendee audio and video permissions in Microsoft Teams meetings or watch a YouTube video by Mike Tholfsen - ‘Don’t allow attendees to unmute in Microsoft Teams meetings’.

    ]]>    Yes – See Recordings in the UWE Teams for Teaching guidance.

    ]]>    Yes – See Microsoft’s guidance for how to include audio through the Desktop app and browser version of Teams.

    ]]>
    Yes – Find out how to do this by reading Manage meeting attendance reports in Microsoft Teams. 

    Please note that there are certain limitations for co-organisers.  For example, they cannot download attendance reports from the meeting invite after the meeting has ended, but full details can be found in the article above. 
     

    ]]>    Yes – You will need to upload the Teams recording to Panopto and edit it in Panopto. 

    PLEASE NOTE: If a Teams meeting has been set up through a Teams channel, the original recording will become available in the channel chat after the recording stops. Therefore, students and colleagues in that channel will be able to see the full recording soon after the recording ends. Even if you upload a copy of the full recording to Panopto and edit it and upload the edited version to Blackboard as a resource, the full recording will remain in the Teams channel chat (unless the owner of the recording deletes it from the Teams ‘Recordings’ folder within ‘Files’).

    ]]>    If the recording was made in a Teams channel meeting, the recording will become available to all in that channel after the recording ends.  This will be the full (unedited) version of a recording.

    If the meeting was created through a lecturer’s personal calendar, the recording automatically becomes available in the chat to anyone invited to the meeting. If the lecturer needed to make this recording available in Blackboard, they would also need to upload the recording to Panopto.

    Find out more about Teams recordings.

    PLEASE NOTE: If you select auto-record in the Teams meeting settings, the recording will save in the OneDrive folder of the person who first enters the meeting, which could potentially be a student. As the meeting organiser, you can still download the recording from the meeting chat but so can the person who started the recording by entering the meeting first.  This is why we advise against using auto-record, as it affects the ownership and control of meeting recordings.  

     

    ]]>    Yes – If you are sure you will no longer be needing it, click on the 3 dots next to the name of the Class Team that you wish to delete and select Delete team.   

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