This week, the LX.lab team held a live event to showcase the key features of Microsoft Teams as a collaborative tool for online teaching. This session was designed as a taster for what Teams can offer, demonstrating how UTS staff and students can use the platform to collaborate online and create online classrooms.
In a nutshell: using Microsoft Teams
Teams is offered as part of the Microsoft Office 365 suite, with a focus on remote team collaboration. It is designed for teamwork as well as education. Teams is available to all UTS staff and students and easily accessible via the web interface or Teams app. It can be set up for online classrooms with channels for targeted discussions, or for smaller groups within the class for students to chat together. Team members can share files within channels, communicate through private or group chats, start conversation threads, set up online meetings and make audio and video calls.
Our online session
In our live event we covered the following features:
- The Teams interface
- Creating a ‘Class Team’
- Communicating via ‘Channels’
- Sharing files and using tabs
- Channel meetings
- Chats and calls
Missed the live event? Watch it here!
One of the features in Teams allows you to record meetings. These recordings are automatically saved into Microsoft Stream (another MS tool), but you can also download the video file, edit it and upload to another video sharing platform.
Access the recording of the live event here.
Resources for using Microsoft Teams
Here is a quick guide on Teams to help you familiarise yourself with the tool and its key features, and to help you get your first ‘Class Team’ started.
To get some extra assistance with using MS Teams, contact the LX.lab and a Learning Designer will help you to set up Teams and make sure you are ready to deliver an online class.