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MS Teams is a tool offered as part of the Office 365 suite. Its primary function is to allow collaboration by providing features including open discussion ‘channels’, private chats, file sharing, audio and video calls, and access to a range of integrated collaborative tools. Teams is available to all UTS staff and students and can be accessed by downloading the Teams app or via a web browser.
In some cases, you may need to engage your students when not in the classroom. Microsoft Teams is a useful and accessible tool for sharing subject materials and learning experiences with students who are studying remotely. Teams can be used to communicate with students, manage and create student groups and promote student engagement through easy-to-use communication tools. It can be used to create groups within your cohort and provide these groups with a channel where they can work on group projects, use the collaborative tools of Office 365 to complete tasks and manage their individual and group work.
The very first thing you need to do is consider what you want to use MS Teams for. What is your goal of setting up this interactive online space? Your aim may be one or a combination of the following:
- a place for students to interact directly with their tutors
- a space for students to attend virtual classrooms or lectures via video conferencing
- a place for students to post and discuss weekly topics
- a place for students to post questions
- a platform for students to undertake group work
While Teams might be the first tool that comes to mind, it does involve a fair amount of admin/management to sustain it correctly. Consequently, there may be another option that might be easier to maintain. For the aims listed above:
- a place for students to interact directly with their tutors – a live scheduled Zoom chat organised by tutors or discussion board on Canvas could help meet this aim
- a space for students to attend virtual classrooms or lectures via video conferencing – scheduled Zoom sessions could help meet this aim perhaps with a collaborative document to facilitate activities
- a place for students to post and discuss weekly topics – a discussion board on Canvas could help meet this aim
- a place for students to post questions – a discussion board on Canvas could help meet this aim
- a platform for students to do moderated group work – tracking a collaborative document for each group (as opposed to reviewing individual chat groups)
Could Zoom be a better fit for your purposes than Microsoft Teams? Weigh up your options on our Zoom vs Teams resource.
If you are trying to cover multiple aims here and you are happy with the level of involvement required, Teams is more likely to be a good fit rather than too many of these individual systems. You may also like to check the models provided below to see if they provide a structure that would be beneficial when balanced against the administration load.
Teams is an expansive tool. However, there are some constraints that UTS has placed on the use of the platform. Here are some of the features that have been disabled:
- Teams assignments – this tool is not available for use at UTS. Assignments are provided and graded within Canvas
- Grading – since assignments will not be available through Teams, ‘Grades’ are also not available; once you create a ‘Class’ Teams though, you will see ‘Grades’ pinned to the menu tab in the General channel
- Live Event – is intended for a larger audience and anyone with a link to the live broadcast can view and interact with the event. This feature is not recommended as it has a more complex set-up and presentation process. Since Teams Meetings allows for 250 participants, and these participants can interact with the host and their peers, this function should be suitable for most UTS subjects.