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Microsoft Teams (MS Teams)

Note

This guide is provided for a tool that is not centrally funded or supported by Monash University. While a limited free tier may be available, full functionality typically requires a paid licence. Consult your faculty contacts regarding support, access, or funding before adopting this tool.

Microsoft Teams is a communication and collaboration tool that supports synchronous and asynchronous discussion, file sharing and a wide range of external web apps and tools. You can have a Team for each unit that you teach. Each Team can have multiple Channels, allowing you to create a space for robust collaboration between your students.

Key functionalities of MS Teams

Synchronous and asynchronous communication through private chats, announcement pages and discussion channels.
Posts can include shared content, meeting recordings and discussions
Ability share files and folders with a built in file management
Oversight of student collaboration and engagement within the platform
OneNote Class Notebooks, with a personal workspace for every student, a content library for handouts, and a collaboration space for lessons and creative activities
Interactive apps, lessons, and content embedded onto the OneNote page

Download MS Teams via the My Software(PC) or Self Service(MAC) centre. For non-Monash devices you can download the desktop app via https://products.office.com/en-au/microsoft-teams/download-app

Note

Microsoft Teams is enabled for Teaching and learning via the Moodle integration. Outside of the Moodle integration some functionality becomes restricted, such as creating Teams. It is highly recommended that you set up the Moodle MS Teams block in your Moodle unit so you and your students can access MS Teams directly via the MS Teams block to ensure you have access to full functionality.

Expand the accordions below to learn more

Add the MS Teams block View

The MS Teams block in Moodle lets you create and manage a team in Microsoft Teams. This guide explains how to add the block to your Moodle unit, and use it to create, archive and delete your team.

Switch Edit mode on(Blue) in the top left of the page.
Expand the right side panel with the arrow and click the Add a Block button.
Select Microsoft Teams from the block options.
Your Microsoft Teams block will now be visible with other blocks on the right side of your Moodle unit.

Create a team in Microsoft Teams

Click the Create team button in your Microsoft Teams block
This will create a team in Microsoft Teams for your Moodle unit. It will have the same name as your unit and all students will automatically be added to your team in a member role. All lecturers and tutors in your Moodle unit will be added to the team in an owner role.
While your request to create a team is processing, you will see the following message.
When your team is available, the block will look similar to the image below. You and your students can now use the link with the name of your unit to go to your team in Microsoft Teams.

Archive or delete your team

You may decide that you no longer wish for people to add content to your team in the form of files or posts but you still want to be able to view it. Archiving the team will put it into ‘read-only’ mode.

Click Archive team to archive. Once a team has been archived, you will have the option to Unarchive or Delete your team.
You can click:
- Unarchive team to reactivate your team
- Delete team to delete your team
NOTE: Deleting your team is permanent and deletes it for all members. All content and conversations will be lost if you delete your team and can not be restored.
You will be asked if you are sure you would like to delete your team.
Click Yes and your team will be deleted permanently.
Once your team has been deleted, you will have the option to create a new team with the same name.

Note

From 11.59pm Sunday 31st March 2024, all Microsoft Teams created in Moodle will be automatically archived at 52 weeks from creation. At 56 weeks from creation, this data will be permanently deleted. This change is aligned with Monash data management standards. This archiving applies retrospectively to Teams created within both Moodle 3.9 and 4.1 (excludes Teams created manually outside of Moodle).

Introduction to the Microsoft Teams interface View

Manage teams and channels View

There are two main ways that you can control your Teams experience and what happens in your Teams.

You can change settings relating to your team which cover members (who they are and what they can do), channels (naming and availability) and aspects of general functionality.
You can also change your personal settings which affect the notifications you receive about activity in the team, how the team is displayed to you (only you) and the hardware (e.g. camera and microphone you use)

Team settings

To access overall team settings, click the ellipsis (...) to the right of the name of your team and select Manage team. This gives you access to controls for Members, Channels, Settings, Analytics and Apps.

Similar to Moodle, there are roles in Teams that allow you do control more settings in Teams:
- Lecturers/tutors are owners
- Students are members
Owners are able to do more in the system than members can.
The Members tab shows you a list of all owners and members in this team - which should be the same as in your teaching unit when your team was created via the Moodle Teams block.
You can:
- Choose to change someone’s role from member to owner or vice versa - just remember that if you change yourself from owner to member, you will lose the ability to change yourself back.
- Use the Tags column to (manually) add tags to owners and members. This is effectively the same as putting them in a group for the purpose of communications.
Channels act like topics or sections in Moodle. Each channel includes the same core functionality as any other (discussion and files) and additional content or apps can be added to the tabs at the top. Channels can be found in the teams app in the Apps bar.
Create channels
Channels can be created in two ways.
1. Click the ellipsis icon (...) to the right of the team name to show more options, then click Add channel.
  OR
2. In the Channels tab of the team settings, click the Add channel button.
3. A pop-up window will appear.
4. Enter a name for the channel and a description(optional).
  Note: Channels are listed in alphabetical order below the General channel. You can add an @ symbol to the start of a name to make it appear at the top of the list.
5. Choose if the channel will be standard or private.
  - Standard: Accessible by everyone in the team.
  - Private: Indicated by the padlock icon. Visible and accessible only by people added to that channel. If created by somebody else, you will only be able to see that it exists. You will not be able to join it unless added by its owner.
6. If you choose to create a private channel, you will be prompted to manually add members.
7. Set whether the channel automatically appears in everyone’s list of channels.
Show or Hide channels
You can manage your list of channels by showing/hiding them.
1. Hover over the channel to reveal the ellipsis (...) icon.
2. Click the ellipsis (...) icon to access more actions.
3. Click on Hide or Show, this will depend on if the channel is currently hidden or shown.
If you have hidden channels, this is indicated by a link at the bottom of your channels list telling you how many channels are hidden. Click on the link to reveal the hidden channels.
Teams allows granular control over how students (members of your team) can use the system.
1. Click the ellipsis icon (...) to the right of the team name to show more options, then click Manage Team.
2. Select the Settings tab from the bar at the top of the screen.
3. Under Member permissions, you can control what students are able to do.
  Note: By default, these settings are all turned off.
Personal settings
You can control a number of settings that apply to the Teams app overall. You can access these settings by clicking the icon with your initials in the top right corner of Teams. You can change some basic settings from this panel, such as change your availability status and access any posts in channels that you have saved.
Click the Settings icon to access the advanced settings. These settings include:
- Change the appearance of Teams
- Set the way teams is displayed (if you have multiple teams)
- Turn on/off read receipts(shows others if you have seen their messages)
- Set the type and frequency of notifications
- Determine which devices (camera and microphone) Teams will use by default.
When you start using Teams, take some time to explore these settings to customise the application to your personal preferences. This will not affect the way Teams is displayed for anyone else.

Communicate in MS Teams View

This guide explores various modes of communication integrated into Microsoft Teams. The choice of mode will depend on many factors including class size, desired outcome, and technical confidence. For effective communication, it is important to set guidelines and expectations with students regardless of the platform used.

Let students know where to find updated communication for assessments, class times, classwork, class queries, and live chat with academics. Set community guidelines for the use of the different modes of communication such as the following example:
The community guidelines are the rules that apply to the whole site. The main rules to stick to are:
Be friendly - This forum is a friendly place. Let’s keep it that way by treating everyone with respect.
Keep it clean - This site is for everyone, so please make your posts suitable for people of all ages.
Stay on topic - The conversation flows better if you keep your posts relevant and constructive.
No advertising - Please don’t make posts that are purely for promotional purposes
Nothing illegal - If you’re unsure whether your post might fall foul of the law, please err on the side of caution!
Credit: Dr Jess Co, Lecturer, Department of Management

Communicating in channels

There are several ways of communicating with students in the channels. In this section we will describe how to make and edit posts and to make announcements.

The easiest way to communicate in channels is to make a new post.
1. Select Posts in the top panel and then you will see a “New conversation” button will appear at the bottom of a page. Click this.
2. Write your message in the Conversation field. You can optionally tag someone in the team by typing @their name or even the whole channel using @channel name. They will receive an automatic notification. Once you start typing the name the available options (students and channels) will be provided to you automatically.
3. To publish your post on the posts wall, click on Send.
  Note: For extra formatting options (fonts, bullet points, etc.) click on the A icon.
Announcements can be used to communicate important information that requires all channel member’s attention. It includes additional visual features to attract readers as long as it is used selectively. It is suggested to use a set banner for the type of announcement. For example, if you wish to announce reminders for assessments, choose the same banner so that students instantly recognise it when it pops up on the page.
1. Click on Posts in the top panel and then you will see a Conversation panel will appear at the bottom of a page.
2. Click on A icon. You will have a bigger field and more editing options.
3. Click on New conversation and select Announcement from a dropdown menu.
4. Specify who can reply to the announcement with the drop down menu.
5. If you do not want students to comment, select You and moderators can reply.
6. Select a background. For consistency, it is recommended you use one background for your announcement in relation to a particular topic.
7. Type a headline and your announcement text.
Note: You can post the same announcement in multiple channels. Click on Post in multiple channels and then select channels from the list and click Update. When the announcement is ready to be posted click on Send.

Sharing email with Teams

If you want to share an email with your class, you can use the same Posts wall in the channel.

Educator Tip: Having multiple modes of communication is important in case there are technical issues. However, try to avoid spamming students with too many emails as they will be managing multiple units.

1. Click on the channel you chose to post an email in and select Get email address.
2. Copy the email address and paste this into the recipient address field of the email you would like to forward.
3. Your email is now shared with the students in the channel. They can comment on it by clicking on Reply. (This does not send an email reply)

Group chats and Private chats

Educator Tip: If students are working in groups, show them this feature as they may want to set up a group chat outside of synchronous lessons. Having students set up their group chats will reduce the manual workload of adding members.

1. Click the Chat button on the left and then the new chat button at the top of the panel.
2. Type the name of the person or people you want to contact.
3. Select the down arrow to add a name to your chat group.
4. Select Video call (camera icon) or Audio call (phone icon) to call everyone in this chat directly from the chat. The third button Screen Share (arrow) will allow you to share your screen with everyone in the chat.
5. To pin a chat, select More options and then Pin. The chat appears in the Pinned list. You can pin up to 15 chats. To unpin a chat, select More options > Unpin.

Add files and apps View

Teams lets you access files from within Teams as well as external cloud storage and share these files in Channels. You can also add files as tabs in the channels for students to access more easily. By default, Microsoft Teams, your Downloads and OneDrive are included in the Files app.

It is highly recommended that you add Google Drive.

1. In the Apps bar, click on the Files app.
2. Clicking +Add cloud storage
1. Follow the authorisation prompts. You may need to turn off your pop-up blocker if accessing Teams in your web browser.
2. Once you’ve signed in, you will get automatic access to your personal files or folders located in the cloud storage from this app.
  
  Note: When you open a file from Google Drive in Teams, it will open it in a new web browser or tab.
  
  You can also add specified Google Drive folders to channels using the + Add cloud storage in your channel in the Files tab.
You can share a file, such as a Google Doc or Sheet, as a tab that your Team members can collaboratively work on.
1. Copy the sharing link URL for your Google file. Make sure Link-sharing is on and that people with the link can Edit.
2. In Teams, click on the + button at the top of the channel.
3. Search for Website and then choose Website.
4. Give the tab a name and paste the sharing link URL of your file into the URL section.
5. Click Save. Your file or app will now be a tab in your Channel.
You can add apps in your Teams Channels so that students(Team members) can access them easily.
1. In the Channel that you would like to add an App, click on + icon in the top panel.
2. Search for the app you would like to add and click on it, then click Add. For example, you might want to add a website.
3. Give the tab a meaningful name and paste the URL of the website into the URL section.
4. Click Save. Your app will now be a tab in the Channel.

Additional resources

Here are some relevant resources to help support you with designing learning within Microsoft Teams.

Collaborative learning: Microsoft Teams provides a platform to enable collaborative learning. Additional information about collaborative activities to effectively develop and assess skills, knowledge and attributes is provided on the Collaborative learning page.
Group and peer assessment: Use collaborative activities to effectively develop and assess skills, knowledge and attributes.
Learn HQ: group work and collaboration: A suite of resources for students addressing the essentials of group and team work. They teach students how to set up a successful group, how to make it more effective, and how to manage group dynamics and behaviours.

Education Performance Standards Framework

Your feedback matters

Let us know how we can improve this resource.

The Education Performance Standards identify the expectations of education practice at Monash – See the Education Performance Standards for more details.
Impact on student learning				Impact on educational knowledge		Impact on educational environment
Effective teaching and learning	Responsive program design	Student- centred orientation	Professional learning engagement	Pedagogical content knowledge	Education research performance	Education innovation	Education leadership
✓		✓				✓
You could address these Practice Elements by providing evidence of how you: Implement MS Teams into online teaching to support student collaboration Provide well-structured group assessment optimising the use of MS Teams as a collaborative platform

Learning and Teaching: Teach HQ

Learning and Teaching: Teach HQ

Microsoft Teams (MS Teams)

Note

Note

Expand the accordions below to learn more

Add the MS Teams block View

Create a team in Microsoft Teams

Archive or delete your team

Note

Introduction to the Microsoft Teams interface View

Click the plus signs to learn more about each part of the Teams interface

Manage teams and channels View

Team settings

You can:

Create channels

Show or Hide channels

Personal settings

Communicate in MS Teams View

Communicating in channels

Sharing email with Teams

Group chats and Private chats

Add files and apps View

Additional resources

Your feedback matters