Microsoft Teams User Guide

Self Service Team Requests

To request a new MS Team, go to the Microsoft Team Request Form and submit the required information.

Please note:

• The person submitting the request will become the owner of the new Team (this can be changed after the Team has been created).
• You will need to manage additional Team owners/members yourself using the Team desktop app or web interface. See Microsoft's Go-to Guide for Team Owners for more info.

Requesting a New Team via the IT Service Desk

Contact the IT Service Desk to request a new Team if:

• you are doing so on-behalf of another staff member.
• if you would like to have additional Owners/Members added at the time of the Team’s creation.

You will need to provide the Service Desk with the following information:

• Name of your Faculty, Department, etc. 
• Name of the Faculty/Department leader
• Individuals who will require access to the Team channel (Sheridan email address or username required)
• Name of an individual will act as a local Microsoft Teams 'champion’ or point-of-contact
• Preferred Team name
  • 256 characters maximum
  • Should describe ownership and purpose of Team (e.g. A Teams page for the Admissions team in the Office of the Registrar could be: OTR-Admissions-Team)

You can reach the IT Service Desk at servicedesk@sheridancollege.ca or call 905-845-9430 ext. 2150.

Go to Sheridan's AppsAnywhere page to download and install the MS Teams desktop app.

1. Launch the Teams app and enter your Sheridan email address and click Sign In.
   
2. You will be redirect to Sheridan's signle-sign-on page. Enter your Sheridan username and password and Login.
   
3. You're ready to start using Teams.

Channel Meeting Calendar

Guest access allows teams in Sheridan to collaborate with people outside of the organization by granting them access to existing teams and channels in Teams. Anyone with a business or consumer email account, such as Outlook or Gmail, can participate as a guest in Teams with full access to team chats, meetings, and files.
See Teams Channel Calendar App Makes Channel Meetings Easier to Access for more info.

Add a SharePoint Page, List, or Document Library to a Teams Channel

Team members can now use the SharePoint tab experience to pin any page, news, list or document library as a separate tab in their Teams channel.

1. Select the "+" button from any channel in Teams
2. Select SharePoint and start pinning resources 

Live Captions in 1:1 or Group Teams Calls

Live Captions display the text version of the audio in the call. This can be enabled via the control bar within the Call window. 

Meeting Chat Moderation

Meeting organizers can now turn off the chat functionality during a meeting, which is turned on by default.

Breakout rooms allow meeting organizers to divide and move meeting participants into smaller private meetings to facilitate activities such as discussions and brainstorming sessions.  

Getting Started with Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams

No additional installations are required to start using the Breakout Rooms in Teams. Please note the following:

• You must have the new meeting experience enabled in your Teams Desktop Client.
• Only the creator or ‘Organizer’ role of a Microsoft Teams meeting will be able to see and create Breakout Rooms for their meeting. 
• The creation of Breakout Rooms during a meeting can only be initiated from the Windows or macOS version of the Microsoft Teams desktop software. You cannot create Breakout Rooms from the Teams Web App or Teams Mobile App at this time. 
• If you setup a Teams meeting invitation on-behalf of someone else because you have delegate rights to their Outlook calendar, you will not be considered as the meeting Organizer and, consequently, will not have the ability to create or control the Breakout Rooms during that meeting.  

Breakout Room FAQs

Who can use Breakout Rooms in Teams? 

All staff, faculty, and students* who have been assigned a Microsoft Teams license.

*Only approved students in FAST and FAAD that are participating in the M365 Virtual Classroom Pilot Project have been assigned a Microsoft Teams license at Sheridan. 

Why would I want to use Breakout Rooms in Teams? 

• Setting up breakout rooms during your Teams meetings allows for smaller group discussions, collaboration, and activities as part of a larger meeting.
• Studies show that attendees of large meetings feel more comfortable engaging in discussions with a smaller group of people in a breakout room than in a large group of people. 
• The small group aspect also allows learners to have some wait time before speaking; they are able to process and gather thoughts without feeling rushed or pressured. 

How many Breakout Rooms can I create during my Meeting? 

You can create up to 50 breakout rooms.  

Can I allow my meeting attendees to choose which Breakout Room they want to join? 

No. Unfortunately at this time that option is not available to the meeting participants. The meeting organizer can only automatically assign or manually assign which rooms participants will go into.  

Can I reassign a user from one Breakout Room into another one? 

Yes, as the meeting organizer you can view all participants in all rooms and then reassign any individuals into other rooms.  

If a meeting participant joins the meeting late, can I still assign them to a Breakout Room? 

Yes, the meeting organizer has the option to manually assign any meeting participants to a breakout room.  

Why don't I see the Breakout Room icon in my Teams meeting? 

• You may not be the meeting organizer for that Teams Meeting 
• You are the meeting organizer but you are using the Teams Web app and not the Teams Desktop app 
• You are the meeting organizer but may need to try signing out of your Microsoft Teams desktop app and then sign back in 
• You are the meeting organizer but may need to quit and restart your Microsoft Teams app 

Additional Resources

• Breakout rooms generally available today in Microsoft Teams (MS Tech Communities Blog Post)
• How to use NEW Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams (YouTube video)

Use the Tasks app in Teams 

The Tasks app in Microsoft Teams brings together your individual tasks from To Do and Outlook with your team tasks from Planner so you can more efficiently cross them off your lists.

Pinned Posts 

Keep important information easily accessible and top of mind. Users can pin any message in a channel to the channel information pane for all members of the channel to see. 

New File Sharing Experience in Teams 

A new feature added to Microsoft 365 brings a consistent file sharing experience across services like OneDrive, SharePoint, Outlook, and now Teams.

• Rich, new file and sharing experiences throughout Microsoft 365, now in Microsoft Teams

AI Based Noise Suppression 

When your mic is turned on in a Teams meeting or call, background noise around you can distract others. Teams now offers three levels of noise suppression to help keep meeting participants focused. 

• Reduce background noise in Teams meetings (MS Office Support)  

Hard Mute in Teams Meetings 

This feature gives meeting organizers the ability to mute one to many meeting participants while removing the muted participants' ability to unmute themselves. 

Spotlight an Individual in a Teams Meeting 

Meeting presenters now have the ability to lock on to an individual video feed for all attendees to see during a Teams meeting. Once selected, the individual identified as the spotlight will be the main video shown to all participants.

Use the Tasks app in Teams

The Tasks app in MS Teams brings together your individual tasks from To Do and Outlook with your team tasks from Planner so you can more efficiently cross them off your lists. More details are available from Microsoft’s Teams support pages via the links below:

• Use the Tasks app in Teams (resource page)
• Use the Tasks app in Teams (video)

‘Suggested Replies’ now on Android Teams Mobile app

Suggested Replies functionality offers an option of three different responses for a user to choose from for select messages. Users can quickly reply to a given message by tapping on one of the suggested replies.

Meeting experience improved for Safari users

Improvements have been made to the browser-based meetings experience for those who join meetings with the Safari browser. Users can now use their device to speak and listen and will no longer be required to dial into the meeting for audio. As was the case previously, participants can still view meeting content being shared in the browser.

"Only Me" can bypass lobby - Teams Meeting Option (introduced July 2020)

Once enabled, only the organizer will be able to join the meeting directly. Everyone else, including people from within the same organization, will be sent to the lobby. Learn more

New Teams Meeting Experience (introduced July 2020)

Multi-window experiences have come to Teams meetings and calling. Users now have the ability to pop out meetings and calls into separate windows to help them optimize their workflow. Learn more

Visio as a tab in Microsoft Teams (introduced July 2020)

To make collaborating on Visio diagrams within Teams an even better experience, Visio as a tab helps you easily access and manage the Visio files you need or interact with the most, allowing team members to access services and content in a dedicated space within a channel or a chat. Learn more

Meeting Attendee Limit Increased from 250 to 300 (introduced June 2020)

To help customers meet rapidly changing communication and meeting needs, Microsoft has increased the maximum number of participants allowed in a Teams meeting from 250 to 300. Learn more

Contextual Search (introduced June 2020)

Find information faster with contextual search in Microsoft Teams. Users now have the ability to search for content in a specific channel or chat by pressing CTRL + F. Search results will only contain messages and files found in the selected chat or channel.

Update Your Office 365 Profile Image in Microsoft Teams (introduced June 2020)

You Teams profile picture appears at top-right corner of the Teams app is also shared throughout all Office 365 services like Outlook, OneDrive, and SharePoint Online. Users now have the ability to upload a profile picture directly from Teams, among the other methods noted previously. Learn more about adding a profile image

Raise Your Hand in a Meeting (introduced May 18, 2020)

This new feature allows muted meeting attendees to indicate that they wish to speak by toggling the hand icon in the meeting control bar. When a meeting participant has raised their hand, an icon will appear next to their name in the roster view as well as their profile picture or video on the main meeting stage.

View up to 9 Video Participants at the Same Time (introduced May 15, 2020)

This new experience is optimized for attendees who have enabled video; audio-only participants are listed below the meeting stage. The new layout logic considers user bandwidth to provide the highest quality audio/video experience for your meetings.

Guest Access (introduced April 27, 2020)

Guest access allows teams in Sheridan to collaborate with people outside of the organization by granting them access to existing teams and channels in Teams. Anyone with a business or consumer email account, such as Outlook, Gmail, or others, can participate as a guest in Teams with full access to team chats, meetings, and files. Learn more

Managing Teams Meeting Participant Roles

By default at Sheridan, each person that is invited to a Teams Meeting is given the presenter role unless otherwise changed during or prior to the meeting. It is important to learn about the permissions that each role has during a meeting so that you don't have any unexpected surprises. See Roles in a Teams Meeting to learn more. 

Tips on Presenting PowerPoint in Teams

By now most people have had a Teams Meeting where they needed to share a PowerPoint but sharing the desktop screen just doesn't cut it. Watch the following videos to learn some additional methods on how to share PowerPoint presentations in Teams.

How to use Presenter View in Microsoft Teams

How to properly present PowerPoint Slides in Microsoft Teams

How to control file permissions in a Microsoft Teams chat 

Our default permissions for file sharing in a Teams chat is set to "People in your organization with the link", allowing anyone with that sharing link in Sheridan to view and download that document. However, you have other options you can employ that include giving access to anyone, people with existing access, or specific people.

Turn on the New Meeting and Call Experience in Teams

Turn on the new meeting features in your Teams desktop app for an improved user experience. Enjoy focused pop-out windows for calls and meetings, new meeting controls, and other cool features. Learn more

Everyday Etiquette and Best Practices in Microsoft Teams

This definitive guide covers some everyday etiquette and best practices for using MS Teams to help keep things clean, organized, and productive (yet still fun and enjoyable). Learn more

Teams Group Chat vs Team Collaboration

With common features such as file sharing, chat, and planning connectors, many users wonder when they should use Teams Group Chat versus Team Collaboration. This AvePoint blog article will go over both and offers reasons when each should be used. Learn more

Here's some handy tips for using Teams. The links below will direct you to resources from Microsoft.

Send an email to a Channel in Teams

If you want to send an email to a channel in Teams, use the channel email address. Once an email is part of a channel, anyone can reply to it to start a conversation. Learn more

Six things to know about notifications

This is the who, what, where, and shh! of notification settings in Microsoft Teams. Visit Manage notifications in Teams for more details about how to adjust your notification settings. Learn more

Add Emoji's to your Channel Names

Microsoft has implemented a way to further individualize your channel names in Microsoft Teams by adding images in the form of emoji icons to the name. Learn more

Use Read Receipts in Private Chats

Do you often wonder if your teammates saw your message in Teams? Read receipts in private chats allow senders to know when a message was read by the recipients. Learn more

Manage your Teams Meeting Options*

A meeting organizer may want to change the default participant settings for a specific meeting. Organizers can make these changes on the Meeting Options web page. Learn more

* Note: changing meetings options is browser-based and not currently available for Safari. You can use Google Chrome, Firefox, or MS Edge.

How to work in Teams Channels

Stay connected with channels in Microsoft Teams. Channels in Teams are where team conversations and collaboration happen, and this tutorial will give you some tips on how to use them.

Sync SharePoint and Teams files with your OneDrive application

You can sync your SharePoint or Teams files to a folder on your computer where you can work directly in File Explorer and access the files even when you're offline. Whenever you're online, any changes that you or others make will sync automatically. Learn more

Cross-Post a conversation to multiple channels

Do you have information or an announcement that needs to be shared across multiple teams and channels? Learn how to post messages to multiple channels at once. Learn more

Pop out a chat conversation to a separate window

You can instantly pop out your one-on-one or group chat into a separate window. and then, resize, reposition, or close the window as you wish. It’s a great way to get a lot done when you’re in a meeting or in a call.  FYI: You can pop out multiple conversations, but not the same chat twice. Learn more

Visit the links below for more details about using Teams.

• MS Teams Quick Start Guide
• End user training for MS Teams
• Join a Meeting in Teams
• Accessibility Support for Teams
• Gettng Started with Guest Access for Teams
• Getting Started Guide for Teams Guests

Microsoft is offering a few different instructor-led online courses that you can register to attend. Demand is high, so be sure to book your training session early.

• Upcoming Microsoft Teams Instructor Lead Training Sessions
• Teams Training On-Demand

Several video tutorials regarding MS Teams are available from LinkedIn Learning. Follow the instructions below to access the courses:

1. Go to https://linkedin.sheridancollege.ca/
2. You will be directed to Sheridan's single sign-on page. Enter your Sheridan credentials. You will return to LinkedIn Learning.
3. Use the search field at the top of the page to find learning resources (e.g. Microsoft Teams)