Introduction

Microsoft Teams is Microsoft’s flagship collaboration product. It brings together features from Skype for group calls, as well as the whole fleet of Office products. In the education sector, Microsoft is constantly updating Teams to bring it closer to being a fully-fledged LMS, such as SEQTA.

A Microsoft Teams “Team” is also an Office365 group. This means that each Team has 1 terabyte of Cloud storage under a SharePoint site, a dedicated OneNote Class Notebook, and a place to conduct meetings, such as virtual classes.

A OneNote Class Notebook is a way to manage the distribution of content – videos, images, and text-based content. It allows you to organize your students’ content into common categories such as Homework, Assignments, Quizzes and so forth (all of which you can specify as the teacher).

What can I do with my Team?

• Host and schedule group calls with your students (using webcam, microphones, and chat rooms)
• Share content via a Class Notebook
• Post announcements to your class
• Upload videos and recorded virtual class lessons

How do I open Microsoft Teams?

You can use Microsoft Teams in two different formats – either the application (in Windows, iPads, iPhones, etc.) or through a web browser of your choice (such as Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, ...) by accessing http://teams.microsoft.com/.

I recommend using the application if you already have it installed, otherwise, use the web browser. Students using home devices should be encouraged to use Teams through the web browser, simply for ease of access.

Regardless of whether you are using the application or through a web browser, you will use the same Office365 credentials.

• Username example: james.smith@goldcoastcc.qld.edu.au
• Password: This will be the same password you use to sign into your laptop/PC with, Outlook, SEQTA, etc.

Application

1. In the start menu, search for “Microsoft Teams” or just “Teams” and click on it.
2. Sign in with your Office365 credentials.

Web Browser

This is the preferred option for students using devices at home as it requires no installation of additional software.

1. In the web browser of your choice (such as Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc.), navigate to https://teams.microsoft.com/.
2. Sign in with your Office365 credentials.

Navigating Microsoft Teams

User interface overview

You will spend most of your time in Microsoft Teams inside a Team. In the image below, we are inside a team called “GCCC Year 6 2020” and we have the “General” channel selected. A Team is built up of one or more channels, and each channel can have multiple tabs and have it’s own discussion space.

1. Activity – Teams notifications will be given here. Notifications can range from new posts in the “Posts” tab of a Team you’re in to chat notifications.
2. Chat – Private message other staff using the “Chat” feature. Note that this is disabled for students.
3. Teams – View all your Teams. This is used to navigate between Teams.
4. Calendar – View all your meetings, classes and other calendar items in one place.
5. Posts tab – This is the primary discussion space of a channel. You can create posts and announcements, reply to posts, share videos, upload photos, and more. Think of it as a forum.
6. Files tab – This is how you can access your Team’s 1TB of SharePoint file storage. You could upload files here to share them with other members of your team.
7. Class Notebook tab – This is how you access your Team’s Class Notebook. The first time you open this up, you’ll need to do a bit of groundwork to specify how you want your notebook to work for your students. We will go more in-depth with Class Notebooks soon as these are one of the primary reasons for wanting to use a Team.
8. New chat icon – This is a shortcut that you will find everywhere in Teams that allows you to instantly start chatting with another staff member.