Microsoft Teams

A new way to collaborate at the University

Microsoft Teams is available for staff and students at the University. You can use Microsoft Teams via your Office365, and we recommend the Web app for the best user experience

What is Teams?

Teams is a collaboration tool from Microsoft, designed to help people work better together. It is an online shared space for teams where members can post messages, pictures and links with the ability to comment and discuss on the things posted. It rivals products such as Slack and Discord with the added bonus of supporting your favourite Microsoft apps.

It also doubles as a place to store shared documentation and makes it easy to collaborate on Word documents, annotate images and chat with team members. All this is published to a team activity feed to be commented on and keeping colleagues in the loop.

Teams for Students

Some online teaching and information sessions will be delivered via Microsoft Teams. Follow the link in any calendar invite or open Teams through your Office365 login. There is a Teams app available for your smartphone or tablet, or you can login through your Office365 account.

The Teams Meeting tool has now been integrated into Blackboard Ultra Courses, allowing staff to schedule course-related sessions from within a Blackboard Ultra Course. There is guidance on the TEL Support site for staff to help you to use this feature. 

Note: University staff may use different systems to deliver teaching. For specific questions about online course content, please contact your lecturer/tutor.

Why use Teams?

Teams allows you to easily plan, track and organise projects or team work in a shared online space. Sometimes email is not the quickest way to collaborate on work and many staff have asked for a more modern approach to team collaboration. Rather than endless email chains, create a team space which members can drop in and out of, post content to be commented on, all in a persistent activity feed.

Features include:

• Team Chat - instant message individuals or groups
• Integrated Office 365 apps - Office 365 apps are built in for easy access to SharePoint, OneNote, Power BI, Planner and more.
• Teams Meetings - host text, audio or video team meetings within your team space.
• Teams Live Events - broadcast live events to a wider audience.

If you are unsure whether to use Teams Meetings or Teams Live Events here is a comparison of the two platforms.

How do I get a new Team?

Members of University Staff can request new Teams be created via a quick form by logging in to our IT Self Service Portal and going to Place a DTS Request - Service Catalogue - Office 365-Teams.

Help and guidance

IT have built a dedicated channel in Teams for people to get help, ask questions and request features. Discuss and share tips in this channel with other University members using Teams. Search for "Working with Office 365" and ask to join. You will also find guides, videos and other useful resources for helping you get the most out of teams and get up and running quickly.

Be sure to also check out Microsoft's official help page for tips and troubleshooting.