Microsoft Teams Classes Guide for Academics
This guide will go through the process of enabling Teams Classes on your module site and creating an online session.
Enabling Microsoft Teams Classes
Navigate to your module site and in the left-hand panel under “Details and Actions” you should see Microsoft Teams.
The first time you use this you will need to click on “Enable Microsoft Teams”. This is a 1 time process. If it is not visible, try refreshing the page.
You will then be sent to the “setting up page” where you will be prompted to sync with Microsoft Teams by clicking on the dark blue button.
This will create a Class Team for you to hold all of your online meetings with the class.
While this is happening, you will get an alert in your Teams Activity to let you know the Class Team has been created.
Even after you receive this alert, it will take you approximately 30 minutes to fully sync everything across Blackboard and Teams. Do not attempt to create a meeting within this time.
All your Class Teams can be found under the Teams button on the left-hand menu. The Class will need to be activated before any students can access it. To activate the Class Team, open the Class, and you will see a banner message with a button to activate it.
Creating an Online Session
After 30 minutes, your Class Team should be ready to start creating online sessions.
Click on “Open Microsoft Teams” at the bottom of the “Details and Actions” panel.
Select “Open Microsoft Teams meetings” from the dropdown list.
If you don’t see this option, try refreshing the page.
Click on Sign in.
This should automatically log you in using your single sign-on credentials.
Click on New meeting
Complete the details of the meeting, including a title, the start and end date/time, and attendees.
You need to click on “add entire class” or add specific attendees by typing in their email address. You can also invite external speakers in the same way.
THIS STEP IS VERY IMPORTANT
Click on Add channel. In the dropdown list, find the channel for the module that you are holding the meeting.
The Class Team for the current module you are in will be featured at the top of the list.
Your meeting MUST be assigned to a channel for the recording to be saved to the correct module folder in Panopto.
If you have not set up any other channels within this Class Team, select “General”.
Once all the information for the meeting is complete, click on “Send”.
You will then see your meeting appear in the meetings list on your Blackboard page.
This list is defaulted to show all meetings for “today”. You can navigate to past meetings or future meetings in the dropdown menu in the top left.
To adjust meeting settings Click on the three dots (“More options”) and go to Meeting options
The default meeting settings will allow everyone that has been invited to bypass the lobby (providing they login from their university account). This will avoid students disrupting the meeting if they join late.
It will also allow everyone to present.
REMEMBER to check the settings to ensure they are as you prefer, although this can be changed during the meeting.
Joining the Session
You can join the meeting directly from this page by clicking the “Join” button.
You will then be prompted to either open the meeting in your Teams app or via the browser.
After the Session
After the meeting, if you have recorded the session and followed the guide on automating the process of copying your recordings to Panopto, the recording will appear in the module’s Panopto folder within 1-2 hours.
Troubleshooting
Unable to see Microsoft Teams in the Details and Actions menu?
Try doing a browser refresh. If you’re still unable to see it, try clearing your browser’s cookies and cache.
“Not Quite Ready Yet” Pop-Up Message
If you get a pop-up message saying “Not Quite Ready Yet,” we believe this is due to the student preview accounts. You can click “OK,” and the message should disappear.