Microsoft Teams is the hub for team collaboration in Office 365 that integrates the people, content, and tools your team can use to be more engaged and effective and is available to UWYO users, including employees and students, through their UWYO Office 365 accounts.
Overview:
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a chat and collaboration platform where all conversations, video and audio meetings, files, notes, and other applications can be accessed by team members in one place. Invite external collaborators, co-author documents and spreadsheets, plug-in project management and other applications, and make Teams your hub for team communication and collaboration. This is a Microsoft service that is continually evolving and developing. A quick welcome video introducing Microsoft Teams can be found here. We recommend training options below as a way to learn about Teams features, capabilities, and limitations.
How do I get Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams can used directly from a web browser or installed onto your computer (Windows or Mac OS) or mobile device.
To use Teams in a browser: Log into the UWYO office365 portal which will bring you to your UWYO mailbox. On the top left corner of your screen is a 3x3 box icon. Click this icon to open office 365 apps, then choose Teams from your app list.
To install Teams on a computer: Once Teams is open in your browser through office 365, click on your profile icon in the top right corner and select "Download the desktop app" from the menu. (Note: Teams can also be automatically installed as part of a package when installing the full office 365 suite.)
For mobile devices, go into the Apple App Store (for iOS devices) or the Google Play or Samsung App Store (for Android), and search for Microsoft Teams.
Where can I get information on how to use Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft provides extensive on-demand training videos on their website here. Also, see the UWIT Training catalog for training options.
What is a team?
Teams are collections of people, content, and tools that center around different projects and jobs within an organization. In Microsoft Teams, team members can have conversations and share files, notes, and more. You can read more about teams in Microsoft's documentation found here.
What is a channel?
Channels are dedicated sections within a team to keep conversations organized by specific topics, projects, disciplines--whatever works for your team! You can read more about teams in Microsoft's documentation found here.
Which browsers are supported?
The Microsoft Teams app works in the following desktop browsers:
- Internet Explorer 11
- Microsoft Edge
- The latest version of Chrome
- The latest version of Firefox (limited functionality in Teams video meetings)
- Safari is not currently supported (see more)
What are the different Team roles?
Owners have full control of the Team and team membership. We recommend that at least two people be designated as owners to ensure team continuity. An owner can see and change team membership by opening a team, selecting more options (...), and clicking on "Manage team" (see figure below).
Members can perform many functions within a team, and owners can adjust what members can and cannot do. Anyone with a UWyo account that is invited to a team will become a member.
Guests are external collaborators who do not have a UWyo account. To be added as a guest, collaborators must have or create a Microsoft-based account (it can be a free account created when joining a team). Guests can perform many, but not all, functions in a team.
Read more about roles.
What’s the difference between team channels and private chats?
Team channels are places where everyone on the team can have open conversations. Private chats are only visible to those people in the chat.
What’s the difference between public and private teams?
You can choose to set the privacy setting for your team as either "public" or "private". In public teams, any user in the organization can join. With private teams, only team owners can add people to the teams.
How do I make sure people in a team or channel see my message?
Starting a new conversation will not alert other teammates. Replies to a conversation will alert anyone participating in the conversation.
The best way to alert others of a message is to @mention them. Type @ before someone's name and they will get a notification.
To get the attention of an entire channel, type @channel before your message and the channel will receive notifications.
To get the attention of the entire team, type @team before your message and all your teammates will receive notifications.
What are the tabs in Microsoft Teams?
Tabs allow a team to customize a specific channel with frequently used files, web pages, applications, forms, and more. Tabs act as shortcuts for team members to work directly with tools and data and have conversations about them in the context of the channel or chat. Add new tabs by opening a channel, clicking the + at the top of the page, and selecting desired content. Every channel can have a customized set of tabs.
Are my files and conversations in Microsoft Teams secure?
Microsoft Teams is built on the Office 365 hyper-scale, enterprise-grade cloud, delivering the advanced security and compliance capabilities. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
Files are stored in SharePoint and are backed by SharePoint encryption. Notes are stored in OneNote and are backed by OneNote encryption. You can read more about security and compliance in Microsoft's documentation found here.
Teams need to carefully determine who should have access and should promptly remove members when they no longer need access.
What's the difference between Microsoft Teams and Team Sites?
Team Sites are internal websites that can be used to collaborate with your colleagues in Office 365. Microsoft Teams is a collaboration tool that provides instant messaging and video conferencing capabilities.
Do I still need Skype for Business?
Both Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business provide instant messaging, videoconferencing, and audio conferencing features. Microsoft has stated that they plan on retiring Skype for Business and fully replacing it with Microsoft Teams in the future. However, Skype for Business will remain available to UWYO users for the time being, and the solution you choose is up to you and your department.