Introduction
All
universities use Microsoft Office-package, and most have already shifted to use
MS Teams instead of Skype. Teams can be downloaded with the same license but is
not automatically downloaded as Skype was. Currently there is a movement
towards studies that are independent when it comes to time and place and the
learning happens online. Teams as an online community can be widely used for
studies and collaboration between students, regardless whether the students are
studying in the same university or not. Many of the universities have moved to
using Teams instead of Skype, but there is no general guidance in how to use
Teams.
This
implementation manual / guide can also be used with organizations that are just
shifting to Microsoft Office 365 services.
Participants:
Target group
Students
studying online or on campus and as a part of a student group. The student
group can consist of students from different universities or from the same
university.
Aims of the plan
Universities
have already started using Teams instead of Skype, but the guidance of how to
use Teams is lacking. If there is guidance it mainly explains very basic
functions that are needed to set up a meeting and how to record it. We have
found Teams to be the most effective way of collaborating and working on group
assignments, and we have noticed that many have not found these ways of working.
We aim to help student groups from various backgrounds in using Teams to make
their group work more efficient. Being able to study online, is not only vital
to learn for student who take courses online, but also for students studying on
campus. Times are changing and in the future of work, lot of communication is
happening online and to learn how to use some of these online platforms is a
great skill for the future. Also, when Covid-19 outbreak forced the schools to close
and all the teaching moved online, the importance of being able to use these kinds
of platforms became evident.
Guide to implementing and using MS Teams in study groups
Teams is
not just an application for instant messaging, virtual calls and virtual
meetings. Teams is an application for fully working and collaborating online as
is visible on the left-hand side navigation pane. You are able to jump to places by clicking on the wanted
icon on the navigation pane. The place where you currently are is highlighted
as in the picture the Chat area is.
Chat
Skype for
Business was known for the instant messaging chats and video conferencing. Almost
all the same features are possible in Teams. You can have chats with one
recipient or have group chats, and the best part is that Teams saves the
messages in Teams and you do not have to go searching for them in your Outlook
folders anymore.
From the chat
window, you can see all the files that have been shared and you are able to
start a call, video call and screensharing. Teams chat also supports GIFs.
Teams
When collaborating with different groups it is
necessary to start using Teams-feature in Teams. You can either join an
existing one or create a new team for just your group, by clicking the Join or
create a team on lower left-hand corner.
Once you have your teams set up, you are able to see
them under Your teams. And you are able to navigate through different teams and
channels. From the picture example, Milla-Sanna PINBOS18 is a team and General
below it, is a channel. You are able to create different channels under a team,
for example if there are pair works inside your group and you want to have your
private environment.
In the channel there is always a place to chat, called
Posts and Files tab, where all the shared or created fiels are. From the +-sign
you are able to modify your tabs and add for example mostly used files or
planner or other tools that Teams provides.
Under Files you
are able to build folder structures, this is only possible in teams, and not in
chats. 
All the files from
Teams are stored in to Sharepoint site, that Microsoft Office automatically
creates for every Teams team.
Whether or not you
are able to share your team to people outside your organization depends on the
setting that your IT-department has made. Unfortunately many organizations have
decided not to let outsiders in your teams. Workaround: instead of using teams,
use group chats with outsiders.
Assignments
Can only be used if a teacher prepares
these. Not used in Teams that is purchased for business use.
Calendar
This calendar synchronizes automatically
with your Outlook calendar. So, what you do here ends up in your Outlook calendar
and what you do in Outlook ends up here. Note that depending on your Teams
language settings the calendar might be set for work week, you can change that
from this button here:
The beginning of the week depends on your
language settings and can be changed from settings.
To make a meeting, click on the + New
meeting-button on the upper right corner
Add information and attendees. You can also
use scheduling assistant in Teams.
To open a scheduled meeting, click on the
meeting and click Join-button on the upper right corner. If the meeting is
added by you, you can also edit the meeting, add, or delete attendees or add or
delete other information or move the meeting.
Calls
From this tab you can make calls, but not
see the chat. You can add people in speed dial and get quickly in touch with
them. It could be easier to use the calling function from the chat but try this
one also!
Files
From files
you can see all the documents that either are stored in your OneDrive or have
been shared with you in Teams.
From this
tab you can find and add other apps to your Teams navigation bar. There is a
large variety of different apps in Teams, some from Microsoft and some from
external creator, go and check if there are some things you would want to use!
Settings
Settings
are found by clicking your picture or your initials from the upper right corner.
From this
quick navigation click on settings to go to the settings menu.
From the general
tab, you can set for example the background color, and the previously mentioned
language settings.
From the Devices
tab it is possible to check what audio device you have connected and even to make
a test call if you are in doubt whether your device works.
Implementation
Implementation
of Teams depends on whether the organization is using Office 365 services or is
changing from other services towards to Office 365 environment. Implementation of
Teams in all cases is a change and requires skills in change management in different
working environments.
Why
Teams
There are mainly two other options for this
kind of use: Slack or Skype.
Microsoft has decided to move all Skypes services
to Teams and they have stopped supporting Skype for Business and this removes
Skype as an option.
Slack had the advantage of being free until
fall of 2018 when Microsoft announced their free platform for Teams. Slack is easier
to set up and maintain compared to teams, but Slack has no integrations to other
Office 365 services as Teams does. Other details are mainly a matter of opinion
between Teams and Slack. Slack also is an online platform for collaboration,
but the lack for free integrations to Office 365 affected us to choose Teams over
Slack.
The complexity of the set up in Teams is rather
a small issue since it has to be done once there are some features that need to
be updated, but those are also already a part of Office 365 maintenance. As the
target organizations already use or plan to use Office 365 services, the integrations
between Teams and Office 365 services makes Teams the one to be chosen.
Privacy
and security
There are
minimal to no security risks involved with using Teams. Everyone using Teams needs
to be logged in and only the members of the group or team can access the files in
your Teams. The only security risk would be other users in your team, so some basic
rules need to be implemented when you start a team with members that you do not
know. It is better to keep files that you do not want anyone else to access in
you personal Teams and not share the file in the team where the others can
access it. So, keep your own private files in your own folder and only have
files shared in the team that involves all the team members, for example group
assignments. Due to its high security level, we recommend the Teams online community
for doing your schoolwork with your team, instead of sharing it on any social media
platform.
Updating
and maintenance
As mentioned above there is not much need
for maintenance on Teams on organizational level and all the maintenance is
already required by Office 365 services, so no extra work from this. Implementation
of Teams can be free but not all features can be utilized. When organization
buys the license for Office 365-package they already own the rights to use Teams
also. Again, if the organization uses Office 365 there will be no costs, if the
organizations migrates from other services, then there will be cost of all
Office 365 services.
