Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a online collaboration platform made available though JHU's Office 365 license. It allows users to chat, hold discussions, share links, images, and documents for collaborative editing. In some ways it is similar to Slack but has built-in capability to edit files live with your colleagues through its integration with Office 365 online applications. 

The CER can assist faculty at KSAS and WSE schools with strategies for implementing Teams with their course. For help with techinical issues with Teams, please contact the IT Help Desk, https://it.johnshopkins.edu/it-services/solution-center, and click "Report a problem" for assistance.

For updates on the status of the Teams service, please visit the JHU Office 365 Communication Hub page for Teams.

Accessing Teams

To access Teams, you can either:

• Visit myJH Portal, then, from the "Messaging" section below, choose Teams.
  (NOTE: it will automatically sign you in with your Hopkins account)
• or visit https://teams.microsoft.com
  (NOTE: Please use your ​JhedID@​jh.edu email as your username. NOT jhu.edu.)
  (You will then be directed to the JH Authentication page. A Microsoft account is not required.)

Requesting/Activating a Teams Class Site 

Many KSAS and WSE courses have been "enabled" in Hopkins' Student Information System (SIS) for Teams Class SItes to be created automatically each semester by Registrar’s Office (not by the CER). At the beginning of the semester, it is likely that a Team Class Site is ready to use for your course with the enrollment already populated. To verify this is true, simply log into Microsoft Teams using your Hopkins account and click the "Teams" tab on the left to find your course (see Accessing Teams section above).

To start using your Teams Class site, it is recommended to set up your Channels and think through how you will use Teams in your course, before Activating your Teams Class site. Once you have the site ready, you can click on the Activate button found at the top of your Class site. Students will then be notified about the site with information about how to access it.

If you do not intend on using your Teams Class site, you do not have to do anything. You are not required to use the Teams site. As long as you do not "Activate" your Teams Class Site, your students will not be notified about the site nor will they be able to access it.

NOTE: The Registrar’s Office does not manage the actual MS Team sites. If you have specific questions or need assistance, please contact cerweb@jhu.edu. 

Classes with multiple sections

When a course is enabled for a Teams Class site, each section will have a Teams site created for it. If you want to manage all of your sections from one Teams site, please contact cerweb@jhu.edu before Activating any section Teams. We will discuss with you the implecations of the merging process.

Creating a Team (non-SIS oriented)

Once you enter the Teams site, click on the Teams tab on the left.

Then on the top right of the window, click "Join or create team". You should have the option to choose a "Class" template for your Team

Adding Members

When in your Team, click the "triple dots" to reveal the Team settings menu. Then chose "Add Member".

If you chose the "Class" template, the dialog box will have two tabs, one for adding Students, and one for Teachers. You can use a JHED ID to find the correct person.
(Unfortunately adding multiple users at one time is not supported)

Teams Desktop and Mobile Clients

While Teams can be accessed from a web browser, you also have the option to download the Microsoft Teams application. Microsoft offers a desktop client as well as mobile apps. Downloading the desktop client provides a more robust experience with helpful notifications of activity (so that you don't miss a thing) and has more video conferencing features.

Orienting your Students to Teams

It is a good idea to introduce how you are using Teams in your course to your students. For instance, you can inform them about; how you organized the Teams Class Site into Channels, whether or not you are holding synchronous session using the meeting features, how conversations should be conducted, whether or not they will have assignments in the Teams Class Site, etc.

For students who haven't used Teams yet in class or need a refresher, you can share the following student-oriented guide from Microsoft, which includes short videos.
Student help center: True Teamwork with Microsoft Teams

NOTE: Keep in mind that you may not be using all of the features of Teams and it would helpful to tell students which ones you are using.

Teams "Insight" app

With each Teams site, you have the option to add additional functionality called "Apps". One app that can be particularly useful for instructors is the "Insight" app. This app is created by Microsoft to present activity and usage data to the site owners (not the students). When enabled, it will appear on as a tab in the General channel. Its use can give you insight on student engagement, attendance, and performance on assignments.

For more information on the app and how to enable it, please visit the following Educator Guide: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/educator-s-guide-to-insights-in-microsoft-teams-27b56255-90c0-47aa-bac3-1c9f50157181

New Meeting Experience

Microsoft has been adding new features to the virtual meeting functionality to make virtual class meetings or meetings with colleagues easier. Here are a few of the new features you will gain with the new meeting experience:

• Breakout Rooms controls for when you want your participants to work together, then return to the meeting.
• Large Gallery Mode and Together Mode, allowing for a grid of 7 by 7 participant video streams. NOTE: You need at least 10 participants to enable these modes.
• Live Captions during sessions. NOTE: This is for participants to choose to turn on optionally.

Teams Site Expiration

Once a site is created, it gets automatically set to expire one year from its creation. You may get a notification asking you to renew the site 30 days from its expiration date. You can simply renew for another year if you intend to keep using it. For more infomation on the expiration and what happens if you don't renew, please visit the following IT@JH page about this policy: https://livejohnshopkins.sharepoint.com/sites/Office365Hub/SitePages/Expiration-Policy.aspx