Using Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a free collaboration and communication tool offering many features including; chat, video conferencing and screen sharing, file sharing and live collaboration, project management tools, simple forms and more.

Microsoft Teams apps are available for Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android and can also be accessed on the Web at https://teams.microsoft.com

Teams are commonly set up for research teams, project teams, administration and operational teams and are the University's recommended collaboration tools.

Please note Teams is currently limited to members of the University of Oxford with an active SSO meaning that collaborators from other institutions cannot be invited into a Team. We hope this will change in the future, in the meantime please use Skype for Business and OneDrive when working with external collaborators.

Anyone can request a new Team, and team owners can manage ongoing membership and enable and configure features directly without involvement of University IT teams.

To request a new team email ict@bsg.ox.ac.uk with the following details:

• The requested name of the team - names will appear in the format "BSG - Team name"
• The names and email addresses of up to two team owners
• A short description of the team purpose (if relevant)
• Who will be in the team (e.g. Primarily Academic staff, Students, administrative staff)

New Teams are usually provisioned within 48 hours.

Microsoft Teams Features

We have summarised key Microsoft Teams features below, however as this service is rapidly changing we recommend that you visit the Microsoft Teams help centre for an up-to date list of new features as well as step-by-step help guides.

Chat

Using Teams Chat you can contact colleagues within the University (who are also logged into Teams) using ad-hoc instant messaging, audio or video calls, other colleagues can be added to create a Group Chat. You do not need to be a member of a Team or channel to use the Chat features.

Teams and Channels

Teams give groups of collaborators a space to securely store files, arrange online meetings, create project plans, set up team Wikis and more. Each Team is assigned 1TB of persistent cloud storage hosted in Microsoft data centres in the UK and approved for University data.

Tabs are organised along the top of the main Team window. On opening a team users see the Conversations tab, Conversations allow team members to highlight important information, link to files and @mention colleagues.

Channels can be created within a Team by an owner, all teams start with a General channel. Channels are intended as logical workspaces for work streams within a Team, for example a colleagues working on a substantial report, or a space to arrange a conference or workshop. A Channel can be visited by any member of the Team and has its own Conversations, Files, Tabs and Apps.

Files

Microsoft Office files can be created and edited directly in the Teams app and multiple users can collaborate on a document at the same time. Other files can be dragged to the Files pane, uploaded and shared with the team.

Important

• Microsoft Teams provides secure reliable hosting, however important files must be copied to a backed up University file service - for example BSG Live or Sharepoint.

• All team members can access and edit all files on Teams. If you have sensitive data or files that you wish to lock down to a small number of collaborators please consider other options including BSG Live or Microsoft OneDrive.

• If you are not sure where specific data should be stored a ICT Team will be happy to offer guidance.

Apps

Team owners can add new apps to the Team by clicking the + icon in the tabs row.

Options include adding a OneNote team notebook, the Planner app or links to websites or pinned files.

Meetings