Teaching with Microsoft Teams

As part of Western’s Office 365 license, staff, faculty, and students have access to Microsoft Teams. Teams is a group collaboration app that supports class activities, collaboration, and communication in an online environment.

To learn more about how to get started with using Teams for teaching, watch the following video.

Additional Considerations

There are some additional considerations to make when deciding whether to use Teams in your course.

Teams does not sync with class rosters

Microsoft Teams is not linked to the Registrar’s roster information. When creating a team, students will need to be added manually. If you have a very large course with little TA support, you may not want to use Teams, as set-up and maintenance could be cumbersome.

Teams should not be used for grading assessments

While Teams has an assignment feature, graded assignments should not be conducted through Teams. All graded assignments requiring digital submission should be collected and marked through OWL.

Teams can be used on desktop or browser

There are technical requirements to run the Teams application on your desktop, but there is also a web application that can be used in your browser. For more information see Accesing Microsoft Teams.

Teams can be used as an alternative to Zoom

If there is ever a problem with Zoom, we recommend considering Teams as an alternative for synchronous online meetings. For more information see the Web Conferencing Tool Comparison.

For technical assitance using Microsoft Teams, contact the WTS Helpdesk.

Teaching with Microsoft Teams Workshop

If you are interested in using Teams in your class and would like more information, The Centre for Teaching and Learning will be hosting an online Teaching with Microsoft Teams Workshop. See the event information below and follow the link to register via Western Connect.

Teaching with Microsoft Teams Workshop

Apr 29, 2021 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM

This workshop will assist faculty to identify when and how Microsoft Teams can be used to teach. It will be particularly useful for instructors who are facilitating teamwork or groupwork projects where students are required to collaborate throughout the semester, chat virtually, and share/develop resources. Interested faculty are asked to review this introductory video on Microsoft Teams before attending the session.

Register here: https://connect.uwo.ca/eventsRedirect.htm?evtId=6600