Check Microsoft Teams for team work.

NB! To log in to Teams, enter username@ut.ee, not firstname.surname@ut,ee.

• An important trick in an MS Teams chat is to reply to a conversation in the same thread instead of starting a new conversation: 
  • Use the Reply field in the conversation.
  • Do not reply by writing to the field Start a new conversation.

• If you belong to many teams, it may be rather difficult to keep an eye on all discussions in all groups. 
• If you want to get the attention of a group, channel or person, use the @mention. 
• Then the mentioned person will receive an active notification - a red alert in the Activity and/or Teams and/or Chat menu.
• A person who does not actively use MS Teams (for instance, an external guest) also receives the notification by e-mail.
• If you have switched on the notifications of a channel, you will also be notified if you are not @mentioned. 
  • By default, notifications of new messages in groups are switched off in MS Teams. 
  • See Creating a team workspace in MS Teams (turn on notifications on new group messages in MS Teams).

Check How to start a meeting or seminar in MS Teams? 

Check Microsoft Teams - Add a video background.

• With the large gallery view, you can watch up to 49 video streams at a time.
• "New Meeting Experience" must be enabled before using large gallery view.
• At least 10 participants must share their video for the large gallery view to be available.
• During a meeting, select "..." >  select "Large Gallery". If it is not grayed out, it means that there are at least 10 active video streams.

• MS Teams allows pinning important channels. 
• Select Pin under “...” next to a channel name.

• MS Teams allows creating channels with private access.
• When you create a new channel, you can choose to give access to the entire team or only some members. 
  • By default, access is granted to the entire team. 
• Creating a private channel.
  • Click on "...” next to the team name and then Add channel.
  • Insert the channel name.
  • Select Private - accessible only to specific group of people within the team from privacy settings. 
  • Click Next. 
  • Add members and click Done. 

• We advise choosing the type Other.
• If you choose another team type (Class, Staff, etc.), the menu bar of the team will include pre-configured modules you won't probably need (e.g. Staff notebook).

Check Screen sharing in Teams.

Check  Creating a team workspace in MS Teams.

• MS Teams allows adding modules to be used within a team. 
• MS Forms and Polly are suitable for voting and polls. 
• Check Organizing a vote in Teams (old). 

• Ask for advice from the e-learning specialists of the university. 
  • See Recommendations for teaching staff to replace classroom teaching with e-learning.
• See Quick Start Guide - Microsoft Teams for Education. 

See Archiving a team in MS Teams.

• It is wise to archive the workspace when the team workspace is no longer needed. 
  • See Archiving a team in MS Teams.
• If a team workspace is deleted, all the content, conversations, etc. created in the team will be lost. 
• A deleted group can be restored by an administrator within 30 days after deletion. 
  • Contact the IT helpdesk to restore a deleted group.

• MS Teams offers simple tools for producing and broadcasting video of a public seminar using its Teams Live Event function.
  • An event can have up to 10,000 viewers.
  • Viewers can watch the video and ask questions. 
• See Videoconference for large audiences - Teams Live Event. 

• An MS Teams chat is not the best option for sending work assignments and requests to others. 
  • Since the main focus of MS Teams is conversations, it is not easy for people to take on assignments from there.
• The MS Teams menu Assignments is meant for teaching activities and is not suitable for managing a team’s work assignments in general.
• A more convenient tool for joint management of work assignments is the Planner that can be added to an MS Teams workgroup as a module.
  • See  reating a team workspace in MS Teams (“Create a work assignment management space for your team using Planner”). 
  • See FAQ - tips and tricks of Planner.

• An external member can be added to an MS Teams team as a guest, using the person’s e-mail address. 
• If the person has not used MS Teams before, he/she must first create a free account of MS Teams and can then join the corresponding workgroup. 

• Click “...” next to the team name.  
• Select Get link to the team.  
• Select Copy.  
• You can share the copied link through other channels.  
• The team owner needs to accept the requests sent through the link.  
  • Manage Team → Pending Requests → Accept.  
• Tip: if you want people with the link to join the team right away, without the acceptance, you can create a team code: 
  • Manage Team → Settings → Team code → Generate.  
  • You can share this code together with the invite link via other channels. 

Generating a Team code:

• MS Teams allows configuring the rights of the team members to create and delete elements of the workgroup. 
• The following elements can be managed:
  • Allow members to create and update channels. 
  • Allow members to delete and restore channels. 
  • Allow members to add and remove apps. 
  • Allow members to upload custom apps (by third parties). 
  • Allow members to create, update and remove tabs. 
  • Allow members to create, update and remove connectors. 
  • Give members the option to delete their messages.
  • Give members the option to edit their messages.
  • Allow guests (members outside the university) to create and update channels.
  • Allow guests to delete channels.

• It is possible to discuss a document in MS Teams - share additional comments, assign tasks, etc. 
  • Select the function Conversation.
• The conversation is visible also in the main chat view. 
• Please note! This function only works with documents added to MS Teams. 
  • External resources (e.g. a Sharepoint folder) do not support the Conversation function. 

• Each MS O365 online application has a button of nine dots in the top left corner. Clicking on it opens a menu of different MS O365 applications.

• By default, notifications are disabled in Teams groups. Generally, it is reasonable to turn them on.  
• It is important to use the @ mark before a member’s or team’s name in messages to call their attention: @name, @channel, @team. This way the person or the group will get a notification. 

1. Click your profile picture in the Teams window. 
2. Select Settings. 
3. In the General menu you can choose between three themes: Default, Dark or High Contrast. 

• Problem: Screen sharing does not work after MacOS Catalina update. 
• Solution: Select System Preferences -> Security & Privacy, under Privacy find “Screen Recording” and allow Teams.

Also check the Microsoft forums.

Set the account status to Do Not Disturb.