Using Microsoft Teams for Your Course

Content Sections

• Get Started with Teams

• Instructors: Create Your Class’s Team

• Using Channels

• Managing Teams Notifications

• Proper Uses for MS Teams at Drexel

Get Started with Teams

To begin using Microsoft Teams, follow the steps below:

1. Download the Microsoft Teams app using the following link: [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/download-app/](Download Teams)
2. Depending on your device, select Download for Desktop or Download for Mobile
3. From the Sign-in window that appears, enter your Drexel email address and your password. You may also be prompted to sign in with Multi-Factor Authentication.
4. Once you have signed into Microsoft Teams, acclimate yourself with its navigation using Microsoft’s Interactive Teams Demo

Instructors: Create Your Class’s Team

To create a team for your course, review the following steps:

1. Open Microsoft Teams, then navigate to Teams > Join or Create a Team
2. Select Create a Team > Other
3. In the window that appears, select the Team Name field and enter your course code as your class’s team name. Add a description if needed, then ensure that the privacy field is set to “Private.”
4. Click Next to confirm.
5. Enter your students’ Drexel usernames in the window that appears, and click the Add button to confirm
6. Click Close to finalize the enrollment process.

• If you have a large class, contact LeBow Instructional Tech Services (lebowintech@drexel.edu) for possible options on bulk-enrolling students.
• Students will receive an email indicating that they are a member of your course team and inviting them to download Microsoft Teams to their device.

If any students have trouble accessing your course’s Teams page, contact LeBow Instructional Tech Services for troubleshooting support.

Using Channels

By default, each team has one channel called “General.” However, the team owner can create additional channels for various topics. Below are several examples:

• Lecture Chat: a channel dedicated to comments during the class lecture
• Group 1: a place for a student team to collaborate separately. Channels can be open to all students in a class or a subset of students, like a project group.
• Current News: a place for students to post links to relevant new stories related to the course topic
• Course Questions a channel for students to ask questions. One benefit of this over getting questions via email is that anyone in the class can provide the answer.

Managing Teams Notifications

To ensure that you do not miss important course messages, select […] in the top-right corner of the Teams app, then select Settings > Notifications.

1. To receive notifications for all activity in teams, select All Activity (Recommended)
2. To customize the notification settings to your preferences, select Custom, then use the dropdown menus to select your preferred Teams settings.
3. To learn more about Teams notifications, visit the following guide: First Things to Know About Notifications

Proper Uses for MS Teams at Drexel

Drexel recommends the following uses of Teams for an academic class:

Permitted:

• Text chat related to the course
• Sharing of course-related files and documents (keep in mind that the syllabus should always be posted to Blackboard)
• Collaboration for student project teams
• Video meetings for office hours or meetings of students and the instructor
• Simple surveys or forms that do not count toward the final grade

Not Permitted:

• Graded assignments: all graded course elements should take place in the Blackboard LMS to provide a persistent record of student performance
• Graded discussions: discussions should take place in Blackboard or in other tools preapproved or provided by Drexel

For more information about Microsoft Teams, please contact the LeBow Instructional Tech Services team (lebowintech@drexel.edu).