For Instructors - Getting Started with Teams

Welcome to Teams!

Teams is a useful option for delivering synchronous (live) lectures or facilitating course discussion and is available to all members of the Brock community. This guide will offer a focus on information that's most helpful to a Brock University instructor.

FAQs and steps

Access Teams

Teams is available to all members of the Brock community via https://teams.microsoft.com/.

Log in with Brock email

Enter your Brock email into the Microsoft login space:

Log in with Brock credentials

Enter your full Brock email and password to complete login. Note that you may not be required to take this step if you've logged into Brock services recently.

(Optionally) install the desktop app

The Teams desktop application for Windows and Apple devices is not required but will provide a more stable experience for instructors as they facilitate courses. Applications for either operating system can be downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/microsoft-teams/download-app.

Create a Teams space for my class

Microsoft Teams sites for courses will automatically remain synchronized with your course's enrollment. Teams sites of this type can be requested by course instructors as listed by the Registrar (or Instructor of Record) using the steps at Create a Team or the button below:

Create a Teams site

Note that sometimes up to one business day is needed for a new Teams space to be constructed.

Though Brock community members are able to create Teams sites for projects and collaboration without course enrollment, these steps are recommended for instructors that wish to teach with Teams.

Schedule a class meeting in a Teams space (and invite the class)

Once you've created a Teams space for your course, it will be possible to quickly invite your students to single or recurring class meetings using features within Teams.

Information about steps to doing so are available within the Invite students to a Teams class meeting page.

What computer hardware do I need to teach with Teams?

The following hardware items are required for teaching with Teams:

• an internet-connected computer (laptop or desktop)
• a microphone. Note that most laptop computers possess built-in microphones that are quite suitable to teaching with Teams.

The following hardware items are recommended for teaching with Teams:

• a camera. Note that most laptop computers possess built-in microphones that are quite suitable to teaching with Teams.
• a headset or headphones. These will prevent sound feedback if more than one individual in the class meeting is speaking and will generally provide more audible sound to the wearer.

When opened, Teams should automatically detect hardware within your computer. If it fails to do so, restarting Teams or unplugging / re-plugging peripherals (if possible) can often solve the trouble.

What information should I give to students?

If you've created a Teams space for your course and scheduled a class meeting, students will be possess an option to join when the class meeting occurs.

The page Join a Teams class meeting will assist your students with steps to joining your scheduled class meeting with Teams.

Start a class meeting in Teams

Favourited or pinned courses will always be shown to you in your top navigation from any Sakai page and will possess a yellow next to their title. Updating your favourited courses once in a while or at the start of new terms can be handy, as it keeps your Sakai experience fresh.

To update your favourited courses, try these steps:

1. Open the menu
2. Find a course that is not yet favourited
3. Click upon the star icon
4. The course will now appear in your top navigation on any page in Sakai

Connect Teams with Sakai

Instructors, other teaching staff, or staff members in the Brock community are welcome to contact the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation for assistance with Sakai.

For speediest responses, we encourage usage of the edtech@brocku.ca contact.

A great deal of help information is also available within this space. To begin from the home page, visit https://docu.brocku.ca/.

What if I only plan to teach with Teams for a short while?

Your new Sakai site will arrive with only the essential enabled and ready to go. If you'd like leverage Sakai's ability to perform additional tasks, try taking the steps at Add tools to my site.

Some ideas about other features and their associated tools are presented in other sections of this Getting Started page.

Where can I find more help?

Though many options are available within Sakai, a common place for sharing content like course syllabi, assignments, readings, and other media with students is the Resources tool.

For steps to uploading a document, visit Upload files to Resources

A popular but optional additional measure can be to add a link to your course syllabus to your Sakai site's toolbar. Once you've uploaded a document, follow steps at Add a link to a syllabus or other document to do so.