Get started with Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams Quick Start Guide – Click here.

Create a team

Create your team by logging in at https://portal.office.com using your Westminster email address and password. Teams are designed to incorporate entire departments or classes. Please refer to the section channels and private channels for more details. Click on the Teams icon, and then click on Join or create a team, and then click Create a team.

Select one of four team templates, such as class, Professional Learning Community (PLC), Staff, or Other. For in-depth descriptions of the team’s templates, click here.

Once you’ve selected your team template, you will need to give your team a unique name—for example, Computer Science 404, Spring 2020. Additionally, you can add an optional description to inform others of the purpose of the created team. Finally, you will need to choose whether your team will be public or private (public implies open access and is rarely used). Always select private. Click next. You can begin adding people to your team now, or you can choose to skip and add them later.

Add people to your team

Once you've created the team, invite people to join. Find the team that you created, click More options ˙˙˙ > Add Member. Here you can search for people to add by username or first and last name within the Westminster community. Once you have added people, you can elevate permissions to create additional team owners. Click More options ˙˙˙ > Manage team. Then go to the Members tab. Find the people you want to designate as team owners. Under Role, click Owner.

Create channels and private channels

In each team, you can create up to 200 channels and 30 private channels. Channels can be created by the team owner/s. As a default, members of each team can also create, delete, and update channels. Click here for a guide to member permissions.  Find the team that you created, click More options ˙˙˙ >Add channel. You can also click Manage team and add a channel in the Channels tab.

Give the channel a descriptive name to make it easier for users to understand the purpose of the channel. You can also add an optional description and select whether the channel is standard for all team members to see or private. As a team owner, you can automatically “favorite” channels for the whole team, making the channels more visible for everyone on the team, by checking the box. Click add.

Features and apps

Meet now, or later using Microsoft Teams. Click here for more information.

Microsoft Stream in Teams – This allows you to share recorded videos within your team. Click here for more information.