Remote Tutorials with Microsoft Teams
This guide gives details on how to use Microsoft Teams to set up a remote tutorial, invite participants and, if necessary, share your screen with them to display a file or presentation.
Please note that the Teams web app works best in Chrome, Safari or Edge browsers. It does not currently offer microphone/camera support through Firefox.
Accessing Teams
Log into https://portal.office.com using your email address (e.g. firstname.lastname@bnc.ox.ac.uk) and SSO/email password. When asked what type of account you’re using, select ‘work or school account’. This will then take you to a SSO login page, where you should log in using your SSO (e.g. bras****) username and the same password. After this you will reach the Office 365 portal.
At the top of the portal homepage you will see a list of clickable icons leading to various Office web apps.
Find the Teams icon and click it to open the app:
You can use the Teams web app using the steps above, but there is also a link to download the full Teams desktop client should you wish. The download icon is located in the bottom left-hand corner of the Teams web app UI and looks like this:
Click the link and follow the prompts to install the app on your device.
Where possible, for the best experience, anyone using Teams should do so by downloading the full application as above, or via the Apple/Google Play store on mobile devices.
Scheduling a remote tutorial/meeting
To schedule a remote tutorial, click the calendar icon on the left-hand sidebar:
This will bring up a view of your mailbox calendar including any meetings that are already scheduled.
You can use the controls at the top of the calendar in order to scroll through the weeks or months:
You can either double-click the time slot in which you want to schedule your tutorial, or click the New Meeting button in the top right-hand corner of the screen:
The next screen allows you to enter the details of your meeting. At a minimum, you need to give the session a title and then type the names of any attendees into the add required attendees field. As you type names you will see suggested contacts pop up – click the ones you want to add to the meeting and continue until you have added everyone.
Check the start/end date and time carefully before sending the request. You can also set this to be a recurring tutorial if necessary – simply change the default recurrence option of does not repeat as appropriate.
Ignore Add channel and Add location as these are not necessary in this case.
There is a large text box at the bottom of the screen that allows you to enter any extra information – this will be included in the email that is sent out to the attendees you’ve specified.
When you have entered all the required information, click Send in the top right-hand corner of the screen and a meeting invitation will be sent out to all attendees. The meeting will also be added to your calendar.
Invited participants will receive a calendar invitation for the meeting. Once accepted it will be added to their calendar, and they can open the meeting in their calendar to view a link that will allow them to join the meeting when it begins, via the Teams client if it’s installed on their device or via the browser-based web app (they will need to download the Teams mobile app if using their smartphone to connect to the meeting):
Hands Up icon
Where a tutorial or conference call includes more than two participants, it is good practice for only one person to be speaking at a time. To facilitate this etiquette, there is a Hands Up icon on the popup menu at the bottom of the call screen:
Clicking once informs the other participants that someone wishes to speak by displaying a Hands Up symbol. Touching it a second time cancels the Hands Up. Participants will need to cancel Hands Up manually once they have finished speaking.
Joining your remote meeting
When the time comes to join your meeting, simply log into Teams, find the scheduled tutorial in your calendar and click the Join button.
On the next screen, ensure your microphone and camera are set to the on position and then click Join Now to start the meeting.
If students are signed into the full Teams app either by having the mobile app installed on their device or by downloading the Teams client on their laptop, they will be able to join the meeting simply by clicking on the Join button in their Teams calendar.
In some cases students may not have installed Teams and will be running it using the web app in their browser. Students joining in this way will be held in a “lobby” until you admit them into the meeting.
You will receive a notification as below to let you know there are people waiting to be let in.
Click on View Lobby to see the full list of people waiting to be admitted. Click on the tick icon next to their name to admit them to the meeting:
Teams now supports a 3×3 view of camera feeds in a group call, meaning it’s possible to see 9 participants on your screen at once on larger screens when multiple participants have their cameras turned on (this does not apply to devices with smaller screens such as smartphones and tablets).
If there are more than 9 people in your call and the person you want to see if not appearing on your screen, you can click on their avatar along the bottom of the call window (either a picture of the person or their initials) to show their camera feed. You can also right-click on someone’s camera feed and select pin to keep their feed on the screen for the rest of the meeting.
Ending your call
At the end of the call, click the hang up icon to end the session:
Sharing your screen
It’s possible to share your screen with the participants of a call if you need to show a document or presentation, or walk students through something on your device by sharing your desktop with them.
If sharing a document/presentation you will need to have the file open on your device for Teams to pick it up.
From within the call, click the icon below which is available from the toolbar along the bottom of the meeting window:
Please note: Whiteboard collaboration in the Teams app is not available in point-to-point Teams calls.
It’s only available if you’re in a scheduled meeting or if the meeting has 3 or more participants
You will then see a list of different options for sharing; you can share your desktop, an open window on your device or a PowerPoint presentation you have open. On Windows devices it’s also possible to use the whiteboard function to draw on your screen. Click the relevant option to share it.
IMPORTANT: Please ensure you have closed any confidential documents or emails before sharing your screen.