Microsoft Teams: Using Teams for Office Hours
Using Microsoft Teams for Office hours may seem like a daunting task. Here, we off several options.
Table of Contents
Option 1: Recurring Team Meeting
Perhaps the easiest way to conduct Office Hours, we can create a recurring Team Meeting.
1.1 Setup a Recurring Meeting
We can set up a recurring meeting to occur during certain times and days. Additionally, if we want the “easiest route possible”, we can instead set up the meeting to occur weekly, until the end of the semester. The Teams Meeting Link will be accessible for up to 60 days after the last occurrence. See how to schedule a meeting and/or set up a recurring meeting here:
Schedule a Video Meeting in Teams
Learn how to schedule a Teams Meeting. For recurring meetings, you need to use the Calendar. If it is not already on the left-sidebar, see this tutorial https://canisius.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/hd/pages/871629054 to pin the Calendar and/or Meet to the left-sidebar.
See https://canisius.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/hd/pages/758382617 for information on setting up meetings that happen more than once.
In addition, review the the settings below for a more privacy-focused Teams Web Meeting.
1.1.1 Waiting Room
By default, Microsoft Teams is set to let anyone in the organization (i.e., logged in) to bypass the the Waiting Room after the organizer has started the meeting. However, for office hours this is not ideal for a few reasons, not least of which being privacy issues. Here is how to do that:
| 1 | In Meeting options, go to Meeting Access. | 
|
| 2 | Under the section titled “Who can bypass the lobby”, click on “People in my org and guests”. Select “Only organizers and co-organizers” from the dropdown menu. |
|
| 3 | Click on Apply in the lower-right. |
|
More information on using the Waiting Room can be found here:
1.1.2 Disable Chat
Likewise, if the Chat is enabled, anyone with access to the Video Meeting will be able to view the Chat. Check out https://canisius.atlassian.net/wiki/x/CYDnN to disable the Chat feature.
1.2 Share the Meeting Link
Need to share the link to multiple people/students? Check out https://canisius.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/hd/pages/809173002. This link can then be added to course Syllabi, D2L Course Spaces, or shared via email.
Option 2: Create a Team
This option allows for easier ad-hoc meetings and allow for easier communication with students, but can be a bit more difficult to set up.
2.1 Create a Team in Teams
With a Team, you can communicate with and share documents securely (vs. a Chat, which only allows for publicly sharing documents) with people added to the Team. Creating a Team also creates a SharePoint Site (similar to a Shared Google Drive/Google Sites combination, see SharePoint on the previous page for more information) for that Team, which anyone added to the Team can access. We recommend making the Team private. This way, faculty can share the team with their students as needed.
Turn a Public Team into a Private Team.
2.2 Create Channels
Learn how to create a Channel in a Team. These are useful for breaking down a Team into different groups and/or topics. Files shared in a specific channel won’t be shared to other channels.
https://canisius.atlassian.net/wiki/x/SIDQM
Quickly add someone to a Private Channel in a Team.
We recommend creating at least a few channels:
General: created automatically and by default and all members of the Team have access to this.
Advisees: Optional, manually created. Should be “private”. Invite your advisees to this channel to answer specific questions (i.e., registration information, upcoming courses, etc.).
2.3 Modify Member Settings
In Teams, by default Members (i.e., anyone who is not an owner/did not create the Team) can create channels, add apps, create private channels, and more. We can restrict Members from modifying the Team by following the steps found on https://canisius.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/hd/pages/909541378 wiki page.
2.4 Share the Team
https://canisius.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/hd/pages/808812596
To add multiple members at once, send out a sharing link or Team code via email or post it in an available place.
Quickly add members to a Team in Microsoft Teams.
A full break down of the various roles roles and permissions available in a Team.
Additional tutorials are available on https://canisius.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/hd/pages/612237333/Microsoft+Office+Support+Teams+Tutorials#Managing-a-Team
2.5 Meet with Students
2.5.1 Waiting Room
By default, Microsoft Teams is set to let anyone in the organization (i.e., logged in) to bypass the the Waiting Room after the organizer has started the meeting. However, for office hours this is not ideal for a few reasons, not least of which being privacy issues. Here is how to do that:
| 1 | In Meeting options, go to Meeting Access. |
|
| 2 | Under the section titled “Who can bypass the lobby”, click on “People in my org and guests”. Select “Only organizers and co-organizers” from the dropdown menu. |
|
| 3 | Click on Apply in the lower-right. |
|
More information on using the Waiting Room can be found here:
2.5.2 Disable Chat
Likewise, if the Chat is enabled, anyone with access to the Video Meeting will be able to view the Chat. Check out https://canisius.atlassian.net/wiki/x/CYDnN to disable the Chat feature.
Option 3: Bookings
Bookings in Microsoft’s scheduling application. Bookings reviews your Outlook Calendar and Outlook Calendar Settings to check availability and provide appointment slots. This is automatically updated when an event is added to your Outlook Calendar.
3.1 Set up Personal Bookings
See the introduction to Bookings here:
And review the tutorials for Personal Bookings here:
Make sure to set your working hours in Outlook, since Bookings will review your Calendar for availability:
https://canisius.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/hd/pages/894337026
If using Microsoft Teams to Web conference, we need to make sure we set the Meeting Options appropriately. See below.
3.2 Set up the Waiting Room
By default, Microsoft Teams is set to let anyone in the organization (i.e., logged in) to bypass the the Waiting Room after the organizer has started the meeting. However, for office hours this is not ideal for a few reasons, not least of which being privacy issues. Here is how to do that:
| 1 | In Meeting options, go to Meeting Access. |
|
| 2 | Under the section titled “Who can bypass the lobby”, click on “People in my org and guests”. Select “Only organizers and co-organizers” from the dropdown menu. |
|
| 3 | Click on Apply in the lower-right. |
|
More information on using the Waiting Room can be found here:
3.2.1 Disable Chat
Likewise, if the Chat is enabled, anyone with access to the Video Meeting will be able to view the Chat. Check out https://canisius.atlassian.net/wiki/x/CYDnN to disable the Chat feature.
Option 4: Use EAB Navigate 360
While not part of Microsoft Teams nor even a Microsoft product, EAB Navigate 360 can be used to schedule office hours and meetings with students. Here is how:
For further tutorials on Navigate 360, see:
https://canisius.atlassian.net/wiki/x/H4BHMg
Additional Help
Need additional help or have further questions? Contact Helpdesk at helpdesk@canisius.edu for further assistance.