The CIEL Blog

Transitioning from Zoom to Microsoft Teams

As you may have heard, VIU non-instructional employees will begin using Microsoft Teams for virtual meetings on January 31, 2024. Here at CIEL, we will be providing support which will include information sessions, instructional material, and 1-on-1 meetings to make the transition as seamless as possible. This blog post is intended to be a starting point for any non-instructional employees looking to get started with that transition.

Zoom licenses will continue to be provided for instructional employees until the end of the 2023-2024 academic year to allow a clean transition from Zoom to Teams for synchronous virtual instruction beginning Fall 2024. More information as well as training opportunities for instructors using video conferencing in their teaching will be offered closer to this transition.

If you have not used Teams in the past, you’ll find that the video and audio-conferencing functionality is similar. It is also part of a larger suite of Microsoft applications (Microsoft 365) including Outlook, Office, and OneDrive that Teams can interact with. The more you get used to Teams, you’ll find that there is probably much more that you can do than you may have been expecting. Please note, however, that some functionality changes if you are meeting with external attendees. If you regularly meet with external attendees, please contact us at learnsupport@viu.ca for more information. Check out what Teams can do you for you below:

Creating and Scheduling Meetings

Just like Zoom, you can create meetings in Teams that includes audio, video and screen/content sharing for up to 1000 attendees. Hosts and co-hosts are called organizers and co-organizers in Teams, respectively, and can control which features are available in a meeting. Meeting participants are called attendees and attendees that can share content, other than the organizers, are called presenters (more on that below in the section on sharing content). There are 3 types of meetings:

  • Private – Meetings that an individual organizer schedules with specific people.
  • Channel – Meetings that are visible to everyone in a channel (Channels are discussed further down this page).
  • Instant – An unscheduled meeting with people in a chat. This type of meeting would be like picking up the phone and calling someone.

Private meetings can be created by clicking on the New Meeting button in the calendar and selecting Schedule Meeting. In the Meeting Details page, you can give a meeting a scheduled time, invite required attendees, add a co-organizers, have it repeat, and set up lobby and recording options. For more details on scheduling meetings, check out this resource on scheduling meetings on teams.

Once your meeting has been created, you can share the meeting by copying the meeting link or by adding required or optional attendees in the meeting details. Adding attendees by this method will send them links and other meeting details via email, just like Zoom.

Meetings for Teams can also be scheduled using Outlook by going to the Calendar and clicking the Teams Meeting button. This will open a Meeting Details window where you can set up your meeting. More information on scheduling Teams meeting from Outlook can be found here.

Click here to watch a video on how to join a meeting.

Click here to watch a video on how to manage your meetings.

Sharing Screen and Content

While in a Teams meeting the organizer and co-organizer can share their screen and content. Other attendees can share as well, if this option was enabled in your Meeting Details or by making an attendee a presenter while in a meeting(See how to set a meeting attendee to a presenter here). Please keep in mind that some of the sharing functionality works with attendees who have @viu.ca email addresses only. Tools such as annotations and Microsoft Whiteboard won’t be visible to external attendees.

When you want to share content or your screen inside a meeting, click Share. In the Share Content panel, you can choose to share your entire screen, a specific window, or Microsoft Office files, such as PowerPoint, Word, or Excel. Sharing a PowerPoint this way lets you present as if you running a PowerPoint slideshow, while sharing a Word or Excel document in this way allows for collaboration while in the meeting.

Click here to watch a video on how to share content.

Recording Meetings

You can record a meeting in progress by going to your meeting controls and selecting More actions > Record and Transcribe and then Start Recording. Live transcription starts automatically when you start recording but this can be turned off by going back to Record and Transcribe and selecting Stop Transcription.

Your recordings can be found in your OneDrive folder in the Recording subfolder. You can also access your OneDrive online, where you can download the recording, share it with others within the organization, and edit the expiration date if needed. To download your transcript, go to your Teams Chats where you will find the a chat named after your meeting. There you can download the transcript file with options for different file types.

Click here for more information on recording meetings.

Teams and Channels

Microsoft Teams also provides Channels where teams (departments, or groups within a department) can organize, collaborate, and communicate.  A team is a group within Microsoft Teams that can be composed of members of your department. Team creation at VIU is currently managed by IT. If you want to create a team, contact IT at ithelp@viu.ca for more information.

Once you have your team, you can invite others to join your team and you begin working in your teams private channel. Here you can chat with your team and share content, which works the same way as sharing files on SharePoint. Additional channels can be added by the team owner, who can be designated as such when your team is being created. More than one team member can be designated as a team owner.

Click here for more information on creating and using private channels.

Additional Resources

If you’re looking to dive right into learning more, Microsoft offers a range of training resources including video tutorials and documentation. VIU also provides resources via LinkedIn Learning. If you have not used LinkedIn Learning before, this FAQ can help you get started.

Microsoft Team Help & Learning: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/teams

Microsoft Teams Video Training: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/microsoft-teams-video-training-4f108e54-240b-4351-8084-b1089f0d21d7

LinkedIn Learning Microsoft Teams Tutorials: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/?u=98886729

Info Sessions

Information sessions on Microsoft Teams will be hosted by the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning in the coming weeks. If you have never used Microsoft Teams, or have not used it for hosting meetings, these sessions will be great way to get introduced and to get help with any questions you might have.

If you have any questions as you make the transition to Microsoft Teams, please contact the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning for support and resources. We are open Monday-Friday 9am-4pm barring stat holidays & other university closure dates.

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Raul Campos