Microsoft Teams live online sessions

What are Teams meetings?

Teams meetings are a video-conferencing platform used for a variety of scenarios:

online seminars and tutorials
group work
a meeting for oral assessment
a meeting for events and societies

See the Microsoft video tour of Teams meetings for a quick orientation before meeting peers or lecturers online.

Not all live online sessions are delivered via Teams meetings (for example, your lecturer may be using Blackboard Collaborate instead of Teams meetings). If you are unsure which platform will be used, please enquire with your lecturer or ask a question via the University RISIS portal.

Getting started with Teams meetings

Important note

Some of the following links point to Microsoft’s own Teams help & learning guides. In some cases, features listed on the official Microsoft support site may not currently be available for university Teams accounts.
Microsoft is frequently improving Teams, so the exact functionality described in our own guides may have changed. If you spot guides which need to be updated, please alert us by logging a ticket through the Service Desk.

Things to do before participating in your first Teams meeting

Check you are using a supported browser and the features available for your chosen platform.
Download the Teams app and familiarise yourself with the Teams meeting interface.
Set up your Teams profile picture, it will be displayed when your webcam is switched off during a Teams meeting.
Check and manage audio settings (you can test your audio settings by making a test call).
Check Teams meeting accessibility features for useful adjustments to improve your Teams meeting experience.

How to access Teams meetings

If your lecturer is using Teams meetings for timetabled sessions (i.e. live interactive sessions online), the meeting link will be displayed in your Blackboard module. See How to join a live online session and ask you lecturer if you cannot locate your meeting links in Blackboard. You may wish to copy Teams meeting links into your University Outlook calendar as a reminder.

When clicking on a Teams meeting joining link, you will be asked how you would like to join (via the Teams app or browser).

Preferred option: download the Teams app to your laptop, desktop, phone, tablet and/or other device. Sign in with your University credentials.

Features may differ between platforms, see this quick platform comparison table for Teams Meetings.

Alternatively: access via your device browser; use your University credentials to sign-in at Office.com.

Features may differ between web browsers, see join a Teams meeting on an unsupported browser for information about particular browser limitations. Full list of supported browsers Microsoft Guide: Teams Web clients.

Access via browser login may be preferable if you are using a shared computer.

How to get the most from a Teams meeting

Control your Teams meeting experience:
Speaking or presenting during a Teams meeting:
If you have been given presenter permissions:
- Share content
- Show your screen during a meeting
- Share computer sound when playing video during a Teams meeting

Using Teams meetings for group work and presentation recordings

Option 1: You can use Teams to schedule meetings with students outside of live teaching. Schedule a meeting from the Teams calendar or schedule a Teams meeting from Outlook. Once scheduled, you can Invite people to a meeting

Option 2: Alternatively, your lecturer may have requested a Teams space for ongoing group work and collaborative projects between students. Invite other students to join the Team space and meet in the Team space channel.

Team spaces offers a variety of group work features:

Need help? If you need support please use IT Self Service Portal to contact us.

Guide last updated on November 28, 2022