Creating, attending, and running meetings while using Teams for distance learning

There are two ways to schedule meetings in Microsoft Teams: scheduling in the calendar or using the Meet Now option.

To schedule a meeting using the calendar, follow these steps.

1. Open Microsoft Teams.

2. Select Calendar in the app bar, then select New meeting.

3. Enter a meeting title, invite others, and add details describing the purpose of the meeting. Hosting a meeting with multiple people? After you add required and optional attendees, use the Scheduling Assistant to find a time that best aligns with their schedules.

4. Once you're done filling out the details, select Save. This will close the scheduling form and send an invite to everyone's Outlook inbox.

If you'd like to use the Meet now functionality, see Create Instant Meetings with Meet now.

Designate roles that affect what others can see and do when joining a meeting. For example, an attendee can use their microphone and video camera and view content shared by others, but they cannot share their own content or add or remove other attendees.

For more information on different roles you can assign to participants when organizing meetings, see Roles in a Teams meeting.

To change presenter permissions:

1. Open the meeting from your calendar, and then select Meeting Options.

2. Use the Who can present dropdown to choose who you want to give presenter permissions to.

If you have an existing class team, you can create your meeting within that team's channel.

Navigate to the class team and select the dropdown arrow next to Meet. Choose Meet Now to start a meeting right away, or Schedule a meeting to organize a meeting for later.

Virtual meetings can be an adjustment for anyone. Oftentimes it's helpful to send information about meeting best practices, etiquette, and rules before the meeting starts. This can help reduce disruption and improve the meeting experience for everyone!

Generally, using the same meeting instructions and settings for all class meetings will help students know what to expect.

For example, you can include the following sample instructions when sending meeting invitations:

To join your online lesson:

1. Select the Join Using Microsoft Teams link to enter your virtual classroom.

2. Mute your microphone and keep your video turned off when joining.

3. Select the Join button to join the meeting.

4. To open the chat side panel, select Chat.

5. If you have a question or comment during a lesson, send "Hand up" in the chat for your educator to see.

6. When your educator is ready to hear your question, they will turn on your microphone so you can ask your question or contribute to the conversation.
   

   Important: Please respect other students' rights to learn without interruptions. All school and classroom rules apply online as well as they do at school.

If you're new to hosting and attending online meetings, this printable guide will help you master the basics quickly.

Online classes may be new to you. To make the most of your online classroom experience, you can consider the following:

• How will you start the meeting with students? Do you have a set of guidelines? Do you want to allow video or not? Do you encourage students to chat with one another to answer questions or should the chat be only for direct questions between the students and educator? Have you implemented a hand-raising system?

• Do the students understand the online class etiquette rules? For example, you can provide them with a list such as:

  • No individual chats during class.

  • Consequences for class disruptions.

  • Appropriate background requirements

• How can you encourage participation?

• Do you have a method in place to check in with students after the class session? Consider an exit survey or exercises the students can do outside of the online class to ensure lessons were properly understood.

  • If you'd like to create an exit ticket for students as they leave the online class, try creating a quiz with Microsoft Forms.

Meeting recordings are great resources for students and parents to look back on when they want to reference past lessons. They help support students' understanding and retention of the material presented. When you record a meeting, a searchable transcript and closed captions are automatically created.

To record a meeting, once the meeting has started, go to More options > Start recording. Return to More options to stop recording..

After the meeting ends, you'll receive an email with a link to the recording. The recording will be available in the chat or the channel for seven days.

When the online class is over, you can leave the meeting by hanging up.

You'll receive an email invitation to an online class meeting from your instructor or school administrator. To accept it, select the green check-mark in the invitation.

There are several ways you can join your online class when it starts.

• If you have Teams open, once your educator begins the meeting, you'll see a pop-up notification at the bottom right corner of your screen announcing the start of the meeting. Select Join to join the meeting.

• Join from your Teams calendar. Open your calendar in Teams to view all your current and upcoming meetings. To join a meeting, select the meeting, then select Join.

• Right-click the meeting in your calendar and select Join online.

Depending on how the meeting has been set up, you might need to wait to be admitted to the online class. If so, you'll see a message letting you know that you're currently in the meeting lobby. Your educator will admit you shortly.

Your educator will likely send a set of guidelines and class rules to you before your first online class.

Here are a few common rules that will help your online class proceed smoothly.

1. When you join the meeting, turn off your video camera and microphone unless your educator instructed you otherwise. To do this, select the microphone and video camera sliders so they are both set to Off. You can always turn them back on in the meeting if your educator requests it.

2. If your educator does want you to turn your video camera on, blur your background. Blurring your background helps minimize distractions and makes it easier to host a meeting from anywhere. To blur your background, select the middle slider when you join your meeting. This will open a panel on the right side of the screen with several background options. Choose Blur to obscure the details behind you.

3. Use the meeting chat to ask questions. Your educator will likely have guidance for the best way to raise your hand, but a common way is to select the Chat icon in the meeting, then type "Hand up," or "Raising hand." Then wait for your educator to call on you.

When you join your online class, you'll see several controls that will help you interact and participate with your educator and other students (when allowed).

• To use the online class chat, select Chat.

• Type your message in the chat box, insert text or emoji, and send your message. Be sure to follow your educator's rules for appropriate messaging in your online class.
  
  

Teams tries to anticipate what you'll want to see in a meeting. If someone starts speaking, their video or profile image is shown more prominently. If someone shares their screen, that content will take main stage.

But if you'd rather see something else, there are a few ways to tell Teams.

• Switch between people and content - If someone's presenting a PowerPoint or other content, switch between viewing their content and the people in the room by clicking the video or content you want to see.

• Pin a video - Right-click a video within the meeting and select Pin. The video will be shown regardless of who's currently speaking. You can pin multiple videos or right-click any pinned video and select Unpin at any time.

• Reframe a video - Teams may crop your video to better fit the screen. If you want to change this, right-click the video and select Fit to frame to view the entire video. To see a closer, cropped view, right-click the video and select Fill frame.

Meeting policies are used to control what features are available to meeting participants and organizers alike. Some of the policies that you can set include:

• Whether or not to allow cloud recording

• Turning IP video on or off

• Turning screen sharing mode on or off

• Turning the whiteboard feature on or off

• Turning the shared note feature on or off

For more information on how to set meeting policies, see Manage meeting policies.

There are several meeting settings you can set for your entire organization. These include:

• Whether or not to allow anonymous users to join meetings

• Creating customized meeting invitations. Custom meeting invitations could be designed to include classroom rules that apply to all online classes, for example.

To learn more about changing meeting settings for your organization, see Manage meeting settings in Microsoft Teams.