Breakout Rooms in Teams: I know so many of you have been awaiting the addition of this feature before you were comfortable moving classes and meetings from Zoom to Teams.

Now that Teams Breakout Rooms have launched (hooray!), lets take a look at how they work…

Creating Breakout Rooms

You will need to start your meeting in order to access the Breakout Rooms feature. At this time, you cannot set up rooms in advance of the meeting.

In your meeting, you will find a button for Breakout Rooms in the upper right menu of your Teams meeting, represented by two squares.

The Breakout Rooms button will toggle out a menu on the right side of your Teams Meeting screen.

In this screen you can control:

A. The number of rooms
B. Assignment of members: automatic vs manual assignment
C. When finished press Create Rooms.

Note: Unlike Zoom, clicking Create Rooms will not move your participants. There will be an additional step.

Once you create your rooms, a side panel will appear showing the rooms that have not yet been opened. There are a few additional options you can set before you open the rooms.

Options and Settings

In the upper right of the Breakout Room screen is an ellipses (…). Click on this to access Rooms Settings.

Here you can control:

• Whether participants will move automatically to rooms when you open them (this defaults to being on).
• Whether participants can return to the main meeting on their own (this defaults to being off).

Start Rooms

Once your Breakout Rooms are set up and you are ready to move participants, click Start Rooms.

Note: Unlike Zoom, it can take some time, around 30 seconds or so, for attendees to be moved into their rooms.

After the rooms have been started, you can join your attendees in specific rooms by clicking on the ellipses next to each room and selecting Join Room.

Returning Participants to the Main Room

In the Breakout Rooms menu, where you opened the rooms, will be a new option to Close Rooms. This will return all the participants to the main meeting.

If you had toggled on the ability for attendees to return to the main meeting on their own, they will have a new option in their Meeting menu:

• In addition to a Leave button will be a Return button.
• Be sure they know to click Return if they would like to come back to the main meeting. If they click Leave, they will leave the entire meeting.

Want to know more?

This post just scratches the surface of breakout rooms. If you would like to see more details and options, take a look at this helpful writeup from Microsoft: Use Breakout Rooms in Teams Meetings

Thoughts?

What do you think, will you use Breakout Rooms in Teams? Or maybe you have used them already? I would love to hear how the feature is working for you!

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

• Corey Herl
• Evan Ohlman

Happy New Year, friends! Here is something to celebrate: the ability to launch Polls during a Teams Meeting.  What a fantastic way to add interactive elements to your virtual Meetings! Incidentally, you may have explored the Polls feature in Zoom; the Teams Polls are a very similar concept (but even cooler in my opinion, though of course I am biased). Let’s check it out.

1. Create a Meeting

Start by Creating a Teams meeting however you are comfortable; either by utilizing the Calendar app in Teams, or via the Teams plugin in Outlook. Send this invitation as usual.

Important: You must invite at least one person to this meeting. Otherwise, it is just an event on your calendar, and won’t be treated the same way in Teams.

2. Add Forms to the Meeting

After you have sent the meeting invitation, find your meeting in the Calendar app in Teams. Click on the event, and select Edit.

In the upper right of your meeting, click on the + sign…

Select Forms. This will add a new Polls tab to the top of your meeting’s Edit screen, along with the ability to use Forms to create polls to your meeting.

You may be prompted through some tours about how to use Forms, particularly if this is your first time utilizing this feature.

3. Create Polls

Once you have added Forms to your meeting, you will be prompted to Create New Poll.

This is very similar to the Forms polls we talk about in Teams Essentials, for use within your Teams (app) posts… though notice you have a few options at the bottom regarding anonymity, sharing results, and whether you would like to allow cohosts to control the polls as well.

You can create multiple polls if you would like. They will all be listed in your new Polls tab in the Edit view of your meeting.

4. Launch Polls

It’s time for your meeting! During the meeting, you will notice a new Forms button in the toolbar at the upper right.

Click on this button to pop out a side menu with the polls you created prior to the meeting. Each of these can be Launched via a button at the bottom of the poll question.

When you launch the poll, attendees will see voting options in the center of their screen:

… followed by the results of the poll:

If you would like to add additional polls, there is also an option to Create New at the top of the polls list.

After each poll, toggle the menu underneath the question and close, export results, or delete the poll.

Accessing Results

After your meeting, return to the Edit view in the Calendar app to access the Polls tab. Here you can view or export results.

If your polls were not anonymous, the exported results will show the names and votes of participants.

Adding Forms During a Meeting

What if you have already joined your meeting, and realize you would like to utilize Forms to take a Poll? No problem.

Now that your Teams Meetings launch in a new window, leaving the rest of your Teams app free, you can easily minimize your meeting window to access the Calendar app in Teams. Then follow the exact same process to edit the meeting and add a Forms tab. Forms/Polls will become immediately available in your meeting.

Thoughts?

What do you think? Do you think you will start using  polls during your Teams meetings? I would love to hear what you think and how you use this feature!

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

• Meredith Dwyer
• Yumi Foster
• Amy Drassen Ham
• Ellen Walker

Have you ever recorded a meeting in Teams? Did you notice some mysterious language about something called Microsoft Stream? I’ve got you covered. Today we are going to demystify Microsoft Stream, and how it integrates with Microsoft Teams.

Before we get started… big thanks to both Gisuk and Anita who inspired this byte with their excellent questions about Microsoft Stream.

Video

Here is a video to walk you through the process. Additionally, I have written instructions below with screenshots.  I would love to hear from you to know if you would like to see more videos, or if you prefer to read written instructions (or if you like both!)

Meeting Recordings

In Teams Essentials training, we talk about how it is possible to record a meeting.

As a refresher, you can access this ability in a meeting by clicking on the ellipses (…) and selecting Start Recording.

After your meeting is over, you, and everyone who attended your meeting, can access this recording in the meeting chat.

But a lot of you are curious about this… where is this recording saved? Why do you see reference to something called Microsoft Stream when you record videos? These are great questions.

Meeting recordings live in the Stream account of whomever recorded the meeting. By default, the people who were invited to the meeting are granted access to this recording.

One quick way to access the recording in Stream, is to click on the ellipses (…) next to the recording, and select Open in Microsoft Stream.

You can also access Stream via O365 online. Let’s look at that method below, and then we can dive into Stream navigation.

Accessing Stream via O365

In addition to clicking on the Open in Microsoft Stream option above, you can also access Stream by visiting Office 365 Online.

1. In a new browser window, type into your address bar: o365.wichita.edu. You can also access Office 365 via the link at the upper right of myWSU.

• Sign in information is always your myWSUID@wichita.edu
• Password is your myWSUID password
• You may be asked to authenticate with Duo

2. When you are logged in, click on the App Launcher at the upper left. Select All Apps to see a full list of options.

3. Select Stream.

Video Options

Once you have logged into Stream, in the upper left, you will see a ribbon of options.

1. Click on the dropdown next to My Content. Select Videos.

2. Here are where all your saved meeting recordings live.

To the right of each video are a series of options.

Click on the ellipses (…) to:

• Share: generate a link; people will be prompted to log in to view
• Trim your video, or
• Download the video

Click on the pencil to access video details.

In here, you can:

• Rename the video
• Grant additional permissions (note that whoever attended the meeting has access by default).
• Choose a thumbnail image
• Make the video public:
  • Note: Meetings default to private, but you may have to double check this privacy setting when uploading your own videos to Stream
• And more…

Channel Options

In addition to sharing individual Stream videos, you may find that you need to share a group of videos with your Team. This is where creating a Channel will come in handy.

1. While you are logged into Stream in O365, in the ribbon, Select My Content, and Channels.

2. Select Create a New Channel.

3. In the popup, give your channel a name and a description. Next to Select group, type in the name of your Team. Press the spyglass to find your Team. In this screen, Team and Group are the same thing.

Note: if your Team is brand new, it may take some time to appear in Stream as a group option.

Add videos to your channel

To add videos to your channel, look at the options to the right of your videos, click  on the square with a + sign (see below).

1. In the popup that appears, select Channels from the dropdown.

2. Search for your channel and select it from the list.

You can add any video from your Stream to your channel by following this process.

Channel Sharing Options

One more thing before we leave Stream and return to Teams. When you are in Channel view, notice the ellipses (…) next to the channel name. Click on this to see the Share option.

Just like when you generate a link for an individual video via share, you can also generate a link for an entire channel. Click copy to grab this link for use in the next step.

Creating a Stream Tab in Teams

Let’s return back to Teams for a bit. You have seen how you can generate a link with either a video or a channel. And you could share these links as… well… links. But this would require people to log in with their WSU accounts every time they want to access the videos. Here is a cool thing you can do in your Team itself.

1. Go to the Teams module and select your Team. Create a tab with the + sign at the upper right.

2. Select Stream.

4. Paste in the link for your channel. Press Save.  

Now your Team can access any videos you put into this channel by simply accessing this tab in Teams. So cool!

As you add more videos to this channel, this will populate automatically.

Thoughts?

What do you think, will you set up a Stream tab in Teams for your Team? I would love to hear from you!

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

• Carolyn (Kay) Officer

 

 

If you have attended Teams Essentials training, you may remember when we talked about where to visit to see the latest updates in Teams. This software is evolving so quickly, many of you notice new features every time you log in! Here is one I didn’t want you to miss: the New Meeting Experience.

The Old Meeting Experience

If you have already been meeting in Teams, you are used to a view that looks something like the image below.

Features and controls can be accessed by hovering your mouse in the center of the Teams screen and selecting from a menu that appears in the center.

Also, perhaps somewhat frustratingly, the old meeting view opens up within your Teams program. Navigating within Teams during the meeting shrinks down the meeting view to a small square in the corner of the Teams screen. Many were not crazy about this tiny screen.

The New Meeting Experience

There is a lot to be excited  about with this new meeting view. Here is a run down:

Popped Out View

Perhaps what I am most excited about is the new meeting view is a popped out view! Yes, meetings are in a new screen entirely. This leaves the rest of your Teams application free for easy navigation, while still maximizing the size of your meeting screen.

Menu Changes

The Menu has moved from the center to the upper right, where you will find all your favorite options from the old meeting view…

…plus some new ways to view participants, like large gallery and together view (greyed out here, but will activate with participants):

End Meeting

If you are the creator of a meeting, you now have the ability to either leave your meeting or end the meeting for everyone. This will prevent people from staying after you have left the meeting. Several faculty have wanted to know about this one for classes held in Teams!

How to Activate the New Meeting Experience

Do you want to try out this new meeting experience? First, be sure you are in the desktop application of Teams (not in browser).

1. Click on your bio pic or initials at the upper right of the screen. Select Settings.

2. Stay on the general section, and scroll down until you see a series of checkboxes. Check the box next to “Turn on new meeting experience…”

3. Restart Teams. This means completely quitting the program, which you may not do very often. To do this, right click on the Teams icon at the bottom of your screen and select Quit.

4. Reopen Teams and enjoy your new meeting experience. Maybe even have a test meeting or two…

Thoughts?

Are you going to try out this new meeting view? I would love to hear what you think. I would also love to see you at Teams Essentials training!  Please check myTraining for a list of times. All sessions are currently being held remotely.

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

• Candace Bolinger
• Ashley Cervantes
• Kyle Garwood
• Jennifer Snyder
• Andrea Wilson

With so many of our coworkers working remotely, it can become challenging to know who is really “here” and who has “left” at a given time. After all, we can’t exactly wave hello or goodbye as they walk past our desk! In lieu of these familiar “in person” notifications, here is a quick way to be notified virtually via Teams.

Teams Settings

In the upper right of your Teams screen is either your image (at WSU this is imported from Outlook), or your initials. Click on this circle to access a variety of options. We are selecting Settings for this one.

Notifications

1. On the left side of the Settings screen, select Notifications.

2. Scroll all the way to the bottom under the header Status. Select Manage Notifications.

3. In the search bar, Search for the person for whom you would like to be notified.

• • • Quick Note: when searching for people in Teams, try searching by the wording in front of the @ symbol in their email address; e.g. firstname.lastname for faculty/staff, and initials lastname for students.

4. Select your person from the dropdown list. They will now appear in a list under Manage Status Notifications.

• • At any time you can revisit this setting and select Turn Off to stop receiving notifications.

Notification Banners

That is all there is to it! Now you will be notified when this person becomes available…

And when they go offline…

Pretty cool!

Teams Essentials Training

Are you interested in learning more about Teams? I would love to see you in one of my remote Teams Essentials trainings! Sessions are listed in myTraining. There will always be a listing or two of this session, so if you don’t see a time that works for you, not to worry, simply select Notify me of new sessions to receive an an email when a new session is listed.

Thoughts?

What do you think, will you activate notifications for any of your Teams contacts? I would love to hear from you!

Congratulations, Power Users!

Congratulations to our newest Power Users! For the full gallery, and more information about the WSU Microsoft Office Power User Program, please visit: wichita.edu/poweruser

• Lora Lea Pickering
• Mikayla Irish
• Kelly Eden