Microsoft Teams is a FERPA-compliant collaboration and communication tool within UW Office 365. For an overview of the tool, training resources, policies, and explanation of the features and terms, consult the UW-IT Microsoft Teams guide.
In some cases, a Program Manager and instructor might request the creation of a MS Teams Instance for their course, specifically for the purpose of instructor and student use. Because the Teams Instance is being used as part of the student’s learning environment, it’s important to follow these technical and teaching best practices.
Usage Requirements
- Use Canvas for Coursework: MS Teams Instances should be used as a supplemental tool to Canvas, for communication, collaboration, and community-building use cases. You should continue to use your Canvas course site for all course materials, assignment submissions, grading, and file storage. Students should not be given or asked to submit coursework through Teams.
- Teams Instance Retention Policy: Course-related MS Teams channels used for communication use cases (chats only, no coursework and no assignments) has a retention period of one quarter after the end of the quarter, which is determined by the Records Management Service’s Schedule. You should plan for closing out your MS Teams Instance when it is no longer needed, and unless otherwise specified, the Teams Instance (and connected resources) will be deleted on the “Close Out Date” specified in the initial request.
- Use Zoom in Canvas for Meetings: If your course already uses Zoom for its synchronous meetings, we do not recommend using the MS Teams video call features. Continue to use the Zoom integration in Canvas for your video meetings so students are clear about the tech they are expected to use.
- Membership Privacy: ‘Hidden Membership’ is enabled by default for all course MS Teams instances (only members can see other members) to protect student information and this cannot be changed.
- Up to Date Membership: Adding members (your students) is a manual process and the specified Teams Owner needs to make sure membership is kept up to date when students add or drop the class.
- Display in Channel List: When an Owner creates a new channel, they have the option to select “Automatically show this channel in everyone’s channel list”. Select this for any channels you expect students to actively follow.
- Plugin Approval Required: Most MS Teams instances for courses do not require any plugins (+Apps within the Channel). However, if you do intend to use any plugins within your course Teams Instance, you must inform us (at the time of the initial request, or through a new Continuum Help UW Connect Form if you decide to add any later) as plugins require a separate privacy review and must be approved prior to use.
- Sharing Restrictions: Although Microsoft 365 Groups and connected resources do not automatically restrict non-UW NetID sharing, because this Teams instance is being used within a course by students, this places student information at risk of exposure if sharing is done incorrectly. Sharing should be limited to the UW NetID’s of your students, instructional team members, and owners on the team (specified owner and administrator owners).
Recommendations for Teaching with MS Teams
Customize your Instance
Prior to adding students, set up your MS Teams Instance with any channels needed to mirror your course structure, enforce your teaching goals, and promote the reasons why you want to use Teams in your course. You can pre-populate some channels like “Introductions”, “Networking”, “Instructor Questions”, and/or “Random” as a baseline.
Clarify Expectations
MS Teams Instances should be used as a secondary communication tool to Canvas (which should continue to serve as your primary communication method for any course-related information). The key to effective MS Teams usage in a course is defining and clearly communicating expectations to your students.
- Think about norms for communication, collaboration, and channel usage. This can be done beforehand, or as an exercise with the class. Working through norms with the students may have an added benefit of creating more inclusion and engagement with your students.
- Clarify expectations around student collaboration. Do you expect them to respond to each other’s questions? Make sure students know when they should be using MS Teams for your course.
- Students should know how often you expect them to check the channel, and if you recommend (or require) they turn on notifications for any channels.
- Communicate any expectations you have for the use of likes, reactions, and @ tagging.
- Let students know if you have any preferences between their use of the online version or desktop app version of Teams.
- Clarify expectations around instructor and IA responses. How often and when will you respond? Do you expect class members to respond to each other’s questions and will you weigh in if needed?
Once you have set the MS Teams communication norms with your students, make sure these norms are communicated clearly in multiple channels, including in your syllabus and on the Teams instance itself.
Updated 09/20/24