Microsoft Teams

What is it?

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration tool, that allows you to chat, meet, call and set up team channels in one place, even when working remotely. It is the University’s first choice platform for messaging and video conferencing.

With Teams, you can:

  • Chat - have private chats with internal colleagues one-to-one or as part of a group.
  • Build Teams and channels to allow real-time collaboration - keep department and workstream specific content separate, share files, recordings and chat with the group.
  • Access and amend files within teams using built-in Office apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Forms, Stream and more.
  • Build task lists within Planner and attach to chats or channels.
  • Join meetings from anywhere with HD audio and video all in one place.
  • Record meetings attended and store in the channel where you need it.
  • Co-author documents and work collaboratively.
  • Call, chat and meet with people from outside the University.
  • Enables collaboration with colleagues internal and those external to the University.

Support

Instructions for staff and postgraduate research students on how to install Teams and Microsoft 365 (M365) are available:  

Your first port of call for support should be the Microsoft 365 Help and Support site. This page provides information on all the support available for M365 applications. It also contains bitesize videos and webinars on how to use Teams along with other resources, such as frequently asked questions for Teams.

The Microsoft Teams pages also supply useful Teams information including advice on when to use Teams, information on Teams for teaching, information on how to request a new Team and additional guises and resources.

You can use the help icon in the bottom left corner of the application or visit the Microsoft Troubleshooting website. This page contains the most up to date information and advice.

The M365 Help and Support site above also shows you how to find your local Digital Champion who can help you with specific queries about M365 applications and their use.

If you cannot resolve your problem using this resource and are having technical issues with Teams, you can contact the IT Support Centre. 

Students can find out all about Teams, how to access it, and its limitations on our Microsoft Teams for students page below:

Information handling

Information classified as Very Sensitive must not be processed or stored on M365 and advice must be sought from the Information Governance Office if you handle this type of information.

If you are processing/storing information or data classified as Highly Restricted in M365, please follow the information handling minimum controls set out in the Information security classification examples and handling guidance for confidential information.

Please note: MS365 does not provide the processing environment necessary to meet some research funder requirements for Highly Restricted Data, please contact Research Data Management for guidance or use the Highly Restricted Data Service.

Continue to adhere to the Information Governance Office Best practice guidance on sharing and storing information and the Records Retention Schedule whenever you’re working with data.

Limitations and best practices

Microsoft Teams does have some limitations to be aware of. The limitation information covers Teams and channels, meetings, chat, messaging and emailing. Visit the Microsoft known issues site for more information.

In addition, please note:

  • Microsoft Teams and other Group creation is currently switched off until we can provide staff and students with a self-service tool to provision a collaborative area best suited to their needs. Staff and PGR are asked not to grant Team Owner roles to non staff or PGR. See the section 'Request a Team' at the bottom of this page for more information.
  • A Team should be used for University-related business.
  • There should be no Teams of just one or two people. You could use a 1:1 or Group chat instead.
  • Created Teams are private by default and membership is by invitation. If you change a Team to public, ITS admin will reset it to private.
  • You should not use a Team to process sensitive personal data or other highly restricted data, as described in the University's Standard Operating Procedure for Information Security Classification, Ownership and Secure Information Handling.
  • The content of Teams, chats, recorded meetings and more may need to be obtained in order to respond to information requests, so the same level of care regarding the content should be taken as with other University records and correspondence.
  • You must request permission to create a private channel within a Team. To do so, please read the following page and submit the request form at the bottom of the page: Microsoft Teams Private Channels (sharepoint.com).

Use of Teams must not contravene the Acceptable Use Standard Operating Procedures:

Learning about Teams

There is a wide range of guidance available on how to install, set up and use the features within Teams. The information covers files, chat, posts, calls and meetings.

Microsoft has a useful Teams quick start guide and they also have their own Learning Centre.

Here you can explore Teams features in detail.

If you are interested in Teams for education, you can download a quick start guide on Microsoft Teams for Education.

Microsoft host free, live online training covering a range of topics like how to run effective meetings and Teams for education webinars. To access all the free classes available, visit Microsoft’s Instructor-led training and videos page.

Features and functionality of Teams are regularly updated. To find out about the latest updates and new features visit Microsoft’s what’s new in Teams page.

Request a Team

Currently, staff and postgraduate researchers must request that a Team be created for them. You can find out more about requesting a Team here:

Students are not currently able to request or create Teams.