Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams brings you, your team, and all your essential resources together, transforming the way you communicate and collaborate.

Effortlessly chat, video conference, and collaborate on files in real-time within Microsoft Teams’ centralized hub, ensuring a streamlined and productive teamwork experience. Access all your team’s documents, notes, and apps in one place, eliminating the need for constant tool-switching.

Integrated with other Microsoft 365 applications, Teams allows for smooth transitions between email, calendar, and productivity tools, enabling enhanced productivity and seamless collaboration both within and beyond your organization.

For instructors, Microsoft Teams can be used to create a learning environment beyond a physical space. Students and instructors can ask questions and pose new ideas in virtual channels or through private chats. For administrative or project units, Microsoft Teams can be used for quick and easy group communication, as well as file collaboration and storage.

Access Microsoft Teams

Features

Microsoft Teams has a variety of features including:

Online video conference meetings that can host up to 300 participants
Document collaboration which allows multiple users to work on the same file simultaneously, with real-time updates
Access Microsoft Teams via mobile app, browser, or the Teams desktop app
Integrated with Microsoft Outlook, so meetings can be scheduled in Teams and appear instantly in your Outlook calendar with the appropriate statuses
Direct access to Microsoft OneDrive storage for easy sharing with customizable access permissions
Create public or private channels and add members to organize conversations and projects

Advantages

Real-time documentation collaboration on Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote
File storage limit is 25TB
Mobile friendly: Users can use the mobile application to chat, collaborate on files, and join calls
FIPPA compliant
Host Teams video calls with up to 300 participants
Within a Team, use a variety of channels to organize work and individuals, or use the chat function to communicate with individuals or small groups
Creates an automatic attendance report after each meeting that can be downloaded by the Teams owner
Notes in a video chat meeting are automatically saved and can be referred to easily
Enhanced integration with Powerpoint presentations where speaker can refer to speaker notes and annotation tools
Provides real-time chat functionality and file sharing, allowing users to interact with each other
The owner of the Team can control how much access to give other members
A whiteboard feature that provides a range of drawing and annotation tools
Closed captioning feature

Limitations

There is no “dial-in” feature for a Microsoft Teams video meeting
Instructors must manually add students to Teams via a join code, or enter the student emails
Video conferencing feature is not as reliable as other tools such as Zoom
Requires students to have a CWL@student.ubc.ca account for access
Student identity is protected by only displaying their CWL@student.ubc.ca email, which may be confusing
Other user and Teams limitations can be accessed on Microsoft’s webpage on Limits and specifications for Microsoft Teams