Holding Virtual or Hybrid Meetings Using Microsoft Teams (Best Practices)

Everyone with a drake.edu email account has access to Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams is a product that combines tools and resources such as group chat, calendars, virtual or hybrid meetings, and file sharing into one location using the Office 365 platform.

You'll find Teams by clicking the My Teams button in the Commonly Used Apps section of the Employee Home page of myDrake or from the grid menu in the upper left corner. Additionally, there’s a desktop app you can download to your computer, or apps that you can use on your iOS and Android devices that you can download onto your smart phone or tablet.

You can use Teams to hold virtual or hybrid meetings, either as part of a Team or an individual or group chat, no matter where everyone is located. Teams meetings can have up to 300 people at a time.

To participate in a Teams meeting you'll need to use the Teams desktop app, the web version of Teams in a Chrome or Edge browser, or the app for your iOS or Android mobile device. NOTE: Teams meetings don't work in Safari, Firefox, or Internet Explorer.

For virtual attendance, you'll need to have a microphone/speaker on your device and a web cam or other video option. Headphones with a microphone feature work great for audio – you don’t need to purchase a special headset. If your computer doesn't have these features, you can also use the Teams app on your smart phone or camera and use that device's camera and microphone.

For hybrid meetings, you may want to use an external speaker/microphone in the conference room where people are attending in person. Individual people in the room should mute their audio in Teams and use the physical speaker/microphone itself. This makes the audio clearer for those who are attending virtually. ITS recommends this model of Corded Speakerphone.

See this article from Microsoft with tips on Hybrid Meeting Space Considerations.

If you schedule a meeting from the Calendar menu on the left-hand side menu of Teams, it will automatically create a Teams meeting. Additionally, you can use the online version of Outlook.com to create a new virtual Teams meeting or change an already scheduled meeting to include a link for an online meeting. Virtual meetings can be one off or recurring. If you’re a Windows user and you also have the Desktop app of Teams, you can create Teams meetings from your desktop Outlook application as well.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/schedule-a-meeting-in-teams-943507a9-8583-4c58-b5d2-8ec8265e04e5 (from Microsoft)

The best way to join a Teams meeting is by clicking on the link from the invitation. If someone has already started the meeting, however, and you’re in Teams you can also click the Join button. If you’ve not been included in the initial invitation and have just received a link, you’ll have to wait to be let into the meeting by the organizer.

Joining from a link: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/join-a-meeting-in-teams-1613bb53-f3fa-431e-85a9-d6a91e3468c9#bkmk_link (from Microsoft)

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/join-a-teams-meeting-078e9868-f1aa-4414-8bb9-ee88e9236ee4 (Video guide from Microsoft)

If you are presenting at a meeting, you can share your screen or other content like PowerPoint slides with the other attendees. NOTE: If you're using Teams on the web, you'll only be able to share your screen if you're using Google Chrome or the latest version of Microsoft Edge, otherwise you need to use the desktop app.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/share-content-in-a-meeting-in-teams-fcc2bf59-aecd-4481-8f99-ce55dd836ce8 (from Microsoft)

If you want those in the conference room and those online to collaborate, consider using the Whiteboard app in Teams. More information at Use Whiteboard in Microsoft Teams.

If you have audio issues, see:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/manage-audio-settings-in-a-teams-meeting-6ea36f9a-827b-47d6-b22e-ec94d5f0f5e4 (from Microsoft) or try the curated tips in the Audio and Video Troubleshooting for Virtual Meetings (Best Practices) article linked to the right.

If you're on the desktop app you can also go to Settings (by clicking on your initials or photo in the upper right corner) and then Devices and check your settings and Make a test call. This feature is not available, however, when using a browser to access Teams.