Instructor guide to using the MS Teams integration in Blackboard
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Microsoft has created an integration that allows instructors to schedule, manage, and share MS Teams meetings from within Blackboard course sites. This Teams integration will remove the need to use MS Outlook or MS Teams to create online meetings. Teams meetings created with the integration allow students to join as meeting members. Faculty who create meetings join as meeting organizers and can manage meeting members and meeting options.
Even though the Teams integration is available, it will not be turned on by default in Niagara College courses. Faculty have the choice of enabling the integration in their classes or leaving the tool turned off. Once enabled, the Teams integration can be found as a Blackboard tool in Content Areas or from the Course Tools page.
The Microsoft Teams integration functionality focuses on the creation of independent Teams meetings from within Blackboard course sites. Faculty and students will be asked to sign-in and authenticate with their college credentials when interacting with the Teams integration. This authentication should happen automatically, but in some cases manual input of your NC credentials may be necessary.
Guide Sections:
Enabling Teams Integration
Creating and Sharing Teams meetings with Students
MS Teams Q&A
Instructor resources and how-to guides
Video guide to enabling and creating a meeting using the Teams integration in Blackboard.
Enabling the Teams integration as a Blackboard tool
1. Log-in to Blackboard with your NC credentials and choose a course where you would like to add a Teams meeting. (You must be listed as the instructor of the course).
2. From the left course menu, navigate to the Course Management section.
3. Next, open the Customization drop-down and click Tool Availability.
4. Scroll down the list of tools until you come across Microsoft Teams. Check the checkbox in the first column to make the tool available in your course.
5. The MS Teams tool can now be accessed by following the steps below.
Opening a Content Area (e.g. Course Documents or Course Information), clicking Tools -> More Tools -> Microsoft Teams
Or, by clicking Microsoft Teams from a course’s Tools area
Creating and sharing Teams meetings with students
1. After enabling and opening the Microsoft Teams meeting integration, select Sign In
2. Select Create meeting link.
3. Type a Name for your meeting.
4. Choose a Start Date, Start Time, End Date, and End Time.
5. Select Create.
6. Select Add to Calendar to add the meeting to your Blackboard calendar and to the first Content Area (e.g. Course Documents or Course Information) in your course menu. The meeting details will also be copied to your clipboard.
Note: To ensure that both you and students can access meeting links and details at a later date, it is important to either add the meeting information to the course calendar or paste and share the meeting information with students. Otherwise, meeting details will be lost after leaving this page.
Optionally, select Meeting options to configure additional settings for your meeting.
7. Select your course name in the breadcrumb at the top of the page to return to your course.
Links to your Teams meeting from Content Areas default to Adaptive release timing. In these cases, the meeting is shown for your students one hour before the meeting starts.
MS Teams Q&A
Q. Will meeting elements like chat conversations and shared documents be available after the meeting?
A. Any documents, links, or text added to the chat of the meeting will be stored in the meeting and can be accessed by re-opening the meeting link.
Q. Will meetings created through the Teams integration appear in my Outlook or MS Teams calendar?
A. Meetings created through the Teams integration will only appear in Blackboard. To keep track of meeting details or the date of the meeting, faculty can choose to copy the meeting information into an Outlook or Teams calendar event.
Q. Where are recordings from within the Teams meeting integration stored? And how can students access them?
A. Recordings made from Teams meetings are saved to the OneDrive account of the organizer of the meeting. A link is also added to the meeting chat for students to view.
Q. How can I stop students from creating Teams meetings using the integration?
A. Students in Blackboard courses can only interact with the Teams meeting integration from a course’s Tools menu. By hiding the link on this page (See below), students will no longer have access to create Teams meetings using the integration. Note – Hiding the link will not impact an instructor’s access to the Teams integration.
