As the University no longer has a Zoom license, any online teaching previously delivered via Zoom will now need to use Teams.
Timetabled Online Teaching Sessions (primary method)
To use Teams for online teaching, it is strongly recommended that you request this through the timetable by labelling your teaching session as ‘online’. This ensures the new Teams ‘online teaching session’ settings are applied to the timetabled links created. These settings include preventing students from accessing the recording immediately in Teams at the end of a session and ensuring the recordings are automatically transferred to the relevant Panopto module folder (recordings will still require approval in Panopto before becoming visible to students in the DLE).
Please note that the recording restriction and automatic transfer to Panopto settings outlined above cannot be applied to standard Teams meetings created through Outlook invites or a Teams calendar.
Additional benefits to using Teams online teaching sessions
- Students are automatically added as attendees based on module enrolments.
- Teaching staff listed on the timetable are automatically assigned as co-organisers, enabling them to manage the session with equal permissions.
- There is no pop up ‘the meeting has started’ message, allowing staff to go into the session as early as needed without notifying students.
- Attendees are placed in a lobby on joining, allowing teaching staff to admit participants when ready.
- Meeting chat is closed once the session has ended, helping to keep communication focused within the scheduled teaching event.
- Standard interactive features available in all Teams meetings, such as shared screen, breakout rooms, MS whiteboards, PowerPoint live and apps such as embedded Mentimeter activities are all available in timetabled online teaching session Teams links.
Please contact your school timetabling co-ordinator should you need to change an existing Semester 1 timetabled session to ‘online’.
Off-Timetable Online Teaching Sessions
Off-timetable sessions are online teaching activities that cannot be scheduled through the timetable, but still require the features outlined in the timetabled sessions, especially in relation to students to be prevented from accessing recordings immediately in Teams at the end of the session and the automatic transfer of recordings to Panopto.
Where sessions fall into this category, the project team will work with you to understand why timetabling online teaching sessions is not possible currently and explore whether there might be any feasible way to include the sessions within the timetable moving forward. Where this is not possible, an appropriate alternative approach will be agreed to try to still meet the requirements of the sessions.
If you believe your session(s) fall into this category, please complete this requirement form and the project team will contact you.
Ad Hoc Online Sessions Linked to Teaching and Learning
Ad hoc sessions are typically informal, non-timetabled sessions with students that are linked to general teaching and learning activities, but that do not require a timetabled session and do not need the online teaching in Teams session features described in the timetabled sessions.
These ad hoc sessions can be created manually by staff through Outlook invites or the Teams calendar in the usual way and will use the standard Teams meeting settings. In most cases, these sessions may not require recording, or, where recordings are made, there is no requirement to restrict immediate student access to them in Teams or automatically transfer them to Panopto.
Where recordings are made, organisers can manage them directly from their OneDrive. They may choose to leave recordings available to students through OneDrive and Teams, or remove student access if they do not want the recordings to remain available after the session. Where this option is chosen, recordings will be accessible to students immediately for a short period while the sharing permissions are removed in OneDrive. Where required, organisers also have the option to manually upload recordings from OneDrive to Panopto.
Contact information
If you have any questions, please contact zoomtoteams@plymouth.ac.uk
Further information specific to Teaching in Teams is available in SharePoint site Online Teaching in Teams. General guidance for Teams can be found on the Microsoft 365 help site.
