QMUL History Student Support

Pro Tips for Getting MS Teams to Work For You

QMUL uses MS Teams for some virtual meetings.  You might be added to a Team by student societies, or use it to meet your adviser or for tutors’ office hours.

You have access to Teams via your University-provided Microsoft 365 account.

Acquiring and Setting Up Teams

Teams is available on every major platform on both desktop and mobile.  It is also available over the web.

For the best experience we recommend the following:

• Use the largest format device you have available (e.g. a laptop, desktop or tablet computer).
• Download the Teams app for your device rather than running it through the Teams website.
• We recommend that all participants test their set-up before their first ‘live’ meeting. First, install the Teams app for your device, then use the Test Call functionality to check everything is working.  To read about how to make a test call, look for the Make a Test Call section near the  start of this Microsoft guide.
• Consider using a wired or wireless headset if you are in a noisy environment or if you find it difficult to hear yourself on the test call.  (Many will have received a set of headphones with their smartphone.)
• During the test call, inspect your video and make adjustments to your environment if necessary (for example, make sure your camera is not pointed at light sources or at a common area of your dwelling)
• Before you join a meeting, familiarise yourself with the Raise your Hand feature, and the controls for turning your audio and video on and off.
• If you are the meeting organiser, familiarise yourself with the Participants panel, which you can access by clicking on  Show participants   in the meeting controls.  Here you can mute all meeting participants (useful in cases where there is a lot of background noise) and allow participants held in a virtual lobby to join the meeting.
• If you have time, test your set-up with a friend before joining your first meeting.

Joining Meetings

Microsoft provides a very clear guide to joining meetings, here.

Etiquette

Online life is real life: the fundamentals of how to act when you meet in virtual space are no different to those of how you act in physical space.  However, the context is often different – rather than meeting in a dedicated space, participants in virtual meetings are often in their home, and sometimes in their only private room.  We should bear these differences in mind when communicating with people virtually.

• Always conduct yourself towards others with respect.
• Do not say anything in a virtual meeting that you would not say in person.
• Do not write anything in a chat window that you would not be happy to send in an email.
• Always seek to schedule meetings in advance. In particular, staff should not initiate unscheduled video calls with students.
• For meetings with more than four participants use the the ‘raise your hand’ function to indicate that you wish to participate in the conversation.  This will avoid people speaking over each other.  Virtual hands remain raised until specifically lowered.  This can be done by the participant or the meeting organiser in the ‘Attendees’ panel.
• Make use of the meeting’s text chat to send quick messages or raise questions during the meeting, and to share files. Most people type more slowly than they speak, so it is usual for conversation in the chat to unfold at a slightly different rate to that in the main meeting.
• You and others will have the fullest experience if you join using video and audio, but this might not always be possible or practical.  It is always up to you how you choose to participate. You can join a meetingvia video and audio, audio only or text chat only.  Participants may have reasons for not wanting to share video or audio that are personal and private and they should not be challenged about their choice of participation mode during the meeting or in front of others.
• All participants should recognise that others may not have access to space that is private and quiet and should be respectful and understanding of any interruptions.
• The Meeting Organiser has the ability to mute other participants.  They may do this interference or background noise coming from your connection.  It is good practice to let participants know before muting them, but it may not always be possible.  Do not take it is a criticism if you are muted, it happens to all of us!
• Only you can unmute your connection, so don’t forget to do it before you start speaking!
• As a general rule, you should mute your connection when you are not speaking.
• Think about the space you are in and what the screen will show if you do enable video. You may want to move things around in your room, take down posters etc. Make sure that you do not have anything in your background that you would be embarrassed by or that may offend other participants – if you wouldn’t bring it to campus don’t have it on your wall.
• You should consider using a blurred or virtual background if privacy is a concern.  It can also save you time tidying up before a meeting!  A virtual or blurred bakcgound will hide the space behind the participant.  This tool works well but Microsoft do not guarantee that no private information will be revealed – if there are severe privacy concerns, turn off your video.  Do not use inappropriate virtual backgrounds.