CMVM How to: start using Microsoft Teams to collaborate (Dec 19) Page 1 of 8

CMVM How-to: starting using Microsoft Teams to collaborate So you’ve been invited to a Team but don’t know what it’s about? This guide is to get you started

using Microsoft Teams, available as part of our Office 365 suite, and points to some relevant training

from LinkedIn Learning. It refers to an example where people have been invited to collaborate in a

team to prepare a research grant for submission1, and want to start trying out the tool.

Why have I been invited to use Teams? There may be many reasons for your team to form: a common reason will be to simplify

collaboration with other members of staff and external collaborators. You’ve probably been invited

to join a Team by someone who values your contribution to the collaboration.

How do I get access to the Team I’ve been invited to? Click on the link in your invitation email, or start with Office365:

https://www.office365.ed.ac.uk/, sign in, click the 9 dot square (circled in blue)

and choose “Teams”, then the Team of interest. Teams can be accessed from most web browsers,

and for most users through a desktop app. This 3 minute video from LinkedIn Learning gives useful

help on how to access Teams on a computer: https://edin.ac/2RGZY2H.

This might be useful for me – but what am I supposed to do?

1. Chat = Posts = Discussion Forum = Conversations

Teams enables you to have discussions in a threaded chat space, either about general topics.

Threaded just means a discussion about a particular topic, so you can visually group messages

together with their replies, which can really cut down on back-and-forth email correspondence2.

Teams will initially will look something like this (screenshots using the desktop app on Windows plus

some explanatory text and shapes):

1 There is a separate companion guide “CMVM How-to: Use Microsoft Teams to collaborate on a Research Grant application” that gives more information to support setting up a team at https://edin.ac/2r0Y5TA 2 You can set up notifications to get an email when there’s any change in the Team, so you can still work from

email, and get prompted to check Teams: http://edin.ac/38tua7e (All URLs accessed 12-Dec-19)

CMVM How to: start using Microsoft Teams to collaborate (Dec 19) Page 2 of 8

You might use the posts / conversations / chat space / discussion forum to:

Share information with people in your team, e.g. suggestions for how the team works

together, key deadlines, relevant links to useful information such as the original grant call,

screenshots/snips of work in progress

Ask questions of your collaborators, e.g. who should be asked for a letter of support, where

you’re storing files, etc.

Answer questions from others in your team

Here’s a 6 minute video on how to send and receive messages, including to target a particular

person in the team using an “@mention”: https://edin.ac/36tJnDl

2. Group things together into topics / areas = Channels

A channel is a way for a team to separate out

discussions, files, notes, etc. for what can be considered

as sub-topics, or specialised areas. The General channel

is the default, it’s usually for things that will be relevant

to the whole group.

You may have additional channels to collaborate on

particular items of interest to the group/sub-group. For

example, this screenshot shows different channels for

different areas of a research grant application, such as a

channel dedicated to discussions about developing the

Letters of Support, and one dedicated to developing the

Impact Summary.

Each channel is created with 3 tabs as standard: Posts, Files and Staff Notebook. Channels can be

open to everyone who’s in the Team, or access can be limited to sub-groups of people within the

Team.

You might use a new channel to:

Separate out discussions involving the same collaborators about different topics, e.g. a

management team with responsibility for strategy, operational delivery and legislative

compliance areas may have one channel for strategy, one for current operational status, one

for GDPR legislation compliance, and so on.

Here’s a 2 minute video on how to add a channel to separate out a topic: https://edin.ac/38vhVqD.

Your team may prefer to just use the one “General” channel and search; it’s up to your team to

agree how you best work together.

3. Share Files = Collaborative Document Library / Document Storage

Teams gives you a default ‘Files’ tab, that you can think of like a shared network drive, which is

shared between the people in your team including external collaborators. It’s a location where you

can store and share files. These files can be editable by anyone in the team, and, if you all use a web

browser, can even be edited by multiple people simultaneously. This can really cut down on email

correspondence and confusion arising from different versions of the same file being shared and

edited.

CMVM How to: start using Microsoft Teams to collaborate (Dec 19) Page 3 of 8

The previous screenshot gives an example of the ‘Files’ tab in the “General” channel, in which

someone has created a folder to collect PI CVs, and a draft “Vision Statement”, which everyone

could open and edit at the same time in a web browser.

You might use the Files / Shared Document Storage to:

Share documents with people in your team

Collaboratively write text for a team purpose, e.g. draft a common “Overall Objectives” text,

which multiple people can edit simultaneously in Word online (you’ll see a different

coloured cursor if someone else has the same document open at the same time, and see the

changes they make as they make them).

Organise documents into folders (or just use one folder and search)

Here’s a 5 minute video on how to share files: https://edin.ac/2Pd83u0, a 2 minute video showing

three ways to share files (for different audiences): https://edin.ac/38wBAXA and a 4 minute video on

how to edit and collaborate on files: https://edin.ac/2RNkZZg.

3.1 Which channel should I put my files into?

There is one ‘Files’ tab as a default for each Channel. As you could have multiple channels, you could

have a default ‘Files’ for each channel, to allow files for different topics to be kept separate. Your

team may prefer to just use the “General” channel and the ‘Files’ tab, creating sub-folders within

that; this is up to your team to agree the approach, considering relevant guidance from records

management.

For example, in a grant application a channel dedicated to discussions about developing the Data

Management Plan could be used to gather previous plans, and link to DMP Online3 to develop the

plan collaboratively. Similarly, the “Letters of Support” channel could be used to have discussions

about who to ask for letters of support, and then the ‘Files’ tab within the “Letters of Support”

channel to store all the relevant support letters as they are developed.

3 https://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk/ - a tool that helps you to create, review, and share data management plans that meet institutional and funder requirements. The Research Data Service can support you directly using this tool.

CMVM How to: start using Microsoft Teams to collaborate (Dec 19) Page 4 of 8

3.2 What’s the relation of the Team to SharePoint?

It’s using the same underlying technology for folder and document management. So the Files tab in

Teams is simply linking to a SharePoint document library. It may be easier to think of Team Files like

a network drive (like the U drive, but with more ability to control permissions and have simultaneous

editing).

If you’re already used to using an existing SharePoint site, the person who set up your Team may

also include that SharePoint site in your Team area within the File tab (see companion guide for

more details on how to do this at: http://edin.ac/2r0Y5TA). Multiple SharePoint sites can be included

in one Team.

3.3 What’s the relation of the Team to OneDrive?

The Team doesn’t directly relate to OneDrive, which is your personal space. You may wish to start

developing a document in your personal OneDrive space, share it specifically with a limited number

of people to comment, and then move it to the Team or SharePoint site for wider discussion at an

appropriate time. More information on OneDrive is at: http://edin.ac/2K2VvRD.

3.4 What else should I be aware of when thinking of creating and storing files?

Records management and retention policies should be considered when you’re in a team that will

use files. The lifecycle of the Teams data, and when to delete data should be considered in

conjunction with existing Centre policies on records management. More on records management at:

https://www.ed.ac.uk/records-management/guidance/records/introduce and retention schedules

at https://www.ed.ac.uk/records-management/guidance/records/introduce/retention-

schedules/create-review

For example if your grant application were successful, then you’d need to keep the relevant

documents for the duration specified by the funding body. Similarly if it were unsuccessful, you may

wish to review the documents for lessons learned, and delete extraneous material relatively quickly

– this will depend on your retention policies.

3.5 Can I get a local copy of files and synchronise this on a mac?

The OneDrive sync app for Mac can be used to synchronise files, more info at:

https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/sync-files-with-onedrive-on-mac-os-x-d11b9f29-00bb-

4172-be39-997da46f913f

3.6 Can I access the documents like a network drive on Windows?

Windows users can take a few extra steps to enable access to a document library from Windows

Explorer, just like a network drive. So then if you create a new document you can save it directly into

the Team shared document library as if it were a network drive.

From Teams click the “Open in SharePoint”

button (ringed in orange in the screenshot) to

open the SharePoint site containing the files in a

web browser (the example following is the

FireFox browser):

CMVM How to: start using Microsoft Teams to collaborate (Dec 19) Page 5 of 8

Then click Sync (ringed in purple above), choose Microsoft

OneDrive as the Launch Application in the pop-up box, and

then “Open Link”.

After a short while, the Team files will then be accessible

directly from Windows Explorer, and you can use it like a

network drive:

CMVM How to: start using Microsoft Teams to collaborate (Dec 19) Page 6 of 8

4. Keep University business secure

Teams gives you the ability to work with staff, students and external collaborators easily, with the

confidence that the data is secure and compliant with data protection laws4.

Local policies for management of clinical, personally identifiable information continue to apply and

alternative solutions may be more appropriate.

How do I know when to look at Teams? You’ll have a default setting for notifications – there’s help on how to change these in this 1 minute

videos: “Set up notifications effectively” http://edin.ac/38tua7e

You could set up all notifications to be “Banner and email”, so that you get an email to prompt you

to look at Teams whenever something relevant happens. That would allow work to remain

predominantly on email and then clicking the link in the email to go directly to the relevant item in

Teams.

Chat, documents and security seems to be quite basic – is that all that Teams can do? Nope, this is a starter guide and discussions and document sharing are the simplest functions to start

with. Teams can enable a whole lot by default such as scheduling a meeting and inviting attendees,

remote video conferencing (with recording), and OneNote for shared meeting notes, or individual

notes. This video gives more information on getting started with functions in Teams:

https://edin.ac/2rFu4bZ

Teams functionality can also be extended through inclusion of a wide variety of other apps such as

Microsoft Planner for managing actions / tasks between multiple people in a team, Microsoft Forms

for gathering simple survey feedback and Microsoft Power BI for sharing reports and data

visualisations. The apps which are part of our Office 365 tenancy are already licenced for use at the

University of Edinburgh (note Power BI has a small charge for users who publish data), more tips on

how to include these in this video: https://edin.ac/2E6KSLI

There are also many further apps that can be included, however these are likely to have different

terms and conditions that you must check and consider before adding as a new tab. For example

Polly is a polling app that allows you to ask questions and get quick responses in the discussion,

however the terms imply that all data goes straight to a separate company, in the USA, including

that of others responding to the poll. This would mean that users of the Polly app are signing up to

share all Polly data with a separate company to Microsoft, and potential users should consider

whether they have authority to do this in conjunction with GDPR law accordingly.

Has anyone else tried it out yet? What do they think? Teams was piloted during summer 2019, and was found to be useful for:

Live class chat

Online conferencing with live audio-visual, brainstorm whiteboards, plan boards, notes and

apps with students

4 Note that the default apps (Posts, Files and Staff Notebook) plus other apps we pay for are covered under the University agreement with Microsoft through our Microsoft Campus Tenancy terms and conditions: additional channels have different terms and conditions that you must check and consider before adding as a new tab. For example Polly is a polling app that allows you to ask questions and get quick responses in the discussion, however the terms imply that all data goes straight to a separate company, in the USA, including that of others responding to the poll. This would mean that users of the Polly app are signing up to share all Polly data with a separate company to Microsoft, , and potential users should consider whether they have authority to do this in conjunction with GDPR law accordingly.

CMVM How to: start using Microsoft Teams to collaborate (Dec 19) Page 7 of 8

Remote Audio-Visual support – improving technician support for centrally-managed

teaching spaces

Managing shift work

More information on Teams and the pilot ideas are at: http://edin.ac/2FXNlei

Since the pilot Teams has been used for remote video conferencing, developing cross-College

priorities and enabling collaboration for Research Computing across CMVM Research Centres.

“I’ve used Teams so far for a couple of defined projects – for project-managing a grant

submission and for organising a conference. It’s very intuitive to use and has been great to

have a single place for all the documents, notes and conversations when working with people

who each have multiple disparate roles.

I found Teams useful to partition these projects off from my daily onslaught of emails, and it

makes it easy to stay in the loop without receiving endless ‘cc’ emails. The shared documents

help to avoid multiple versions flying about simultaneously, and I like the fact that you can

still edit documents in the normal ‘desktop apps’ (e.g. Word and Excel) as well as directly

online. It was sometimes tricky to get the other team members to use Teams consistently

rather than reverting to email, as this requires a bit of a culture shift.”

– Science Manager, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences

OK, I’d like to try it, where do I start, is there training? 1. There’s some useful information on Teams at the University of Edinburgh at

https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/computing/comms-and-collab/office365/teams

2. Follow this LinkedIn Learning account creation page https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-

services/help-consultancy/is-skills/linkedin-learning/account-creation-and-access and login

to directly use the URLs listed. A copy of the instructions on that page (from 18-Nov-19) is

below, if this doesn’t work please revisit the previous link for updated steps:

a. Go to https://www.linkedin.com/learning. b. Click Sign In at the top right of the screen. c. Click the Sign in with your organization link near to the bottom of the box. d. When prompted, either enter your email address and click Continue. e. Enter your University (formerly EASE) credentials (if you're not already logged in). f. At the 'Welcome to LinkedIn Learning' prompt, choose whether or not to connect

your LinkedIn profile (this can be done at a later date). g. Select the subjects you'd like learning suggestions for (if any) and continue. h. Your LinkedIn Learning account will now become active and ready to use.

3. Start with how to access teams on a computer (3 minutes):

https://edin.ac/2RGZY2H – or jump to it using the Office365

service for the University of Edinburgh:

https://www.office365.ed.ac.uk/, sign in, click the 9 dot square

(circled in blue) and choose “Teams”.

4. Then choose the videos that are relevant from the collection “Teams for new users (e.g.

COG)” at: https://edin.ac/36wlYBA or use the search bar at the top to find other training

suited to your needs.

a. Start with Microsoft Teams Essential Training – this 2h overview covers a wide range

of information, but you can jump to the relevant sections that are of interest to you

by using the ‘Contents’ section on the right hand side of the LinkedIn Learning page.

CMVM How to: start using Microsoft Teams to collaborate (Dec 19) Page 8 of 8

i. If you want to set up your own Teams site, it’s also got info on how to add

members, and administer a Teams site. See companion guide for more

details on how to do this at: http://edin.ac/2r0Y5TA

b. Many (not all) of the other videos linked are sub-parts of that training course,

several of them are suggested in the sections above, so revisit those to see what

you’d like to do and the relevant training.

Tip: save time when watching videos by speeding them up (1.75 times is OK for

the above video set). Click on the 1x near the bottom right of the playback

controls and switch to your preferred speed.

How do I give feedback on this? Thoughts and feedback suggestions, comments and compliments are always welcome at

IS.Helpline@ed.ac.uk or through the form at: https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/help-

consultancy/contact-helpline

Version 1.0

17 December 2019