Microsoft Teams Guide

Access Microsoft Teams

Regardless of how you access Microsoft Teams, you will sign in with the same UBC credentials.

Request a team in Microsoft Teams

A team refers to a specific group of people in Microsoft Teams who want to collaborate exclusively together. Each team gets access to a private space where members can organize, communicate and share content. To request a team at UBC (e.g., for a course or a club), you will need to submit the appropriate form.

As an owner of a UBC team, you will be able to manage the team, including who is invited to the team and how the channels are set up.

Manage a team in Microsoft Teams

If you are the owner of a UBC team in Microsoft Teams, you can invite people to the team and create channels. Channels are places where team members can communicate with each other and share files.

Join a team in Microsoft Teams

Typically the owner of a team will share a code with you to join the team:

1. Open the Microsoft Teams application and sign in if you have not already.
2. Click Teams in the sidebar navigation.
3. Click Join or create team and choose Join team.
4. Enter the code you received from the team owner in the box that says "Enter join code".
5. Click Add Team. This action will add the new team under the "Teams" section and give you access to collaborate and communicate in this space with others.
6. To view all channels for a team and choose which channels appear in your sidebar navigation, click the more options icon (3 horizontal dots) next to the team name, and choose Manage team.
7. Click the Channels tab to find all the active channels and click Hide next to the channels you would like to remove from your sidebar navigation.

Upload files to Microsoft Teams

You can upload a file to a channel; everyone with access to the channel will be able to view and download the file.

1. Open the Microsoft Teams application and sign in if you have not already.
2. Click Teams in the sidebar navigation, and select the team to which you would like to upload the file.
3. Select the channel to which you want to upload the file and click Files at the top.
4. Click Upload and choose Files from the drop-down.
5. Select the file to upload and click Open.

Share files in Microsoft Teams

You can share files with UBC instructors, staff, or students to collaborate in real time. Shared files can be edited by multiple people at once, and each person can view the edits as they are made.

1. Open the Microsoft Teams application and sign in if you have not already.
2. Click either Chat (if you want to share files through a chat) or Teams (if you want to share files through a channel) in the sidebar navigation.
3. Select the chat or team channel you would like to use. Under the message bar, click the plus icon and select Attach file.
   • If you are sharing a file in a team channel, you will first need to click either Start a post or Replyto open the message bar.
4. Select the location where the file is stored and choose the file to share. Click either Open or Attach, whichever you see.
5. Write a message to accompany your file to help collaborators identify the file you are sharing.
6. Click either the send icon or Post, whichever you see, to share the file.
7. Once the message has been sent, anyone with access to the chat or channel can open the file and start editing it.

Chat in Microsoft Teams

You can chat privately with individuals or groups of people. The chat feature is best used for casual conversation. It is not meant for formal decision-making or exchanging confidential and/or sensitive information. Chat messages exchanged in the "Chats" area of Microsoft Teams are deleted after 90 days in compliance with the UBC Records Management Office retention schedule.

1. Open the Microsoft Teams application and sign in if you have not already.
2. Click Chat in the sidebar navigation.
3. Click the new chat icon (square with a diagonal line) that is to the left of the search bar. Enter a name, email, group, or tag in the “To” section to invite others to the chat.
   • Under "Recent", you can view past conversations and select a conversation to continue instead.
4. Enter your message in the message bar and use any of the additional chat options:
   • Formatting: Use the additional features of the rich text editor.
   • Emojis, GIFs and Stickers: Send emoticons, GIFs, and/or stickers
   • Loop components: Collaborate on smaller elements like lists or tables by adding a component.
   • Actions and apps: View additional chat options such as attaching a file, setting delivery options, scheduling a meeting, etc.
5. Click the send icon in the bottom right corner.

Schedule a meeting in Microsoft Teams

You can schedule meetings to collaborate with individuals or groups in Microsoft Teams with web-conferencing. Meetings are capped at 300 attendees but have no time limit.

1. Open the Microsoft Teams application and sign in if you have not already.
2. Click Calendar in the sidebar navigation.
3. Click + New meeting at the top right.
4. Fill in the meeting information, including the title, attendees, date and time, recurrence, and other applicable fields.
   • To invite people, you can search for them by their name or email. Alternatively, you can invite an entire channel, which will allow anyone who is part of the channel to access your meeting.
5. Click either Save or Send, whichever you see, to schedule your meeting.

Edit the expiration date of a video recorded in Microsoft Teams

Videos you record using Microsoft Teams are stored in Microsoft OneDrive. In compliance with UBC's video retention policy, Microsoft Teams automatically adds an expiration date to all new videos. By default, the expiration date will schedule a video for deletion one year after it was recorded.

If you wish to keep a video for longer than a year, you can remove its expiration.

1. Open the Microsoft Teams application and sign in if you have not already.
2. Click either Chat (if you recorded the meeting outside a team channel) or Teams (if you recorded the meeting in a team channel) in the sidebar navigation.
3. Select the meeting chat or team channel where you did the recording and find the video in the message history.
   • If you recorded the meeting in a team channel, you may need to click See details in the meeting recap post to view the recording.
4. Either click here below the video or hover over “Expires in X days” below the video and click Change.
5. Below the video that opens in a new window, click Expires in X days and select Remove expiration.
   • You may need to click Viewing on the top right and change it to Editing to enable your ability to change the date.
6. Your change to "No expiration" will be saved automatically; the video will be kept indefinitely unless you manually delete it.
   • You may continue to see a warning about the video's expiration within the channel message history. Because UBC has a video retention policy, Microsoft Teams unfortunately has to display this warning for all videos, regardless of their actual expiration date.