Creating a MS Teams group to use with Blackboard
Using Microsoft (MS) Teams in conjunction with your Blackboard course will allow you to use the features of Teams (including video meetings and recording) with your students. You can have a direct link to a Team in your Blackboard course. Clicking on that link will open up Teams and allow the student to connect. The following guide will show you how to create a Teams group and get your students enrolled ready to use the meeting functions.
Getting Started
In order to set up an MS Teams group to work alongside your Blackboard course, ideally you should have the MS Teams application installed on your computer as the application has more functionality than the browser version. The following page will help you how to install Teams and other help, if there is an issue please contact ISS. The steps below have been based on the downloadable Teams application.
Open MS Teams Application
Firstly, open MS Teams on your device. Once it has loaded, choose the Teams icon from the left-hand toolbar.
This will show you an overview of all of your Teams. In the top right corner of this area click on the button that says ‘Join or create team’. If you cannot see this in the top right of your view it will be at the bottom left under the same name.
It will now show you a grid view of different Teams you have permission to join. The first choice will look different and say ‘Join or create a team’, from here click on the ‘Create team’ button.
It will ask you to select the type of team you wish to make. Please choose 'Other' as this will be the most flexible and simplest Team type for any group.
(The 'Class' option makes extensive use of OneNote Class Notebooks, Assignments, and other tools, which you might find useful but if you are not planning on using those specific tools then it can be quite confusing for Team members. Note also, that if you were interested in Teams Assignments and Grading tools that they can only support a maximum class size of 200.)
It will then ask you to enter some details to create your team.
- For ‘Team name’ use your course’s full module code and the academic year.
(e.g. 2122-MD103) - The description is optional, but will be something all students will be able to see and can be used to help further identify it. Ideally, this should be the official module name.
(e.g. 2122-MD103 Introduction to Medicine) - All other options can be left alone as default.
When you are happy click on the ‘Next’ button.
It will then give you the option at this stage to ‘Add members’. It may be best to click ‘Skip’ this part and read further on to add specific people. But you may wish to add any colleagues who need access at this stage by typing out their email address and clicking on ‘Add’.
Your team will now be created and ready for use.
Adding your Team as a link to Blackboard
To connect your Teams group with your Blackboard course, you can take it's URL and paste it in to the appropriate place in Blackboard.
To do this click on the '...' menu button option next to the team name (or in the top right). From this menu select 'Get link to team'. You can copy this link and paste it into Blackboard.
To add it to the navigation menu of your Blackboard course, just click on the little plus sign at the top left of the navigation menu and select 'Web link'.
Paste in the URL which you have copied and give the link a name (eg 'Teams').
Once your students access this, they initiate a pending request for you to approve their access to the Team, if they have not been directly added.
Adding Staff and Students to your Team group directly
You can add staff and students directly to your Teams group. There are three options, and each might be more or less suitable depending on your class size and context:
For adding a large number of students, it is best to set up an join code for the Teams group. Staff can also be added this way, if needs be.
- To set up a join code click on one the ‘…’ menu button option next to the team name or in the top right.
- From the menu select ‘Manage team’.
It will show a new menu area on the rows of menu options click on ‘Settings’.
On settings page click on the menu choice of ‘Team code’.
It will now show another button where you need to click the button on ‘Generate’.
It will now show you a short randomised code. Click on the ‘Copy’ button to then be able to post it elsewhere.
Please note: You may see some potential homoglyphs generated such as o0O, to avoid confusion may need to click the ‘Reset’ button to generate a new code that may be easier to use.
The code can now be either emailed out to staff and students or added to your Blackboard course as an announcement or content item.
The following text can be copied and pasted for use in your Blackboard course:
Join Teams Group
Join Microsoft Teams site for this module and introduce yourself to other students.
- Go to Microsoft Teams.
- Sign in with your NUI Galway email address and password.
- Go to Join a Team with a Code.
- Use the code XXXX to join the module discussion forum.
- If you have a desktop/laptop computer, download the desktop app to make full use of audio and video conferencing.
- Or install the mobile app
- Bookmark the Teams address.
Some modules will be using Teams for online meetings. Further information about how this works is available online:https://support.office.com/en-us/article/join-a-meeting-in-teams-1613bb53-f3fa-431e-85a9-d6a91e3468c9
If you are required to join a meeting in teams you will receive a link or can join directly from the calendar. You MUST sign in using your NUI Galway account.
To specifically add people such as Staff this can be done by one again going to the … menu and selecting ‘Add member’.
On the window select the text box field start typing the email address of the people you wish to add.
When happy you have all of the names you wish to add click on the ‘Add’ button.
After clicking add the names will show in a list. At this point you can do the following:
- Pressing the X will remove the person from being added.
- Clicking on the down arrow will allow access rights to be changed.
Students should be left as ‘Member’, but you may wish to change staff to be ‘Owner’ giving them the same admin rights as you. (This can be changed later).
Once happy click on the ‘Close’ button to close the window.
Access will automatically be granted and an email will be sent out to the invited people.
Everything is now set up and ready to be used, the link to the team that was used to allow students to join in can also be used as a quick access link. Clicking on the link will cause the teams application to load and open directly into the teams group.
You can also share the link to your MS Team directly (e.g. as a menu link on Blackboard, as an announcement or by email).
- You can access the link by selecting the three dots, beside the team name, and selecting "Get link to team".
This can be emailed to users, or posted on Blackboard:
Any user that clicks on the shared link will not be automatically added to the Team, but will appear within Pending Requests.
You can then Accept or Deny access.
Once you accept the request, they have full access to the team, from Blackboard, and from the MS Teams desktop or mobile app.
How to join MS Teams group from Blackboard or email code
Have you been to join a Microsoft Teams group from an email or a Blackboard area? If so, these are the quick steps you need to take to join in.
- First load up Teams on your device. Once it has loaded choose the Teams icon from the left-hand toolbar.
- You should see on the Teams overview in the top right a button for ‘Join or create team’ click on this. On some views the same button might show in the bottom left.
On the join and create page locate the area the space called ‘Join a team with a code’.
In this area either paste or type in the code you have been provided with, then click the ‘Join team’ button. You will then be transported into the new team group and ready to use.
Watch a video
This video walks through scheduling online meetings for your Team group:
Further information
See ISS guides on using Teams here
MS Teams Educator resources https://education.microsoft.com/en-us/resource/d5b62e3e
You can also access help inside MS Teams, by clicking on Help > Training.
