Microsoft Teams

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Microsoft  Teams is a cloud-based service in Office 365 that provides a collaboration platform with a rich set of tools to support file sharing and editing, group-based chat/instant messaging, and live meetings.

PennWest Clarion is currently in a pilot mode with the Microsoft Teams project.   Please the note the following items regarding our use Microsoft Teams:

• Microsoft Teams has many features and some of those features duplicate functionality already available in other tools available at the university.  It's important to recognize that everyone does not have access to Teams and that Clarion Microsoft Teams are NOT...
  • Our Learning Management System (LMS).  Our LMS is Desire2Learn and D2L will continue to be the university's standard LMS platform for all courses.
  • Our standard for web video conferencing.  Our web video conferencing tool is Zoom and Zoom will continue to be the university's standard web video conferencing platform for faculty, students, and staff.
• Multi-Factor Authentication is a pre-requisite for the use of Clarion Microsoft Teams at the university.  
• Each Clarion Microsoft Teams Site requires a faculty or staff member to serve as primary contact.  The primary contact will request a Clarion Microsoft Teams Site via the request form below.  All Team members must have Multi-Factor Authentication  configured before they can access Clarion Microsoft Teams.
• Clarion Microsoft Teams are limited to Clarion account holders (current faculty, staff, and students).  External (non-Clarion) accounts cannot access Clarion Microsoft Teams.  Note, however, that pre-approved exceptions for access by account holders at other PASSHE universities can be supported; contact Sam Puleio in Computing Service if this option is needed for a particular Microsoft Teams project with a sister school.

Microsoft Teams Documentation and Training

For a general overview of Microsoft Teams, please watch the Microsoft Introduction to Teams video.

For a good summary of the Teams interface and core features, please review the Microsoft Teams Quick Start Guide.

For more detailed Teams training, please see the Microsoft Teams Video Training site.

How do I access Clarion Microsoft Teams?

1)  Before you can access Clarion microsoft teams as a teams owner or team member...

• Add Multi-Factor Authentication to your Clarion account

2)  to create a new Clarion Microsoft Teams Site...

• If faculty or staff want to create a new Clarion Microsoft Teams Site, identify a primary contact to serve as the Teams Site owner and have the primary contact submit the request form below.

3) To participate as a member in an established Clarion Microsoft Teams Site...

• Ask the Clarion Microsoft Teams Site owner to add you to the team.  Remember, you must add Multi-Factor Authentication to your Clarion account

4) Once you have access to Clarion Microsoft Teams, find the teams program on your device

• If you have a university computer, open the Microsoft Teams app that is pre-installed on all Windows machines.  If you do not find the Teams app of if you have a Mac, please contact the Help Desk to have it installed.
• If you want to use Teams on a personal computer or a mobile device, download the Teams App from Microsoft
• You can also also access Team via a web browser at https://teams.microsoft.com

5) Open the Teams app and login with your Clarion e-mail address and password.

• See the Documentation and Training section above for more information on using Microsoft Teams)

 

Usage Guidelines 

Security is an important consideration with the use with Microsoft Teams and all cloud-based services.  As a baseline, the use of Clarion Microsoft Teams is subject to all PennWest Clarion policies including the Acceptable Use of Technology Resources, the Information Protection Policy, and the associated requirements with Right To Know, e-discovery, and FERPA.  It is the responsibility of the Clarion Microsoft Teams Site Owner and Participants to ensure compliance with these items.

Teams Etiquette and Best Practices

In additional to the practices shown above that describe what Teams is NOT, here are some recommendations to help you get the most out of using Teams.

• Teams is a great internal collaboration tool; use email for more formal, external communication.
• Reactions are meant for sentiment.  A thumbs-up is good for acknowledging a message.  Love, laugh, wow, sad and anger should probably be reserved for less formal messages and jokes.
  
• Make your out-of-office response Teams-friendly.  For example, it should say "Thanks for your message" instead of "Thanks for your email".
• If you are an owner of a Team, regularly check the membership to make sure it's correct.  Also add a unique photo or graphic for the Team profile.
• Use @mention to get someone's attention.  It's like placing them on the TO or CC field of an email, so use it accordingly and don't overuse it.
• When you @mention someone you can backspace out their surname to be more informal with your colleagues.
• Don't @mention a Team or Channel unless you really need to.
• Don't rename a Channel unless you inform your Team ahead of time.
• Use the General Channel for announcements and topics not fit for other Channels.
• @mention people who join a Channel.  Calling out new members helps them get their notifications set up.
• When using Chat, pay attention to the recipient's status.  If they are busy (RED), don't interrupt them.  Consider a Channel post with an @mention or an email instead.
  

[more info pending]

Data Retention

Messages in Teams chats are retained for 60 days.  After 60 days they are automatically deleted.

 

Request Forms

Note:  During the current pilot phase of this project, Clarion Microsoft Teams Site requests are limited to current faculty and staff,

Clarion Microsoft Teams Site Request Form   (authentication required)