MS Teams for teaching guide

For academic year 2024/25, staff enrolled as Lecturers on Moodle modules can decide to create Teams for Teaching. This means that you can choose to create a Class Team for any Moodle module that is visible and available to students including: 

• SITS coded modules and
• Generic Programme modules.

The enrolments are synchronised which means that all staff enrolled as Lecturers and Teaching Assistants on the Moodle module become Owners of the Team and users enrolled as students on the Moodle module become Members of the Team. 

To support groupwork, you have the option of creating a Class Team with groups. Private channels will be created in the Team to correspond with each group in the Moodle module. Student members will be added based on group membership in the Moodle module. Lecturers and Teaching Assistants on the Moodle module will be added as owners of the private channels that are created. 

If you would like to use a Team to support your learning and teaching activities you will need to create that Team. The process to create a Team is quick and easy and is outlined below.

Before you create your Team for teaching, consider the following:

• How do you plan on using Teams to add value to your teaching?
  • You might want to use Teams to act as a bridge between your synchronous online sessions and your asynchronous teaching. You could use Teams to help students to continue collaboration and discussion started in the Virtual Classroom.
  • You could use Teams to support community building and provide a space for students to get to know each other at the start of term and beyond.
  • You could use Teams to support project work.
  • Or you might want to use Teams for all of the above!
• How will your Team complement student activities on Moodle?

Once you know how you plan on using Teams and the interplay between Teams and Moodle, it will be much easier to structure your Team and to articulate to students why you are using Teams and how it will support their learning.

You only need to complete steps 1-5 below once to add the mConnect app to Teams. Once you have completed these steps, the mConnect app will be available from the bottom of the menu bar on the left of Teams.

1. Open Teams.
2. From the panel on the left, open the three dots menu. This is located at the bottom of the menu.
3. Search for mConnect.
4. Select the mConnect app.
5. Select the Click here to sign in button to log into the app. Sign in with your university credentials. You may need to complete Multi-Factor Authentication.

1. Select the third tab at the top of the app - Team Creator to review the Moodle modules you are enrolled on and to create a Team. The Moodle modules you are enrolled on as a Lecturer or a Teaching Assistant are listed in alphabetical order on the left-hand side of the screen.
2. From the Choose a template to use drop-down field, select the relevant  template. The template options are:
   • Teams for Teaching (no Groups).  This will create a Class Team with a General channel.
   • Teams for Teaching (with Groups). This will create a Class Team with a General channel. Private channels will also be created in the Team for each group in the Moodle module. Membership of the private channels is based on group membership of the Moodle module. 
3. You may need to select the Refresh button to display modules from Moodle 4 for the new academic year.
4. Select the Create Team button to the right of the relevant module to create a Team. This button will only activate after you have selected a template. The Team will be created and will have the same title as your Moodle module e.g. EDM118 Student Support and Personal Tutoring (PRD2 A 2024/25). Team creation make take several minutes, depending on the number of enrolments on your module.
5. Lecturers and Teaching Assistants are enrolled as Owners and students become Members of the Team for teaching.
6. If you are using the new Teams client, Teams for teaching are located at the top of the Teams window in the Classes section.

There is a synchronisation between Moodle and Teams each evening. When new students or Lecturers are enrolled on your Moodle module, they will have access to the Team for Teaching the following day.

You can create a Teams for teaching for a Moodle module that has been set up as a meta module. The Teams for teaching will enrol users who are enrolled on the associated Child modules. The Teams for teaching will not process enrolments made directly to the parent module.

Staff enrolled as category or Moodle module level Programme Administrators or Course Officers will not be automatically enrolled on the Team. Any Owner of the Team can manually add course officers to the Team if required. You should add course officers as Owners.

If you are not able to view the name of a particular Moodle module in the Team Creator list in Skooler mConnect, you will need to confirm that:

1. You enrolled on the module as a Lecturer or Teaching Assistant.
2. The module is not hidden and is available to students.

If you make the module visible and are already enrolled on the module as a Lecturer or Teaching Assistant, the module will be available immediately in the Team Creator list. If you change your enrolment on the Moodle module, this change will synch to Skooler mConnect overnight. You will be able to create the Team for teaching on the following day.