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Intermediate

Microsoft Teams Meeting is programme that brings real-time conversations, content and collaboration together in one place.

Organise meetings up to 300 people
Chat, share screen or record your meeting
See up to 49 participant videos at the same time
Chat, share files and collaborate asynchronously
Work together in files simultaneously
Use breakout rooms to facilitate discussion

MS Teams guide

You can find the MS Teams Guide here.

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MS Teams information and webinars

On this page, IT bundels all information about MS Teams. It includes information on how to use certain functionalities and recordings of given webinars about the tool.

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Start your own Team

At the VU, it's necessary to request a new Team. You can find the form to request this here.

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Breakout room guide

This guide shows you how to use breakout rooms in MS Teams.

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VU ettiquette online classes

Here you can find a document you can share with your students to give them guidance in engagement and deep focus during online classes.

Download here

If you cannot find your question here, try to find it in the FAQ.

Live online lectures

How to best teach an online class? On this page you can find tips on how to do this.

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Strenghthen your relationship with students and between students

On this page you can read 5 tips how to strengthen your relationship with your students. MS Teams is a great tool to accomplish this.

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Hybrid education and recording lectures

Want to give hybrid education or record your lectures? MS Teams works just as well as Zoom for this purpose. On this page you can fine all information on how to teach hybrid.

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Please help us collect inspiring examples. If you have an interesting example to share, or if you come across an example worth sharing, please tell us by filling out this Contact Form. Your help is much appreciated.

Go to the official MS Teams FAQ

VU-specific FAQ

+ Where do I store my recorded meetings in order to prevent capacity limits in my Canvas course?

Canvas is not the appropriate platform for archiving videos. Please, do not upload your recorded meetings directly to Canvas as a file. Use My Media in Canvas or via video.vu.nl instead.

+ How do I start my own Team?

For now, it is required to request a new Team at the VU. Go to the How-to tab to find the request form.

The VU takes the privacy protection of teachers and students seriously. The VU Privacy Statement and the measures the VU has taken to ensure safe use of Zoom can be found below.

Read the Privacy Statement of Zoom for the VU. It explains how the VU is processing and protecting your data.

+ Teachers

Securing privacy is not only a matter of technology and security settings. Even more important is the way in which online meetings are set up and controlled by the host and the way in which participants behave. So, VU staff must comply with the following rules:

Point out to participants that they are not allowed to record a session.
Make use of the VU license. Do not use a private account or free version.
Do not share sensitive information via Zoom.
Always create a new, unique password for a new session containing numbers and letters (8 to 10 characters long).
Update the Zoom application as soon as prompted.
Use a secure internet connection, such as your home network secured with a strong password or eduVPN.
Be aware of what is in your background. If you want, you can replace your background (Links to an external site.) with a virtual one.
Only accept the necessary cookies (required cookies). Do not accept any other cookies. Have a look at the instructions on how to do so following point 7 of the student section.
Only make recordings if it is really necessary (read about the conditions under which it is allowed to make recordings in the FAQ more below on this page)
Record the session using Zoom's cloud recording function which will then automatically upload the video file to Kaltura via Canvas. If you need to make a local recording (for more advanced post-editing for example), upload the video to Kaltura (https://video.vu.nl or My Media in Canvas). Information on how to upload a video file to Kaltura via Canvas can be found here. After a successful upload to Kaltura, delete the video file from your own computer and do not save it anywhere else.

+ Students

Also, the behaviour of students themselves is of importance to protect privacy. At the VU, students must comply with the following rules:

Use the VU license. Do not use a private account or free version.
Do not share sensitive information via Zoom.
Accept only necessary cookies. Do not accept any other cookies. Have a look at the instructions on how to do so following point 7.
A session may not be recorded in any way. Prior to a session, the instructor will let you know whether or not it will be recorded, the purpose of the recording and how the recording will be made available.
Update the Zoom application as soon as prompted.
Use a secure internet connection, such as your home network secured with a strong password or for example via eduVPN.
Be aware of what is in your background. If you want, you can replace your background(Links to an external site.) with a virtual one.

+ Instruction for minimal cookie setup

+ Under what conditions is it allowed to record a lecture or work group meeting?

If a lecture or other educational meeting is recorded, personal data will be processed by the VU and the General Data Processing Regulation (GDPR, nl: AVG) will apply. Each time personal data is processed, it has an impact on the privacy of students who are recorded. The basic principle is that the VU only processes personal data if there is really no other way and the GDPR provides a legal ground for this processing. For the recording of lectures and other educational events, this means the following.

Recording is only permitted if it serves a necessary, justified purpose that outweighs the student's privacy. This is deemed necessary for this purpose:

a lecturer must be able to substantiate that the recording serves a legitimate educational purpose;
this goal can only be achieved by making recordings; and
the educational objective outweighs the privacy of the students involved.

The recording of a lecture where students mainly listen and possibly ask questions is therefore allowed rather than the recording of a working group where there is a lot of interaction between the students and the lecturer.

The following rules of thumb can help in making the above considerations.

The more interaction, the more important privacy. The more interaction with or between students takes place during an educational meeting, the more their privacy weighs heavily. If little or no interaction is required with the student, such as at a lecture, privacy plays a less important role than if the student is required to actively participate.
What do we do on campus? In online education, the VU follows as much as possible the rules and practices that apply to education on campus. Online recording of lectures that are also included on campus is therefore more likely to be permitted than recording working lectures or working groups that are not included in campus education.

Teachers who want to record a lecture must:

state why the recording is necessary;
offer the opportunity to students to switch off their camera and microphone;
indicate how and for whom the recording is accessible (e.g. via Canvas); and
state when the recording is deleted.

+ Can students be forced to turn on their webcam and microphone during online education?

When teaching online, the VU follows as much as possible the rules and practices that apply to education on campus. For webcam and microphone use during online meetings this means the following.

Students can only be required to switch on their webcam and microphone when:

in view of the nature of online education, it is necessary to hear and see each other. Think of lectures or practicals in which the learning objectives require interaction and/or active participation; or
compulsory attendance applies.

Objection by students
A student who, due to his specific situation, is unable or unwilling to turn on his webcam and microphone, can inform the teacher beforehand. The instructor will then assess whether a different solution can and must be found for the student in question. If it is not possible to come to a solution, the student can make use of his right to lodge an objection with the Data Protection Officer against the processing of his personal data. This can be done via functionarisgegevensbescherming@vu.nl. For more information, see Article 18 of the 'Reglement verwerken persoonsgegevens studenten Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam' .

In all other cases, students can in principle not be required to turn on their webcam and microphone. However, it is good to discuss with students - where possible - which webcametiquette is desirable, without this being obligatory.

+ Tips against unwanted access to the controls by any of the participants

Set default settings of audio and video to mute and only turn on when you participate in the meeting.
Set screen sharing to 'Host only' so students cannot take over a session.
Disable 'Join Before Host' so people cannot cause trouble before you arrive.
Enable 'Co-Host' if you want to assign others to help moderate.
Disable 'Allow Removed Participants to Re-join' so ejected attendees cannot slip back in.
When you start recording, inform the participants that you will do so. Inform them about the reason for making the recording and how you protect this recording and make it accessible in a secure way (password protected or on a secure drive, for example in Kaltura).

+ Final measures

Please note that the VU has disabled certain features of Zoom to ensure higher levels of privacy and security. Among others, the VU Zoom license does not allow to send files via Zoom.

Further note that because of the availability of Zoom at the VU, private accounts for other conferencing tools such as private free Zoom accounts, Gotomeeting accounts or other tools are no longer allowed to be used at the VU. At the VU the other allowed conferencing tools are Skype for Business, MS Teams (students-only) and Google Meet .

Privacy entails further that teachers and students to comply with specific behaviour, even independent of the particular platform. See this page for information and instructions for VU staff and students.

Do you have a question?

The IT Servicedesk is happy to help with all your MS Teams questions and problems. You can find their contact information here.

AskIT

Teaching at VU Amsterdam