Teams is the software we use for our synchronous online lectures (those attended online). Panopto (ChiPlayer) can still be used for pre-recorded sessions.
A Teams link can be set up and shared with students directly in your Moodle page. You can either create just one link for the whole module and keep reusing it, or you can create separate links for sessions.
- If you create just one link for the whole module, you will keep previous sessions text chat intact, also students are less likely to click the wrong link.
- However you may prefer that students cant see chats from previous sessions and create a link for each session, if you do this, ensure they are clearly labelled.
(We recommend using Chrome for university systems)
Creating a Lecture link in Moodle
On your Moodle page, with editing on, click add an activity or resource in the topic you wish the link to appear. If you are just creating one, then put it in the top section so students can find it easily.
Then choose a text box. either double click it or click it once and click add.
type something like the text below into your box or feel free to copy and paste it:
*******************Sample text below***************************************************
Online Lecture link
Click on the link above to join our online lectures in Microsoft Teams.
Instructions for joining a lecture can be found here: Joining a lecture in Teams
*******************************************************************************************
The text above already has a link to the instructions for students to join a lecture, but in case you need it the URL is: https://help.chi.ac.uk/joining-online-lecture-teams
Highlight the words you want to be your lecture link, (click one side of the text and drag your mouse over it). In my case this is the words Online lecture link, (word this however you like)
then click on the Teams button in the ribbon
The create Teams meeting box will appear. If you get the Welcome to Microsoft Teams meetings screen, you will need to scroll down and click sign in, you may then be prompted for your log in details in another box, ir it might log you straight in.
If this window wont load, make sure you aren't using Safari, an older version of Edge or Internet explorer. If you are using a different browser (we recommend Chrome) and it still wont load, please try clearing your browser data.
You will then see the Create Teams meetings for your course page
Click on Create meeting link
You will then be able to create a new meeting. This will not populate your calendar or any of the students' calendars so it doesn't matter too much which date and time you put in it, however please note that the link will only be active for 60 days from the end date, so if you want to reuse the link, make the end date nearer the end of the module, or if you are pre setting them up, change the date to roughly the date that you will use the link. (you have a 60 day leeway, so don't worry too much about getting the dates and times exact).
Fill in a name (again it doesn't matter too much what this is) and click Create
(Clicking create before you click add link is a really important step and easy to miss out!)
Once you have clicked Create, click Add link.
You will then see a page with Meeting "Lecture Link" was created Successfully (or whatever you called your meeting)
If you wish you can click on Meeting Options to choose who can bypass the lobby, whether or not callers are announced when they join or leave and set who can present.
Suggestions for these settings are
- Turn on Always let callers always bypass the lobby, this avoids you having to click each time to allow someone access to the lecture,
- Turn off Announce when callers join or leave (as this can be very distracting)
- If you want to make sure you are the only person to present you can change it from Everyone to Only me. Specific people will only work when meetings are set up with specific people in outlook so cannot be used here.
then click save.
The meetings options will have opened in a new window, so you can close the window when you have finished and go back to editing your text box
Once you are happy with your settings (if you have chosen to change any) you can then click Add link
You should then see that your Online Lecture link has now become a link, (it may still be showing as highlighted)
You can then click Save and return to course
You should then see the lecture link information you have just created on your page, with a live link to the lecture
If your link has not worked, please follow the steps through again, but make sure you click Create before you click Add link, this is a very easy mistake to make!
Breakout rooms
there are two ways to set up Breakout rooms, you can either create them on the moodle page in advance, or use the Microsoft breakout rooms feature, so which should you use?
Setting them up on the Moodle page in advance
- can give you more peace of mind if you are not very confident with using Teams
- any lecturer on a module can set these up
- needs to be pre-planned, not easy for ad hoc rooms
Breakout rooms feature within Teams:
- works really well for ad hoc breakout rooms,
- can manage when the rooms are open and call students back to the main lecture
- but needs to be done and managed while you are in the session,
- this feature is only available to the meeting organiser.
Set up breakout rooms in advance on the Moodle page
- Create the lecture as usual
- Create a series of new teams links in the page in the same way, but call them what you want your rooms to be called. Make sure you create a new link on each one, do not copy and paste them as this will copy the same room.
When you are in the lecture, ask your students to join their rooms, by clicking the room links on the moodle page, while remaining in the lecture meeting.
This will mean that they can swap between the lecture meeting and the separate room meetings.
You can click on any of the rooms you want to visit from the moodle page and then click between them in teams, resuming the ones you want to visit, to see how people are getting on.
This will only work when using the App version, if you are using the Web version, you will need to hang up each one and rejoin from the links in Moodle.
Breakout rooms feature within Teams
Microsoft have now launched breakout rooms within Teams, however only the meeting organiser will be able to manage these.
If you wish to use them, please see the How to use the NEW Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams meetings video on youtube.