As learning continues to move online, Microsoft introduces a collection of new (and upcoming) features in Teams. Highlights include an expanded 7×7 gallery view, breakout rooms for small group collaboration and more analytics arriving in time for the next academic year.
Several new features will be of importance to educators and students:
Use a custom background for your video
7×7 gallery view for group meetings
New Breakout Rooms to allow for smaller group discussion
You may have seen the creative backgrounds people are using on Zoom. They are great if you don’t want colleagues to see your choice of home decor (or the pile of ironing on the bed!). But how do you add a background to your Zoom chat? And what if you’re after something a little more professional?
Zoom’s virtual background feature allows you to display an image or video as your background during a meeting. It’s simple to set up:
To support University staff with home working, a small range of IT peripherals (keyboards, mice, webcams, headsets etc.) is available via NUIT where the requirement is business-critical.
All requests must be reviewed and authorised by the Head of Unit (or nominee). An approval email also needs to be attached to your request along with a relevant cost code.
NUIT will
advise on the latest availability and the process for collection.
If you’re unsure of the best solution for your needs, please contact the IT Service Desk
University students who don’t have a computer, laptop or another device they can use for studying, or have no or very limited access to an internet connection and are currently in receipt of financial hardship support, may be eligible for support with IT equipment.
NUIT are running a series of online training sessions, to demonstrate basic and advance use of Zoom, and to give you the chance to ask questions and get some 1-1 support with the team.
To help support your studies while you’re away from campus and can’t get to a cluster room, we’ve launched an online service which gives access to popular cluster PC software and your University files.
The student Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) has most of the software that’s available on a standard University cluster PC. See the software currently available.
You can log in on a PC, laptop or tablet that’s connected to the internet:
University IT support is available 24/7. If you have any issues accessing your assessment or University IT systems you can call us on +44 (0)191 208 5999 at any time, or email it.servicedesk@ncl.ac.uk (email is monitored 08:00 – 17:00 BST, Monday to Friday).
For your own peace of mind, before the assessment period begins, and to ensure you are prepared, we recommend the following:
Check you have your University username and password
Make sure you can log in to Blackboard or any other online systems that are required
Try accessing software you may need such as Microsoft Word
You can access the full suite of Microsoft Office applications at https://office365.ncl.ac.uk – simply log in and click on the ‘app launcher’ in the top left corner.
The Student Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) has most of the software that is available on a standard University cluster PC, including specialist applications to support students with health difficulties, dyslexia and disabilities. You can log in to it from a PC, laptop or tablet that is connected to the internet via https://go.ncl.ac.uk/itservice/wvd.
The Student Wellbeing Service also provides advice and support to enable all students to study effectively.
Over the next few months we will be running weekly webinars covering communication, collaboration and customisation in Microsoft Teams. Below are the session running next week and you can sign-up for sessions here.
Tuesday 21st April 2-3pm Collaboration in Microsoft Teams
In the session we’ll cover:
Sharing files with your Team/stakeholders
Sharing files in meetings
Managing files and channels
Co-authoring best practice
Restricting permissions on files
Thursday 23rd April 2-3pm Communication in Microsoft Teams
In the session we’ll cover:
Chatting: 1:1 and Group Chats- Do you really need all of those Teams?
Posting to a Team: best practice and tips
Voice and Video Calls: How to schedule and manage meetings
There’s a few steps you can take to make sure unwanted guests don’t hijack your Zoom meetings:
Use a unique meeting ID
Don’t use your Personal Meeting ID (PMI) to schedule meetings as this may allow users that have joined a previous meeting to rejoin. Your PMI is best kept for instant meetings with people you chat with regularly.
Schedule meetings with a Unique Meeting ID, especially for large or public sessions.
Add a meeting password
It’s recommended you set a password for all meetings and webinars. You can add ‘require meeting password’ when scheduling your meeting. Invitees will be asked for the password in order to join.
Make sure you send the meeting password in a separate email (not in the meeting invite in case calendars are public). For attendees joining by phone, pick a numeric password (6 digits is good).
Create a Waiting Room
You can create a virtual waiting room when scheduling your meeting and, as a host, decide who you will or won’t allow into your call.
Lock your meeting
Once a meeting has started you, as a host, you can lock the meeting to stop anyone else joining (at the bottom of the screen choose More > Lock Meeting).
Limit screen sharing to the Host
Zoom screen sharing settings can be configured either in advance or during a meeting to allow only the host to share their screen:
Click the up-arrow next to Share Screen.
Select Advanced Sharing Options.
Under Who can share, click Only Host.
Meetings in your Outlook calendar
Remember, Zoom meetings in your Outlook calendar may include the Zoom meeting password – exposing it to anyone who views your calendar. Try making the calendar entry private or editing the entry to remove the Zoom meeting password.
Remove an unwanted guest
If you need to give an unwanted attendee the boot:
Click Manage Participants at the bottom of the window.
Next to the person you want to remove, select More.
During a video meeting in Microsoft Teams or Zoom, you might want to share your screen with a coworker. This could be useful as it’ll help them see content on the program or app you have open and are discussing.
We’ve put together some handy links and best practice advice to get you started.
Remember, during screen sharing, your entire screen can be visible. To avoid displaying everything on your screen during a meeting, you can choose the option to share a program or application only, so people in the call will only see the program of your choice.
