Microsoft Teams now available for group chat, instant messaging, online meetings, and real-time collaboration
Faculty and staff now have a powerful new tool available to facilitate online communication and collaboration: Microsoft Teams. With text, audio, and video chat plus built-in integration with the University's OneDrive file storage and Office 365 online collaboration suite, Teams makes working together online easy.
Teams features
- Rich chat with text, audio, video, and file sharing.
- Private one-on-one and group chats visible only to participants.
- Public chat channels visible to everyone in the Team. Create as many or as few channels as you need.
- Persistent chat histories make it easy to review past conversations.
- Membership in a Team can be customized to meet specific needs, including planning-units, departments, research groups, projects, or ad-hoc groups with members from multiple areas.
- Students also can be added to a Team as needed.
- Each Team's channels are kept separate, so it's easy to organize your conversations if you belong to multiple Teams.
Who can use Teams
Effective May 7, 2018, Microsoft Teams is available for basic instant messaging to anyone with a valid OHIO login. Faculty and staff who wish to take advantage of channels and shared OneDrive space can request a Team by contacting the IT Service Desk. There is no charge for this service.
Teams vs Skype for Business
The University also offers Skype for Business for instant messaging, video chat, and remote meetings. Faculty and staff using Skype for Business can chat with individuals on Teams and vice versa.
Microsoft plans to merge Skype for Business with Teams in the future; however, they have not announced a timeline for this merger. If you currently use Skype for Business, you are welcome to continue using it. We will provide plenty of advance notice should Microsoft move forward with its plans to merge the two tools.
If you have any questions, contact the IT Service Desk.