
Microsoft Teams
Video Conferencing at UIW
Welcome to Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams (aka MS Teams, Teams) is an all-in-one communications platform complete with document sharing, instant messaging, video conferencing, and many more useful features for managing your digital interactions. Teams bridges the gap between in-person and remote activities and allows everyone to interact and collaborate online, wherever they are. Some notable features of Microsoft Teams include:
- Video and/or audio-only conferencing
- Share your screen, camera, or voice at the same time or individually. MS Teams is flexible and offers a variety of communication methods.
- Instant messaging (chat)
- Instantly search and find colleagues within the organization that are using MS Teams, complete with a suite of status conveniences to keep distractions at a minimum.
- Automatic document storage
- Each team created automatically receives a SharePoint (shared OneDrive) site attached to the team. All files shared within Teams are seamlessly backed up on the team's site for convenience.
- Organization features
- Manage your team with dedicated spaces, called Channels, to host specific types of exchanges and collaborative activities.
- Team/group management
- All managers of a team have plenty of settings and configurations to customize the experience to almost any use-case. While, all members of a team can participate in conversations that are curated and organized by topic, importance, or whichever method the team prefers.
How to Access Teams
It's generally recommended to use the desktop/mobile apps as they use fewer resources on your computer/mobile device and will allow you to run more applications in the background. The mobile application is a great way to take have the entirety of MS Teams in the palm of your hands, wherever you are. Additionally, you cannot share your screen in meetings via the online version of Microsoft Teams and it's missing some other features and QOL improvements.
- Only use the online (cardinal apps) version If you...
- Don't care about calls, meetings, or screen sharing and only plan to use the core, collaborative chat-based functionality of Teams.
- Are using a Chromebook running ChromeOS.
- Are unable to or don't want to install the Microsoft Teams desktop/mobile app.
To access Microsoft Teams on the web, navigate to Cardinal Apps and click on the Teams app found within the 'Office 365' apps tab. If you cannot find it, search for 'Teams' on the page's search bar.
Microsoft Teams comes pre-installed on all UIW-issued devices, but if you do not have Teams installed or are using an Apple macOScomputer follow the instructions below.
- On a Mac or Windows PC, head to the Microsoft Teams download site and select the 'Download for Desktop' option.
- After the application is downloaded and installed, open MS Teams and login with your UIW email and password to get started.
Getting Started with Teams
All About Meetings in Teams
Enhancing Your Teams Experience
Support
- Need help using Teams?
- Issues regarding installation, setup, or signing into Microsoft Teams?
- Reach out to the Help Desk at (210) 829-2721 or helpdesk@uiwtx.edu
- Need one-on-one, department, or instructor training?
- Contact a Software Specialist.
- Not sure about recording meetings or students?