The evolution of Teams at Oxford University

Our article Making Teams work for everyone at Oxford outlined some of the main features offered by Nexus365 (Office 365) Teams to help all of us at Oxford with our work, teaching and studying. Since then, new functionality has been developed and a number of handy features are now available for you to use. Here are some new things we think you'll find particularly useful:

• A Technical guide for Team owners is available to help you manage your Team as smoothly as possible.
• The ability to view nine participants in a Teams call or meeting will be available in the next week or two. (Update 13 May 2020: this feature is now available at Oxford!)
• The 'raise hands' feature to help manage questions during your lecture, meeting or event is also being rolled out and will soon be available for you to use. (Update 19 May 2020: this feature is now available at Oxford)
• Meeting organisers can now 'End meeting' for all participants through the meeting control bar.
• Staff members involved in remote teaching can now request a dial-in number for use in Teams audio conferences. This is a restricted service and can be requested using the Audio Conference Licensing Request form.

We'll let you know when other new features come online, so do keep an eye on our website or follow us on Twitter @ox_IT.

Need hands-on help with Teams?

Our teachers in the IT Learning Centre run helpful, teacher-led, online workshops for anyone who is getting started with Teams and Nexus365. Visit the course description to find out more. They have also made a number of useful videos, courses and resources available on their Remote working web page.

Handy tips and tricks

Our experience of using Teams is expanding all the time and we are learning more from our user community every day. Our Nexus365 User Group (or NUG) is a great place to find out about upcoming features, tricks and tips. There are even channels for specific groups of users (such as academics and researchers). Anyone at Oxford University can join the NUG and benefit from the shared wealth of knowledge. Here’s how you can join:

1. 

   In Teams, go to 'Join or create a team' (at the bottom of your Teams list)

2. Select 'Join a team with a code' and type in LNJVOFR
3. Click 'Join team' and you're in!

In the meantime, here are a couple of tips we think you’ll like:

• To improve poor performance turn your camera off, but also (under ‘…’) turn off ‘incoming video’.
• Restart Teams at the beginning of every day to help keep the software running smoothly.

Why not share your top tips with the group too!