Teaching staff are encouraged to provide access to teaching sessions for students unable to attend them in person. The guidelines below provide a step-by-step checklist of all things that need to be completed to conduct an effective session for both students sitting in the classroom and those joining via MS Teams.  

Before the session: 

• Create a Teams meeting for the session using the Blackboard Teams Meeting tool 
• Inform students about the possibility of joining the session via Teams and provide them with guidelines on how to do it. 

Note: Make it clear that this has been provided for students who are not able to attend the session in person and that all students who are well and not self-isolating are expected to attend the sessions in-person and that attendance during face-to–face session will be closely monitored.  

• Revise the teaching room guide and watch videos demonstrating using the new teaching room set-up:  

Teaching Rooms Guide 

Teaching Rooms demonstrations 

Once in the teaching room: 

• Open the Team meeting you have created 
• Check your microphone is working: how do I change the audio settings in a Teams meeting? 
• Open your PowerPoints in Teams by sharing your screen: how to share the PowerPoint with those joining virtually and those in the teaching room. 
• Start recording your meeting in Teams (if appropriate): Guidance on recording seminars and Teams activities. 
• Drag Teams onto Screen 2 (the one without the webcam) which will display it on the projector – this way both students joining the meeting virtually and in-person will be able to see the slides. 
• Have your PowerPoint slides on the Screen 1 – this will be visible only to you and you will be able to view your presentation notes. 
• In case of any issues pick up the phone and wait to be connected with the Teaching Room Support Team. 

Once the session started:  

• Inform all students of the session format.  
• Encourage students joining virtually to unmute themselves, turn on their cameras and take part in the discussion directly rather than by typing in the chat. Clarify that you will not be monitoring the chat all the time, so if they have a question, they need to ask it directly.  
• Make sure they know the chat will be visible to everyone and stored in Teams, so they should not be posting anything they would not feel comfortable saying in the classroom. They should also not share any personal data.  
• Try to encourage participation, ask students in the class what they think then address students joining virtually. 

After the session:

• Ask your students in both groups how the session went for them and whether they would suggest any changes to make it better.  
• Reflect on the session and adjust any steps in accordance with your experience.  
• In case of any questions please contact: lteu@aber.ac.uk  

A number of academic staff are successfully running simultaneous in class and Teams sessions. However, this format of session delivery is still new for the majority. Please take time to reflect on the process, adjust when necessary and don’t hesitate to ask us for help.