Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is being used for live online lectures and for the conducting of labs for lab slots that are online (we also have lab slots that are on-campus).

Installing#

Microsoft Teams can be downloaded from Microsoft directly here.

The desktop version is available for Windows PCs and Mac. If you have OS such as Linux, you will need to download the mobile version.

If you do not wish to install Microsoft Teams, you can also use it in a web browser at https://teams.microsoft.com. However, we do not recommend you use the web version of Microsoft Teams as you may encounter issues with calls or screen sharing when using the web version. If you encounter any such weird issues, try installing Microsoft Teams and use that version instead.

Logging in#

You should be able to log into Microsoft Teams using your ANU id and password (uNNNNNNN).

If you are an alumni, you may encounter an issue logging into Microsoft Teams. If this is the case, please make a ticket in the IT Service Desk so that IT Services will fix this for you.

Joining a team#

Microsoft Teams calls their groups/group chats just “team” or “teams” confusingly. Each team has a “General” team chat, and possibly multiple channels, which are just seperate chats in the same team.

You will need to join the team for lectures to participate in the live lectures, and if you are joining an online lab, also the team for your particular lab slot. These are seperate teams.

In most cases, you will see that you have already been added to the team for the lab group you are signed up to by us. If this is a case you should see the team when you open teams (each team you are in will show up as a big square box, like the one in the red box in the image below). Note that this may sometimes not happen until shortly before your first lab starts.

To join a team manually, you will need an access code. These will be posted on the course wattle page here. Once you have the code, find the “Join or create team” button in Teams. This should be in the top right corner of the “Teams” tab in Microsoft Teams if you are using the default grid layout (button bounded by violet box in image above), or in the bottom left if you have changed your settings to use the list layout.

Lectures#

Live online lectures are streamed in the lectures team as a team call/meeting.

To prevent any particular channel from getting cluttered over the semester, each lecture will be held in a new channel in the same lectures team. The lecturers will create the new channel (shortly) before each lecture, and you should be able to see these channels in the left side bar of the team.

When joining a lecture, please make sure your microphone is muted so that you don’t disrupt the lecture (and so as to avoid loud feedback sounds). The buttons to toggle your microphone and video are in the top right of the meeting window (see violet box in image below). If you choose to leave your video on, please make sure you are dressed appropriately.

Each lecturer may run their lecture differently from each other, please follow their rules/instructions on when you may unmute your microphone to ask a question. In general however, you can always ask your question in the meeting chat, which can be opened by clicking the “text bubble button” in the meeting popout window (button in red box in image above).

If you are chatting from the main Microsoft Teams window, to send your message to the meeting chat, press the reply button under the current lecture meeting (see below image). Messages sent using the “new conversation” or bottom text bar do not get sent to the meeting chat, but rather the channel chat.

Lectures in Microsoft Teams will be recorded by the lecturer. Please DO NOT use the record button in the lecture meeting, as that will stop the recording started by the lecturer.

Labs#

Each lab group will have their own seperate team channel that is also seperate from the lectures team.

As mentioned, you will in most cases you will have already been added to the team for your lab group by us. If this is still not the case at the start of your first lab (or if you have changed lab groups last minute), you can join your lab group manually using the an access code (see the section on joining a team).

Please do not use teams you are not signed up to unless it is a week without any in-lab assessment. Tutors will prioritise students that are signed up to the lab group first. You can only get your homework marked in the lab you are signed up to unless you have obtained prior written approval from the course convener.

Each tutor or group of tutors may run their lab slightly differently.

Learning programming in a remote environment is challenging. In particular, programming languages are extremely precise, and the difference between a correct and working program and one that crashes can be as little as a single character. To get the most out of online labs, we encourage you to make full use of the screen sharing features of Teams when discussing with your tutor(s), so that they can see what you are doing and the code that you are writing and running. The screen share function can be accessed by the button which looks like a rectangle with an arrow inside (see labelled image of meeting interface from the previous section).

Please make sure that you do not have private (or potentially offensive) material on display, before sharing your screen with your tutor or other students.

To send a private message to your tutor, mouse over or click their profile picture (see circled in violet in image below). On the card that shows up afterwards, click the “text bubble button” in the card that shows up. You can then message or initiate a call to only your tutor from there. Please do not call your tutor unless your tutor says its ok to. If your tutor does not reply to you immediately, they may be busy with other students.