Microsoft Teams: How to Facilitate a Meeting

Open the calendar in Microsoft Teams. It is located on the left-hand side of the application.

Click on “New Meeting,” located on the upper right-hand corner of the screen, to schedule a new meeting.

A new window will open:

Show as:

Select how others see your availability during the meeting – Free, Tentative, Busy, Working elsewhere, Out of Office, or Private.

Response options:

You may request that participants respond to the invitation and whether they may forward it to others.

Require registration:

You have the option of requiring registration for either people in your organization, everyone, or no one.

Add Title:

This is where you will add the name of your class, training, or meeting.

Add required attendees:

Initially you may invite people to your meeting from this box.

Date and Time:

Meeting time and date can be selected here, and whether it is an all-day event. If you are not sure when to host the meeting, the toolbar at the very top has a “Scheduling Assistant” tab that can show you your participant’s schedules.

Does not repeat:

You may choose to repeat this meeting regularly – Every weekday (Mon-Fri), Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, or Custom.

Add Channel (optional):

You may host your meeting within a specific channel, allowing anyone in that channel to join.

Add Location (optional):

You may add a location here if needed. It is optional and not needed for online conferences.

Once you are finished filling out the previous information. Click Save.

Now you can see your new meeting on the calendar in Teams and Outlook. From here, you may join the meeting, or you may edit details or cancel the meeting.

The new edit screen also opens access to new tools to prepare for your meeting and to review when your meeting is over. You can access meeting notes, the whiteboard, and attendance reports. The chat and any files that you would like your participants to have access to or are shared during the meeting can also be accessed here.

In addition to these tools, you can now set up your meeting options, such as who, if anyone, can bypass the lobby, whether microphones will be allowed on upon entrance, and who has permission to present. These options will also be available during the meeting, so you can change them any time.

This toolbar also allows you to set up breakout rooms before your meeting starts. You can create the number of rooms, have participants assigned to rooms automatically, or manually assign them. You can change the names of each room and change meeting settings for individual rooms.

Many people use Outlook to schedule and edit meetings. To add additional participants to a meeting after you have scheduled it, simply go into the calendar of either Outlook or Teams and click on the meeting.

Teams:

Go to the meeting details, as explained above, and add their email address to the list of required or optional attendees. You will then have to send an update to all participants.

Outlook:

A new email will open, addressed to all current attendees. Add the new email addresses to the “To…” bar. Choose if you would like to send an update to everyone or just the ones added/deleted, then press “OK”.

The update will be reflected in both Teams and Outlook.

Note: It is best practice to ensure participant updates are kept to a minimum, so it is recommended that the meeting organizer make as many edits as possible all at once for fewer emailed updates.

Before the meeting begins, ensure your microphone is plugged in, and then test your devices. To do this, click on the three dots at the top right corner of the Teams window, next to your profile picture. Select “Settings.”

When you join the meeting you will see the following screen. The options you have on this screen are:

Audio:

The default setting is Computer audio. The other options are only used in specific circumstances. Under Computer audio, it will show the current default microphone and speakers. You can choose between PC Mic and Speakers or a specific headset, headphones, and/or microphone. You can also toggle the microphone on or off here.

Join Now:

This will bring you directly into the meeting.

Camera:

Toggle the cameras on or off.

When you join a meeting, you will see a toolbar near the top of the screen.

Many of these options are available to all attendees. See Microsoft Teams Meeting Attendees Toolbar for more information about these options.

People:
The first button will open the Participants panel on the right side of the screen. This will show the participants currently in the meeting and allow you to invite additional people. You can also see who is raising their hand in the order that their hands were raised.

Chat: The second button opens the Meeting chat panel.

Reactions: The third button shows the reactions you can use.

Rooms: The fourth button opens the Rooms dialog. This will allow you to set up Breakout rooms to split up your participants into groups after the meeting has started.

More: The options that are available only to the facilitator include:

Meeting options:

These are the same options that are available when first scheduling the meeting.

Meeting notes:

Notes that are taken and shared with others before, during, and after the meeting.

Meeting Info:

Specific details about the meeting that may need to be shared to help participants enter the meeting when they are having trouble, or to invite additional people when the participant panel’s invite option is not working.

Camera: Toggles Camera on/off and offers options for visual effects.

Microphone: Toggles Microphone on/off.

Share: This is where you will share the visuals for your meeting. When you click on the share button you will have the option to share your desktop or browser windows. If you want to share sound from your computer, make sure you toggle “Include computer sound”.

Leave: Allows you to either hang up or end the meeting for everyone.

One final important note is that if you click on any of the tabs in the upper far left of the MS Teams module (e.g. “Activity”, “Chat”, “Teams”, “Calendar”, “Calls”, or “Files”) then the primary meeting screen will get minimized. You can still see it in the upper-left corner of the screen. If you want to return to the primary meeting screen, you only need to click on the minimized screen that was just mentioned and it will take you right back to the meeting.