Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based collaboration application that is part of the Office 365 suite that is available to all IUP employees, students, and affiliates.
IUP employees can request a Team space for their organization or office via . Students and affiliates must work with an employee sponsor if they want to request a team. IT Services will create a Team space after review of the request. Any IUP user can be added to the Team, and external users can be added by request via . The Team space will follow IUP naming conventions and practices. Using a Team space as a replacement for D2L or Moodle is not supported.
Some features and benefits include
- Group-based chats with text, audio and video
- File sharing: store all your files, docs, and more in one place
- Integration with Office365 email, calendars, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote
- Live document collaboration
- Online meetings: meet with up to 250 people at one time
- Share your desktop, applications, or a whiteboard during meetings
Using Microsoft Teams at IUP
IT Services will provide limited training for Teams as the responsibility for usage, maintenance, and implementation will fall to the requester of the Team space.
Training resources directly from Microsoft are very thorough and will be made available to all users that have interest in using Microsoft Teams.
IT Services is not responsible for deleted, missing, or moved data within the Team space.
Adding and removing users to a Team space is the responsibility of the Team space owner. It should be noted that IUP's initial implementation of MS Teams will not permit external users (non-IUP users) to be members of a Team space.
Team space owners can be changed in case of retirements and/or change of responsibilities.
The Team space owner is responsible for any sensitive information that is posted in the Team space and linked applications or tabs.
Failure to secure the space and remove any sensitive information may result in the disabling of access to the Team space without warning.
Teams has a feature for application add-ons. IT Services will determine if/how these add-ons are available to IUP Team spaces.
- Windows, click Start and browse to Microsoft Teams.
- Mac, go to Safari and type the url , download the app ,and install. After installation, go to the Applications folder and click Microsoft Teams.
- Mobile, search for Microsoft Teams in the App Store or Google Play Store, download the app, and tap the Teams icon.
- Web, go to and select the Teams icon.
- After you launch Teams from one of the options above, sign in with your IUP email address. Note that the populated field is not your IUP email address. You will need to click on Use another account and type in your IUP email address (the actual address, not the alias); i.e., username@iup.edu.
- The next screen is the IUP Single Sign-On screen. Type yourIUP network credentials (your username without the @iup.edu) and click login to continue into Teams.
The use of MS Teams is subject to the same IT policies, laws, regulations, and procedures that pertain to other electronic records at IUP. This include right-to-know, e-discovery, and FERPA obligations. It is the responsibility of the Teams space owner and members using MS Teams to ensure that all use is consistent with associated policies.
A Team space will be eligible for deletion after one year of inactivity. The Team owner will be contacted before the Team space is deleted. If the team space stays around longer, it will be subject to the university retention policy. In addition, if a Team space owner retires or takes another position at the university, the Team space ownership can be changed to another IUP user.
The current Team space owner should make the request to change ownership via prior to retirement, leaving the university, or taking another position at the university.
Person-to-person chat messages (those not affiliated with a Team) will be subject to removal after 90 days.
IUP's MS Teams environment is governed by IUP's Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources Policy.
Chat messages are only to be used for transitory record purposes and should not include sensitive data.Chat message content is subject to litigation, investigative hold, or other lawful requests.
I understand that third-party applications can be added to Microsoft Teams. How will those applications be handled for potential integration into my Team space?
A Team space owner will be able to make a request to add specific applications to MS Teams. The request will be vetted with appropriate security personnel to be considered. After thorough review, the application may or may not be added to the Teams space and/or the Teams space infrastructure.
Microsoft Teams will help me more easily communicate and collaborate with the members of the team through chat functionality and through quick video/audio calls. Will that change how we use existing tools (like Zoom and other communication tools)?
The chat functionality within Teams allows for quick and easy one-off conversations with anyone that is set up within the IUP Office365 environment (any faculty, staff, or student). The chat conversations will stay around until they are deleted. In addition, it is very easy to have a quick audio (computer microphone required) and or video (computer camera is required) call with a person or a group of people while also providing the ability to do desktop screen sharing. Teams is meant to be a collaborative environment for quick one-off meetings and collaboration sessions, while Zoom will continue to be the default audio/video conferencing solution for large meetings and in the academic environment. MS Teams also enables threaded conversations in Team channels to easily track conversations about specific topics.
Voicemail is not available in Teams due to licensing.
Yes, built into the MS Teams space is a "File" repository that is essentially a Shared OneDrive space for the people that are members of the Team space. While you can access the files within Teams, you can also access the shared files via One Drive via the "Shared Libraries" area of OneDrive. In addition, Teams allows for live document collaboration via multiple team members.
Yes, Teams has the concept of a "Team Notebook." Essentially, it allows all members of the team space to collaborate live on the OneNote notebook and be capable of referring to the notebook at any time via OneNote Online, OneNote for Windows, OneNote for Mac, and the OneNote app on smartphones.
Yes, Microsoft Team does have a mobile app which be used for IUP Team spaces. Users can download and authenticate with their IUP computing account to access Teams.
Users are responsible for restoring files and channels that are deleted from a Team space. An ticket can be entered for assistance if needed.
- To restore a Channel (a restore is only available for 30 days from date deleted):
- Go to the Team.
- Click the three three dots next to the channel name and choose Manage Team.
- On the upper menu bar choose Channels.
- This will list the active and deleted channels.
- Choose the channel to be restored and click Restore.
- Files (a restore is only available for 60 days from date deleted):
- Go to channel the file(s) were deleted from.
- Click on Files.
- When in Files, click on Open in SharePoint on the upper menu bar.
- Click on Recycle Bin on left side menu.
- Choose file(s) to be restored and click on Restore.