Preparing to facilitate a Microsoft Teams meeting

Description

Meetings in Microsoft Teams include audio, video, and screen sharing. They're one of the key ways to collaborate in Teams. 

Environment

Mac, PC, web browser, and mobile app

Solution 

Getting ready

  1. Review how to schedule a meeting in Teams.

  2. Consider whether to assign roles in your Teams meeting, especially for meetings of more than 5 or so people. For example, the Organizer may want to designate someone as a Presenter so that they can share a PowerPoint or mute noisy Attendees while the Organizer is busy facilitating the meeting.

  3. Set up any A/V equipment you plan to use:

    • Position the camera so that the speaker(s) can easily be seen by remote participants.

    • Position the microphone so that the speaker(s) can be easily heard by the remote participants. For smaller groups, a central location is ideal. For larger groups, put the microphone near the facilitator and ensure the facilitator knows to repeat all questions so that remote participants can hear. It may also be useful to hold your meeting in a room with a built-in PA system or amplified speaker’s podium. Amplifying your Presenter’s voice via the room’s audio system will help the Organizer’s device pick up the room’s audio better.

    • Review your call settings and make a test call to ensure everything is working properly.

    • If you plan to share content such as a PowerPoint or video, make sure you know how to do so. Remember that when you share a video, the remote participants will not hear its audio unless you share system audio as well.

      • If you are planning on having a video feed as well as a shared PowerPoint, note that the Presenter can only show one or the other. Therefore, OIT recommends either:

        • Showing your video feed but sharing the link to the PowerPoint in the chat so that users can click through the slides on their own, OR

        • Sharing your screen, which will override your video feed with the PowerPoint slides

      • If there are any files you would like to talk about or collaborate on, such as a PDF or Word document, OIT recommends sharing those files in the chat so that people can look at the whole file rather than just the part of the file you’re sharing on your screen.

  4. Be prepared to troubleshoot the following:

    • Feedback, echo, or unpleasant background noise

      • ​​​Likely cause: One or more co-located participants’ microphones are picking up audio coming from another co-located participant’s device.

      • Possible solutions: 

        • Organizer/Presenter mutes everyone except for one device in the co-located room

        • Organizer/Presenter mutes everyone who is not supposed to be speaking. (Muted participants will need to be unmuted if they would like to speak later.)

        • If you are using external speakers for audio, ensure that the device connected to the speakers is the same device that is connected to the microphone. (If your device’s microphone picks up any audio your device is generating, Teams automatically cancels it out unless you have intentionally enabled share system audio.)

        • If you are using a microphone that is not connected to the Presenter’s device in the co-located room (e.g. a handheld mic plugged into an amplifier), mute all co-located participants’ devices except for one. This ensures that the amplified sound is only coming through one device.

    • Poor quality audio (lagging, cutting out, etc.)

      • Likely cause: Your device may have too many applications running.

      • Possible solutions: 

        • Close out any applications you do not need for the meeting.

        • Restart Microsoft Teams and rejoin the meeting.

 

Facilitating the meeting

  1. Starting the meeting

    • If you are recording the meeting, say so; it’s courteous. Though anyone who joins the meeting online will receive a notification that it’s being recorded, co-located people who are not in the online meeting will not know unless you tell them.

    • Inform co-located participants that there are remote participants. 

    • Inform remote participants how to resolve A/V issues. For example: “If you are having trouble hearing or seeing us, please type into the chat.”

    • Tell the remote participants how you would like them to participate

      • Via their microphone (preferable for smaller meetings)

      • Via chat (preferable for larger meetings; you will need someone in the room to monitor the chat and bring it to the facilitator’s attention)

  2. Running the meeting

    • Have someone monitor the chat constantly, perhaps someone other than the facilitator. People may ask questions or request help troubleshooting.

    • For larger co-located groups, ask the facilitator to repeat questions asked in the room.  This assures that remote participants can hear the question and that it is captured on the recording.

  3. Ending the meeting

    • Thank everyone for their participation and explicitly tell them that you are ending the remote meeting connection.

 

Outcome: You should now be able to successfully facilitate a Microsoft Teams meeting.

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