Organize class meetings

Applies To
Microsoft Teams for Education

Use Teams to organize class meetings and collaborate with your class. 

Add meeting details

Prep an agenda, highlight learning objectives, or create any other type of note to share with students or colleagues before a meeting.  

  1. To prepare meeting context or notes beforehand, go to the Calendar  and open your meeting.
  2. Enter notes into the text box that says Type details for this meeting
  3. Select Save.
  4. To take notes during a meeting, choose More actions  > Meeting notesTake notes.

Note

All notes appear in the Chat window and are saved in the Meeting Notes tab in Teams. 

Screenshot of no meeting details in web version of Teams.

Screenshot of close/save option in meeting details on web version of Teams.

Create a Whiteboard canvas

Use the digital online Whiteboard to collaborate with your class, demonstrate math problems, and more. 

  1. Select Share content  on the meeting controls.
  2. Choose Whiteboard to start collaborating with your class on a canvas.
  3. To turn off collaboration and  demonstrate something to your students, select Settings , then switch Other participants can edit to Off.
  4. Open Settings and select Export image (PNG) to save your canvas to your Downloads folder.

Note

Explore what you and your students can do with Whiteboard and learn how to use it.  

Screenshot that shows the Share content button in a Teams meeting control bar.

Screenshot that shows the Settings panel with “Other participants can edit” toggle turned off.

Record class meetings

Share meeting recordings with students for asynchronous learning. 

  1. On the meeting controls, select More actions  .
  2. Select Start recording and transcription.

Tip

To continue recording without a transcript, choose More actions > Stop transcript

  1. When you're done, choose More actions   >Stop recording and transcription, and confirm.
  2. To playback your recording in a channel meeting, go to Files. All other meetings are saved to OneDrive.  

Note

Learn more about playback and sharing recordings

Screenshot that shows the Start recording and transcription option in a Teams meeting menu.

Use breakout rooms

Use breakout rooms for small group discussions and projects.

  1. In the meeting controls, select Breakout rooms.
  2. Choose the number of rooms you want to use for class from the dropdown menu.
  3. Choose to assign students to breakout rooms Automatically or Manually.
  4. Select Create rooms. If you chose to automatically assign students, they will be in a breakout room.
  5. If you chose to assign students yourself, expand the list under Assign participants, hover over student names until checkboxes appear, then check the boxes next to names you want to group together. Then select More options  and assign them to a room. Repeat these steps until all students have been grouped into rooms.

Note

Learn more about setting up and managing breakout rooms

Screenshot that shows Breakout rooms button in a Teams meeting control bar.

Screenshot that shows the Create Breakout Rooms dialog with options for room count and participant assignment.

Screenshot that shows the Assign participants to breakout rooms with room list and Add room option.