Teams FAQ

How do I join a Teams meeting?

You can join a Teams meeting three ways:

1. Desktop App (Computer): Download and install Microsoft Teams on your personal device. Make sure to sign in with your college credentials to access meetings. Teams is already installed on all college systems.

2. Web Version (Computer): You can join a meeting directly from your browser, whether you are signed in or not. Make sure to grant your browser access to your microphone and camera.

3. Mobile App (Phone/Tablet): Download the Teams app from your device’s app store. You can use it to join meetings as a guest without signing in, or sign in with your Cambrian college email and password account.

Note: Attendees cannot join Teams meetings from a phone browser, they must use the Teams mobile app, which allows joining without signing in.

Can I make a perpetual Teams meeting link?

A perpetual meeting link is one that never expires and can be reused indefinitely. Microsoft Teams does not currently support this feature; however, there are a few workarounds:

Generate a Meet Now link from the Meet app. This link can be reused, but it will expire 60 days after it is created.
Reuse a scheduled meeting link. A scheduled meeting link will also expire after 60 days of inactivity, but the 60-day timer resets each time the link is used.
Create a recurring meeting in your Outlook calendar with no end date. This provides a long-term reusable link tied to your recurring schedule.

Please note: Meeting chat is persistent. Anyone who joins a session using the same link, at any time, will be able to see the full chat history from previous meetings.

What’s the best method for making annotations during class?

Teams offers several ways to annotate during a meeting, whether you’re collaborating with students or presenting on your own. While Teams does provide built-in annotation tools, we recommend using the annotation features within the application you’re sharing, such as Word, or PowerPoint.

This is because Teams’ built-in annotations do not appear in meeting recordings, which can cause confusion for students reviewing the material later. By annotating directly within the app you’re using, your notes will be visible both during the live session and in the recorded version.

The only exception is when you need collaborative annotation. In that case, we recommend using a whiteboard. A copy of the whiteboard is saved to your OneDrive and linked in the meeting chat.

Click here for more info on classroom annotation.

Where can I find my recordings?

A link to your meeting recordings is automatically saved in the meeting chat. The recordings themselves are stored in a folder named Recordings in your OneDrive and will remain accessible for 150 days before they expire.

What should I do if I have technical issues?

Call the IT Service Desk, they can be reached by phone at 705-566-8101 x7370 or by logging a ticket.

Can I limit who joins my Teams meeting to only people in my organization?

Yes, you can restrict meeting access so only people within your organization can join automatically.

Who can bypass the lobby? People in my organization
Who can admit from the lobby? Organizers and co-organizers

External users will be forced to wait in the lobby and can only join if you admit them.

Does Teams allow partial screen sharing?

No. Microsoft Teams does not currently support sharing a cropped portion of your screen. Zoom’s Share Portion of Screen feature does not have a direct equivalent in Teams.

Workarounds

Share a specific window, only the selected application is visible to participants.
Resize the application window to show only the area you want, then share that window.

What are the options for assigning students to breakout rooms in Teams?

Screenshot of the Teams Meetings controls with the Rooms button circled.

Microsoft Teams offers several options for assigning students to breakout rooms:

1. Students choose their own rooms

You can enable Let participants choose a room in the breakout room settings.
When this option is turned on, students can browse available rooms and move themselves freely.

2. Instructor assigns rooms manually

You can manually assign students to specific rooms either:

Before the meeting (pre-assignment), or
During the meeting through the breakout room panel.

3. Automatic assignment

Teams can automatically distribute participants evenly across rooms.
This can be done when creating breakout rooms during the meeting.

Screenshot of the create breakout rooms in Teams meetings.

Note: breakout room assignments can persist across recurring meetings as long as the meeting link and participant identities remain the same.

What's the difference between Teams Polls and Teams Q&A?

Polls: Used to collect structured responses, like multiple-choice questions. Created with Microsoft Forms, results can be shown live. Great for quick votes, surveys, or knowledge checks. Note: Zoom polls cannot be imported, you must create them in Teams.

You must add the Polls app to your Team meeting in order to use it. You can find it by clicking Apps, searching Polls and clicking Add.

Q&A: Used for open-ended questions. Participants type questions in the Q&A panel, and presenters can answer live or later. Ideal for discussions, clarifications, and feedback.

This feature must be enabled in the Meeting options prior to starting the meeting.

Can I add Apps to my Teams meetings?

All official Microsoft apps are automatically allowed in Teams. Third-party apps are disabled by default for security reasons, but requests for third-party apps can be submitted to the IT Department via a support ticket or by phone at (705) 566-8101 x7370.

Does Cambrian have branded Teams backgrounds?

Cambrian-branded backgrounds are available for download from the Brand Toolkit.

To upload a background:

In a Teams meeting, click the arrow next to Camera.
Select More video effects and settings.
Click Add new and select the image you downloaded.
Choose the uploaded image and click Apply to use it.

Can I pause Teams a recording?

Teams recordings cannot be paused. To manage long meetings, stop a recording and start a new one. This creates multiple video files.

How can I submit a feature requests?

In the Teams app, click your profile picture in the top-right corner.
Select Help, then Give feedback to submit a feature request or report an issue.
You can describe your suggestion or problem, and it will be sent directly to Microsoft for review.

What happens if a student doesn't accept being recorded in Microsoft Teams?

When a Microsoft Teams meeting is recorded, attendees will see a pop-up notification informing them that the session is being recorded. Until they acknowledge this notification, their camera, microphone, and ability to share content will be disabled.

If they accept the notification: they can participate in the meeting normally, including using audio, video, chat, and screen sharing (if enabled).
If they do not click the pop-up or do not accept the recording: they will not be able to fully participate in the meeting, and their microphone, camera, and screen sharing will remain disabled.

An attendee choosing not to accept the recording does not affect the recording itself; it only limits that individual’s ability to participate in the meeting.

Can I limit who has access to the recording?

Instructors cannot control recording access on a per-participant basis, either before or during a meeting. Anyone who is allowed to join the meeting will automatically have access to the recording once it is created. As a work around you can limit access to the chat and to remove students access to the recording manually.

Step 1: Restrict the meeting chat to In-meeting only

1.   Open the Meeting options.
2.   Navigate to the Participation tab.
3.   Set the Meeting chat to In-meeting only.

4. Save your changes.

This setting must be applied before the meeting starts.

Step 2: Remove participant access to the recording

Once the meeting has ended and the recording is processed:

1.   Locate the recording in your OneDrive.
2.   Right click and select Share.
3.   Click the three dots (⋯) at the bottom of the window (note that the three dots will only appear if the file has been shared).

4. Choose Stop Sharing to remove access for everyone except the owner of the recording.

5. Return to the main Share page.
6. Use the dropdown to select the type of access you want to grant (probably View).

7. Add only the specific users you want to give access to.
8. Click Send to email the link or Copy to copy the link.

Important notes and limitations

•   The recording link will still appear in the meeting chat, but students without permission will receive an access denied message.
•   Access changes are not instantaneous due to Microsoft permission caching.
•   This process must be repeated for each recorded meeting.

Can I join a meeting twice?

Yes, you can join the meeting from two devices, for example from you laptop and from your Ipad. If you are signed in with your college email on both devices, you will appear only once in the attendee list while still having the same meeting control permissions on both devices.

Can I record only the shared content?

No, Teams does not offer an option to record only shared content and audio. Organizers and co-organizers can hide themselves by selecting View, More options, and Hide me.

Attendees who do not wish to be recorded can leave their camera off or decline the recording consent when the recording begins.

How can I prevent students from starting and stopping the meeting recording?

You can limit who can start and stop recordings by setting who can present to only the organizer and co-organizer. The logic is that organizers, co-organizers and presenter have access to the meeting controls. So by limiting who can present you can limit who has the ability to start and stop the recording.

You can limit who can present by going to Meeting options, then Roles, and setting Who can present to Only organizers and co-organizers.

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