Microsoft Teams (“Teams”) is a collaboration tool featuring enterprise chat, voice, video calls, meeting facilitation and recordings, and Teams channels for collaboration on tasks and projects to support internal and external collaboration. It is a modern collaboration application enabling digital collaboration, group interaction, and communication for modern workplace environments in one place.
Frequently asked questions about Teams
BCIT is aligning with public sector, government agencies, and partner higher learning institutions to implement and adopt Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams is a key product within BCIT’s Unified Collaboration and Communication (UCC) program. Teams will benefit BCIT faculty and staff as a primary collaboration platform offering the newest features in services in digital collaboration and group interaction across multiple platforms and services.
Teams is part of the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity applications and available to BCIT through our M365 licensing agreements and connects with other M365 applications such as Outlook, Sharepoint, OneDrive, OneNote, and Office to allow users to work seamlessly and with less friction. By making better use of our M365 licensing with Teams, BCIT can eliminate or reduce other technology costs, such as those associated with Zoom licensing and maintenance of our aging Citrix infrastructure (Jabber, telephony).
ETS has also launched Class for Teams as a replacement for Bongo, the video-conferencing tool built into the Learning Hub. Class for Teams makes use of an Instructor’s Teams license to provide video-conferencing, and also adds additional functionality that facilitate better classroom management and learning.
At the same time as BCIT is transitioning from Zoom to Microsoft teams for meetings, the Learning Hub is transitioning from using Bongo as its integrated tool for virtual classroom teaching to using Class for Teams. Class for Teams uses Teams for its videoconferencing capabilities while adding a large variety of useful classroom management capabilities. Class for Teams (rather than just Teams) is the best option for most instructors providing virtual classroom/online teaching and will also be better integrated into the Learning Hub than Teams on its own.
During the pilot period, live training will be available for those who are part of the pilot, usually timed to coincide with when they are provided with Teams licensing. A training session has also been recorded and added to the Getting Started with Microsoft Teams article. When Teams is launched for all employees, live training sessions will also be available for anyone who wishes to attend. View currently available sessions.
If you’ve viewed the articles listed below and still have questions or have encountered a problem, contact the ITS Service Desk or visit the Service Catalogue to request further assistance.
More information about using Microsoft Teams at BCIT