Create and Add MS Teams Links to Brightspace using Office 365 Outlook

Relevant for: faculty, staff

This article contains information considered accurate at the time of publication. Technological updates, changes in the University's security practices, as well as in policies and procedures, may affect the information in this article. Updates are scheduled periodically and will address any necessary changes.

Introduction

Microsoft Teams is the communication tool supported at the University by Information Technology Services and by Empire Online for use within Brightspace. As part of the Microsoft Office 365 suite, Teams integrates directly with Outlook, making it easy to schedule, manage, and join virtual meetings. By creating a Teams meeting through your Outlook calendar, you can conveniently invite participants, share important details, and provide a direct join link — all in one step. This streamlined process ensures that students, faculty, and staff can collaborate efficiently while using the University’s officially supported communication platform.

Creating a meeting

Here is a step-by-step guide for creating a MS Teams meeting using MS Office 365 through Outlook calendar.

1. From the Start menu in your computer, select the MS Office 365 Outlook application.


2. Select Outlook and navigate to your Calendar.


3. On the left hand side and below the Home tab, select on "New Event" to create a new calendar entry.


4. Enter the required details:
   • Meeting Title
   • Date and Start/End Times
   • On the right-hand side, toggle ON the Teams meeting.
   • If you like to have a recurring meeting, select the Make Recurring option below the date.

5. Select how often you want the meeting to occur and select Save. 


6. Once you have save the meeting, this will appear in your Calendar. Then, choose the Teams meeting entry you have created and select the double side arrow at the right hand corner of the small window.

• Note: The meeting time will not show automatically on your students' university MS Teams calendars. Therefore, it is best practice to include notifications of any upcoming MS Teams meeting for students in the course Announcements and manually add the meeting dates and times to the Course Calendar.

5. On the left bottom side of the panel, select the Meeting options.
6. Under Meeting access:

• Choose People in my Org from the drop-down menu.
• Ensure that People dialing in can bypass the lobby is OFF, and Require unverified participants to verify their info before joining is ON.

10. From the menu in the left-hand side, select Participation, and ensure the Allow attendance report button is ON. Then, select Save. 
11. Once the settings are saved, Exit the window and access the previous window with the Calendar Teams meeting entry. 
12. To copy the Teams Meeting link, in the calendar select the meeting you have created, then choose the down menu option next to the Join button and select Copy join link. A confirmation box will appear at the bottom of the screen.

• Note: The course instructor can only create MS Teams links for the link to provide the proper roles (Organizer/Participant/Guest) and multiple meeting links can be created.

 

Add the Meeting link in Brightspace

 

1. Navigate to your course in Brightspace.
2. Open the Module where you want the link to be posted.


3. From the Upload/Create button, choose Create a link from the drop-down.


4. In the new link window, Title the activity and insert the link in the URL box. Ensure the check mark is set to Open as External Resource.
   • Note: Setting the meeting to Open as External Resource will prevent permission error messages.
5. Select Create to save your Teams Meeting in the course.

 

Accessing the Meeting

1. To access the meeting link, select the Meeting title.
   • Note: Sometimes the multi-factor authentication may be triggered from your chosen device at this time.
2. A new tab will open in the web browser, select the Join on the Teams App button to launch the meeting in Microsoft Teams.
   • Please Note: For best experience download and use the Microsoft Teams software on your computer. The features in the web versions of Teams vary by browser and the Mobile versions are more limited in features. These instructions apply to both faculty and students.

Download an attendance report

During the Meeting

1. Select People to view who attended the meeting.
2. On the Participants pane, select the ellipses [...], then choose Download attendance list.
3. A download notification will appear at the right-corner of the screen showing the excel file.

After the Meeting

From Chat

1. In Teams, go to Chat and open the meeting’s chat.
2. Open the Attendance tab and select Download to get the excel file.
   • Note: The report will typically appear about 5 minutes after the meeting has ended.

From Calendar

1. In Teams, go to the Calendar and open the past meeting invite.
2. Select on the Attendance tab and Download the excel file.
   • Note: Only the organizer can view/download attendance reports.