Microsoft Teams - Meeting Types

Students, faculty and staff can use Teams to conduct audio and video calls. Teams offers templates for meetings as well.

Open

Small and Medium Sessions

Every meeting has a persistent Chat thread. If a message is sent during the meeting, everyone may see the message and reply to it.

Direct Calling

You may call another person directly to engage in a 1:1 call. These calls have a persistent chat; if you call the same person again, you will see your chat messages from the previous calls. Others can be added to this call while it is in session. If you add others to the call, it turns into a “meeting” as described below.

Learn more:

Default: Meeting

The default meeting type grants participants equal privilege, everyone may: turn on camera and microphone, screenshare, chat, press Record (the resulting video file resides in Host/scheduler’s OneDrive account).
Everyone can communicate in the Chat during and after the meeting. Anyone in the Chat my press the Call button to start the meeting again. This Chat thread can be used throughout your time at the university and will persist through each recurrence of the meeting and can host unscheduled meetings as often as you’d like.
Chat members may add/remove others and choose how much of the conversation history to share with newcomers. Continue reading below to see how the specialty meeting types differ from a default meeting.

Class

The “Class” template is useful for professors who would like to create a call with a Chat that only functions during the call.

• Chat is only active for students while the meeting is in session

  • The Host can continue to send messages 24/7

  • Students can react to messages 24/7

• Only the Host can utilize the Record and Transcribe tools

  • The resulting video file resides in Host’s OneDrive account.

• Only Host can share screen until the Host designates a Student as “Presenter”

• Students can be added and removed from Chat 24/7.

Lecture

The “Lecture” choice is useful for professors who would like to create a call with a Chat that functions before, during, and after the call.

• Same as “Class” above however chat is fully available 24/7

Large Sessions

Webinar

Webinars are useful for very large meetings with a focus on a one-way dissemination of information while retaining the Chat and Q&A feature. The panel of presenters may share their webcam, microphone, and screen while the audience is limited to typing their comments unless unmuted by a panelist. Webinars have a registration tool that people see before joining the call.

Learn more here: Webinars on Teams

• Same as “Class” above except,

  • Presenters are designated before or during event and can share screen

  • Only Host and Presenters can turn on Microphones and Cameras. Everyone else uses Chat or Q&A

• When the Host begins the event, the Host and Presenters are in a “green room”, also known as a “practice session”, until the Host again chooses to go Live to the audience.

*Only those who attend may view the Chat thread during/after the event. The Host can manually add/remove participants in the Chat after the event.

Town Hall

Town Halls are very similar to Webinars as described above, however they do not have registration.

Features: Up to 20k attendees, Green room, Chat

Public or Large session

If you are planning a large, public, or a one-way dissemination of information, you may consider utilizing the default meeting type combined with a livestream.

• You and your team:

  • use the default meeting type, no special setup

  • utilize all the regular features of a meeting

  • turn on the livestream when you are ready to present

• The audience

  • views the meeting through a one-way livestream link

    • cannot interact with meeting participants

  • essentially unlimited viewer limit

If you are interesting in livestreaming your event, please reach out to techsupport@uconn.edu.

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