Microsoft Teams Integration

Tools within Canvas make it easier to work with Microsoft Teams and Canvas at the same time, allowing you to make the most of the features of both platforms.

Two separate "integrations" are available within Canvas to make it easier to work with Microsoft Teams alongside your Canvas course space.

  1. The first integration gives you the ability to automatically create a Microsoft Teams Class with all of the same users added as are enrolled on your Canvas course.
  2. The second integration makes it easy to schedule a Microsoft Teams Meeting from within your Canvas course and automatically invite all the enrolled users. The Microsoft Teams Meeting then appears in the enrolled users' calendars in Outlook and Teams.

Although these two integrations provide overlapping functionality, they are separate and either one or both can be used on each Canvas course space.

When to use and not to use the Microsoft Teams integration

The features described on this page allow a tighter integration between Canvas and Microsoft Teams. Care should be taken in using these features if they are not needed. There is a great deal of duplicated functionality in Canvas and Microsoft Teams, such as calendars, discussions, file sharing/repositories and assignments. There is potential to cause confusion for students about where they can expect to find resources and take part in activities if this is not clearly communicated to them. 
If you already make use of Microsoft Teams alongside your Canvas course with the same cohort of students in each then you will probably benefit from the increased integration between the two platforms - especially the synchronisation of users on both platforms and the ability to schedule a Teams Meeting from Canvas in a manner that adds the event to users' Outlook and Teams calendars.

Index

  1. Enabling and using the Microsoft Teams Classes/Canvas sync integration
  2. More about the role mapping between Microsoft Teams Classes and Canvas
  3. Using the Microsoft Teams Meeting integration

1. Enabling and using the Microsoft Teams Classes/Canvas sync integration

To create a Microsoft Teams Class with all of the same users enrolled as on your Canvas course space you need to enable the integration from within the Settings page for the Canvas course.

  1. Navigate to the Settings page using the left hand navigation menu and then click the Integrations tab.
  2. Alongside Microsoft Sync, change the state toggle so that it is green and enabled. 
  3. The Teams Class will now be scheduled to be created when the database is next refreshed. You can speed up this process by expanding Microsoft Sync section and clicking the Sync Now button. Note that it could take up to 24 hours for the Teams Class to be created but you should find that it is normally created within an hour.

Microsoft Sync settings within the Integrations tab of the Settings page

Now when you go log in to Microsoft Teams you should see a new Team with the same name as the corresponding Canvas course space.

Students will only see this new Team once you have clicked to activate the Team from within Microsoft Teams. When you go to the newly created Team you will see a banner across the top of the Microsoft Teams window advising you that there is a certain number of students waiting to join the team and an Activate button. Only once you click the Activate button will the students see the Team. Any other members of the Canvas course with editing permissions (e.g. teachers and course administrators) will see the new Team before this Activate button is clicked and will all be assigned as "Owners" of the Team with full administrative permissions. Students on the Canvas course space will be enrolled in the Microsoft Team as Members (see Section 2 below).

Microsoft Teams notification to Activate the new Team

It may be easier to advise your students to access the Teams Class by going to Teams directly. However, you can enable the tool on the course navigation menu which will provide a link to the corresponding Microsoft Teams Class for this Canvas course. Go to Settings and select the Navigation tab. By default, the Microsoft Teams Classes item will be at the bottom, meaning that it is not visible to users. Drag the Microsoft Teams Classes item into the top section of the list. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page.  

Microsoft Teams classes item within the Navigation option of Settings

Notes and caveats

  • Any external users enrolled in the Canvas course (those without an Oxford SSO) will not be added to the Microsoft Teams Class automatically. You can add them manually to the Teams Class from within Microsoft Teams.
  • Users who are enrolled on Canvas either manually using the People tab or via the Oxford Groups tool will be synced with the corresponding Microsoft Teams Class.
  • If users are added to the Canvas course after the Microsoft Teams Class integration has been initiated, those users will be added when the system is next synced. This will be within 24 hours. You can speed up this process by going into Settings, then the Integrations tab, expanding the Microsoft Sync section and clicking the Sync Now button. Similarly if a user is unenrolled from the Canvas course they will be removed from the corresponding Microsoft Team at the next sync. Any messages they posted to conversations in the Teams class or any files they added to the Files area of the Teams Class will remain.
  • If you manually add extra users to the Microsoft Teams Class from within Teams, the users will not become enrolled on the corresponding Canvas course. If you want users to be enrolled on both Canvas and Teams then you need to add them via Canvas.
  • Beyond the syncing of the users on Canvas and Microsoft Teams, there is no other integration between the two systems. For example, any files added to the Microsoft Teams Class will not be added to Canvas and vice versa. Any Teams Meetings scheduled from within Microsoft Teams will not appear in the Canvas calendar. Any events with a date attached (such as Assignments or Discussion activities) will not appear in users' Teams calendars, unless the users have explicitly set up the calendar sync functionality within Canvas.

2. More about the role mapping between Microsoft Teams Classes and Canvas

Be aware that some Canvas roles receive full owner rights in Teams (which you may not be expecting). In particular, an Owner in Teams is much more powerful than a TA in Canvas, but that's the role that a Canvas TA gets mapped to in Teams.

  • Teacher and TA roles in Canvas will be mapped to the Owner role in Teams.
  • Student and Observer-based roles in Canvas will be mapped to the Member role in Teams.

More information: Roles in Microsoft Teams Links to an external site.

3. Using the Microsoft Teams Meeting integration

To enable the ability to easily schedule Teams meetings with all enrolled Canvas users invited, you first need to enable the Microsoft Teams Meetings tool from within the Navigation tab of the course Settings page. By default, this tool will be in the bottom section of the Navigation options page, meaning it is not visible to users. To make it visible, you simply drag it to the position you would like it to appear in the top section. Click the Save button at the bottom of the page. 

Microsoft Teams meetings item within the Navigation option of Settings

Once this navigation item has been enabled, if you return to the course and access the Microsoft Teams meetings button from the navigation menu you will be presented with a Microsoft Teams meetings interface embedded within Canvas. It will show a list of any Teams meetings that have already been scheduled for this Canvas course space.

At the top right there is a button labelled +New meeting . Clicking this button will take you to the familiar interface for scheduling a Teams meeting. The significant difference to scheduling the meeting from within Canvas using this integration and scheduling it from within Teams itself is the addition of the Add entire class link below the field for entering attendees. 

The Add entire class button is used to add enrolled Canvas users as meeting attendees

Clicking this Add entire class button will populate the attendees list with all of the users who are enrolled on the Canvas course. This means that the meeting will be added to the users' Outlook/Teams calendars which is more convenient than having to return to Canvas to access the link to the meeting. 

It is also possible to set up the meeting to be recurring. By default the option below the date and time for the meeting is set to Does not repeat. This can be changed so that the meeting is scheduled automatically daily/weekly/monthly or at a custom interval of your choosing.

Once the meeting has been scheduled, as well as it appearing in the Outlook/Teams calendar for all attendees, the event will also appear on the schedule of Teams meetings for this Canvas course when a user access the Microsoft Teams meetings link from the course navigation menu. 

Notes and caveats

  • The Microsoft Teams meetings page accessed from the course navigation menu will only list the Teams meetings created using this tool, and not Teams meetings that have been created using the Microsoft Teams button available in the Canvas text editor when creating or editing a page/discussion forum post/assignment or calendar event.
  • This functionality should be used with caution on Canvas courses with a large number of users enrolled. Once you click the Add entire class button every single user enrolled on the Canvas course will be added to the list of attendees for the meeting, they will receive a notification via email and the event will be placed in their Outlook/Teams calendar. This may not be desirable for all users, for example, if you have extra members of staff enrolled on the course space who do not need to/would not be expected attend the meeting. Once the Add entire class button has been clicked, you have the opportunity to manually remove any attendees from the list that has now been populated in the attendees field above. 
  • Microsoft Teams meetings scheduled using this functionality will appear in all invited users' Outlook/Teams calendars but will not appear in their Canvas calendar. If you would like the event to also appear in the Canvas calendar you will need to manually create an event in the calendar for the Canvas course calendar and add a link to the meeting. The link to the meeting can be accessed by looking at the event in your own Outlook calendar once the event has been created.

Further help on using Teams

General help on using Microsoft Teams is available on the IT Services web pages.

If you are having problems with the Microsoft Teams integration in Canvas, contact the Canvas service desk at canvas@it.ox.ac.uk