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During this period of remote working there are a number of different services and tools available at UCL to help you stay in contact with colleagues and students.
At UCL we primarily use the tools provided by Microsoft for core office communication and collaboration needs. All staff and students have access to the Office 365 environment which includes the MS Office applications - Outlook, Word, Excel and Powerpoint as well as a number of collaboration tools focused around Teams and Sharepoint.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is the hub for teamwork. A Team can be set up instantly, by any member of staff, providing a collaboration environment including 1:1 chat, group chat, file sharing, team conversations and team meetings (by audio and video).
Check with your manager or a co-worker if a Team has been established for your project, team or function. If you need to set one up, review the ISD advice on using Teams for Group Working.
If you are new to Teams or if you have specific questions about how to use the application we suggest you work through the following sections of our Teams guide.
Installing Teams on your devices Getting started with Teams Using Teams while working remotely
You can also find some useful online resources on LinkedIn Learning.
The Quick Start Guide [PDF] is great introduction to the interface and the main functionality. For further guidance the ISD Teams site should give you all that you need.
Teams for communication
Teams is ideal for keeping in touch when working away from your desk or remotely, via a 1:1 or group chat with selected colleagues.
To communicate with the entire team easily, have a text conversation and share files.
Start a call from chat in Teams
If you have a webcam (for video), and/or a microphone (for audio), you can ‘call’ a colleague via Teams – this can be a 1:1 call or a group call. (Note: with some exceptions, this is a ‘call’ within Teams and cannot be used to dial a telephone number). Any headset with a microphone (such as standard supply headphones with Apple and Android phones) can be used via the headphone jack or bluetooth connection to make Teams audio/video calls.
Scheduling an online meeting with Teams
If you’re planning a future meeting, you can schedule it from within Teams, or within Outlook – the meeting will appear in your calendar view in both Teams and Outlook, and will be hosted in Teams.
Teams for collaboration
Each 1:1 and Group Chat, and each Team, has an accompanying files area – perfect for sharing files with that select group of colleagues, ensuring you’re collaborating on the current version of the file.
Remote Working video guide
Check out our remote working video guide