Online learningĀ can present unique student safety challenges. We've gathered Teams for Education best practices for bothĀ administrators and educators to establish safety policies and administer meetings and channels withĀ recommendedĀ controls. Working together, these settings help ensure a safer and more productive environment for your students while using Teams.Ā
Notes:Ā
-
This guide is designed to serve as a foundation for your educational institution's safety plan.Ā We will updateāÆthese recommendations regularly.āÆĀ Ā
-
Other resources you might be looking for:Ā
IT Admins play a crucial role in setting up safe policies for students and educators in Teams for Education. We've broken down the best practices in this guide with explanations for different policies and configurations.
In this article
Set up safe identities for your students and educators
We strongly recommend that you create student identitiesĀ in your tenant for distance learning. Requiring students and educators to sign in to Teams before they join meetings is the safest meeting environmentĀ for remote learning.Ā Doing so can help educators keep unauthorized users from gaining access to their online meetings.Ā Ā
For more information on how you can set up identities and licenses for your organization, visit our Get started with Microsoft Teams for remote learning guide.
Limiting personal usage of Teams in a school environment
The Microsoft Teams experience supports school, work, and personal accounts.Ā If you would like to restrictĀ the ability for students to sign inĀ with their personal accounts,Ā youĀ canĀ set up restrictions using Devices Policies.
Learn more aboutĀ Microsoft Teams for your personal life.Ā
What are Teams policies and admin settings?
Important:Ā
-
IT Admins can run the Teams for Education Policy Wizard to easily apply the majority of the policies recommended in this article to your tenant. The wizard adjusts the Global defaults of a core set of policies with settings that we recommend for student safety and applies it to students. Running itĀ also creates and assigns a set of custom policies to a group of educators and staff.
-
If you already used the Policy Wizard to apply policies for your students, educators, and staff, use this article as a reference for additional safety measures, or if you prefer to manually create and manage policies for your tenant.
Teams policiesāÆand admin settingsĀ allow you to control how Teams behaves in your environment and what level of access individual users have to certain features. To maintain student safety, you should use administrative policies to control who can use private chat and private calling, who can schedule meetings, and what content types can be shared.Ā Policies must be adjusted for both students and educatorsĀ to keep the environment safe.Ā
We recommend that you use yourĀ Global (organization-wide default) policy definition for students.Ā This will ensure that any new users get the most conservative policy set and reduces the risk that a student will receive inappropriate levels of access.Ā Ā
View ourĀ Teams policies and policy package for EducationĀ guide for more details about Teams policies and the best way to deploy themĀ within yourĀ environment.Ā
Meetings: Set up safe calls, meetings, and meeting chats
There areĀ two roles available within Teams meetings:Ā presenterĀ andĀ attendee. PresentersĀ can manage meeting participants and share content, while the role of an attendee is more controlled. In many cases it is safest if students join meetings as attendees. This will ensure that they cannot remove other participants, mute others, or have other elevated meeting controls.Ā Ā
Educators can use theĀ Who can presentĀ setting within Meeting optionsĀ to control who joins their meetings as attendees, but administrators can also use the following policy to set the default value of this setting so that only the meeting organizer joins as a presenter and students join as attendees.Ā Ā
Apply thisĀ meeting policyĀ to educators:
-
Who can present: Only organizers and co-organizers
Requiring participants to sign in to Teams before they join a meeting is the first step to keeping unauthorized users from gaining access to a meeting. When a meeting participant is signed in, an educator can more easily identify the participant, which makes it easier to determine if they should be allowed into the meeting.
If you have provided your students and educators with Teams licenses and do not plan to allow participants to join meetings without signing in to Teams, ensure that the following meeting settingĀ is set:
Anonymous users can join a meeting:Ā Off
There may be cases where you want toĀ allow anonymous users to join a meetingĀ within your school or district.Ā For example, you may be using Teams meetings for parent discussions, external consultations, or other cases.
If you choose to enable anonymous meetings, make sure your meeting organizersĀ are using the proper meeting lobby settingsĀ and following meeting lobby best practices. Configure the following settings to ensure that anonymous participants are not automatically admitted into meetings.
Apply these meeting policy settingsĀ to meeting organizers:
-
Let anonymous people and dial-in callers start a meeting:Ā Off
-
People dialing in can bypass the lobby:Ā Off
-
Who can bypass the lobby:Ā Only organizers and co-organizers
Use these meetingĀ policy settingsĀ to remove a studentāsāÆability to schedule meetings, create live events, andāÆparticipate inĀ private calls withāÆfaculty and other students.Ā Ā
Apply theseĀ meeting policy settingsĀ to students:Ā
-
Allow Meet now in channels:āÆOffĀ
-
Allow the Outlook add-in:āÆ OffĀ
-
Allow channel meeting scheduling:āÆ OffĀ
-
Allow scheduling private meetings:āÆOffĀ
-
Allow Meet now in private meetings:āÆOffĀ
Apply thisĀ live events policyĀ to students:
-
Allow scheduling:āÆOffĀ
Educators can use the meeting lobby bypassoptions to control who can enter meetings directly without needing to be admitted from the meeting lobby first. Limiting who has this capability will help educators keep unauthorized users from gaining access to their meetings.
Educators should set Who can bypass the lobby to Only me to ensure that only they, asĀ meeting organizers, can join the meeting directly. This will ensure that students and any other participants will need to wait in the lobby until they are admitted to the meeting. This setting will also preventĀ students from joining the meeting unattended.
In addition to enabling the meeting lobby, educators should take steps to help prevent students from joining meetings unattended by following meeting lobby best practices.Ā Ensure that the educators in your school or district are aware of the additional measuresĀ they can take to support student safety.
Important:Ā There are some situations where the original educator who scheduled a meeting is not present to start the meeting, such as a day when a substitute is teaching instead. If an educator has set Who can bypass the lobby to Only meĀ for a meeting and they are unable to start the meeting to admit others,Ā we recommend that the original teacher cancels their meeting for the class.Ā Then, the educator who is in charge of the class for the day should create a new meeting.Ā That way, they are the meeting organizer and will have full control of the meeting.
Use this meeting policy to set Who can bypass the lobby to Only me by default for educators.
Apply this meeting policyĀ to educators:
-
Automatically admit people: Organizer only
Apply this meeting policy toĀ disableĀ allĀ meeting chatsĀ for students:Ā
-
AllowĀ chat in meetings:āÆ DisabledĀ
Ensure that the educators in your environment are aware of the additional measuresĀ theyĀ can take to controlĀ studentĀ chat within channel meetings.Ā
Use this meeting policy if you would like to stop students from uploading custom video backgroundsĀ but would still like to allow studentsĀ to blur their video background or choose a defaultĀ TeamĀ imageĀ to use as their background.Ā Ā
UseĀ PowerShellĀ to assign thisĀ meeting policyĀ toĀ students:Ā
-
VideoFiltersMode:Ā BlurandDefaultBackgrounds
Use this calling policyĀ to disableĀ allĀ privateĀ calls and group calls for students.Ā Ā Ā
Apply thisĀ calling policyĀ to students:
-
Make private calls: āÆOffĀ
In Microsoft Teams,Ā theāÆCall meāÆfeatureĀ gives users a way to join the audio portion of a meeting by phone. Users get the audio portion of the meeting through their cell phone or land line and the content portion of the meetingāsuch as when another meeting participant shares their screen or plays a videoāthrough their computer.Ā Ā Ā
This feature is controlled at the organizer level. To prevent students from using this feature in class meetings, turnĀ thisĀ Audio Conferencing settingĀ off for educators organizing class meetings:Ā
-
Dial-out from meetings:Ā OffĀ
Note:Ā This is a preview or early release feature.Ā
TheĀ Walkie TalkieĀ appĀ within Teams can provide educators withĀ instant push-to-talk communicationĀ capabilities.Ā Educators can useĀ the appĀ to connect quicklyĀ across campus withoutĀ makingĀ voice calls or sending messages.Ā Walkie Talkie also works anywhere withĀ WiFiĀ or cellular internet connectivity.Ā While Walkie Talkie is a powerful tool for educators, it could be a distraction for students.Ā Use this policy to disable Walkie Talkie access for students:Ā
Apply thisĀ Teams app permissionĀ policyĀ toĀ students:Ā
-
Microsoft apps:Ā Block specific apps and allow all others.Ā
-
SelectĀ Walkie TalkieĀ from the application list.
Conversations: Set up safe chats and channels
Each team within Microsoft Teams is associated with a Microsoft 365 group.Ā To prevent students from creating teams, you must remove their ability to create a Microsoft 365 group by following these instructions.
Use this messaging policy toĀ allowĀ educatorsĀ toĀ deleteĀ anyĀ message sent within channel meetings and channel conversationĀ that they own.Ā Ā
Tip:Ā This will allow educators to remove inappropriate content that may be posted within a channel.Ā
Apply thisĀ messaging policyĀ toĀ educators:
-
Owners can delete sent messages:āÆ OnĀ
Enable supervised chat and assign educators to chat supervisor roles so they canĀ delete messages in chats or private meetings.
Deleted messages are still available for data loss prevention and other auditing purposes after they are deleted.
Educational institutionsĀ can use third party services such asĀ Gaggle,Ā Senso,Ā or LightSpeed Systems toĀ enable content monitoring within Teams.Ā Ā Ā
Schools and universities can also useĀ communication compliance,Ā which is aĀ solution in Microsoft 365Ā that helps minimize communication risks by helping you detect, capture, and act on inappropriate messages in your organization.
Use Supervised Chat if you would like educators to be present for all student chat conversations.
Use this policy ifĀ you would like to block students from sendingĀ GiphyĀ content.Ā
Ā Apply thisĀ messaging policyĀ to students:Ā
-
UseĀ GiphysĀ in conversations:āÆ OffĀ
Use this policy toĀ set the appropriateĀ GiphyĀ content ratingĀ for students. Setting this policy with the following value willĀ mean that students canĀ insertĀ GiphysĀ in chatsĀ but will be strictly restricted from adult content.Ā Ā
Apply thisĀ messaging policyĀ to students:
-
GiphyĀ content rating:āÆ StrictĀ
Use this policy toĀ control ifĀ studentsĀ canĀ remove other users from group chats.Ā
Apply thisĀ messaging policyĀ to students:
-
Remove users from group chats:āÆ OffĀ
Giving students the ability to remove and edit their own messagesĀ provides them with useful self-moderationĀ tools, but if you are concerned about students abusing this capability, enable these settings to prevent students from removingĀ or editing their sent messages.Ā Ā Ā
ApplyĀ theseĀ messaging policy settingsĀ to students:Ā Ā
-
Delete sent messages:āÆOffĀ
-
Edit sent messages:āÆ OffĀ
UseĀ this policy to disableĀ private chat for students. If this policyĀ is disabled, students will be unable to chat privately with educators and other students.Ā Students can still use channels for communication, even when this is disabled.Ā
ApplyĀ thisĀ messaging policyĀ to students:
-
Chat:āÆ OffĀ
Use this policy to disable private channel creation for students.Ā Ā
ApplyĀ thisĀ Teams policyĀ to students:
-
CreateĀ private channels:Ā OffĀ
External access is a way for Teams users from an external domain to find, call, chat, and set up meetings with you in Teams. You can also use external access to communicate with external users who are still using Skype for Business (online and on-premises) and Skype (in preview).
You may want to enable external access for educators in your institution so they can collaborate with colleagues outside of your tenant. AlthoughĀ you have enabled external access for your tenant, you can still disable this featureĀ for students so they cannot be contacted by participants outside of your tenant boundaries.
Apply this policy to students:
-
EnableFederationAccess: False
Note:Ā You will need to use PowerShell to change the value of this policy setting.
Switching to distance learning can present a new set of challengesĀ in the classroom.Ā Weāve compiled this resource toĀ help you createĀ and foster a learning environment that promotes the safest experience for your students.āÆĀ
In this article
Ensure Teams is updated to the latest versionĀ
Having the latest version of the Teams app will give youĀ and your studentsĀ the greatestĀ protection.Ā Ensure thatĀ youĀ and your studentsĀ have theĀ latest version of Teams installed. If your students use mobile devices to attend meetings, ask them to regularly check for updatesāÆin the iOS App Store orĀ GoogleĀ Play Store.
Learn more about updating Teams.
Create a safe and controlled class meeting
Before your meeting
When you schedule a meeting in Teams for online lecturesĀ and classes,Ā weĀ recommendĀ thatĀ you create those meetings in channels. Channels give you more robust controls within meetings, such as disabling student-to-student chat, providing an easier meeting set up process, and giving you the ability to track class discussions in context.āÆĀ
Tip:Ā These two video tutorials will help you use Microsoft Teams to schedule your online meetings and maximize student safety. Check out Online Lectures 101 - keeping your online lectures as safe as possible and Online classes and lectures with your students - scheduling meetings.Ā Ā
As the meeting organizer, youĀ shouldĀ manage meeting options to increase your students' online safety.Ā Learn moreĀ aboutĀ the different ways you can access meeting options before and during meetings.Ā
Use theĀ meeting lobby bypassĀ optionsĀ toĀ controlĀ who can enterĀ yourĀ meetingĀ directly without needingĀ toĀ be admitted from the meeting lobbyĀ first.Ā LimitingĀ whoĀ hasĀ this capabilityĀ will help you keep unauthorized users from gaining access to your meetings.Ā
SetĀ Who can bypass the lobbyĀ toĀ Only meĀ to ensure that onlyĀ you, as the meeting organizer, can join the meeting directly. This will ensure that your students and any other participants will need to wait in the lobbyĀ until you admit themĀ intoĀ the meeting.Ā This willĀ stop students fromĀ joiningĀ theĀ meetingĀ unattended.Ā
SetĀ Always let callers bypass the lobbyĀ toĀ NoĀ toĀ ensure that anyone joining the meeting over the phone rather than using Teams will need to wait in the meeting lobby until you join the meeting and admit them.Ā Ā
ThereĀ areĀ two roles available within Teams meetings:Ā presenterĀ andĀ attendee. Presenters control and manage meetings, while the role of an attendee is more controlled. In many cases it isĀ safestĀ if studentsĀ joinĀ meetings as attendees. This will ensure that theyĀ cannotĀ remove other participants, mute others, or have other elevated meeting controls.Ā As attendees, students can stillĀ share video, participate in the meeting chat, and view shared files in the meeting.Ā
SetĀ Who can presentĀ toĀ Only meĀ to ensure thatĀ your students and other participants join as meeting attendees.Ā
If you have anotherĀ educator whoĀ shouldĀ also join your class as a presenter, setĀ Who can presentĀ toĀ Specific people,Ā then select theĀ presenters you would like to addĀ through theĀ Select presenters for this meetingĀ option.Ā Ā
Set Allow attendees to unmute to No to ensure that attendees join the meeting muted. This will also remove the attendees'Ā ability to unmute themselves. You canĀ mute and unmute students during your meeting by selectingĀ More optionsĀ
SetĀ Allow meeting chatĀ toĀ DisabledĀ to makeĀ meetingĀ chat read-only.Ā No one can send messages in the chat,Ā including the organizer.Ā ThisĀ preventsĀ chats from being sentĀ before, during, and afterĀ the meeting.Ā Ā Ā
SetĀ Allow meeting chatĀ toĀ In-meeting onlyĀ to allow participants to send messagesĀ onlyĀ during the meeting and allow organizers to sendĀ messages at any time.Ā Ā Ā
If you need toĀ change the settingĀ during your meeting, selectĀ More actions > Meeting options.Ā
Carefully review the list of participants who are waiting in the lobby. Only admit students and invited guests ifĀ you believe thatĀ theyĀ are authorized toĀ joinĀ your meeting.Ā Ā
If you have another teacher or teaching assistant in the class, youĀ canĀ makeĀ them a presenterĀ andĀ ask them to monitor and admit students who joined late.Ā If you delegate this task, ensure thatĀ your assistant is aware ofĀ who they should admit into the meeting.Ā Ā
If a participant is accidentally admitted to the meetingĀ or is being disruptive,Ā you canĀ remove themĀ from the meeting:Ā
-
Click or tapĀ Show participantsĀ in your callĀ controls.
-
Right-click or tap and holdĀ onĀ theĀ unauthorizedĀ participant.
-
SelectĀ Remove participant.
Ensure that yourĀ meeting lobby options are set correctlyĀ so that the participant is blocked from rejoining the meeting without entering the lobbyĀ first.Ā
During your meeting
Let students know that you're muting their audio, then from the participants list, clickāÆMute all.Ā
You can also prevent students from unmuting themselves by ensuring they are attendees in the meeting. Then, selectĀ More optionsĀ
Learn more:Ā Manage attendee audio permissions in Teams meetings.
Ā If you're in a private meeting, use the instructions above to set up chatting controls before the meeting usingĀ Meeting options. During the meeting, control who can chat by selectingĀ More actions > Meeting options.
If you are using channel meetings for your class and would like to block students from sending meetings chats at any time:Ā Ā
-
Navigate to the channel thread for yourĀ meeting
-
Tap theĀ FormatĀ button to expand the composeĀ box
-
ChangeĀ Everyone can replyĀ toĀ You and moderators can reply.
This will allow team owners to post messagesĀ inĀ the channel and meeting, but your students will be blocked from adding new messages.Ā Ā
IfĀ you see inappropriate messages in a channel meeting,Ā you can right-click and deleteĀ theĀ message if your IT administrator has grantedĀ youĀ the correct permissions.
IfĀ you are using a channel meeting andĀ aĀ studentsĀ is being disruptiveĀ within the meeting chat, youĀ canĀ mute the student for a time throughĀ your team settings.Ā Ā
If others need to present content during the meeting, whether the content is fromĀ aĀ student or colleague, you can promote an attendee to presenter during the meeting.Ā Ā
-
Click or tapĀ Show participantsĀ in your callĀ controls.
-
Right-click or tap and holdĀ onĀ theĀ personāsĀ name.
-
SelectĀ Make a presenter.
Note:Ā This grants the person full presenter rights, which allows them to shareĀ theirĀ screen, remove participants and more.Ā Learn moreĀ about meeting roles.Ā Ā
-
When the person is done presenting, right-click or tap and hold onĀ their name again and selectĀ Make anĀ attendee.
If you would like to quickly change the attendee or presenter roles for everyone within the meeting, you can useĀ theĀ Who can present?Ā setting inĀ yourĀ Meeting optionsĀ to do so.Ā Changes to this setting takeĀ effectĀ as soon as you make them, even when a meeting is in progress.Ā
After your meeting
At the end of the meeting,Ā ensure that your students leave the meeting byĀ clickingĀ More options
If you mistakenly leave a meeting without ending it, you can rejoin the meeting andĀ end itĀ properlyĀ to ensureĀ that there are no lingering students.Ā
StudentsāÆwill still be able to see the chat history afterāÆthe meetingĀ isĀ ended.āÆFor example, they can see your messagesāÆand the meeting recording link ifāÆit was recorded.
Ask your ITĀ administratorĀ toĀ set general meeting policies so that students cannot rejoin meetingsĀ unattended.Ā
Create safe teams and channels for your class
If you would like to block replies toĀ specificĀ announcement or channel conversation:Ā
-
Navigate to the channel threadĀ you would like toĀ control.
-
Tap theĀ FormatĀ button to expand the composeĀ box.
-
ChangeĀ Everyone can replyĀ toĀ You and moderators can reply.
This will allow team owners to post messagesĀ inĀ the channel, but your students will be blocked from adding new messages.Ā Ā
Educators canĀ turn on moderationĀ for a class team channel to control who can start new posts and reply to posts in that channel.Ā
In Teams, go to the channel, then selectāÆMore options
To stop students from having the ability to post channel messages changeĀ SetĀ channelĀ moderation preferencesĀ toĀ Only owners can post messages.Ā This will control both channel and channel meetingĀ posts.Ā
If aĀ studentsĀ is being disruptive within a class teamĀ channel, youĀ canĀ mute the student for a time through your team settings.Ā Ā
Control who has the ability to @mention the team and whether or not students can use Giphy, stickers, or memes in channels.
-
Select More options
Ā on your team's tile, then Manage team. -
Select Settings.
-
To manageĀ who can @mention the team or channel, select @mentions.
-
To manage Giphys, stickers, and whether students can upload memes, select Fun stuff.
Tip:Ā You can also ask your IT Admin to createĀ these settings ahead of time.
If your administrator has enabled supervised chatĀ and has made you a chat supervisor, you will be able to delete inappropriate messages in chats or private meetings.Ā To delete a message, hover over the message and select More optionsĀ
Deleted messages are still available for data loss prevention and other auditing purposes after they are deleted.
This is a quick reference guide for IT Admins on the recommended policies to help ensure a safe and secure Teams environment for students. Longer descriptions and explanations behind each of these policy recommendations can be found in the IT Admin tab of this article.Ā
Important:Ā
-
IT Admins can run the Teams for Education Policy Wizard to easily apply the majority of the policies recommended in this article to your tenant. The wizard adjusts the Global defaults of a core set of policies with settings that we recommend for student safety and applies it to students. Running itĀ also creates and assigns a set of custom policies to a group of educators and staff.
-
If you already used the Policy Wizard to apply policies for your students, educators, and staff, use this article as a reference for additional safety measures, or if you prefer to manually create and manage policies for your tenant.
Student policy quick guide
Policy areaĀ |
Sub-area |
Policy |
GlobalĀ value for primary and secondaryĀ students |
Value for educatorsĀ |
---|---|---|---|---|
Create private channels |
Off |
On |
||
Off |
On |
|||
Off |
On |
|||
Off |
On |
|||
Off |
On |
|||
Off |
On |
|||
Off |
On |
|||
Everyone in the organization, but user can override |
Organizers, but users can overrideĀ |
|||
Everyone in your organization |
Organizer only |
|||
BlurandDefaultBackgrounds |
AllFilters |
|||
Allow scheduling |
Off |
On |
||
Owners can delete sent messages |
Off |
On |
||
Delete sent messages |
Off |
On |
||
Edit sent messages |
Off |
On |
||
Chat |
Off |
On |
||
Use Giphys in conversations |
Off |
On |
||
Send urgent messages using priority notifications |
Off |
On |
||
Remove users from a group chat |
Off |
On |
||
Teams apps |
Microsoft apps |
Block specific apps and allow all others > Walkie Talkie blocked |
Allow all apps |
|
Voice |
Make private calls |
Off |
On |
|
Dial-out from meetings |
Off |
Off |
||
False |
No recommendation |