MS Teams | Brightspace and MS Teams integration options

MS Teams is now further integrated with Brightspace. You can create a MS Teams team directly from your Brightspace course with an automatic enrollment and synchronisation of users between the two platforms. Check our new instructions on how to to do it here.

In this article you will learn about

MS Teams integration options

There are two ways in which you can use MS Teams in your course:

1. Creation of meetings via MS Teams application

You can create MS Teams Meetings from within your Brightspace course page. The link to this meeting will be available in your Brightspace environment to all the users enrolled in it without the need of creating a whole team in MS Teams. This will allow you to use the features of Teams’ meetings without the need for managing an additional platform besides Brightspace. 

This option has the following limitations, once the meeting is created it is not possible to edit the settings and the recording can only be found in MS Streams. Make use of this option when you do not have a need for a collaboration platform in your course, and you only have a single or a few online meetings in which you have more than 150 students or really require certain MS Teams Meetings features (e.g. taking over students’ screen control or sharing the audio channel). 

2. Creation of a team in MS Teams application

You can create a whole team for your course in MS Teams to not only host meetings but exchange files, create communication channels, and facilitate collaboration between users. 

Make use of the option to create a team in MS Teams when you need an online collaboration platform, to facilitate collaboration and group work among and with students, e.g. sharing documents, working together, organise (unsupervised) meetings. This option allows also to have multiple simultaneous meetings, organised in break-out channels if desired, and share recordings of meetings held in the Team, also with students who did not attend.

When to use which option?

Below you can find out which option suits your needs:

Meetings via MS Teams in Brightspace Creating a team in MS Team
Creating a meeting via MS Teams is another way how to connect online with your course participants. Use this option when you do not have a lot of collaborative activities in your course, but the current offer (virtual classrooms, weblectures, or knowledge clips) does not fulfill your needs.  Use this option when you do not want a recording of the meeting.

Example: A course with interactive lectures with more than 150  participants (students and lecturers), but without any other major collaborative activity.  

This option allows you to conduct multiple online collaboration activities in your course that would benefit from fast, live communication, the possibility of sharing and editing files, and requires group work. It also allows you to create meetings in which you can later edit the settings and share recordings of MS Teams meetings with the whole Brightspace Classlist.


Example:  A course with simultaneous group practical, group projects, meetings, and feedback sessions. 

Once you have decided which option suits you best you can move forward and check our related topics on how to carry out these integrations. 

Examples of uses

You can review showcases from fellow colleagues, and how they use MS Teams in Brightspace:

Now you know about Brightspace and MS Teams integration options!