Joining Microsoft Teams Meetings

Microsoft Teams is an amazing technology for teams to share Microsoft Office files and collaboration by text, audio, and video. A team can create a meeting and join the meeting right in the Team interface. These instructions are for using Microsoft Teams on a Laptop or Desktop.

Purpose: These instructions are for joining a Microsoft Team meeting.

Recommendation: Before a meeting, open up other tabs to online tools you need for the meeting. In this way you can continue to participate in the meeting, without leaving the meeting or losing focus on the meeting.

Open the SCSU apps portal. Make sure Blackboard is open. Scroll down the page to find Teams. Click on the Teams link.
After you click Teams, a screen with your teams will open. Make sure to enter the team for which the meeting is scheduled. The picture to the right shows what your team might look like.
Note: If you are on more than one team, you may need to click on All Teams and make sure you are in the correct team.
The Team's feed has multiple channels. The General channel is the default channel. Look through the channel feed for the meeting. As shown on the right, the current meeting is clearly highlighted. Click on the Join button to join the meeting. Note: Previous meetings are still logged on the feed but they are not the highlighted, current meeting.
The meeting interface looks something like this. The bar in the center of the screen only appears when you activate the mouse over the video image. As an attendee, make sure your microphone is muted. You can choose whether to turn your camera on or leave it off.
There are two important buttons on the meeting bar. When you first enter a meeting, the participants are listed on a sidebar to the right.  If you click Hide participants the sidebar will disappear.
When you first enter a meeting, click on the Show conversation button. This will replace the participant sidebar with the conversation sidebar. You will see all the chat comments made by your peers on the conversation sidebar.
I wrote advice on the conversation sidebar pictured on the right. All the chats from your peers are here. Everyone can see all content posted here. The thumb emoji is great for when I ask questions of the entire class. Do not use the GIFs. They are too distracting. The field at the bottom is where you write your thoughts or questions. Click the paper airplane icon to send your chat message.

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Southern Connecticut State University

Emailing Large Attachments in Outlook

Files over 2 megabytes in size are too large for email. While this was a strict limit in the past, a person can get away with emails over 2mg in size, with current technology. Yet, email is not intended to get clogged up with enormous downloads like that.

The alternative is to upload a large file to the OneDrive Attachment folder and email an attached cloud file. That means, a secure "alias" file is attached to the email; the recipient clicks on the file and can download the secure file from OneDrive. This effectively stores the attachment on OneDrive, rather than on the email itself. The procedure requires only a little more preparation than attaching the large file straight to the email.

Purpose: To avoid sending email attachments larger than 2mg, outlook can cooperate with the OneDrive to provide the attachment.

Log in to your Microsoft Outlook account. In the top left corner of the interface, click on the  button to open a drop down selection of Microsoft products.
Click on the OneDrive link.
Once OneDrive loads, a selection of files will appear. This picture portrays the files in a "Tiles" format--one of four ways to present your OneDrive storage library. If you use a "List" or "Compact List" or "Photo" format then what you see on your screen will be different. Find the Email Attachments folder. Double-click the folder.
The folder will open and present the available files according to the format you are using. Click on the Upload button to open a dropdown menu. Click on the Files option to upload a file to your OneDrive.
Your Mac Finder window will open. Your PC Windows Explorer window will open. Navigate your computer's files to find the file you wish to upload. In this picture, the file is called "upload2onedrive." Click the Choose button.
A notification window will appear in the top right corner of your interface. The notification identifies the number of files that are Uploading. You can watch the progress of the uploads by clicking on the small notification window.
When the upload is complete, you will see another notification window that identifies the number of files that are Uploaded.
Click on the application menu again. Click on Outlook to prepare your email.
Click on New Message (not pictured). Click Attach to open the attachment menu. Click on Browse Cloud Locations to search your OneDrive storage for the file.
A OneDrive navigation window will open. Alt 1: Click the radio button to select the file you want to open. Look at the bottom of the navigation window for the Next button. Continue to select radio buttons and click Next until you find your file. Alt 2: To open folders, double click on them. Each double click will open the options within the folder.
When you find the file you seek, you need to select it. As with the previous step, you can either use the radio button or double-click on the file.
Select the Share as a OneDrive -Personal Link option. Caution: Do not click on Attach as a copy; that will attach the file from OneDrive directly to the email.
The download file will appear in the attachments location of the email interface. Proceed with the familiar steps to send an email to your recipient.

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Southern Connecticut State University

Inserting and Sizing Images in Blackboard

When writing discussion posts, blog posts, wiki entries, etc. in Blackboard, the means of inserting an image is always the same. Yet, the image needs to be sized, in addition to inserted. The result of an unsized image is an image that is bigger than the actual browser window itself. Images must be resized.

Purpose: These instructions will provide the steps for inserting and resizing images in Blackboard.

These instructions will use a discussion forum post. However, the word processing palette is the same for other writing media in Blackboard. If not done already, open the full word processing palette. Select a place to insert an image by either placing the "insertion point" with the curser or highlighting a word.
Look for the Insert Image icon. The icon looks like a sun rising over a mountain. Click the Insert Image icon.
NOTE: The insert button places the image on the document. In this way, the reader can see the image, while reading. Alternatively, the paperclip icon is for attaching files. If you attach a file, you will only generate a link in your text, rather than picturing the image.
When you click on the Insert Image icon, a dialog screen will open. The General tab is the default tab and is where you want to begin.  Locate and click the Browse My Computer button.
A window will open on your computer that will let you search for the image you want to insert. Use your computer's file folder structure to locate the image file. Click on Open to select the image.
The preview of the image will be so enormous that you will not even be able to see what it is. Click on the Appearance tab. The interface will change.
Locate the Dimensions of the image. The dimensions are measured by pixels (or px). The default pixel size of the image will read in this place. The example I am using has a 3264 X 2448 pixel size.
500 is a reasonable pixel width on Blackboard. Type 500 into the width field on the left. The Constrain Proportions button should be checked by default. It MUST be checked for this procedure to work.
Because Constrain Proportions is checked, when you click outside the width dimension field, the height  dimension field will automatically change to the proportional pixel height for you.
On the bottom of the interface's right side, are the Cancel and Insert buttons. Click the Insert button.
A dialog box will open. Blackboard wants to be sure you wish to upload, without an image description. Image description and Title are both fields under the General tab. While they are required for public websites, they are not necessary for classroom discussion posts. Click on the OK button.
The appropriately sized image is not inserted into your Blackboard document, so that all your peers can see.

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Southern Connecticut State University

Finding a Journal by the Name of the Source

In many cases, you want to conduct research and find sources, regardless of the journal name. However, there are cases where you only seek to research a specific journal; alternatively, you might want to make sure that the database you use will include results from a specific journal. These instruction assume that you already logged in to Southern Connecticut State University as a registered student or employee.

Purpose: Find a database that subscribes to a specific research journal for research in that specific journal.

Locate the four tabs at the center of the screen. Each tab searches a different set of resources. Click the Find a Journal tab.
Type the name of the journal in the field. Press the Search button. NOTE: In the example pictured to the right, the newspaper "New York Times" is written. This will be the journal result presented in all the pictures.
A list of search results will appear. Locate the specific search result you expected. Click the online database icon (a laptop image). In cases where there is no Online icon available, you will need to use the other icons for Print or Interlibrary Loan to access your source.
The library pays for access to many databases. Databases have licenses for specific journals. Use the date ranges on the right to choose the database that you need. If you want results for the current year, you should select the database that licenses the "Current" year. Click on the link to the left. In this case, the link is titled New York Times.
The database you selected will open to a specialized page that features the journal you specified. All databases have different methods of navigation and different interface features. Most databases will provide the ability to search within the publication you have specified, as opposed to the database's entire licensed collection. Interfaces vary but you should type your search terms into a search field. Click Submit to review articles.

All instructions and documentation written by:

Dr. Jason Lawrence, M.S., Ph.D.

Theory and Practice of Professional Communication

Artificial Intelligence writers, Internal Documentation, and Emergent Texts
Visit my Official Blog, my LinkedIn profile, or my Web Page.

Find a School: Southern Connecticut State University