Making a Call in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams has replaced Skype for Business. That means organizations can still perform conference calls but Microsoft has added the power of their OneDrive cloud solutions to the conference technology. These instructions are for students, employees, and faculty who wish to call other people on the SCSU network.

Purpose: Make a call to a SCSU class peer or a fellow SCSU colleague.

Log in to your Microsoft Account. Click on the Teams icon from the list of Apps.
To make a call, click on the Calls button from the side navigator. While there are many ways to make a call, these instructions will make a call from the SCSU email directory. Click on Make a Call, at the bottom of the screen.
An interface pops up, with suggested names from your contact history. Activate the Type a Name field with a click of your mouse. This field operates just like the address field of an email. Type the last name of the SCSU person you wish to call. A list of matches will automatically populate. Select the name you wish to call. MULTIPLE CALLERS: After adding the first name, and before clicking Make the Call, you can add additional names to the call.
For audio-only calls, click on the phone icon. For audio/video calls, click on the video icon.
The call will begin as soon as the recipient answers the call. An audio-only call will only display your initials icon, without any picture. An audio/video call will display the video feed as shown in this picture.

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

Using Blackboard to Email Students or Groups

Blackboard provides a way for students to contact each other, even if they haven't exchanged emails. In my own classes, I create a "Communication Hub" where I place all the announcements and communication tools. On my blackboard site, the tool is called "Blackboard Email." This tool lets students email eachother or email the group to which they have been assigned.

Purpose: These instructions will help students using blackboard to send email messages to select students or to groups.

Classes will differ according to the customization preferences of the instructor. Click the email link. In my classes, click Blackboard Email.
A screen will open with several options. Choose All Student Users if you wish to send an email to the entire class. Choose All Instructor Users if you want to send an email to the professor and any instructor assistants. Choose Select Users to pick one or more fellow classmates you wish to email. Choose Select Groups if you are assigned to a group and you want to send an email to your group members or the members of another group. For these instructions, choose Select Users.
The left box is a list of all the students in your class. The right box is a list of the student(s) you wish to email. When the page first loads, the right box will be empty. Select the name you want to email and click the arrow icon to move the name from the left box to the right box. Continue to select names if there are more than one. NOTE: the list of names are whited out to protect the privacy of students. Selected names are blacked out.
Blackboard will not send messages if they do not have a Subject. Of course, you will want to write a message in the Message field.
Click the Submit button when you are ready to send your email.
ALTERNATIVE Instead of choosing Select Users, you can check Select Groups. The same box interface will appear with the list of groups. Select the group you wish to email in the same manner as described above.

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

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