Microsoft Teams Classes

  • Microsoft (MS) Teams is a chat-based collaboration application. Microsoft Teams Classes is an LTI app that helps educators and students easily navigate between their Canvas and Teams.
  • Teams supports group-based chats, file sharing, online meetings and can be integrated with OneDrive and OneNote. Microsoft Teams is available to all Johns Hopkins users.
  • With the new Microsoft Teams Classes LTI, instructors can create a Microsoft Class Team for their Canvas course with the click of a button.
  • All the students in your Canvas course are automatically added to the Team, and changes to the course roster are periodically updated.
  • If you have any questions or issues in using MS Teams Classes, please reach out to your division.

Quick Links

Important

  • Microsoft is ending support for the Teams Classes LTI on September 15, 2025. These is being replaced by a new unified experience. More info will be shared in transition by Fall 2025.
    • Microsoft 365 LTI debuts with replacements for the deprecated Team Classes LTI by 9/15/2025. The capabilities of the OneDrive LTIs be supported as their capabilities transition through 2026.
    • Microsoft 365 LTI replaces the former Teams Classes LTI tool, with an improved user experience. Users can easily manage and launch their Course Team from directly within their LMS course.
  • At Johns Hopkins, access MS Teams are available to all active JHED users so you need to have a JHED to use these integrations in Canvas courses.
  • For Teams Classes integration, you should be set with enrollments in a Published course and run a sync in the course to create the class and pull the enrollments. For merged courses, you need to perform the merge first before the course is available to student and then sync.
  • Additionally, all enrolled with course roles will be either an Owner (Teacher, Leader, TA, Grader, Designer) or Member (Student, Waitlisted Student, Observer, or Guest Facilitator).
  • You need to be enrolled in the course be part of the course’s Teams class and running a sync pushes new enrollments (it runs updates per hour scanning enrollments, can take up to 24 hours).
  • MS Teams Assignments are not linked to Canvas courses and are not linked and grades would not sync back or work with the SpeedGrader. We recommend not using Teams assignments with Canvas, and use regular Canvas assignments instead.

What Canvas Roles Work With This Tool?

At Johns Hopkins, access MS Teams are available to all active JHED users so you need to have a JHED to use these integrations in Canvas courses.

Possible Course RolesAccess Level
TeacherConnect/update Teams Classes, share files in the Team Class, Teams Owner.
StudentView Teams Classes, and share files, Teams Member.
Waitlisted StudentView Teams Classes, and share files, Teams Member.
TAConnect/update Teams Classes, share files in the Team Class, Teams Owner.
GraderConnect/update Teams Classes, share files in the Team Class, Teams Owner.
DesignerConnect/update Teams Classes, share files in the Team Class, Teams Owner.
ObserverView Teams Classes, and share files, Teams Member.
Guest FacilitatorView Teams Classes, and share files, Teams Member.
Leaders (used in Community Sites Only)Connect/update Teams Classes, share files in the Team Class, Teams Owner.

How To Use

Teams Classes in Canvas Courses

Overview

Microsoft Teams Classes within Canvas provides a safe, secure, and trusted virtual meeting space. 

  • Faculty and students easily navigate between their dedicated class virtual space seamlessly in Canvas.
  • Students gain confidence knowing they are in the right place and ready to learn.
  • Everyone enrolled in the courses has access to all the tools and resources available in Microsoft Teams.
  • Note, again you need to be an active JHED user to be able to access Teams at Johns Hopkins.

Setting Up Your Teams Class in Canvas – Create/Sync

  1. By default, Teams Classes are not setup in a course until you turn on and run a sync.  An instructor needs to be enrolled for the course to create.
  2. When enrollments changes are made in a course that has enabled Microsoft Sync, it may take up to 10 minutes for those changes to sync to Microsoft Teams.
  3. The Teams Classes menu is visible by default for all that are enrolled in the course but can be hidden in the navigation settings.

    Open Settings

Open Settings on the course navigation menu
  1. In Course Navigation, click the Settings link.
  2. Click the Integrations tab.
Once in Settings, select integrations
  1.  To enable to Microsoft Sync integration, click the State button.
Under integrations, there should be a feature called "Microsoft Sync". Make sure it is turned on.
  1.  Once the integration is enabled, a sync to Microsoft Teams will be triggered automatically by any changes to course enrollments.
  2.  The first time you enabled Microsoft Sync, you may want to trigger a manual sync to ensure all course data is synced with Microsoft Teams (toggle off/off and Sync).
In the integrations area, you can expand the Microsoft sync information and select "Sync Now"
  1. To view Microsoft Sync details, click the Expand icon. To sync course data with Microsoft Teams, click the Sync Now button.
  2. You can also view the sync status, date of last sync, and any sync errors.

Notes on Team Classes Setup

  • When enrollments changes are made in a course that has enabled Microsoft Sync, it will take additional time (Ex. 10 minutes to create the room to up to one day to update further enrollments) for those changes to sync to Microsoft Teams.  
  • Syncing is triggered by changes to course enrollments. The first time you enable Microsoft Sync for a course, you may have to trigger a sync manually with the button below.

Access Teams Classes (after Syncing)

  1.  Select Microsoft Teams Classes menu link to launch the app. 
Teams Classes
  1. Select your class team tile to launch Microsoft Teams on the web, desktop, or mobile app.
  2.  Use Chrome or Edge to launch for the web app (Firefox, IE, and Safari require the Desktop app).
  3.  Click Sign In at the Welcome To Teams screen.  Log in with your JHED ([email protected]) if prompted.
Welcome to Microsoft Teams page with a "Sign In" button.
  1.  Click on the Teams Class tile to access the team.  Select Web App to remain in browser, or Desktop to open Teams.
Under Microsoft Teams Classes, there should be a button for your course.
  1. From here you have access to all of MS Teams Class Tools available from your Canvas course.
Within Teams, there is button for the class that can be selected to enter the class space.
  1.  Navigate to Canvas Teams, then select More options to view the members in the pulling from Canvas.
Clicking the menu on the class teams area provides additional options such as "Manage Team"

Important Reminders

  • Before students can access the class team, you must activate the team.
  • For Merged Courses, wait to set up the Team and Sync until the courses are merged.
  • There is general information on MS Teams at Johns Hopkins for MS Teams functions.

Best Practices and Accessibility 

Best Practices

JHU/Enterprise Policy on Teams

Regardless of how the Team is created, Teams Classes (like other Teams) are set to expire one year after creation.  Owners will get notified prior in advance with an action to renew the team.  This helps JHU determine which Teams are still active or which can be deleted/removed.

Accessibility

Additional Resources