Microsoft Teams - Minerva Class Teams T&Cs and FAQ


The Microsoft Teams integration in Minerva allows instructors to use Class Teams to communicate and collaborate with students on and off-campus. Minerva Class Teams have unique permissions and features for tutors and students. 

Minerva Class Teams include modules, merged modules & organisations.

Terms & Conditions

As module leaders will now have the ability to create their own Minerva module class synced Team sites, you will follow the same guidelines as before, but without the need for IT involvement to create the Team sites on your behalf. Please read our terms and conditions for owning a Team below.

Class Team Owner responsibilities

As a Minerva Class Team Owner you will need to be responsible for:

  • University policy requires you to ensure you have at least two owners as a minimum. Your Minerva Class Team should have between two and ten owners at all times. If you become the only owner, you will need to promote one or more members to become an owner. At that point, you will need to brief them on the responsibilities of an owner, as laid out here. 
  • Managing the membership of the Minerva Class Team, including reviewing the ongoing Owner access and removing Owners when they no longer need access in an expedient manner. 
  • Manage external guest access, ensuring that guests are not in the Minerva Class Team for longer than required. A guest is anyone outside the organisation (i.e., doesn't have an @leeds.ac.uk email address).
  • Ensure the data stored within the group matches the University data classification. Please see the 'Information Protection Policy' and 'guidance on using cloud computing services and ensure you and the other members of the group are complying with this.
  • Be responsible for the security of files within the group, ensuring that any highly confidential files are individually password protected as per the IPP.
  • Ensuring the Minerva Class Team remains set to Private. (The University of Leeds do not allow public groups)
  • If you expire your Minerva Class Team, the Class Team and ALL the content will be deleted, and after 30 days will be unrecoverable.
  • Respond to any IT security reports and required actions from IT Application Support that you may receive regarding your Team. For example, you may receive security reports when your Class Team only has 1 owner.

FAQs

What are Minerva Class Teams ?

As owners of the Minerva Class Team, instructors can share class content, start meetings, and control who can post in the team.

This functionality makes Minerva Class Teams a valuable tool for creating student-centred active learning experiences in virtual classrooms. This guide covers tips for using asynchronous and synchronous functions in Minerva Class Teams.

For further information please see ‘What is Microsoft Teams?

Minerva Class Teams and your modules

Minerva Class Teams are aligned with Banner data which will keep student enrolment up-to-date automatically. For more information, follow the link: 

Understanding module enrolments in Minerva – Staff Guide

How do I create a Class Team in Minerva?

For instructions on how to create a Minerva Class Team, please follow the guidance linked:

Create and activate Minerva Class Teams in Minerva – Staff Guide

Can I have a team for merged modules or organisations in Minerva?

Merged modules and organisations in Minerva can now be made into a synced Microsoft Team. This can now be done through Minerva. For instructions on how to do this please see Create and activate Minerva Class Teams in Minerva – Staff Guide .

Does Minerva Class Teams replace my Minerva modules?

Minerva should remain as the primary learning environment when a Minerva Class Team is used with students. Where Minerva Class Teams are used to enrich the student experience, this should primarily act as an additional learning space for communication, interaction and collaboration, not as a repository of learning resources. This means that the learning and teaching, administrative and assessment content in the Minerva Module Template should be provided in Minerva, and should not be moved to Minerva Class Teams . Further guidance can be found on the Digital Practice Virtual Classroom website. 

Class Team Names (Linked to a module)

By default, the class team names have the following naming convention:

Minerva Class Teams Membership

Students will be auto-enrolled into a Minerva Class Team and membership will be maintained throughout the team lifecycle. This means, if a student leaves the module, merged module or organisation in Minerva/Banner, they will automatically be removed from the Minerva Class Team. Likewise, if a student enrols onto a module once it has already started, they will be added to the Minerva Class Team and will have access to everything within it. Module leaders are added as owners of the Team. If a Team owner wishes to remove another owner from the Team they must first make the owner into a member and then they will be able to remove them from the Team. 

Additional members and guests can be added to the Minerva Class Team by owners and will stay a member without being automatically removed. This means you can have members of the Minerva Class Team who are not enrolled on the module, merged module or organisation in Minerva/ Banner, without the need to re-add guests daily. 

Who is the Owner of a Minerva Class Team?

Upon creation, instructors will be added as an owner of the Minerva Class Team and will be required to add another member of staff as an owner of the Team. These two Team Owners will be able to add additional staff to the Minerva Class Team once it's created as either members or owners. 

Team owners are collectively responsible for the management of content within a Minerva Class Team, this includes deleting and reporting of inappropriate content in line with the University Information Protection Policy. The Module Leader/s has the ultimate responsibility for managing the Minerva Class Team. 

How should I use a Minerva Class Team?

Please visit the Digital Practice website for more information on using Minerva Class Teams and other virtual classroom tools in learning and teaching.

Can I delete my Minerva Class Team?

Should you decide you no longer require your Team, as a Minerva Class Teams owner you can delete the team by doing the following:

Click on the 3 horizontal dots on the Team site name
In the drop-down, click "Delete the team"
Click the tickbox "I understand that everything will be deleted", then "Delete Team"

Can I leave a Minerva Class Team?

Yes, staff membership can be managed manually. Please speak to the module Leader if you feel you have been added by mistake.

I already made a Class Team via IT before 22/23, how will this be affected?

If you already have a Class Team set up for a module with the relevant staff and students added you can opt to continue using this Class Team. The main difference will be that the team owners (tutors) will be responsible for managing the team memberships on an ongoing basis as team membership will no longer be automatically managed. 

Is there any training available?

What happens when the module has finished?

More information and support

Please visit:

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