Microsoft Teams: Getting Started


What is Microsoft Teams?

Teams is Microsoft's unified communications platform which combines messaging, meetings, file storage, application integration, and voice and video calling into one collaborative team workspace. Each Team you create gets it's own SharePoint website, OneDrive storage space, chat channels, and more. 

Who can use Teams?

Microsoft Teams is already provisioned for all members of DePaul's community. DePaul faculty, staff, or student employees who use a DePaul-based phone number will now have access to the Calls tab within Microsoft Teams, which is an additional tab in the application allowing for phone calls on and off campus. If you don't have a DePaul-based phone number associated with you, the Calls tab will not appear in Teams. These users are encouraged to make calls or video calls to colleagues by searching for individuals in the Teams app. Physical phones are still available for front desks, common areas, and other offices that require physical phones. 


Accessing Teams

DePaul students, faculty, and staff have several options for accessing Microsoft Teams: web, desktop, or mobile app. For each app, users must login with their BlueKey login credentials and authenticate with BlueKey multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Getting Started with Using Teams

Microsoft has provided a variety of online resources to assist users with using Teams.  For those that are looking to get an overview or introduction to Microsoft Teams, we recommend starting with the links below.  Some of these links are to pages with short, topic-specific videos that allow you to watch those that are of specific interest to you, while others are more traditional web pages with instructions and links to other resources. 

What is Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft also provides helpful QuickStart guides.  You can access and download guides for Teams and OneDrive, along with other Office products. 

Do you have a DePaul-based office phone or phone number?

For people with a DePaul-based phone number, they will be switching from a physical Cisco phone to Teams Phone. The "Phone" feature in Teams simply manifests as a Calls tab in Teams where users can make or receive calls to and from their DePaul-based phone number. If you don't have a DePaul-based phone number, you will not have access to the Calls tab, but you can still make audio and video calls by searching for individuals or groups within Teams. Watch this Introduction to Teams Phone from Microsoft. 

Overview of Teams Phone (for faculty and staff with phone numbers)