Target audience: McGill staff, faculty and students
There are currently six ways to meet in Microsoft Teams that are available to the McGill community. This article can help you select the most appropriate solution for your needs.
In this article:
For Live events and Webinars, organizers have additional control over the conversation and participants. Both have designated presenters, but attendees can interact differently.
Teams Meeting |
Class |
Lecture |
Webinars |
Townhall |
Live events | |
Who can use it |
McGill staff, faculty and students who have access to the Office 365 portal |
McGill staff, faculty and students who have access to the Office 365 portal |
McGill staff, faculty and students who have access to the Office 365 portal |
McGill staff, faculty and students who have access to the Office 365 portal |
McGill staff, faculty and students who have access to the Office 365 portal |
On request |
Primary purpose |
General calls where all participants can equally speak, share their screen, and record the meeting. |
Meetings: where an educator is presenting a topic to a group of students, with Meeting Chat enabled only during the meeting to facilitate active discussions. The feature can be disabled before and after the meeting. |
Meetings where an educator is presenting a topic to a group of students, with Meeting Chat always enabled |
Large scale event where attendees can interact with designated presenters and a registration form can be configured. |
Town halls are meant for one-to-many communications where the presenters, organizers, and co-organizers are leading the interactions. The audience participation is primarily to view and react to the content being shared. |
Structured meetings to schedule and produce events that stream to large online audiences—up to 10,000 people. |
Use Cases |
Adhoc calls. |
Teacher organizes a virtual class to present a topic to students who need to participate in-class |
Teacher organizes a virtual lecture to present a topic that is not only open to in-class discussion, but also allows for preparation and reflection for the discussion in chat. |
Large departmental events. |
Townhall |
Large virtual events where attendees are view-only. |
Max # of participants? |
Up to 1000 for full interactive features. |
Same as regular Teams meeting |
Same as regular Teams meeting |
Up to 1000 for full interactive features. |
Up to 10 000 |
Up to 10 000 |
Registration Supported (organizer can request a participant to complete a registration form) |
No |
No |
No |
No | ||
Q&A enabled |
Same as regular Teams meeting |
Same as regular Teams meeting |
Enabled by default |
Enabled by default | ||
Other meeting options |
Same as regular Teams meeting |
Same as regular Teams meeting | ||||
Organizer(s) |
Create and schedule meetings. Configure the attendee role. Prepare the registration form for prospective attendees. Gather information on attendees prior to the event. Create Breakout rooms and manage Q&A Manage recording and generate attendance report. |
Create and schedule meetings. Configure the attendee role. Create Breakout rooms and manage Q&A. Manage recording and generate attendance report. |
Create and schedule meetings. Configure the attendee role. Create Breakout rooms and manage Q&A Manage recording and generate attendance report. |
Create and configure meeting options. Prepare the registration form for prospective attendees. Gather information on attendees prior to the event. Create Breakout rooms and Manage recording and generate attendance report.
|
Add co-organizer Create and configure meeting options. Manage Q&As. Manage on-demand recording and generate attendance report.
|
Create and configure meeting options. Invite attendees. Manage Q&As. Manage recording and generate attendance report. |
Presenters / Producer |
Everyone has the option to present and share their screen. |
Only the organizer can present, bypass the lobby and record the meeting. |
Only the organizer can present, bypass the lobby and record the meeting. |
Can present, share the screen and/or moderate written Q&A. |
Can present, share the screen and/or moderate written Q&A. |
Presenters can share their screen. Producers do backstage work, such as managing who speaks or shares their screen, selecting the layout, moderating written Q&A. |
Attendees |
They have the same privileges as the organizer (unless they are external to McGill). |
Join the meeting (lobby mandatory) Speak Chat during the meeting only Share their screen (if enabled). Enter questions in the Q&A chat (if enabled). |
Join the meeting (lobby mandatory) Speak Chat (before, during, and after the meeting) Share their screen (if enabled). Enter questions in the Q&A chat (if enabled). |
Register for the event and click the link in the email confirmation to join the webinar with their cameras and mics off. Speak and share their screen. Enter questions in the Q&A chat (if enabled). Participate via chat, reactions, and Q&A. |
Livestream the presentation or watch “on-demand’ using their video player controls. Enter questions in the Q&A chat (if enabled). |
Livestream the presentation or watch “on-demand’ using their video player controls. Enter questions in the Q&A chat (if enabled). |
By default, features that require Teams Premium license are not available to McGill users.
You may use the Town hall meeting.
For more help on general Teams meetings, please visit the resources provided by Microsoft:
For further support with Microsoft Teams meetings, webinars, town halls and live events, you can book a Q&A session with Collaboration Solutions.
To ensure the most successful event possible, follow the best practices below:
For more tips on hosting large meetings, see Best practices for a large Teams meeting.