Forum Discussion
Attendees in Lobby Hearing Each Other while waiting
I am a teacher at an elementary school and have had a few teachers notice something interesting happening in their Lobby. While they are working with small groups of students in their main meeting, they have the rest of their class waiting in the lobby to be admitted.
Students are now back in the building, and they follow this same procedure. When waiting in the lobby, the teachers have noticed that their students can hear each other - talking, using digital resources, background noise at home, etc. The teacher in the meeting cannot hear this and only learned about it from the student perspective now that they are in person! We understand they can chat, but this is audio.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9nqH11BkaQw1V5Uc6
Teachers are concerned about safety. Is there a setting we are missing? Or something to adjust on their end to prevent this from happening? They have made new links and it continues. Any help is appreciated!
- Ruth_AllenCopper Contributor
tdwachur While I agree that students should not be able to do anything while in the lobby waiting to join a meeting, I have now had this situation (students able to talk to one another) reported to me by at least two different teachers from different schools in our district. Unfortunately, we at the district level have not been able to replicate the situation, and it is never consistent as to which students can talk while waiting in the meeting lobby. Thankfully, our students reported it to the teacher and are practicing appropriate behavior by telling each other to mute their microphones while they wait.
Any help or guidance that @Microsoft can provide about this situation would be greatly appreciated.
- ChristianBergstromSilver ContributorPlease read my reply above.
- Ruth_AllenCopper ContributorThank you Christian. We have been using Teams successfully with our classes for the past year, and this situation just started happening in the last couple of weeks. The district has Teams set-up so that our students cannot create meetings or have access to Chat in Teams.
- ChristianBergstromSilver Contributor
tdwachur Hello, when being stuck in the lobby there's nothing more to it than wait to be admitted. If you're not being admitted you will be dropped from the lobby (the official docs says 15 min, but I've heard someone in the community actually testing this saying 30 min). Anyway, you cannot hear or communicate while in the lobby. That's one of the main purpose.
If I should guess though, your org. hasn't really worked through all the available policies in Teams so perhaps the students are creating meetings on the side, calls and chatting as there are no boundaries set up.
I would like to recommend this article for configuring "safe learning" and note the tabs!
For administrators - For educators - Policy quick guide
Keeping students safe while using Teams for distance learning (microsoft.com)