Forum Discussion

lee141935's avatar
lee141935
Copper Contributor
Jan 10, 2022

disabling side chat as an educator

As an educator and a parent, the feature to be able to have a side chat with other Teams Members needs to be able to be disabled.  I have disabled the notifications for my own children, so they are not being bombarded with messages, that makes it very difficult to concentrate on what the teacher is saying.  In a classroom setting, I know that the students are constantly chatting with each other and not listening to me.  Parents believe that their children are paying attention, but in reality they have a dozen side chats going on and there is no way that any learning is happening.  The owner of the meeting should have a way to turn off side chats, except for between the team members and the owner.  If this online learning is to continue, something needs to change.  I realize that they can find another platform to chat, but this should be an option for the Team Owner.  

2 Replies

  • for public version, TAC could disable chat or use Information barriers
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/information-barriers-in-teams

    Education should have this
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/supervise-chats-edu
    • lee141935's avatar
      lee141935
      Copper Contributor
      So this should have been disabled in the beginning, as now the students already have all of their private chat groups set up, and those cannot be changed. Am I understanding that correctly?