Settings for students

[Natalie Williams]

Can someone advise me what the best setting are to allow students to have when enabling Teams for the first time?

[#2]

I use channels as subgroups because my students work in groups for the year, initially we gave students global permission to private message but have since turned this off, they can still post in conversations in the Team general conversations and the different channels and they use @ to alert someone if the message if for a particular person. Also have permission to delete and edit their messages.

[#3]

Thanks @Naomi Chapman when your IT department turned on Teams, did they change any settings as the Admin. My IT admin team are worried before we turn it on.

[#4]

@Natalie Williams initially no, we tested it with full permissions, but we have since turned off private chat via Admin. We've run it with private chat disable for 4 months and no complaints as yet. It is easy for students to use @nametag to alert someone to a conversation. 

[#5 · Accepted solution]

Don't allow them to chat, and don't allow them to set up channels. These were the most requested controls by teachers when we started using Teams. 

[#6]

I recommend do not allow posting in general channel and change permissions so files can not be edited in general channel. If this is required create a different channel that can be easily deleted.

[#7]

I'd agree with most of the posts above.
I recommend disable the creation of teams for all users using the relevant PowerShell Script
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Manage-who-can-create-Office-365-Groups-4c46c8cb-17d0-44b5-...
Use SDS to create Class Teams and design a specific structure for staff Teams for administration with appropriate permissions.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/education/get-started/use-school-data-sync
The new Teams admin center allows more granular controls and you can enable certain features for certain users.
I'd disable private chat and audio and video calling for students.
https://admin.teams.microsoft.com
Initially I also disable students from editing and deleting their own chat messages so if they post something inappropriate the teacher can take a relevant screenshot to follow standard discipline procedures and then delete it.