Forum in Microsoft Teams

Copper Contributor

As a teacher I'm interested in the possibility of using Teams as a forum for class discussions. Is there any add-on that would make this possible? If not, does anybody know whether there are any coming soon?

14 Replies

Hi Linus,

 

You can use the chat in the channels and you can activate Channel moderation so only moderators can start new posts, but members will be able to answer on that post. Can that help you?

 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/manage-channel-moderation-in-teams

+1 to Linus reply. Teams is not a forum tool per say and it also depends on what you really need here! Just general conversations with replies to each thread, likes etc with channels for each topics or whatever works!

Adam

@Linus Cansby 

That almost solved my dilemma! I wish there was some way to list the threads (so you don't have to scroll through the chat to reach each "thread"). Is it possible to make the answers/comments on each post not show unless you click on it? If that was possible it would look much neater. 

Nope, I've wanted a way to do this myself and thought it would be a very nice experience to have Topics listed out, but the problem is you would have people not using the reply button etc. So first thing they would need to add would be forced (Required) Subject Line on every post. I wish you could do this anyway.

But 3 things Teams needs added to make this more a forum.
1. Require Subject
2. Customized View Templates, so we can make our own forum looking view.
3. A way to set the view per channel.

This would be pretty powerful to give Teams some more flexibility. And a bonus would be to be able to tag / mark as answered like Yammer. Anyway, I'm going to take this feedback with me to Summit, cause I mentioned it before in passing but I think it could be cool. Probably pipe dream stuff, but doesn't hurt to try! lol!

@Linus145 There are a couple of requests at the uservoice page about this, not many votes yet.

 

 

 

@Linus145 Yes! My company "Lightning Tools" offers a Discussion Board App for Microsoft Teams. You can add the app to a Teams Tab or as a Microsoft Teams Personal App. 

 

The product is called Social Squared and you can find it here: https://lightningtools.com/product/microsoft-teams-discussion-board-app

 

Brett

Hello,

 

I'm an administrator of teaching Microsoft teams for an school.

Please help us to stop somme guest cutting off microphone of others. 

Where I should go in the software to fix this recurrent problem?

Thank you so much for your help

 

@Brett Lonsdale 

 

Brett,

  I also am a teacher looking to use teams to do a forum base since we do not have an online ed platform like blackboard or canvas. I noticed your product price is $1K for a 1 year subscription, but I did not see anything on your page regarding education licenses. Is there a free version of your program that maybe has less features? (My district is fiscally constrained and I do not have the authority to buy/install programs on my school computer).  Thank you!

 

 

Hello.

I use a free Teams instalation.

I want to invite people and send them invitation on e-mail.

The people that recive invitation acces the link and they will be  GUEST. They don.t have an accound on teams.

 

It is possible to let Guest to view and rite messages on chat?

 

I can;t acces Teams admin center to acctivate gueest chat because i have a free teams app.

 

 

 

@Linus Cansby 

So my IT Services team we have a group we spun off from our daily huddle meeting 2 years ago that is in the chat section.  Our company is going to put on a 90 day retention for a chat but not for any channels under the teams section.  We like our current setup as it is free form and just constant posts without any topics like you can set up with some of the plugin apps.  Is there a forum style that I can be looking for that we can add to our general channel?  

 

Thanks

Jason

@Linus145   This, some sort of 'forums-like' option inside Microsoft Teams, could be a meaningful help to us ( me and my company of 1000+ users are newcomers to the whole SharePoint / Teams environment).  For security reasons we can't use Yammer but keenly need a connected option to gather thus sort company dialogue.  ( The closer the informal dialogue is to our emerging company knowledge in SharePoint Online the better. )   .. Many thanks for posting. Hugh (Melbourne, Aust.)

@Linus145 

 

I landed on this chat thread and after about 3 years, I must say your choice of using Teams must have been beneficial. You being a teacher must share strategy based mobile games to enhance their productivity level. 

@Linus145 

 

Absolutely, using a chat thread for class discussions is great! I faced similar challenges addressing my students' issues, so I took the initiative to revamp our class communication platform.

I collaborated with a local web development company in my city to create a custom forum integrated with a Learning Management System (LMS). This has proven to be an effective solution for fostering meaningful conversations and addressing concerns promptly.

 

If you're interested in revamping your forum for class discussions, consider exploring LMS integration. It not only facilitates communication but also streamlines the learning experience for both educators and students.

 

Feel free to ask if you have any more questions about the process or if you'd like more details on how the custom forum and LMS integration have benefited my class.