Most staff at the University will now have been using Microsoft Teams for remote working for quite a few months now. However many users may not be aware of some of the hints and tips that can help in getting more out of using Microsoft Teams. Over the next few weeks we will be posting various Teams hints and tips about different features of the platform.

Concern over Teams meeting recordings

The topic of this post relates to how to change the roles of your invitees in your Teams meetings and is directed at Teams meeting organisers.

There has been some concern at the University about the fact that anyone invited to a Teams meeting can record the meeting. There is further concern that there is no way to know who started a recording, as the recording will be owned by the meeting organiser, not the person who started the recording. The following post will show you how you can address this concern in your meetings by changing the roles of your meeting participants. Following the steps in this post will ensure that only the meeting organiser and any specifically designated presenters will be able to record your meeting. Changing roles in your Teams meetings will also allow you to specify the participants in your meetings (whether that’s just you or a few others) who can share content such as PowerPoint presentations or their screen, and who can admit people from the lobby or mute others. This may be useful for you if you want to have a more structured style meeting, with designated presenters.

Changing roles in your meetings

If you are a Teams meeting organiser you may want to know if it is possible for you to set designated roles in your Teams meetings. It is possible and we recommend that you consider changing the roles in your meetings before all of your meetings.

What are roles in Teams meetings?

There are 2 roles in Teams meetings – Presenters and Attendees. Presenters have more capabilities than attendees, and when you schedule your meeting all your invitees will be added as presenters by default. Some of the different capabilities of presenters and attendees are listed in the table below:

Capability	Presenter	Attendee
Speak and share video	✓	✓
Participate in the meeting chat	✓	✓
Share content (i.e. a screen, a PowerPoint presentation)	✓
Mute other participants	✓
Admit people from the lobby	✓
Start and stop recording	✓

How to change the roles in your meetings

We recommend that if you are a meeting organiser, that you change your invitees to attendees rather than the default presenters.

1. Schedule your meeting
2. Then, access your Teams Calendar and click your meeting
3. Then, click “Meeting options” beside the time zone information
4. Next, a new browser window will open with the meeting options
5. Then, beside “Who can present?” change the setting to “Specific people” or “Only me”
6. If you selected “Specific people” type the user’s name into the “Search for participants” box
7. Finally, click “Save”

For further information Microsoft provide detailed and up to date information on changing roles in your meetings.