Working with partners beyond the formal boundaries of the University is essential to the mission of our Land Grant institution. This guide is intended to help UVM affiliates and our partners use Microsoft Cloud services to collaborate successfully. Those partners can be private individuals or members of organizations that may have their own instances of Microsoft’s services.
In this guide, we often refer to “external users.” Meaning those who don’t use a UVM NetID account to access Microsoft services. Even UVM employees and students who use their LCOM accounts are considered external users, though LCOM folks also have UVM NetID accounts.
We have provided some specific guidance for working with our colleagues at the Larner College of Medicine. Please see that documentation here: Microsoft Teams – Navigating between LCOM and UVM
Video Guides:
ETS has created a playlist with videos to accompany the documentation below. You can watch the videos on the ETS Info SharePoint here: Collaborating with External Users in Teams
Teams Meetings with External Users
Joining a Meeting as an External User
1. Click on the meeting link provided to you by the meeting organizer
2. From here, you can either Continue on this browser or, if you have the Microsoft Teams app on your computer, click Join on the Teams app
3. You can now join the meeting by entering your name and clicking Join. If you have a Microsoft Account or your organization has its own Microsoft Tenant, we recommend signing in to ensure your account is “authenticated.”
If you find that you’re unable to chat, it’s possible the meeting was created within a Team’s channel. Please ask the organizer to add you to the Team or schedule the meeting outside of the Team’s channel.
(Assuming default Meeting settings)
Authenticated Users:
- Can use their microphone & camera
- Can share their screen(s)
- Can read chat history and engage in chat.
Unauthenticated Users:
- Use their microphone & camera
- Must be granted permission by a meeting organizer to share their screen
- Can engage in chat and will only see chat content sent during the meeting
Default Settings - Teams Meetings
| Category | Setting | Default Value |
|---|---|---|
| Security | Bypass the Lobby | Everyone |
| Audio & Video | Microphone | Allowed |
| Audio & Video | Camera | Allowed |
| Engagement | Meeting Chat | On |
| Engagement | Q&A | Off |
| Engagement | Allow Reactions | Yes |
| Engagement | Allow Attendance Report | Yes |
| Roles | Announce when people dialing in join or leave | Yes |
| Roles | Assign co-organizers | Unassigned |
| Roles | Who can present | People in my org and guests |
| Roles | Enable language interpretation | Unassigned |
| Recording & Transcript | Requires a Teams Premium License | ~ |
Sharing Files With External Users
Sharing Individual Files with External Users
- Navigate to your document in OneDrive or SharePoint
- If this document belongs to you as an individual, it’s appropriate to store it in your personal OneDrive space.
- If you’re sharing a document related to work on your team, it’s appropriate to store the file on the Teams SharePoint site that you are all members of.
- Click on the Share icon.
- Enter the email address of the user with whom you would like to share this file.
- Click Send
- If you would instead like to share this link with Anyone, you can click the gear icon next to Copy link and change the sharing permissions to Anyone.
Option to Share with UnavailableIf you’re sharing from a SharePoint site, the option to share with Anyone may be unavailable for selection. To change this, submit a request to enable external sharing to the Helpline and include a link to your SharePoint site in that request: Contact UVM Tech Team
- Enter the email address of the user with whom you would like to share this file.
Ongoing Collaboration with External Users
If you’re collaborating with an external user on a project or will be sharing multiple files with a user, it would be best to create a team or invite the user to an existing team. Adding members (including external users) to a team allows them to access any files stored within the Team.
Invite an External User to a Team:
- In Teams, navigate to the team to which you’re attempting to add an external user.
- Click the More Options ellipses button (…) next to your Team’s name and select Add member.
- Enter the email address for the external user in the Type a name or email box.
- If the user is already a guest in our tenant, they will also be searchable by name.
- Click Add
Reviewing Access/Revoking Access to Files
Review Who has Access to a File
You can review who has access to a shared file by navigating to the file in OneDrive/SharePoint, then:
- Click the ellipses (…) next to the share button.
- Select Manage access from dropdown menu.
- Review the People, Groups, and Links tabs to see who can access the file.
Revoke Access to a File
If the user you are attempting to revoke access from has access to the shared file as a result of being a member of a team and you’d like the rest of the team to retain their access to the file, remove the user from the Team instead of following the steps below.
You can revoke access to a shared file by navigating to the file in OneDrive/SharePoint, then:
- Click the ellipses (…) next to the share button.
- Select Manage access from dropdown menu.
- You can remove a person, group, or link by clicking on the associated security entry and changing the permission from its current state to Remove Direct Access.
To stop sharing a file with everyone, click the Stop Sharing button at the top right of the Manage Access window. This option removes all non-owner people, groups, and links.