Microsoft Education: Create a Team From a Canvas Course
Note: This guide assumes Microsoft Education has already been set up in your course. If not, follow the setup guide to create a Team from your Canvas course.
Microsoft Teams spaces excel at fostering community beyond Canvas courses. While Canvas provides communication tools, Teams offers better channel organization, file collaboration, and quick messaging that many instructors prefer. However, managing both a Canvas course and manually enrolling users in Teams is time-consuming.
Microsoft Education solves this by creating Teams spaces for Canvas courses with a few clicks. The integration automatically syncs rosters and assigns appropriate permissions. This guide covers creating a Teams space directly from your Canvas course.
Create a Team From Your Canvas Course
By default, the option to create a Microsoft Team is turned off. To enable it, open the Microsoft Education app from your course navigation, then follow these steps:
- Click the round profile icon in the top-right corner and choose Course Settings.
- Toggle the Teams option on.
- Enable the Add Microsoft Teams option, then select Done.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is added to the Team, and what permissions do they have?This process creates a Team outside of Canvas that syncs with the course roster. Everyone currently enrolled—and anyone added in the future—will be automatically added to the Team.
Users with teacher-based roles (Teacher, TA, Librarian, Colleague) will be assigned as owners, allowing them to manage users, channels, and settings. Students are added as members, giving them access to participate without management permissions.
How can participants access the Team?From Canvas
In the Microsoft Education space, select Teams to find a shortcut to the class team.
From Cardinal Apps
Participants can access their Team by opening the Microsoft Teams app from Cardinal Apps.
Desktop or Mobile Apps
If participants have the Microsoft Teams desktop or mobile app installed, they can access the course Team there for a more complete and flexible experience.
When does the Team roster sync, and how often?The roster syncs several times a day and whenever enrollment or role changes occur within Canvas.
Someone has left the course but is still listed in the Team. What should I do?If there’s a mismatch between your Canvas roster and the Team, you can perform a manual sync:
- Open the Microsoft Education app and select the round profile icon.
- Choose Course Settings, then go to Advanced.
- Select Sync roster to force a refresh. You can also view the list of users and their roles.
