Using and managing private channels in Teams
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A private channel will only be visible in Teams to members who have been granted permissions to that channel. By default, any member of Teams can create a private channel in Teams. You can identify a private channel by the lock icon after the channel name. When you create a private channel, you need to specify the team members who have access to the channel content.
NOTE! Even the owner of a Teams team cannot see the content of private channels unless he/she is specifically added to the channel. We recommend that only the owners of the Teams team should be allowed to add private channels to a team. This would keep the management as clear and straightforward as possible. Below you will find information on how to change this setting.
Limiting the rights to create private channels
How to limit the creation of private channels to Teams owners only:
- Go to the “Team Management” view of your Teams team
- Click “Settings”
- Go to the “Member permissions” section
- Disable the setting “Allow members to create private channels”
How to create a private channel
Please note that existing channels cannot be converted to private. To create a new private channel, go to your Teams team and click “Add channel” from the three dots. First, enter a name and description for the new channel. From the “Privacy” menu below, you can change your team to private. Once created, you will be able to add members and owners to the channel. You can also add members to the channel later.
Using private channels for learning and teaching
Please note that the person added to the private channel will always see the team’s General channel as well.
In learning and teaching, the feature can be used in the following cases:
- The teacher creates a team, under which students create private channels for their own group work. This way, the teacher has only one Teams team to manage instead of many separate teams.
- The student groups may have visitors from outside the school organization to follow the students’ work and in this case the individual channels could be used in two different ways:
- the team has a private channel between teachers and students
- there is a private channel in the team where the labour representative can get involved.
- The module team creates a separate private channel for the team to invite students to participate in the design work of the module.
- The module team creates a separate private channel(s) within the team to distribute teaching materials (ppt presentations, pdf files, etc.) to students. In this way, the module team has one team where the joint planning of the module and the sharing of materials takes place.
Further instructions
- Create and use private channels (Microsoft)
- Working in Teams channels (Digipedagogical guidelines)
- Microsoft Teams: get started (Digipedagogical guidelines)
- Teams shared channels (in Finnish) (Digipedagogical guidelines)