UNC uses two major tools for collaboration: Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Depending on your role at UNC, you may have a need for either or both of these options. Please review the comparisons below to determine which tool is right for you.

  • Basic Features of Teams vs Zoom:

    TEAMS

    ZOOM

    Teams is a part of Office 365, so it is a way for people to communicate and collaborate with chat, video, and audio tools. 

    Zoom is a popular cloud conferencing application used for video and audio meetings and webinars. 

    Benefits:

    Teams allows people to collaborate with others using Office tools like SharePoint sites, OneNote, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. 

    Teams also uses UNC's Azure servers which makes the platform secure for UNC employees and students.

    Benefits:

    Zoom has been widely used and adopted, so many are already familiar with the platform. It allows users to breakout participants into smaller "rooms."

    Zoom also is fully integrated within Canvas which makes the platform easy to use for both instructors and students. 

  • Who has Access? 

    TEAMS

    ZOOM

    UNC employees and students have access to the full Teams application, no access requests are required. 

    Non-UNC guests can access meetings with an invitation. Guest can also create/use a free version of the application.  

    UNC employees with first.last accounts have access to the paid Zoom Pro account. Students can request a pro account if needed. 

    Non-UNC guests can access meetings with an invitation. Guests can also create/use a free version of Zoom. 

  • How to Access? 

    TEAMS

    ZOOM

    Teams is installed on all UNC computers. You can also access the online version by visiting  https://teams.microsoft.com 

    Zoom is integrated in the Canvas platform. You can also access the online portal by visiting https://unco.zoom.us 

  •  When to Use?
     

    TEAMS

    ZOOM

    UNC recommends using Teams to:

    • Collaborate with departments
    • Chat with colleagues
    • Work on shared Office 365 documents
    • Collaborate on SharePoint documents
    • Project Development/Management
    • Whenever employees need to discuss highly sensitive information (PII/HIPPA)

    UNC recommends Zoom to:

    • Host synchronous sessions for students
    • Integration with Canvas
    • Host meetings with breakout rooms.  
    • Host non-sensitive meetings
  • To Find More Information (including tutorials):
     

    TEAMS

    ZOOM

    Go to UNC's Microsoft Teams page.

    Go to UNC's Zoom page.