Updated September 9, 2025
The new Microsoft Education LTI allows you to create class meetings in advance, as well as utilize Microsoft’s “Meet Now” function. To access these options, you must access “Microsoft Education” from the course navigation menu in your Canvas course, and open the “Teams Meetings” application.
What’s the Difference between “Meet Now” and a Scheduled Meeting?
In Microsoft Teams, the “Meet now” function allows you to instantly start an unscheduled video meeting with participants, making it ideal for spontaneous discussions, quick check-ins, or urgent collaboration.
In contrast, the Scheduled Meeting function is used to schedule a meeting in advance, complete with a title, time, and participants. Scheduled meetings also integrate with Outlook calendars, making it an ideal option for planning lectures, office hours, or even departmental meetings. While “Meet now” supports immediate engagement, Scheduled meetings ensure structured coordination and preparation.
For regular classes, we recommend using the Scheduled Meeting function.
How do I Create these Meetings?
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In your Canvas course, select “Microsoft Education” from the Course Navigation.
If Microsoft Education is missing, please use the instructions in this linked article to enable it (link).
On the Microsoft Education dashboard, click “Teams Meetings.” If you don’t see Teams Meetings, ensure you have enabled the app in your Microsoft Education course settings.
Creating a Scheduled Meeting
In the top right corner of the screen, click the “+ New meeting” button.
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Fill in the Title, Date/Time, and Description for the meeting.
Click the box labeled “Allow anyone in the course to join” to make the meeting visible to everyone in your Canvas class.
Optionally, click “Add entire class” to personally invite each student to the meeting. Note that you will have to manually update this if students add or drop your course.
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“Make recurring” (Optional). Click the “Make recurring” button if your meeting repeats. Choose the recurrence and set an end date at the end of the semester.
For example, if your meeting occurs every Monday and Thursday at 10:40 AM, choose “every 1 Week” and select the “M” and second “T” button as appropriate, then select the end date by clicking the calendar button at the bottom.
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Once your meeting details are set to your specifications, click “Save” to schedule the meeting.
In the screenshot below, I have added a Meeting Title “Class Meeting - FYS 1000,” ensured everyone enrolled in my course can access the meeting through Canvas by selecting the “Allow anyone in the course to join” check-box, and scheduled the meeting to occur every Monday and Thursday from 10:40 AM - 12:05 PM through mid-December, and added a brief meeting description.
You should now see a list of all upcoming meetings on the Microsoft Teams Meetings page. When you’re ready to start, locate the meeting and click “Join.”
Starting a Meet Now instant meeting
On the Teams Meetings page, click the drop-down button next to “New Meeting” in the upper right and click “Meet Now.”
Name the meeting, and choose to either Start the meeting (you can add or invite attendees later if needed), or use the “Get a link to share” button to get a join link to your attendees before you start the meeting.
If you choose “Start meeting,” Teams will try to launch the meeting immediately - select if you want to join using your browser or using the Teams desktop application, then join the meeting.
If you choose “Get a link to share,” Teams will generate a link that you can share with your students. Click the “Copy” icon on the right side of the link, then click “Start Meeting.” Once you are ready, you can then share the link with your students by posting in an announcement.