With the increased demand on online education, major tech companies have upped the ante by releasing new tools with advanced features designed particularly to facilitate remote learning. Microsoft Teams is the latest in this tend to announce a wide variety of new functionalities to its popular video calling platform. Below are three features that are coming out soon and that will definitely help you in your remote teaching. More functionalities are to be introduced in the next few months.
1- Breakout Rooms
This is probably one of the most important feature that was lacking in Microsoft Teams (Zoom already has it). With Breakout rooms, coming out this Fall, teachers will be able to create smaller groups where students can collaborate, discuss, and work on assigned tasks before they join back the larger group.
2- Class Insights
This is the section where teachers will be able to access metrics and data regarding their students learning. More specifically, teachers will be able to access information regarding “how students are learning and engaging in meetings, communication, files and assignment activities. And in time for the fall, educators will see a new, tailored view that distills the key story and trends behind the data to better inform engagement with students and class outcomes.”
3- Custom uploaded background
With this new feature you will be able to use a custom background for your video calls. More education themed backgrounds are coming out later this month.
4- 7×7 class meeting view
Some of the features that are now available on Microsoft Teams include:
- “Raise hand
- Upload your own custom video background
- Easily Change “Meeting Options” in the Participant Panel
- Attendance reports for meetings
- If a teacher removes an anonymous user, that user cannot rejoin“
