Microsoft Teams for Education is definitely one of the best communication tools that helps teachers in their (online) teaching. It is also a powerful alternative to Google Meet and Zoom. For those of you who are already using it in their instruction, below is a quick overview of 3 main features that have been added to Microsoft Teams recently. For more updates about Microsoft Teams for Education, check out this page.
1- Breakout Rooms
Like Zoom, Microsoft Teams has finally introduced the popular feature breakout rooms. Users are now able to divide participants in a meeting into small groups. “As the organizer you can easily jump in between breakout rooms, deliver announcements to all breakout rooms at once, and bring everyone back to the main meeting at any time. Any files from the breakout rooms can be shared in the main meeting and are available afterwards in the meeting chat.”
2- End-of-meeting notifications
With this new feature participants in a Teams meeting will be notified five minutes before the end of the scheduled meeting. “This helps you stay on track and wrap up as necessary without unintentionally running late to your next schedule.”
3- Live events limit increase
Teams extended limits for live events to include simultaneous hosting of up to 50 events, support for up to 20.000 attendees, and event duration of 16 hours per broadcast. This increase is valid till June 30, 2021.