Microsoft unveiled the ‘Teams for Education’ features for engaging students and teachers in the coming school year to create new remote and hybrid learning formats. The app now includes an expanded view of the audience of up to 49 participants as well as customized backgrounds, class insight, and interactive break-out rooms.

Microsoft found that the use of remote learning technologies had taken a sharp turn in surveying almost 500 members of the Microsoft Education community consisting of teachers and institutional leaders from around the world. In a hybrid learning climate – a combination of remote and in-person learning – 61 percent plan to start the next school year and 87 percent plan to use more technology in physical schools.

New models of remote learning allow educators to develop persuasive, engaging, and inclusive content to guarantee the strong participation of students. Educators use a central hub with digital resources for remote learning across different activities to facilitate this, while maintaining safe learning environments.

More than 150 million students, faculty, members, and teachers have been involved in engaging students in distance learning using Microsoft Education products — with Teams for Education their hub. The new features of the ‘Teams for Education’ aim at raising student involvement and providing educators with new methods for digitally engaging students.

Microsoft has also developed Learning Resources such as Interactive Reader in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Edge, Teams, OneNote, Flipgrid, and Minecraft: Education Edition to allow parents to help students at all reading rates or those with trouble reading or writing due to dyslexia or dysgraphia.