Microsoft Teams for Education gets custom backgrounds, virtual breakout rooms and more

Microsoft has announced new features coming to Teams for Education. The new features include custom backgrounds, expanded audience view and more.

Microsoft said over 150 million students, faculty, institutional leaders and teachers are actively using its education products. Microsoft Teams for Education in particular has been popular in engaging students for remote learning.

Microsoft had introduced custom backgrounds for Teams just last week. It’s available on Teams for Education as well. Users can add their own images as backgrounds for online classes. There are background collections as well to choose from.

Microsoft Teams for Education is also expanding its grid view to 7x7 which makes it possible to accommodate 49 participants in one window. This feature will be available as previews first and it will roll out to all users later.

Microsoft is also adding virtual breakout rooms that teachers will be able to create for students to collaborate in small groups. Virtual breakout rooms will be available on Teams towards the end of the year.

Microsoft Teams for Education will get another tool later this year called “Class Insights”. This is an intelligent data analytics breakdown on students based on their engagement in class, rate of assignments, activity metrics and grades along with a new trends view.

Educators will have more control over video sessions with new meeting options. This will prevent students from starting meetings without the host while educators will be able to choose who can present in a meeting and assign students who can join a meeting. Microsoft has added more partners for Teams for Education. These include Kahoot, Prezi, GO1, Nearpod, Piazza, Gaggle, Moodle, Canvas and more.