Microsoft Teams lesson for you; here is a how to

People across the globe started working from home ever since the Covid-19 pandemic began last year. While connectivity and collaboration were both a challenge in the beginning, soon after tech companies stepped in to fill in the void that was needed for teams to work seamlessly even as they sat miles across from each other. Among them ws Microsoft Teams. While on one hand, these collaboration platforms increased connectivity, they also increased work fatigue in many cases owing to the excessive time being spent on digital platforms. So, here we provide a Microsoft Teams lesson that will help boost your productivity and get rid of the stress.

Microsoft Teams Breakout Rooms

Microsoft Teams’ Breakout Rooms feature enables users to divide the meeting into sub-groups to facilitate discussions and brainstorming sessions. The meeting organiser can create up to 50 breakout rooms and choose to automatically or manually assign participants into rooms. The organizer can also start a breakout room in a Teams meeting or a Teams channel meeting, which fosters greater flexibility.

Additionally, meeting organisers can choose to allow participants to come back to the main meeting at any time and then return to the assigned breakout room. This way participants can ask a clarifying question without disturbing the breakout room discussions.

Microsoft Teams Together Mode

Microsoft Teams’ Together Mode can turn any regular video call into a shared virtual environment in a way that helps participants feel as if they are in the same space as others. Instead of seeing all the users in a square or rectangular grid separately, while using Microsoft Teams’ Together Mode, participants see all the participants together in a virtual space. Microsoft says that Together Mode is designed to build a virtual live avatar of all members of the group and negate their backgrounds.

Microsoft Teams Live Reactions

Work from home working style has also made it difficult for speakers to gauge public reaction and look for non-verbal cues like smiles and head nods. This makes it challenging for presenters to gauge audience reactions and for participants in large meetings to share a sentiment without interrupting the meeting flow. Microsoft Teams’ Live Reactions feature enables participants to react during a meeting using emojis that will appear to all participants.

Microsoft Teams Video filters

Lastly, video filters. Video filters in Microsoft Teams are similar to the ones used in photography. Before joining a meeting, participants can use the filters to subtly adjust lighting levels and soften the focus of the camera to customise their appearance.