Do you need to meet remotely with one or all of your students?
The College supports two alternatives: Skype For Business and Teams. Teams is the replacement for Microsoft’s Skype for Business which will go away on July 31, 2021. Similar to Skype for Business, Teams includes a couple more functionalities such as: persistent chat (before, during, and after the meeting), tagging a person, and liking messages. Combined, these new features allow your students to continue conversations, mention each other in their responses, and express agreement in an organized manner. Additionally, Teams integrates much better with Macs than its predecessor, making resources already available for Windows users and Mac users as well.
If you are a Mac user or have a substantial amount of Mac users in your class, choose Teams. If you have Windows and/or are more comfortable using Skype For Business, feel free to continue using that, but keep in mind that this service will be sunsetted next year.
About Teams
Teams is a college-supported platform for connecting synchronously with students and other staff members. The app is available for download in MacOs, Windows, Android, and iOS. Teams allows you to share your presentation and offers a chat window for questions and answers. Teams provides the ability to continue your lectures live online during your scheduled class meeting time. Teams has a lot more features than Skype for Business, especially ones that were previously available only for Windows users in the latter. To get started with Teams, follow the links below:
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Microsoft Extensive Step-by-Step Video training