Set up and host Teams meetings or Live Events to keep a large, distributed team up to date on projects, progress, and priorities.
Best Practices
Choose the right tool for the job
For smaller groups (up to 250 people), you can use a standard Teams meeting which will allow for full interaction with participants.
For larger (250- 10,000 people) sessions, use Teams Live events, which is intended for one-to-many communications where the host of the event is leading the interactions and audience participation is primarily to view the content shared by host.
Have a detailed "show flow" outlining exactly how the call will run
Assign a Producer who will control what/who is shown when during the call. Plan in advance who all of the presenters will be and ensure they all have a great connection, proper lighting, know their part, know who they are handing over to, and are well prepared.
Do a practice run
Test all presenter connections and video and do a run-through of the session at least one day before.
Share the materials you need to educate and inform your team, then encourage participation to enhance learning.
Best Practices
Use a private channel to prepare
Create a private Teams channel to co-create session materials with other session planners, then set up a meeting on this channel to dry run your presentation.
Set up another channel for learners
Once you’re prepared, set up a Teams channel for session participants and engage them before, during and after your event. Share files like your meeting agenda, lesson plan, or other pre-read materials prior to your session, then post action items and follow up activities once your session is complete.
Organize learning materials
Share and organize files corresponding to your lesson plan to encourage self-directed learning along with instructions for navigating your learning modules. You can also use the Stream application to create a video library within your Teams channel.
Use Live Events for large sessions
Set up a Teams Live Event, an extension of Teams Meetings, when you need to broadcast video to a large online audience. This is best for presentation-style, one-to-many communications.
Use meetings for smaller sessions
Set up a Teams Meeting to facilitate a smaller, more interactive learning session when audience conversation and participation is encouraged.
Put two facilitators in charge
When conducting a live session, it is ideal to have two facilitators: one to lead the session and the other to moderate the chat thread for questions, comments and feedback from the audience.
Record and share
Record a live session to share it afterwards or pre-record a session to allow for self-directed viewing.
Put participation tools to work
Use Microsoft Whiteboard to have your audience draw, sketch and write together on a shared digital canvas during your learning session. Use the Polly application to poll your audience.
Check your network connections
Make sure your Internet connection is stable. Connect via an Ethernet cable if possible, limit network traffic and close applications that you are not using.
Make sure they can hear you
Bad audio is a showstopper for virtual learning sessions. Make sure you are in a quiet, private space and use an external speaker or headset when possible.
