The times of bringing residence a word out of your instructor to your dad and mom (or vice versa) will quickly be at an finish because of a brand new replace to Microsoft Groups.

The video conferencing service is engaged on a brand new function that can make parent-teacher communication way more tech-savvy, permitting messages to be despatched both by electronic mail or SMS to arrange a Microsoft Groups name.

In an replace (opens in new tab) on the official Microsoft 365 roadmap, the corporate says that the brand new “Guardian Connection” instrument will enable academics to immediately talk with the guardians of a pupil.

I am telling

“Sending messages in an SMS-heavy market makes it simpler to attach with Dad and mom whereas holding academics’ expertise easy,” Microsoft wrote within the entry, entitled “Invite Dad and mom by way of SMS for Communication”.

The corporate added that messages despatched to oldsters and guardians might be in plain textual content, with out HTML, formatting, or types utilized.

The instrument remains to be listed as being “in growth” in the meanwhile, with a scheduled launch date of February 2023. When launched, it’s going to initially solely be obtainable to Android customers, however might be launched worldwide.

The information is the newest replace on the deliberate Guardian Connection function, which was first revealed in Could 2022 however since then has gone fairly quiet.

The function is the newest in a sequence of education-focused upgrades launched for Microsoft Groups in current months.

This features a Class Insights tab that lets educators acquire insights into how their college students are performing, together with common grades, on-time assignments, common return time and dialog exercise over time.

Utilizing knowledge from the Class Insights tab, educators utilizing Groups will now have a single view to watch each particular person pupil and sophistication efficiency, and can be capable to make extra knowledgeable choices about their curriculum, pacing and pupil engagement.

Microsoft Groups additionally introduced Studying Progress, a brand new free instrument that it says might help college students enhance their studying expertise by real-world follow, but additionally enable academics and lecturers to higher assist the wants of scholars by providing in-depth evaluation, serving to help their development over time.

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