What's New in Microsoft EDU webinar - August 2025
Join us on Wednesday, August 20th, 2025 for our latest "What's New in Microsoft EDU" webinar! These 30-minute webinars are put on by the Microsoft Education Product Management group and happen once per month, this month both 8:00am Pacific Time and 4:00pm Pacific time to cover as many global time zones as possible around the world. And don’t worry – we’ll be recording these and posting on our Microsoft Education YouTube channel in the new “What’s New in Microsoft EDU” playlist, so you’ll always to able to watch later or share with others! Here is our August 2025 webinar agenda: Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Chat for students 13+ M365 Copilot updates for Educators and Students Learning Zone public preview and the Copilot+ PC Microsoft 365 LTI for Learning Management Systems Learning Accelerator updates Microsoft 365 app updates AMA - Ask Microsoft EDU Anything (Q&A) We look forward to having you attend the event! How to sign up OPTION 1: August 20th, Wednesday @ 8:00am Pacific Time Register here OPTION 2: August 20th, Wednesday @ 4:00pm Pacific Time Register here This is what the webinar portal will look like when you register: Look forward to seeing you there! Mike Tholfsen Group Product Manager Microsoft EDUNow generally available: new educator features in the AI-powered Reading Coach
Just in time for applications to open for the 2025-2026 cohort of MIE Experts, we are thrilled to announce the general availability of new educator features in Reading Coach. These new features address our top educator requests, making it easier to guide learner practice by sharing custom passages, setting time goals for learner-led practice, and monitoring practice data over time. You can find detailed instructions for creating your first practices here, or take the updated Reading Coach module on MSLearn. Read on for an overview! As a reminder, Reading Coach is a FREE reading fluency application that provides personalized, engaging practice with safeguarded one-of-a-kind AI generated stories that keeps even the most reluctant readers coming back. Create and share practices Whether you want to set a time goal for independent, learner-led reading (they can choose to read anything in the app, including AI-generated stories), share a custom passage, or select an existing one from the built-in ReadWorks library, Reading Coach makes it easy to tailor practices to your learners’ needs. Learners then join the practice with a simple link or code. Monitor learner progress With the new Teacher mode, educators can monitor learner progress per practice and over time. You can track progress toward a time goal or completion status of a shared passage, average correct words per minute, and average reading accuracy. This data helps you understand how your students are progressing and where you might want to support. Requirements To access these features, educators and learners must have Microsoft Entra ID (School) accounts and belong to the same Microsoft 365 tenant. While Reading Coach is also available at home with personal Microsoft accounts, these educator features require a school account. We are so excited to see how you use these new features to create new and engaging reading practice opportunities for your learners. Stay in touch! Emma Gray Product Manager Microsoft EducationAnnouncing new educator preview features in the AI-powered Reading Coach
<today's post was written by Emma Gray, Product Manager on the Microsoft Education team> We are thrilled to announce the preview release of new educator features in Reading Coach, including sharing custom passages with learners, setting time goals for learner-led practice, and monitoring practice data over time. While these features will be generally available in the coming weeks, you can find detailed instructions for unlocking early access and creating your first practices here. Complete, detailed instructions for unlocking preview and creating your first practices can be found here. Read on for an overview! As a reminder, Reading Coach is a FREE reading fluency application that provides personalized, engaging practice with safeguarded one-of-a-kind AI generated stories that keeps even the most reluctant readers coming back. One-time preview unlock As an educator, sign into Reading Coach with your School (Entra ID) account. Right-click the Coach (Sunny, the sun, by default). If you’re on a touch-enabled device, long-pressing on Sunny will work too. You will see a new box appear that encourages you to "Find out more." Selecting that will bring you to a preview consent page, and selecting “Accept” from there will enable preview! Once you’ve created your first practice, your learners can enable preview by clicking a valid practice join link or entering a valid join code themselves by right-clicking or long-pressing the Coach. Create and share practices Whether you want to set a time goal for independent, learner-led reading (they can choose to read anything in the app, including AI-generated stories), share a custom passage, or select an existing one from the built-in ReadWorks library, Reading Coach makes it easy to tailor practices to your learners’ needs. Learners then join the practice with a simple link or code. Monitor learner progress With the new Teacher mode, educators can monitor learner progress per practice and over time. You can track progress toward a time goal or completion status of a shared passage, average correct words per minute, and average reading accuracy. This data helps you understand how your students are progressing and where you might want to support. Requirements To access these features, educators and learners must have Microsoft Entra ID (School) accounts and belong to the same Microsoft 365 tenant. While Reading Coach is also available at home with personal Microsoft accounts, these educator features require a school account. Join the Preview Community Joining the Reading Coach feedback community in Microsoft Teams is a great way to shape future releases, with direct access to the product team and twice-weekly office hours. To join the community, sign up here! We are so excited to see how you use these new features to create new and engaging reading practice opportunities for your learners. Stay in touch! Emma Gray Product Manager Microsoft EducationCopilot Agents in Education - join us for a webinar to learn more about AI agents
Join us for an session about AI Agents in Microsoft Copilot, tailored for educators. We'll delve into what Agents are, using them and even creating them. We'll highlight how educational institutions can use AI to enhance user engagement, teaching and learning, and productivity. Discover how the Microsoft Copilot Stack can empower educators and students alike.What's New in Microsoft EDU webinar - March 2025
Join us on Wednesday, March 12th, 2025 for our latest "What's New in Microsoft EDU" webinar! These 30 minute webinars are put on by the Microsoft Education Product Management group and happen once per month, this month both 8:00am Pacific Time and 4:00pm Pacific time to cover as many global time zones as possible around the world.Learning Accelerators, Teams Assignments Generally Available for Blackboard by Anthology
Today we are pleased to announce general availability of the Teams Assignments integration for Blackboard by Anthology! Blackboard is the latest Learning Management System to move to GA with this powerful integration, with more on the way. The Teams Assignments integration brings the power of Microsoft Learning Accelerators and generative AI educator tools to your LMS, along with other engaging activities such as Flip videos, Auto-graded Forms, MakeCode projects, Whiteboards, and Reflect check-ins. Grades and feedback are automatically returned to the LMS gradebook. LMS admin resources for deployment: Blackboard Admin Deployment Guide NOTE: If you have already deployed the preview, you do not need to re-install - just keep enjoying the app! Educator resources for readiness: Using Microsoft Teams Assignments in Learning Management Systems Additional readiness for Microsoft Learning Accelerators: Support reading fluency practice with Reading Progress Develop confident presenters with Speaker Progress Develop search strategies with Search Coach and Search Progress Support building mathematics skills with Math Progress Build social and emotional skills in your classroom community with Reflect Achieve More with Assignments in your LMS The new Teams Assignments integration brings unique new capabilities into your LMS, saving educators time, and providing powerful tools to accelerate learning. For example, with Teams assignments you can: Leverage AI during assignment creation to rapidly draft assignment descriptions and rubrics Accelerate student learning and educator insights with Reading, Math, Search, and Speaker Progress assignments Deliver auto-graded quizzes with Microsoft Forms Access unique assignment types such as Microsoft Whiteboard, MakeCode, and Flip video Use Reflect exit check-ins to gain insights into student sentiment related to assignments Teams Assignments are seamlessly integrated with LMS assignments via the Learning Tools Interoperability® (LTI®) v1.3 Advantage standard. As an educator, you can create new Teams assignments or link existing Teams assignments in your LMS course. Once linked, you can view and access those assignments as you would any other assignment in the LMS course. Your students can view and access their Teams assignments in the same way as their other LMS assignments. Assignment grades in Teams are automatically imported into the LMS gradebook. You can now use the best that Teams assignments and your LMS offer working together, instead of working alongside each other. Support for additional LMS platforms will be added soon! You can sign up here to receive information on current and future LMS integration previews. Choose the Right Tool for the Right Assignment Many educators are already using the OneDrive LTI® tool to bring M365 documents into LMS assignments. The new Teams Assignments LTI® tool is a complementary solution that brings unique capabilities of Teams for Education to LMS users. When creating an assignment in your LMS, you should choose the tool that best meets the needs of the specific assignment. Whatever the choice of tool, the assignment can be viewed and accessed like any other assignment in the LMS, and grades will be added into the LMS gradebook. Teams Assignments LTI® OneDrive LTI® What is it best used for? Learning Accelerators, Forms Quizzes, Whiteboard, MakeCode, Flip video, and other activities exclusive to Teams Assignments. AI-assisted assignment and rubric creation. Multiple Word, PowerPoint, Excel documents along with other activities can be required to be submitted by the student as part of a single assignment. Embedding or linking M365 documents in course content, discussions, announcements, or other LMS content. When a single or several documents are the focus of the assignment, announcement or discussion, and other Teams Assignments features are not needed. Collaborative editing of documents. Where are assignments graded? In Microsoft Teams, with grades and feedback automatically syncing back to the LMS gradebook. In the LMS, using the native LMS rubrics and gradebook. Requires Microsoft Teams for Education? Yes No How to get Help or give Feedback For any issues deploying the integration, our Education Support team is here to help: Please contact https://aka.ms/EduSupport Once deployed, the Teams Assignments integration has links to Contact Support and Send Feedback from right within the app. These can be found in the user voice menu in the upper right on any view that appears within the LMS. Leverage Microsoft Education for more than Assignments in your LMS The new Teams assignments integration is the latest advancement in our continued efforts to bring the full value of Microsoft Education to users of learning management systems. You can already use the capabilities of Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, OneNote Class Notebooks, Microsoft Reflect directly within LMS courses. You can learn more about these integrations with leaning management systems such as Blackboard, Brightspace, Canvas, Schoology Learning and Moodle in our previous overview, and our support page. Learning Tools Interoperability® (LTI®) is a trademark of the 1EdTech Consortium, Inc. (www.1edtech.org)What’s New in Microsoft EDU webinar – November 2024
Join us on Wednesday, November 13th, 2024 for our latest "What's New in Microsoft EDU" webinar! These 30 minute webinars are put on by the Microsoft Education Product Management group and happen once per month, this month both 8:00am Pacific Time and 4:00pm Pacific time to cover as many global time zones as possible around the world.What’s New in Microsoft EDU | August 2024
Welcome to our monthly update for Microsoft Education and thank you so much for being part of our growing community! As many countries are getting ready for back to school in August of 2024, or already started, we have a set of updates to make your school day easier, productive and more personalized. Also, if you haven’t explored the 34 “Quick Guides” from MIE Expert Heather Aird, this blog had a ton of useful 1 page PDFs that are great for professional development.What’s New in Microsoft EDU webinar – July 2024 and ISTE recap
Join us on Tuesday, July 9th, 2024 for our latest "What's New in Microsoft EDU" webinar! These 30 minute webinars are put on by the Microsoft Education Product Management group and happen once per month, this month both 8:00am Pacific Time and 4:00pm Pacific time to cover as many global time zones as possible around the world.
