Unleash the power and fun of learning with colorful Microsoft Education Quick Guides - Summer 2024
Heather Aird’s Microsoft Education Quick Guides instantly catch the eye with their vibrant colors and engaging design. Gone are the days of dull, text-heavy manuals. These visually stunning guides are a breath of fresh air in the world of educational resources.Unleash the power and fun of learning with colorful Microsoft Education Quick Guides
Heather Aird’s Microsoft Education Quick Guides instantly catch the eye with their vibrant colors and engaging design. Gone are the days of dull, text-heavy manuals. These visually stunning guides are a breath of fresh air in the world of educational resources.Another batch of fun and useful Microsoft Education Quick Guides
Heather's Quick Guides alleviate this challenge by presenting information in a simple and easy-to-understand format. Each guide provides step-by-step instructions, accompanied by clear screenshots and diagrams, ensuring that even the least tech-savvy teacher can confidently navigate the tools.What’s New in Microsoft EDU, ISTE Edition June 2025
Welcome to our monthly update for Microsoft Education and thank you so much for being part of our growing community! We’re thrilled to share new AI innovation and insights for education and show them in action next week at ISTELive 25 in San Antonio, Texas, US. Join us at the show to learn more and hear about the latest from Microsoft Education at our booth and in dozens of sessions. Enjoy, and see you there! ISTE Topics Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat for teens (13-17) Microsoft 365 Copilot – Educator Features Microsoft 365 Copilot – Learner Features Microsoft 365 Copilot Agents Learning Zone on the Copilot+ PC Learning Accelerators Updates Learning Management System Integration Updates We’ve loved seeing the early impact at institutions such as Brisbane Catholic Education and Miami Dade College and exploration of new capabilities like agents. Get started with Copilot Chat, our no-cost AI-powered chat with data protection, and learn more about Microsoft 365 Copilot. Our first two topics today are about even more value we’re bringing to education in Microsoft 365 Copilot with a new set of capabilities designed for relevant and powerful use by educators and students. These features will be included in Microsoft 365 Copilot and will be in private previews over the coming months. Education institutions with any academic license are eligible to purchase Microsoft 365 Copilot, with no minimum, for their faculty, staff, and students aged 13 and older. 1. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat for teens (13+) Last month, we announced teen student availability coming this summer for Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot and today, we are sharing general availability is expected in late July, 2025. To prepare, administrators should review guidance to enable Copilot Chat for students and ensure appropriate access. Learn more: Enable Copilot Chat access for students Copilot Chat is included with Microsoft 365 at no additional cost and offers secure AI chat powered by GPT-4o with the ability to maintain IT control through enterprise data protection and management. It also includes features like file upload, image generation, Copilot Pages, and agents. We’re optimistic about the opportunities that lie ahead to help students increase their agency and build skills to prepare for future success. Read more about use cases, reflections, and advice from our global private preview educators and students in the announcement blog and from Johns Creek High School in the following video. When: Late July, 2025 2. Microsoft 365 Copilot – Educator Features Teach in the Microsoft 365 Copilot App Microsoft 365 Copilot delivers the latest AI innovations whether through reasoning agents like Researcher and Analyst, or advanced functionality like Copilot Tuning. We recently introduced the updated Microsoft 365 Copilot app, your hub for the latest functionality and later this year in preview, for AI-powered features for educators. In one place, educators will be able to easily create lesson plans, draft materials like quizzes and rubrics, and quickly make modifications like translation, adjusted reading levels, length, difficulty, alignment to relevant standards, and more. This module will be your one stop shop for creating and adapting education content in a guided interface, designed for Education institutions. Teaching capabilities can assist you in drafting the best content for your class, including lesson plans, rubrics, learning activities and more! Guided: Create and adapt content in guided interfaces, reducing the need for advanced prompting techniques, while still giving you full control over Copilot. Grounded: Leverage Education standards from 35 countries, your own content, and your class details to ground Copilot and create content relevant to your class. Available where you are: In the Microsoft 365 Copilot App on Web, Windows or Mac. When: First functionality previews in August 2025 Lesson Plans in Classwork AI generated lesson plans will also be coming to Classwork in Microsoft Teams. Bring your class details and a lesson description, and Copilot will create a lesson outline with suggestions for enhancements. Provide Copilot with relevant files and your education standards for an even more grounded lesson plan. When: In Private Preview July. General Availability end of summer 2025 Education data integration At ISTE this year, we’re thrilled to showcase how Microsoft 365 Copilot is becoming even more powerful for educators with the integration of Assignments and Classwork data. By bringing this rich, contextual classroom information directly into the flow of work, Copilot can now help teachers save time, gain insights, and support students more effectively. Educators can quickly surface upcoming assignments, generate summaries, and even tailor instruction based on the needs of each student— all from within familiar Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Outlook, and Teams. This integration marks a significant step forward in enabling AI-powered teaching, helping educators focus more on what matters most: meaningful student learning. When: Private Preview: Summer 2025 Standards alignment and creation We are excited to share updates on our efforts to bring standards aligned content to our education features. We are partnering with EdGate to integrate learning standards from over 36 countries into our AI features in Teams for Education and Microsoft 365. Integrating EdGate’s comprehensive and global standards set will empower educators to select standards that are relevant to their classes and assignments, allowing them to create high-quality, tailored content. Educators will have the flexibility to choose standards based on location, subject, language, and other criteria. Standards will be seamlessly integrated into all our AI processes in the future. For ISTE, we are happy to announce that our AI Rubric Generator and our new AI Lesson Plan creation tool will be the first features to support standards alignment. Standards alignment will help educators create class materials that are not only relevant and engaging but also pedagogically aligned. When: Summer 2025 Suggested AI feedback for Educators AI feedback suggestions is a new feature that makes it easier for you when you want to provide feedback to students as part of your Assignments flow using Microsoft 365 Copilot. Use the Feedback field as a scratchpad as you review the student work, and have Copilot enhance and summarize it for you. Or, if you are using rubrics, you can have Copilot review your rubric selection and summarize it. Copilot always uses your input as the basis of the suggested summarized feedback, and you will always need to confirm the suggested update and add potential edits, before returning to the student. When: In Private Preview – General Availability Summer 2025 3. Microsoft 365 Copilot – Learner features Study guide in Copilot Notebooks Copilot Notebooks in Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI-powered workspace to stay focused on what matters most. Bring together Copilot chats, Microsoft 365 files, OneNote pages, meeting notes, and links—all in one place. Listen to an audio overview hosted by two voices. Ask questions and Copilot will analyze your notebook content, surface insights, and help you draft new content. Copilot Notebooks available now at microsoft365.com/copilot, (A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required.) Coming to preview in fall 2025, the new study guide feature will help learners turn scattered materials into an organized study space. Upload notes, lecture slides, handouts, and links to generate a custom guide with engaging activities, quizzes, and topic deep dives. Summary and topic pages include explanations, worked examples, and questions that help learners understand, think and apply their learning. With flashcards, quiz, fill-in-the-blanks learning becomes active and personalized – for college, K-12, and adults learners alike. Copilot Notebooks are available inside OneNote alongside all the rest of your classic Notebooks to keep everything together and easy to find. When: Copilot Notebooks available now, Study Guide coming in fall 2025. Learning activities We’re excited to share that Learning Activities will be coming to Microsoft 365 Copilot this summer! Learning activities is a new Microsoft Education experience designed to help educators and students transform passive content into active learning. With just a few clicks, educators and students can now create engaging practice activities like flashcards directly from existing learning content. Learning Science tells us that when students can engage actively with the material that they are more likely to understand and retain what they are learning. Drawing on frameworks like ICAP and Generative Learning, learning activities supports deeper understanding by encouraging students to actively organize and apply new knowledge. Educators and students benefit from time-saving automation, built-in feedback loops, and tools that support differentiated instruction, all while maintaining control over the learning experience. Our first learning activity will be AI generated flashcards in Classwork. Educators will be able to add their learning content, select question type and hints, and generate cards. They can then make edits, add images, and even enhance the cards with AI before sharing them with their students. In the future, we will add more activities like fill-in-the-blanks, mind maps, and matching. Students with Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses will be able to generate their own learning activities in the future, too. When: Summer 2025 4. Microsoft 365 Copilot Agents On top of the wide range of pre-built agents from Microsoft, teaching and learning agents will be available in the coming months. Eligible students are proactively prompted with questions to engage them in the learning process and provide tailored coaching on specific subjects or assignments. Educators receive the support of an instructional designer with responses grounded in pedagogical expertise and educational standards. Teaching Agent When: private preview later this year Learning Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot Canvas Agents We have developed two agent samples to assist educators and students in engaging with the Canvas LMS. Canvas Teacher and Canvas Student connect Copilot with Canvas via Microsoft 365 apps that include BizChat, Word, and PowerPoint. These can be accessed through open-source, customizable samples. Get and customize Canvas Teacher and Canvas Student. When: Available now as open-source Moodle Agents We also have developed two agent samples to assist educators and students in engaging with the Moodle LMS. Moodle Teacher and Moodle Student allow Copilot to interface with Moodle via M365 apps that include BizChat, Word, and PowerPoint. These can be accessed through open-source, customizable samples. Get Moodle agents and customize them to your needs. When: Available now as open-source 5. Introducing Microsoft Learning Zone: A new way to create interactive, personalized lessons on Copilot+ PCs Earlier this year at Bett, we introduced a new app—code-named “Project Spark”—designed to help educators deliver meaningful, AI-enhanced learning experiences. We’re excited to share that this free app is coming to public preview later this summer with its official name: Microsoft Learning Zone. Microsoft Learning Zone helps you save time by turning your existing teaching materials into interactive lessons that students can engage with directly. Whether you’re introducing a new topic, reinforcing key ideas, or creating personalized practice, the app uses on-device AI to help you build student-ready content in minutes. Built for Copilot+ PCs, it brings AI into your workflow responsibly and privately, so you stay in control while focusing on what matters most: great teaching and learning. Experience Microsoft Learning Zone on a 12-inch Surface Pro Create interactive learning experiences students can engage with instantly The app generates interactive slides, questions, and explanations based on your content, which you can review, reword, or adjust with just a few clicks. Lessons include checks for understanding, instant feedback, and opportunities for students to revisit what they missed—supporting deeper learning over time. When you’re ready, you can share the lesson with a short code, a link, or directly in Microsoft Teams. And with built-in insights, you’ll see how students are progressing and know exactly where to follow up. Edit an AI-generated interactive lesson in Microsoft Learning Zone Built in partnership with educators and trusted voices We know that great content matters. That’s why we’ve teamed up with leading organizations to bring real-world, relevant material into your classroom. From NASA and Minecraft Education to PBS, OpenStax, and Figma, you’ll find interactive, ready-to-learn lessons that spark curiosity, critical thinking, and deeper discussion with your students. Our collaboration with OpenStax - a leader in open educational resources - lets you generate lessons based on high-quality, peer-reviewed academic content. Whether you’re teaching science, history, or economics, you can trust the materials that Learning Zone helps you build from. Learn more here. Generate Kahoot! quizzes with AI We’re proud to partner with Kahoot! to make it even easier to create interactive and gamified learning experiences. Directly within Learning Zone, you can generate Kahoot! games using AI on your Copilot+ PC - perfect for quick checks for understanding or fun group reviews. It’s the energy of Kahoot! with the speed of AI. Generation of a Kahoot! quiz using on-device AI When: Microsoft Learning Zone is currently in private preview and will be available in public preview later this summer. To learn more and get notified when the app is ready to download, visit https://aka.ms/zone. 6. Learning Accelerator updates Reading Progress Reading Progress is our no-cost Learning Accelerator that helps students build reading fluency while giving educators valuable insights. The #1 educator request has been to allow students to see comprehension questions next to the reading passage that a student sees. Up until now, the comprehension questions would always appear after the reading passage was finished, but students could not reference the original passage. With today’s update, educators now have the option to have the comprehension questions show side-by-side with the reading passage. When: Available now Math Progress Our newest Learning Accelerator Math Progress rolled out globally in December 2024. We’ve been listening to educator feedback and we’re excited to announce the top two requests have been added! You can now add images or generated graphs to your Math Progress assignment questions. When: Available today Speaker Progress We have some great new features coming to Speaker Progress! Speaker Progress is our Learning Accelerator that helps students build confidence in their presentation and public speaking skills with real-time coaching and feedback. Educators can then view speeches and track student progress over time. AI Transcript Feedback in Speaker Progress We are bringing generative AI to Speaker Progress with our new AI Transcript Feedback feature. Educators can choose to enable AI feedback, select a speech type, and evaluation criteria. Student speeches will then receive summary feedback and in line comments to help them improve the content and qualitative aspects of their presentations. The educator is fully in control and must review AI Feedback before it is shared with students. Educators can create AI feedback: Educators can review AI feedback: When: Summer 2025 More languages in Speaker Progress More languages are now available in Speaker Progress, including Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, German, French, Dutch and Danish. Keep checking back regularly as we are adding new languages to Speaker Progress every month! When: Available globally now! Reading Coach Educators can now share custom passages, set time goals for learners, and track progress over time through the new guided practice feature in Reading Coach. Check out the new Microsoft Learn unit here. When: Available now Leveled fiction and non-fiction Spanish passages in Reading Coach curated content library. When: Available now Using the Insights Leader Graph API, education institutions and partners can build custom dashboards to track students’ reading progression in Reading Coach. When: August 2025 7. Learning Management System Integration Updates In response to feedback from our educator community, we are making Microsoft Education tools easier to deploy and use within learning management systems. Learning Accelerators and AI-enhanced assignments (without Microsoft Teams) You will soon be able to use Learning Accelerators, standards alignment, rubric generation, instructions generation, suggested feedback, and other Microsoft EDU assignments capabilities directly within your learning management system (LMS), without Microsoft Teams. The current Teams Assignments LTI is transforming into Microsoft Assignments LTI, enabling more LMS users to benefit from advanced, AI-enhanced capabilities that were formerly exclusive to Microsoft Teams for Education. Assignments will be created, managed, completed, and graded, entirely within the LMS user experience. The change will automatically roll out to users of the current Teams Assignments LTI tool, where use in new courses will no longer require Teams. Existing Teams-based assignments will continue to work, so no migration is necessary. This enhancement will apply to all currently supported LMS platforms, including Instructure Canvas, Powerschool Schoology, Anthology Blackboard, D2L Brightspace, and Moodle. When: Public Preview Summer 2025; GA Fall 2025 New, streamlined learning management system experience We are bringing our Microsoft Education capabilities for learning management systems together into a single tool and streamlined user experience. You will be able to access Learning Accelerators, Reflect, OneDrive, Teams, and more in their LMS courses, without having to enable multiple tools, and without overcrowding the menus where LTI tools are surfaced. Whether adding content to a module, creating an assignment, or scheduling a meeting for a class, you will be able to easily access Microsoft Education’s related features directly in your LMS workflow. The new LTI tool will debut this Summer as a replacement for the deprecated Teams Meetings and Team Classes LTI tools. The capabilities of OneNote, OneDrive, Reflect, and Microsoft Assignments will be added to the new tool in the following months. The tool will be available for all currently supported LMS platforms, including Instructure Canvas, Powerschool Schoology, Anthology Blackboard, D2L Brightspace, and Moodle. When: Public Preview Summer 2025; GA Fall 2025 And finally.... Just to recap all the news we have for you this month, here’s a quick review of all the features that are generally available or are rolling out now: Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat for teens (13+) Microsoft 365 Copilot – Educator updates Teach module in the Microsoft 365 Copilot App Classwork integration AI Feedback Standards integration Learning Activities Microsoft 365 Copilot – Learner updates Study Guide and Copilot Notebooks Learning Activities Microsoft 365 Agent updates Teach agent Learn agent Canvas agents Moodle agent Microsoft Learning Zone for Copilot+ PC Learning Accelerator updates Reading Progress updates Math Progress updates Speaker Progress updates Reading Coach updates Learning Management System Integration Mike Tholfsen Group Product Manager Microsoft Education
