Using Reading Coach in the classroom: Microsoft 365 LTI app + educator tools
Hi everyone! As we work to better support learners on their journey to becoming confident readers, I’m excited to share a few updates about Reading Coach – our free, AI-powered reading fluency tool – and highlight how it’s now even more accessible for your classroom. 📣 What's new: Reading Coach in the Microsoft 365 LTI We've heard from educators that managing multiple LTI® integrations can be overwhelming. That's why we're thrilled to announce that Reading Coach is now available in the unified Microsoft 365 LTI! This means you can access Reading Coach alongside other Microsoft education tools – like Class Notebook, Assignments, Reflect, and more – all from a single integration in your Learning Management System (LMS). What does this mean for you? ✅ One integration, many tools: No need to install separate LTI apps for each Microsoft education tool ✅ Simpler for IT admins: A single app to configure and manage ✅ Same great Reading Coach experience: All the AI-powered fluency features you love If your school uses Canvas, Schoology Learning, Blackboard, Brightspace by D2L, Moodle ™, or another LTI 1.3 Advantage platform, ask your LMS administrator about enabling the Microsoft 365 LTI. Where to find Reading Coach in the Microsoft 365 LTI Navigate to the Microsoft Education placement in your LMS and select Course settings in the top right under your profile image. Ensure Reading Coach is toggled on. If you don’t see it, your administrator might need to enable it for your district. To learn more, check out these resources: For educators: Microsoft 365 LTI User Docs For administrators: Microsoft 365 LTI Deployment Guide 📖 How-to: getting started with guided practice in Reading Coach Guided practice allows educators to create reading assignments that students can join with a simple link or code – no complex setup required. What is guided practice? Guided practice features bridge the gap between free reading and formal assignments. Educators can create two types of practices: Practice Type What It Does Open Reading Set a time goal (for example, "Read for 20 minutes"). Students can read anything in the app – AI stories, library passages – to reach their goal. Single Passage Share a specific text for students to read. Paste your own content or choose from the built-in ReadWorks library. 🎬 See It in Action Watch this quick demo video to see guided practice features in action: Step 1: Access Reading Coach as an educator Go to coach.microsoft.com or access Reading Coach through the All Apps list on microsoft365.com. Keep an eye out for a lightweight guided practice preview in Reading Coach in the Microsoft 365 LTI soon! Sign in with your school Microsoft account (Microsoft Entra ID). Look for the Teacher/Student toggle at the top of the home page – make sure you're in Teacher view. Step 2: Create a new practice Select Create a Practice. Choose your practice type: Open Reading: Set a time goal. Single Passage: Paste custom text or browse the ReadWorks library. Give your practice a name that students will recognize. Select Create. Step 3: Share with students Once your practice is created, you'll see: A unique Join Code (for example, "567123") A direct link to share Share either of these with your students via: Your LMS announcement or assignment Projected on your classroom board Email or messaging Step 4: Monitor student progress From each practice in the Teacher tab, you can track: Completion status: Who has started? Who has finished? Time spent: How long did each student practice? Fluency metrics: Words Per Minute (WPM) and Accuracy percentage Individual history: Drill down into any student's reading journey Requirements To use Guided Practice: Accounts: Requires Microsoft Entra ID (school) accounts Same tenant: Educators and students must belong to the same Microsoft 365 tenant No-cost: No additional licenses required beyond Microsoft 365 Education Get Started Today! Reading Coach is free for all Microsoft 365 Education users. Whether you're using it standalone at coach.microsoft.com or through the Microsoft 365 LTI app in your LMS, we're here to help every student build reading confidence. Helpful Links: 📘 Reading Coach on Microsoft Learn 💬 Share feedback with us by joining our EDU Insider Program Have questions? Drop them in the comments below – I'd love to hear how you're using Reading Coach in your classroom! Until next time, Emma Gray Microsoft Education Learning Tools Interoperability® (LTI®) is a trademark of the 1EdTech Consortium, Inc. (1edtech.org) The word Moodle and associated Moodle logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Moodle Pty Ltd or its related affiliates.New School Data Sync Experience is Now Generally Available
We are excited to announce the new School Data Sync (SDS) experience is now generally available. School Data Sync (SDS) is a free service for Education that helps to automate the process of synchronizing user and roster data from Student Information or Management Systems (SIS/SMS) with Microsoft 365. SDS has various enhancements and improvements over SDS (Classic).Hands-On Session: Teach Module in Copilot (available for all educators)
Join us on Wednesday, December 10th, 2025 @ 8am Pacific Time for an in-depth professional development webinar on the new AI-powered "Teach" module in Microsoft 365 that is fully rolled out and available to all educators. This will be a 45 minute hands-on webinar where the Product team will walk through the new updates in detail and you can follow- along at home with your own M365 account! Sign up for the session at this link. And don’t worry – we’ll be recording these and posting on our Microsoft Education YouTube channel so you’ll always to able to watch later or share with others! Here is our training agenda for the webinar 👇 How to use the new AI-powered "Teach" module in M365. Includes: ✅ Lesson plans ✅ Copilot Quizzes ✅ Standards integration ✅ Learning Activities ✅ Differentiate reading materials ✅ Teams EDU integration and Classwork ✅ First look at OneNote EDU and Teach Module integration We look forward to having you attend the event! Mike Tholfsen Group Product Manager Microsoft EducationOneDrive, Assignments, and Learning Accelerators are now Generally Available in Microsoft 365 LTI
Enhance your LMS with the power of Microsoft 365 Today, Microsoft is announcing general availability of the OneDrive and Assignments (including Learning Accelerators) experiences as part of Microsoft 365 LTI®—bringing seamless integration of Microsoft 365 tools into learning platforms to simplify workflows and enhance teaching and learning whether you’re using Canvas, Schoology, Brightspace, Blackboard, Moodle or other LMS platforms. Microsoft 365 LTI makes it easier than ever for educators and students to leverage the full suite of Microsoft 365 Education tools within existing workflows. And now, the OneDrive, Assignments and Learning Accelerators (Reading Progress, Speaker Progress and more) experiences previewed in July with the new Microsoft 365 LTI build on all the capabilities of the classic tools and add additional features in one convenient tool. Educators and students benefit from a more seamless and up-to-date LMS experience with Microsoft 365 Education. Teach and learn with confidence knowing that Microsoft 365 LTI is backed by Microsoft's industry-leading security and compliance tools with Microsoft 365 Education. Deploy and access the new Microsoft 365 LTI in your LMS today with the overview and deployment guides. IMPORTANT: If you have deployed the Microsoft 365 LTI previously, you do not need to redeploy in your LMS – however, we do recommend reviewing the deployment guide for any new recommendations or deployment guidance, and revisit your Admin Settings to check your M365 Admin Consent status and review the apps enabled for your educators to have access to in their courses. Classic LTI retirements Microsoft OneDrive LTI, OneNote LTI, Teams Assignments LTI and Reflect LTI are set to retire next September 17, 2026. The Microsoft 365 LTI replaces these separate LTI tools going forward and we encourage you to start proactively migrating your course this term. You will find migration guidance in our admin documentation to help take steps now. We will continue to provide any additional migration guidance as necessary OneDrive and Microsoft 365 files with embedded editors and new placements The new Microsoft 365 LTI tool expands beyond the capabilities of the existing OneDrive LTI tool with capabilities for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, including Microsoft 365 Copilot - and is now available within your LMS experience by embedding or linking documents, videos, PDFs, and images into course materials like assignments, discussions, modules, announcements and more. Microsoft 365 LTI orchestrates management of permissions to prevent oversharing, and with dedicated course-level storage to support proper document lifecycle management, assignment workflows, and use of Microsoft 365 Copilot. With Canvas, Collaborations are supported along with students editing and submitting Microsoft 365 documents as an external tool assignment without leaving your LMS. This functionality replaces the classic Microsoft OneDrive LTI which will retire September 17, 2026. Learning Accelerators and AI-enhanced assignments available in your LMS - without the requirement for Microsoft Teams With Assignments in Microsoft 365 LTI, you will be able to use Learning Accelerators, multiple-document submissions, AI rubric and instructions generation, AI-assisted feedback, auto-graded Forms and other assignment capabilities directly within your learning management system (LMS), without the need to create and sync a Microsoft Team for your class. Assignments in Microsoft 365 LTI no longer require Teams access, enabling more LMS users to benefit from AI-enhanced experiences that were formerly exclusive to Microsoft Teams for Education. And Assignments can be created, managed, completed, and graded, without leaving your LMS with grades and feedback available to sync automatically to the LMS gradebook. New: Improve student speaking and presenting skills in 13 languages with Speaker Progress Exciting new AI Feedback features for educators to leverage, students can practice for in-class presentations or save class time by presenting and turning in their presentations for grading. This capability is included automatically in the new Microsoft 365 LTI tool. Existing, Teams-based assignments will continue to work and can be copied to new courses, so no migration is necessary. The assignments functionality in Microsoft 365 LTI replaces the classic Teams Assignments which will retire September 17, 2026. Dive into the new Microsoft 365 LTI to streamline your LMS experience We are bringing our Microsoft 365 Education capabilities for learning management systems together into a single, unified tool to streamline the user experience. Educators will be able to access Learning Accelerators, Reflect, OneDrive, Teams, and more in their LMS courses, without having to enable multiple tools separately, and without overcrowding menus where LTI tools surface. Whether adding content to a module, creating an assignment, or scheduling a meeting for a class, you will be able to easily access Microsoft 365 Education related features directly in your LMS workflow. Microsoft 365 LTI is available for supported LMS platforms, including Canvas by Instructure, PowerSchool Schoology Learning, Blackboard by Anthology, D2L/Brightspace, Moodle™, and for any LTI 1.3 Advantage compliant platform. Migration guidance and tools Guidance for migrating users from the classic LTI tools to the Microsoft 365 LTI can be found in our First Time Configuration guide. We strongly recommend guiding users to leverage the new experiences for OneDrive, Assignments, Reflect and OneNote Class Notebooks in the Microsoft 365 LTI as the classic experiences are set to retire on September 17 th , 2026. We are working on additional guidance to help with migration of existing content ahead of classic LTI retirements, and more information will be available soon. Compliance and regulatory resources Visit the Microsoft Service Trust Portal to learn how Microsoft cloud services protect your data, and how you can manage cloud data security and compliance for your organization. You will find our latest HECVAT assessment along with other resources for Microsoft 365 LTI and all Microsoft apps and services. For more information, and to keep up with future product announcements Please visit the Microsoft Tech Community Education Blog and subscribe to keep up with what’s new in Microsoft Education. We also hold bi-monthly office hours every first and third Thursday where lots of LMS + Microsoft 365 customers come to discuss scenarios and get assistance from peers, please join us. Microsoft 365 LTI Office Hours 1 st and 3 rd Thursday of each month at 11am EST Join link: https://aka.ms/LTIOfficeHours How to get help or send feedback For any issues deploying the integration, our Education Support team is here to help. Please visit https://aka.ms/EduSupport Once deployed, there are 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. Learn more about Microsoft feedback for your organization. Learning Tools Interoperability® (LTI®) is a trademark of the 1EdTech Consortium, Inc. (1edtech.org) The word Moodle and associated Moodle logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Moodle Pty Ltd or its related affiliates.Learning Zone: made to engage, built for student growth
Educators are finding new ways to make learning more engaging, inclusive, and connected. That is where Microsoft Learning Zone comes in, an AI-powered app on Copilot+ PCs that helps educators design interactive lessons that spark curiosity and active learning. Early feedback shows that Learning Zone helps save time while supporting personalized lessons that adapt to students’ needs and keep them engaged through interactive slides, exercises, and real-time feedback. Educators also value how the app supports high-quality classroom activities built on their existing teaching materials and a built-in gallery of free, trusted partner content, making it easier to create meaningful and inclusive learning experiences for every student. Designing interactive lessons that truly capture students’ attention can take hours of work. Learning Zone changes that by letting educators set goals and standards, review and refine what AI creates, and bring their expertise and creativity to make each lesson their own while AI takes care of the heavy work. Designed for Copilot+ PC Learning Zone is included with all Microsoft Education licenses (A1, A3, A5). AI-powered lesson creation is built for Copilot+ PCs. These thin, light, and secure Windows 11 devices are great for education, combining powerful on-device AI with all-day battery life 1 and advanced security. They help educators create lessons, adapt materials, and collaborate seamlessly, whether in the classroom, staff room, or at home. AI is integrated into familiar Microsoft 365 apps, allowing educators to use their own words to prepare lessons, translate content for families, or summarize insights from student work. Features such as Click to Do 2 , improved Windows Search 3 , and the enhanced Snipping Tool make lesson preparation, review, and feedback faster and more intuitive. 5 ways Learning Zone is getting even better As we approach general availability, these updates make it easier to create engaging learning experiences: Simplified lesson creation - Educators can describe their lesson goal, standards, and age group, and Learning Zone generates a ready-to-teach lesson outline that can be easily scanned and refined. Using AI, educators can adapt and personalize each section based on their pedagogical needs and guidelines before creating the full interactive lesson. Expanded language support - The app interface is already available in more than 50 languages. With general availability, educators will be able to generate interactive lessons in English and Spanish, with Portuguese, French, German, Polish, Dutch, Japanese, and additional languages coming throughout 2026. Rich and interactive activities - Each interactive lesson includes a variety of activity types that help students think, practice, and apply what they learn. Today, educators can use multiple choice, true or false, and fill in the blank exercises, along with content slides that support images and videos. Soon, Learning Zone will expand to include matching, sorting, and drag to group activities, giving educators more ways to create meaningful, engaging learning experiences. New learning partners - Educators can explore ready-to-learn lessons created with the Nobel Peace Center, PBS NewsHour, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), alongside NASA, OpenStax, Figma, and Minecraft Education. They can also quickly generate Kahoot! quizzes with AI to extend their lessons and boost engagement. Accessible learning anywhere - Educators can share lessons directly in Microsoft Teams, and students can play them from any device, so learning can happen in class or at home. Starting in 2026, Learning Zone will also support integration with Learning Management Systems (LMS) using Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI™), making it easier to connect with existing classroom tools. Global citizenship with the Nobel Peace Center We are proud to collaborate with the Nobel Peace Center to bring the stories and values behind the Nobel Peace Prize to today’s learners. Together we are launching a new collection of lessons in Learning Zone that help students explore what peace, justice, and human rights mean in their own lives and communities. Each lesson promotes reflection, collaboration, and creativity, and is supported by a companion world in Minecraft Education where students can extend their learning through hands-on design and problem-solving. The lessons highlight Nobel Peace Prize laureates such as Malala Yousafzai, Wangari Maathai, and the 14th Dalai Lama, inspiring students to build empathy, think critically, and understand their role as global citizens who can shape a more peaceful and sustainable world. Looking ahead Learning Zone’s move to general availability this December is just the start. We will continue to learn from educators and evolve the experience to make teaching more engaging and learning more personal. Learning Zone is now available to download from the Microsoft Store. If your school plans to explore it before January 2026, ask your IT administrator to enable the app so your educators can get started. View setup instructions here. Join us at Bett 2026 in London to experience Copilot+ PCs, Microsoft Learning Zone, and other AI-powered tools for teaching and learning. We look forward to connecting with you and sharing how AI can help every educator inspire their learners in new ways. Footnotes: 1. Battery life varies significantly by device and with settings, usage, and other factors. See Copilot+ PC claims. 2. Click to Do (preview) available image and text actions vary by device, region, language, and character set. Subscription required for some actions. See Copilot+ PC FAQs. 3. Improved Windows search works with specific text, image, and document formats only; optimized for select languages (English, Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, and Spanish). See Copilot+ PC FAQs.New OneNote Class Notebook LTI 1.3 integration in the Microsoft 365 LTI app
OneNote Class Notebook is entering a new era with a modern, unified LTI® 1.3 integration (as part of the Microsoft 365 LTI app) that brings back automatic roster sync and streamlines how educators and students use Class Notebooks within their LMS. This update is designed to benefit both educators and IT admins, making it easier to set up Class Notebooks and keep them in sync with course enrollments. In this article, we’ll cover the key new features, use cases, and next steps -- and how the new integration replaces the older LTI 1.1 tool (which is retiring in 2026). Quick recap: OneNote Class Notebook OneNote Class Notebook is a digital binder designed for classrooms, giving educators and students a flexible space to organize and collaborate. Each notebook includes a personal workspace for every student, a content library for handouts, and a collaboration space for group work. Educators can distribute pages, provide feedback, and manage class materials all in one place, while students can take notes, complete assignments, and access resources anytime, on any device--to make learning more organized and interactive. Seamless Class Notebook setup for educators Setup is simple. Once your LMS has the Microsoft 365 LTI app, any instructor can create a Class Notebook right from the course. Check out the more detailed instructions here. Open the Microsoft 365 LTI app in your course. Select Class Notebook. Customize the learner notebook sections (or accept defaults). Create and then Open Notebook. Your notebook is automatically shared with all students and instructors as they access the notebook. Students can launch the notebook from the LMS with single sign-on, making access seamless. Automatic roster sync returns Automatic roster sync is back with LTI 1.3. When you create a Class Notebook via your LMS, students and instructors are added with the right permissions and stay in sync as the course roster changes, with no need for manual updates. This results in less admin work and fewer access gaps as your notebook stays current with your class list. Powered by LTI 1.3 – Unified, Secure, and Future-Ready LTI 1.3 (with LTI Advantage) brings modern security and interoperability as part of the unified Microsoft 365 LTI app -- which covers Class Notebook, Assignments, OneDrive files, Teams, Reflect, and more -- to meet current standards and work reliably across LTI 1.3-compatible LMS platforms. For admins, one LTI app means simpler deployment and fewer plugins to manage, while configuration settings help you choose which components (OneNote, Teams, etc.) to enable or disable within the Microsoft 365 for your organization. This gives schools flexibility to roll out tools at your own pace. This new LTI integration also includes automatic identity mapping and course enrollment syncing. Meanwhile, educators gain access to a single hub for Microsoft 365 tools and can surface (or hide) components that are approved by the administrator. For educators using Class Notebook, provisioning is streamlined: launching Class Notebook creates and links the right OneNote space to the course with minimal friction. Key dates: Transitioning from classic LTI and next steps The classic OneNote Class Notebook LTI 1.1 will retire on September 17, 2026, so it’s best to plan to move to the Microsoft 365 LTI app before then. Existing Notebooks will still work, and you can copy pages/sections into new Notebooks as needed. Educators: once your administrator has installed the new Microsoft 365 LTI app, look for it in your course, choose Class Notebook, and follow the prompts to create a Notebook in just a few clicks. You can see detailed steps here. Admins: To deploy the Microsoft 365 LTI 1.3 app in your LMS, check out prerequisites, configuration steps, and troubleshooting tips in the official deployment guide is available on Microsoft Learn at aka.ms/LMSAdminDocs. Check out the deep dive video Watch the video below to get quick tips and see the OneNote Class Notebook LTI 1.3 integration (and more) in action in the new Microsoft 365 LTI app! Join the community! Microsoft also holds bi-monthly office hours every first and third Thursday of each month, where LMS platform customers and Microsoft 365 customers join from around the world to ask questions, share feedback, discuss scenarios, and get assistance from Microsoft and peers. Feel free to join us: Microsoft 365 LTI Office Hours 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month @11am EST Join link: https://aka.ms/LTIOfficeHours You can also join the free Education Insiders Program to preview updates, get support from other Class Notebook community members, meet the team, and influence the roadmap. Need help with a specific issue? Contact Microsoft Education support at aka.ms/EduSupport. We can’t wait to hear your feedback! Learning Tools Interoperability® (LTI®) is a trademark of the 1EdTech Consortium, Inc. (1edtech.org)Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat for Students 13+
With Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat coming to students aged 13 and older this summer, we’re ushering in a new era of AI-assisted learning while maintaining a strong focus on privacy, security, and keeping administrators in control. This blog post is your admin-ready guide to ensure your organization is set up to deliver safe, compliant, and productive experiences with Copilot Chat. Learn more and hear from K-12 institutions who participated in our private preview in today’s announcement: Empowering teen students to achieve more with Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot Copilot Chat is an AI-powered assistant, offered with Microsoft 365, that helps users find answers, generate insights, and complete tasks—drawing from web-based content and, publicly available information, and limited user file uploads. Unlike Microsoft 365 Copilot, it does not have access to organizational data like emails, documents, or meetings through the Microsoft Graph. This version is ideal for institutions who are looking for a free AI chat solution while maintaining a strict boundary from internal or sensitive data sources. Review an overview of AI solutions from Microsoft Education: aka.ms/EducationAIPortfolio 🏷️ Tenant Identifier: Set the Education Segment for Proper Feature Access We recommend all Education customers take additional steps to manage appropriate deployment: Validate your school type as Higher education, Primary/Secondary/K-12, or Other (research institution, academic library, etc.) to help us tailor the search and chat experience for your users. To do this, you will need a PowerShell script: ConfigureTenantEduType.ps1 that you can download here. To run the script, open PowerShell in administrator mode. Also make sure you have the username and password available of a global administrator on your tenant. On your first run, the necessary packages will be installed, hence the administrator mode. Usage: .\ConfigureTenantEduType.ps1 - When no parameter is used the actual setting of the tenant will be retrieved. .\ConfigureTenantEduType.ps1 1 - This sets the tenant identifier to K-12 .\ConfigureTenantEduType.ps1 2 - This sets the tenant identifier to HED. .\ConfigureTenantEduType.ps1 3 - This sets the tenant identifier to other. 📘 Please read our Managing Copilot Chat access for Faculty and Higher Education 18+ student | Microsoft Community Hub for full details. ✅ Why AgeGroup Matters—and How to Set It To enable Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat for students, the ageGroup attribute in Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) must be set correctly. This field ensures compliance with child privacy regulations like COPPA and FERPA by verifying whether a user is under 18. Here’s how to check and set it: Use Microsoft Graph API or Microsoft Entra Admin Center to view and update the ageGroup attribute. Acceptable values: Minor, NotAdult, Adult For students aged 13 and up, use NotAdult. Any student set to NotAdult will have access to Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. Use bulk update tools or provisioning solutions to automate setting this for all student accounts. 📘 Please read our AgeGroup blog post for full details. 🛠️ Managing Agents in Microsoft 365 Admin Center Copilot now supports agent-based AI experiences that can be scoped, customized, and secured. With the Microsoft 365 admin center, you can: Enable/disable Copilot features for specific user groups Manage access to custom Copilot agents Use the Copilot Control System to monitor usage and enforce security policies from day one To learn more, check out the Manage agents for Microsoft 365 Copilot in Integrated Apps - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn and leverage the Agent Success Kit – Microsoft Adoption 🔐 Security and Data Protection You Can Trust Copilot Chat brings the same enterprise-grade security and compliance protections you've come to expect from Microsoft 365. As a part of this enterprise data protection your data stays private (we won’t use your data except as you instruct) and your data isn’t used to train foundation models. Learn more about enterprise data protection. Highlights include: Built-in data residency and encryption Access controls and permission-based data retrieval Protection from prompt injection and harmful content Advanced reporting on readiness, usage, and security posture One important consideration: Copilot does not change or override your existing permissions model. It respects the access a user already has in Microsoft 365—whether that’s to files, emails, chats, or other content. However, this also means that if a document is overshared or accessible more broadly than intended, Copilot may surface its content to anyone with permission to see it. Access to the content is not caused by Copilot—it’s visibility and access that already exists in your tenant. Copilot simply makes that visibility more transparent. Admins should review and remediate over-permissioned content using tools like Microsoft Purview, SharePoint access reviews, or sensitivity labels to avoid unintended exposure of sensitive data. Administrators can go further by using features like SharePoint Advanced Management, sensitivity labels, and Restricted SharePoint Search. 🔍 Next Steps 🏷️ Set your tenant’s education segment (K-12/HED/Other) ✅ Audit and update ageGroup attributes. 🛠️ Configure Microsoft 365 Admin Center to have the right settings for Agents creation and consumption. 🔐 Review your security and data protection settings for Copilot. ⚙️ Explore the Microsoft 365 Copilot technical readiness guide. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat – Microsoft Adoption With these steps, you’re not just enabling Copilot—you’re empowering safer, smarter learning with AI.Calling all IT Admins - webinar on configuring Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and new updates for 13+
Calling all IT admins — join us for a workshop where we’ll walk through how to configure Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, from your tenant all the way to the end-user experience. We’ll cover the latest features now available — including the new 13+ student configuration options, CSV, SDS and Powershell uploads, Copilot agents & extensibility, and updated licensing & security controls. By the end, you’ll be able to confidently deploy, manage, and optimize Copilot Chat in your environment so your users can safely harness AI productivity from day one. This webinar will be led by Bill Sluss and Jethro Seghers, Principal Product Managers from the Microsoft Education team When: Wednesday, October 29th @ 8am Pacific Time Register: https://msit.events.teams.microsoft.com/event/7b0cfbc2-e169-461b-9ea2-48effc009d4c@72f988bf-86f1-41af-91ab-2d7cd011db47AI-powered teaching and learning for all Microsoft 365 education customers
Welcome to our monthly update for Microsoft Education and thank you so much for being part of our growing community! In our main Microsoft Education blog this morning, we announced the details of how Microsoft Education is bringing even more value to all EDU customers with Microsoft 365, including a new set of capabilities designed for relevant and powerful use by educators and students. These features will be included in all of the academic SKUs (A SKUs) at no additional cost, and many will be rolling out starting today, while others will be rolling out later this year and into early next year. Topics: AI for educators at no additional cost AI for learners at no additional cost Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat Microsoft 365 LTI (LMS integration updates) Microsoft 365 Copilot (add-on required) Learning Accelerator updates Learning Zone on the Copilot+ PC – public preview now available Minecraft EU updates We’re also introducing an academic offering for Microsoft 365 Copilot in education at $18 (USD) per user per month for educators, staff, and students ages 13 and older starting in December 2025. 1. AI for Educators at no additional cost Teach in the Microsoft 365 Copilot App We recently introduced the updated Microsoft 365 Copilot app, your hub for the latest AI functionality. Now, we are bringing AI-powered features to all educators with Teach in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app. In one place, educators can easily create lesson plans, draft materials like quizzes and rubrics, and quickly make modifications like adjust reading levels, differentiate instructions, and align to relevant standards. As we continue to add more AI value in education, it will surface in the Teach module. Teach is 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. Grounded: Leverage Education standards from 35 countries, your own content, and your class details to ground and create content relevant to your class. Available where you are: In the Microsoft 365 Copilot App on Web, Windows or Mac. When: Rolling out now with support for Lesson Plans, Rubrics, and Flashcards. Coming Soon: Support for Quizzes, Minecraft Lessons, Fill in the Blank activities, and modifying existing content. Learn more about Teach in the Microsoft 365 Copilot App here. Curriculum planning Curriculum planning tools in Teach empowers educators to design, organize, and adapt instructional materials with ease. By leveraging AI-powered tools, teachers can create lesson plans, activities, and assessments that align with educational standards and meet the diverse needs of their students. Whether starting from scratch or refining existing resources, curriculum planning provides a guided, flexible approach to support effective teaching and learning. Lesson plans with standard support Easily build standards-aligned lesson plans from a selection of over 35 countries. Educators can choose subject, grade level, language, relevant content and context, standards, and duration to tailor each lesson plan to their classroom needs. The platform enables ongoing editing and refinement—adjust the tone, length, or language, and receive further suggestions to ensure every lesson plan is effective and engaging. When: Lesson plans rolling out now Homework & Assessments Homework & Assessments tools in Teach help streamline homework and assessment creation for educators. With Rubrics and Quiz creation, teachers can easily build standards-aligned rubrics and quizzes, customize criteria and questions, and refine content to fit classroom needs. These tools support ongoing editing and suggestions, helping educators deliver clear, effective assessments that align with learning goals and standards. Rubrics with standards support Effortlessly create rubrics aligned to global standards from over 35 countries. Educators can select relevant criteria, customize performance levels, and ensure each rubric matches their subject, grade, and instructional goals. The platform supports ongoing editing—adjust the language, tone, or detail, and receive further suggestions to refine your rubric for clarity and effectiveness. Standards integration helps educators provide consistent, high-quality feedback and assessment for every student. When: Rubrics rolling out now Quiz creation with standards Create standards-aligned quizzes quickly with Quiz creation, powered by Forms. Start by selecting your subject, grade level, language, and relevant standards. Add a description, set the desired number of questions and quiz duration, and generate a draft. All editing and adjustments are done directly in Forms, where you can refine questions and further tailor the quiz to your students’ needs. When: Preview in November, 2025 Modify content Modify content tools are designed to help educators quickly adapt existing materials, rather than create new content from scratch. Whether you have resources from previous years, colleagues, or online sources, this feature streamlines the process of updating and customizing materials for your current needs. Align to standards Align to standards takes your input—whether it’s a lesson idea, instructions, or other classroom materials—and adapts the content to align with the standards you choose. This tool streamlines the process of meeting curriculum requirements by automatically tweaking your materials, ensuring they match the specific standards relevant to your subject and grade level. When: Preview in November, 2025 Modify reading level Quickly adjust the reading level of any text to meet the needs of individual students or your entire class. Simply insert your text or upload a file, then choose the desired reading level. You can also select key terms to preserve, ensuring important vocabulary remains unchanged while the rest of the content is adapted for accessibility and understanding. When: Preview in November, 2025 Differentiate instructions Differentiate instructions empowers educators to tailor learning experiences for diverse student needs. Easily adapt assignments, instructions, or activities to provide multiple pathways for understanding and engagement. Whether you’re supporting individual learners or groups, this tool helps you modify content, adjust complexity, and personalize directions—ensuring every student receives the right level of challenge and support. When: Preview in November, 2025 Expand with examples Enrich your materials by adding a chosen number of real world, historical, or scientific examples—tailored to support and clarify learning for every student. When: Preview in November, 2025 AI in Classwork and Class Notebook AI teaching tools are also coming to Classwork in Microsoft Teams and OneNote Class Notebook, providing easy ways to create content and share with students all in one place. Starting with lesson plans and flashcards in Teams today, and other features from Teach coming later to Teams and Class Notebook. When: Lesson plans and flashcards available now in Classwork and coming soon to OneNote Class Notebook. Suggested AI feedback for Educators Suggested AI feedback is a new feature that makes it easier for you when you want to provide feedback to students as part of your Assignments flow. Use the Feedback field as a scratchpad as you review the student work, and have AI help enhance and summarize it for you. Or, if you are using rubrics, you can have AI review your rubric selection and summarize it. This feature 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: Available now Set expected AI use in Assignments Set expected AI use in Assignments helps educators clearly communicate guidelines and recommendations for how students should use AI tools when completing assignments. Teachers can outline best practices and expectations, helping students understand appropriate and effective ways to leverage AI in their work. This feature encourages thoughtful, responsible use of AI to support learning. When: Preview Q1 2026 2. AI for learners at no additional cost Study and Learn Agent Bring the interactive, conversational Study and Learn Agent in the Microsoft 365 Copilot App to your students. Study and Learn helps learners understand concepts, practice skills with activities like flashcards, and prepare for tests with study guides and quizzes. Additional activities including fill-in-the-blanks, matching, and others that will continue to be added. Purpose-built for learning in collaboration with learning science experts, Study and Learn aims to help foster reflective and critical thinking. Over time, it will provide a more personalized, adaptive, inclusive experience to make learning relevant and bolster motivation. When: Preview fall 2025 Learning activities We’re excited to share that Learning Activities are now generally available for all educators and students 13+! 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. Our first learning activity will be AI generated flashcards in Teach and Classwork. We will also be launching a stand-alone web app for educators and students to create activities. We are hard at work building more learning activities that will be coming soon including fill-in-the-blanks, mind maps, and matching. When: Summer 2025 3. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat Available for students 13+ Recently, we announced teen student availability coming this summer for Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot and now it is at general availability. To prepare, administrators should review guidance to enable Copilot Chat for students and ensure appropriate access: 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-5 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. Copilot Chat now in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote In addition, Microsoft recently announced that Copilot Chat is available in many of your favorite Office apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. This is available today for all Microsoft 365 subscribers in Education. 4. Create with AI in Microsoft365 LTI® for Learning Management Systems A new, streamlined learning management system experience for Microsoft Education The new Microsoft 365 LTI brings Microsoft 365 for Education capabilities for learning management systems (like Canvas, PowerSchool Schoology, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L Brightspace) together into a single tool and streamlined user experience. Educators will be able to Create with AI, which makes features from Teach accessible in Learning Management Systems. This will include Lesson plans, Minecraft lessons, modifying content, rubric and instructions generation, suggested feedback, quiz creation, and more. Microsoft 365 LTI also provides seamless access to Learning Accelerators, Reflect, OneDrive, Teams, and our Microsoft 365 for Education tools directly into your LMS course, without having to deploy multiple tools, and without overcrowding the menus where LTI tools are accessed. Whether adding content to a course, creating an assignment, or scheduling an online meeting for a class, you can easily access Microsoft 365 directly in your LMS workflow. When: Create with AI – preview in early 2026 LTI® is a trademark of the 1EdTech® Consortium, Inc. (1edtech.org) 5. Microsoft 365 Copilot (add-on required) We’re excited to introduce an academic offering for Microsoft 365 Copilot in education at $18 (USD) per user per month for educators, staff, and students ages 13 and older starting in December 2025. Deeply integrated into apps used every day, Microsoft 365 Copilot combines the power of AI with your data – documents, presentations, emails, meetings, chats, institutional knowledge, and more – plus the web to deliver relevant responses with sources. It also delivers cutting-edge capabilities like comprehensive agent access including Researcher and Analyst, Copilot Tuning for increased customization, and the Copilot Control System to protect institutional data. 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, quizes, and 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 preview November 2025 6. Learning Accelerator updates AI Transcript Feedback in Speaker Progress is now GA! We are excited to share our new narrative AI feedback feature in Speaker Progress is now fully rolled out to all users! We are bringing generative AI to Speaker Progress to give students robust feedback on their speeches. 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. When: Available Now! 7. Microsoft Learning Zone enters public preview Earlier this year, we introduced Microsoft Learning Zone, a new app built for Copilot+ PCs to help educators create interactive, personalized lessons in minutes. Now available in public preview, the app combines research-informed tools and trusted on-device AI to help educators save time, engage students, and keep content and data secure. We are grateful to the educators, researchers, and partners who have helped shape the experience so far. In the months ahead, we will continue to expand Learning Zone with new features, rich content partnerships, and deeper integration into classroom workflows. When: Learning Zone is now in public preview. If your school is planning to explore Learning Zone, please note that an IT administrator must enable the app before it can be used. View instructions here. 8. Minecraft Education’s AI Foundations curriculum Crack the case of AI misuse as a rookie detective Join Detective Reed Smart to investigate curious cases of AI misuse in this mystery from Minecraft Education! Analyze deepfakes, spot AI-generated content, and learn how AI works as you follow clues and analyze evidence across three cases. Build AI and information literacy skills that will help you get wise and stay cautious of online information. Ready to crack the case? Full video here: https://www.youtube.com/embed/_JuQXY6UZ2Q?si=fvHbLiX3nLcOE5mA Join this hands-on training designed to empower educators to teach AI literacy using Minecraft Education’s AI Foundations curriculum and Microsoft Copilot. Through interactive demos and ready-to-use resources, you’ll explore how to make AI concepts engaging and accessible for students—no prior experience with AI or Minecraft required! Minecraft Education Crack the case of AI misuse as a rookie detective ________ 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: AI for educators at no additional cost Teach in the Microsoft 365 Copilot App Classwork integration AI Feedback Standards integration Learning Activities AI for learners at no additional cost Study and Learn Agent Learning Activities Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat Now available for teens (13+) Now available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote Microsoft 365 LTI (LMS integration updates) Create with AI Microsoft 365 Copilot (add-on required) Study guide in Copilot Notebooks Learning Accelerator updates Speaker Progress Narrative AI feedback Learning Zone on the Copilot+ PC – public preview now available Minecraft Education's AI Fundations Curriculum Mike Tholfsen Group Product Manager Microsoft Education
