What's New in Microsoft EDU - March 2026
Join us on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026 for our latest "What's New in Microsoft EDU" webinar! We will be covering all of the latest product updates from Microsoft Education. 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 March 2026 webinar agenda: 1) M365 Copilot and AI updates for Educators and Students - Modify Existing Content - Minecraft EDU Lesson Plans - New Learning Activities: Fill in the Blanks, Matching and Self-Quizzing - Study & Learn agent for studnets 2) Learning Zone General Availability and the Copilot+ PC 3) Microsoft 365 LTI and Teach Module for Learning Management Systems 4) AMA - Ask Microsoft EDU Anything (Q&A) We look forward to having you attend the event! How to sign up 📅 OPTION 1: March 25th, Wednesday @ 8:00am Pacific Time Register here 📅 OPTION 2: March 25th, Wednesday @ 4:00pm Pacific Time Register here This is what the webinar portal will look like when you register: We look forward to seeing you there! Mike Tholfsen Group Product Manager Microsoft EducationLearning Zone spotlight: How women won the vote
A monthly spotlight from the Learning Zone collection, featuring ready-to-use lessons that bring timely historical context and structured classroom discussion into your teaching. Women’s History Month: How voting rights were won The right to vote was not inevitable. It was organized, argued for, resisted, and won through decades of persistence. In both the UK and USA, activists formed movements, debated tactics, delivered speeches, wrote declarations, and in many cases faced arrest and imprisonment. Women’s History Month invites us to look back at the women who pushed boundaries and helped change the course of history. It is a fitting moment to explore one of the most significant political shifts of the modern era in the classroom. How women won the vote in Microsoft Learning Zone provides a structured, interactive way to explore this history in class. Students examine the contrasting approaches to the fight, analyze key figures, and compare British and American campaigns over time. Assign this lesson in Learning Zone and bring context and awareness into your classroom this March. This lesson is part of a curated library of ready-to-use interactive lessons in Microsoft Learning Zone, a free Windows app that allows educators to easily create and deliver interactive classroom experiences.Modify Content in Teach: AI-powered tools to adapt your lessons in minutes
Already have great lesson materials? Now you can instantly align them to standards, differentiate for every learner, adjust reading levels, and add real-world examples — all without starting from scratch. Hi everyone! As educators, you have told us that some of your most time-consuming work is not creating lessons — it is adapting them. Adjusting a reading passage for different grade levels, aligning an existing activity to new curriculum standards, or adding scaffolds for diverse learners can eat up hours of prep time each week. That is why we are excited to announce that Modify Content is now generally available in Copilot in Teach — a set of AI-powered tools that help you take content you already have and quickly tailor it for your classroom. What is Modify Content? Modify Content lets you transform existing lesson materials — instructions, reading passages, lesson plans — using AI, so every student gets what they need without you having to rewrite everything manually. Just paste your content (or upload a Word or PDF file), choose how you want to modify it, and review the result. It is designed to keep you in the driver's seat. Every modification is generated as a suggestion that you review and approve before it becomes part of your lesson. Four powerful ways to modify your content Align to Standards Have a lesson you love but need it to meet specific curriculum requirements? Select one or more educational standards, and the tool adjusts your content to reflect what students should know and be able to do — without losing the original context of your lesson. Example: A middle school science teacher has a hands-on weather observation activity. She selects the relevant Next Generation Science Standard and the tool weaves in the learning expectations, so her lesson now clearly supports the required competencies. Differentiate Instructions Adapt your instructions for different grade levels and add scaffolding — like step-by-step breakdowns, example answers, or hints — so every student can access and engage with the task. Example: A high school English teacher adapts a literary analysis prompt for students reading below grade level. She selects a lower grade target, adds "Hints" as the scaffold type, and chooses "Expanded" length. In seconds, she has a version that guides struggling readers through the same assignment. Modify Reading Level Rewrite any text to match a specific grade level while preserving the original meaning and key vocabulary. You can also generate a glossary — with clear, age-appropriate definitions — right at the end of the passage. Example: A secondary social studies educator wants learners to work with a primary source written at a university reading level. Using Modify Reading Level, she produces a version that keeps the document's key ideas and important historical terms intact while simplifying sentence structure for her students. Add Supporting Examples Enrich your content with real-world, historical, or scientific examples that make abstract concepts more concrete and relatable — without altering your original text. Example: An elementary teacher is introducing the concept of ecosystems. She adds two "Real World" examples at "Moderate" depth, and the tool appends relatable scenarios — like a local pond ecosystem and a school garden — that help students connect the concept to their own experiences. See it in action Here is a quick look at how Modify Content works: Open Teach and select Modify Content Paste your content or upload a Word/PDF file Choose your modification — Align to Standards, Differentiate Instructions, Modify Reading Level, or Add Supporting Examples Configure your options — grade level, scaffold type, number of examples, and more Generate and review — the AI produces a modified version for you to approve, edit, or regenerate Save your result — download as a Word document or copy the text directly Tip: You can iteratively refine the output using the description box to request adjustments — like changing sentence length, clarifying a concept, or modifying specific sections. Tips for getting the most out of Modify Content Tip Details Start with clear, detailed input The more context you provide, the more relevant the output. A well-written paragraph gives the AI much more to work with than a few bullet points. Always review before saving AI-generated content is a starting point, not the final word. Check that the output matches your instructional goals and is appropriate for your students. Combine modifications Use Align to Standards first, then Differentiate Instructions on the result. Layering modifications can help you build exactly the version you need. Preserve key vocabulary When modifying reading levels, use the key terms feature to ensure important subject-specific words stay in the text, even if the overall reading level changes. Requirements To use Modify Content: License: Microsoft 365 Education (A1, A3, or A5) Role: Educator (the feature is not available to students) Input: Minimum 50 characters of content to generate modifications Helpful links Getting started with Teach Modify content — Align to Standards Modify content — Differentiate Instructions Modify content — Modify Reading Level Modify content — Add Supporting Examples Share feedback with us by joining our EDU Insider Program Have questions or ideas? Drop them in the comments below — we would love to hear how you are using Modify Content to save time and support your students! Until next time, Leif Brenne · Microsoft EducationLearning Zone spotlight: Ace your note-taking skills
A monthly spotlight from the Learning Zone collection, featuring ready-to-use lessons that bring timely classroom topics and practical learning skills into your teaching. Strengthen habits that make learning last By this time of the semester, the early energy of a new term has settled, content is getting denser, and assessments are already visible on the horizon. It is a good moment to ask a simple question: Are your students’ notes helping them, or just filling pages? Research on memory suggests that without revisiting material, much of it fades within days. Small shifts in structure and review habits can make a real difference over time. Ace your note-taking skills in Microsoft Learning Zone gives you a focused, interactive way to address this in class. In one session, students explore practical, research-informed strategies for organizing notes, reviewing within 24 hours, and using simple systems such as structured layouts and annotation. The lesson includes short self-practice activities and connects directly to the way they are already working. Assign the lesson in Learning Zone and give your students tools they can use for the rest of the year. This lesson is part of a curated library of ready-to-use interactive lessons in Microsoft Learning Zone - a free Windows app that allows educators to easily create and deliver interactive classroom experiences.What's new in OneNote for EDU - Back to School 2025
It’s back-to-school time, and OneNote EDU is rolling out fresh updates to make life easier for educators and students alike! In this article, we’ll cover the latest OneNote features and updates for education, including: Built-in Class Notebook toolbar in OneNote on Windows and for Mac (no more need to download the add-in!) – How to enable it and why it’s great New Microsoft 365 LTI 1.3 integration – Streamlined LMS access to Class Notebook, Assignments, Reflect, and more Broader OneNote updates – Merge table cells (finally!) and a new option to “paste text only” Education Insiders Program (EIP) – How to join and help shape the future of Class Notebook Let’s dive in and get you ready for an amazing school year with OneNote! 1. Enable the Class Notebook Toolbar natively in OneNote on Windows and for Mac Class Notebook features are now built directly into OneNote on desktop – no separate add-in required! This means if you’re using OneNote on Windows or for Mac, you already have the Class Notebook tools; you just might need to turn them on. Enabling the native toolbar gives you all the goodies (page distribution, review student work, etc.) right on the ribbon while ensuring you always have the latest updates and better performance than the old add-in. Why this matters: A built-in toolbar means one less installation to worry about and more reliable updates. Schools no longer need to deploy the legacy add-in for Class Notebook on each device. It’s simpler for IT and ensures every teacher has the Class Notebook tools by default. How to enable the Class Notebook toolbar: In OneNote for Windows (Microsoft 365), click File > Options > General. Under Class Notebook, check the box for “Enable Class Notebook” and select OK. The Class Notebook tab will appear on your OneNote ribbon, loaded with all the Class Notebook features you know and love. (Tip: If you previously installed the add-in, you might see two Class Notebook tabs. You can remove the old add-in to avoid confusion.) For more details, check out the Enable the Class Notebook Toolbar in OneNote Desktop support article. 2. New Microsoft 365 LTI 1.3 Integration for LMS The new Microsoft 365 LTI app brings OneNote Class Notebook along with other Microsoft 365 Education experiences like Microsoft Assignments, OneDrive/Microsoft 365 files, Teams for collaboration, Teams Meetings and more to your learning management system (LMS). It is compatible with any LTI 1.3 Advantage Platform, and setup instructions can be found here: https://aka.ms/LMSAdminDocs. Key benefits of the new M365 LTI integration: All-in-one access: Once your LMS admin installs the Microsoft 365 LTI, educators and students get one-click access to OneNote Class Notebook, assignments, OneDrive, Teams meetings, Reflect check-ins and more – right from your LMS course. No more juggling separate LTI apps for each tool. Automatic roster sync: Class Notebook now supports auto-rostering with LTI 1.3. When you create a Class Notebook through the LMS, all learners and educators in that course are automatically added to the notebook as students and teachers/co-teachers respectively (and will be added automatically if they join later). This beloved feature, previously in older LTI integration, is back – saving you setup time. Assignments and grades in your LMS: Using the new LTI, you can create Microsoft Assignments (with Learning Accelerator tools like Reading Progress, etc.) directly in your LMS. Students submit without leaving the LMS, and grades sync back to the LMS gradebook. It brings the power of Teams Assignments into the LMS environment, no Teams class needed. Streamlined and up-to-date: The Microsoft 365 LTI replaces several legacy LTI tools (like the old “Teams Classes LTI” and separate OneNote LTI 1.1 app). This reduces confusion and upkeep. Getting started with the new LTI is simple for IT admins, with full documentation here. If you’re an educator, check with your IT about enabling the Microsoft 365 LTI for your courses. 3. Broader OneNote updates: merge table cells and paste text only The OneNote team has been hard at work on core improvements that benefit both educators and students. Here are two notable updates rolling out: Merge table cells in OneNote on Windows and for Mac: You asked, and it’s finally here – the ability to merge cells in a table. This means you can take any adjacent cells (horizontal or vertical) in a OneNote table and combine them into one cell (just like in Word or Excel). Paste text only in OneNote on Windows, for Mac, and for the web: Ever copy-paste some text into OneNote only to have it bring in crazy fonts or colors from a website or another document? We hear you – and now in OneNote you can use the familiar shortcut Ctrl + Shift + V (Windows) or Cmd + Shift + V (Mac) to paste plain text, stripping out all the source formatting. The pasted content will match your current notebook’s font style. This also works via the right-click menu: choose Paste > Keep Text Only. It’s a small quality-of-life change that can save a ton of cleanup time, especially when gathering materials from various sources into your lesson plans or content library. Read more about this here: Paste text only in OneNote on Windows, for Mac, and for the web All these updates are either available now or rolling out to OneNote users: Merge table cells is currently in preview for Office Insiders (as of late July 2025) and will reach all OneNote desktop clients in the coming updates. Paste Text Only is rolling out to OneNote for the web users and OneNote users running the most recent versions on Windows and on Mac. Features are released over some time to ensure things are working smoothly, so don’t worry if you can’t see it quite yet. 4. Join the Education Insiders Program (EIP) Lastly, a call to action for passionate educators: if you love getting early access to new features or want to provide direct feedback to the OneNote and Class Notebook team, consider joining the Education Insiders Program (EIP). This is a free community for K-12 and higher-ed tech leaders, teachers, and IT administrators who use Microsoft tools. As an Education Insider, you can: Preview and influence new features: Get invites to try out early builds or pilot programs (with your school’s Office 365 tenant) and share feedback before features launch worldwide. For example, insiders often get to test things like the latest Class Notebook updates and provide input. Participate in the Class Notebook insiders channel: There’s a dedicated Class Notebook discussion space where you can discuss ideas, ask questions, and interact with Microsoft product managers and other educators. It’s a direct line to share what you’d love to see in OneNote. Sound interesting? Sign up for EIP via this form. Once accepted, you’ll be plugged into the insider community, including the Class Notebook channel where you can weigh in on the future of OneNote. (By joining EIP, you’ll help shape products like OneNote – many of the features in this blog (such as merged table cells and the new LTI integration) were influenced by feedback from educators. We’d love to have your voice in the mix!) We hope these updates get you excited for back to school with OneNote. Whether you’re empowering students with more organized Class Notebooks, integrating OneNote more seamlessly into your LMS, or just enjoying a smoother note-taking experience, there’s a lot to look forward to this year. Try out these new features in your classroom workflow, and let us know what you think. You can drop your thoughts in the comments or join the conversation in the Education Insiders community. Here’s to a successful and innovative school year ahead with OneNote! 💜 Which new OneNote EDU feature are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments, and have a fantastic start to the school year!Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat for Students 13+
With Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat now available to students aged 13 and older, 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: 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. [Important] When you set the students aged 12 and under to 'Minor' make sure to set the 'ConsentProvidedForMinor' field to 'Granted' or 'NotRequired'. 📘 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. Make sure to all read our Safeguarding data with Microsoft 365 Copilot security and compliance blog post by Bill Sluss. 🔍 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.What’s New in Microsoft EDU, Bett Edition January 2026
Welcome to our update for Microsoft Education and our special Bett 2026 edition! The Bett conference takes place in London during the week of January 21st - January 23rd, and Microsoft Education has 18 exciting updates to share! Check out the official Bett News blog here, and for our full Bett schedule and session times, be sure to check out our Microsoft EDU Bett 2026 guide. January 2026 topics: Microsoft 365 Updates for Educators Microsoft Learning Zone Microsoft 365 Updates for Students Teams EDU and OneNote EDU Updates Microsoft 365 LTI Updates Minecraft EDU 1. New Educator tools coming to the Teach Module in Microsoft 365 Unit Plans Soon educators will be able to create unit plans in Teach. Using a familiar interface, educators will be able to describe their unit, ground in existing content and educational standards, and attach any existing lesson plans. Unit plans will be created as Microsoft Word documents to facilitate easy edits and sharing. When: Preview in Spring 2026 Minecraft Lesson Plans Minecraft Education prepares students for the future workplace by helping build skills like collaboration, creative problem-solving, communication, and computational thinking. Coming soon, you will be able to create lesson plans in Teach that are fully teachable in Minecraft Education. And if you’re new to Minecraft Education, the lesson plan includes step-by-step instructions to get started. Just like the existing lesson plan tool in Teach, Minecraft Lessons can be grounded on your class details, existing content, and educational standards from 35+ countries. When: Preview in February 2026 Modify Content When: In Preview now Teach supports educators in modifying their existing teaching materials using AI-powered tools that save time and help meet the diverse needs of learners. With Modify existing content, educators can quickly adapt lessons they already use—without starting from scratch—by aligning materials to standards, differentiating instructions, adjusting reading levels, and enhancing text with supporting examples. Each modification tool accepts direct text input or file uploads from cloud storage, making it easy to transform current curriculum resources. These tools help educators maintain instructional intent while ensuring content is accessible, standards aligned, and effective for all learners. Align materials to standards Aligning instructional content to educational standards helps ensure lessons clearly support required learning goals and set the right expectations for learners. The Align to Standards tool rewrites existing lesson instructions so they reflect the intent of the selected standard—focusing on what learners should understand or be able to do—without copying the standard’s wording. Scenario: An educator has a lesson instruction for a reading activity on ecosystems. After selecting a state science standard, the educator uses Align to Standards to produce a revised instruction that emphasizes system interactions and evidence-based explanations while preserving the lesson’s original purpose. This allows the educator to strengthen alignment quickly without rewriting the lesson from scratch. Differentiate instructions Differentiation helps ensure every learner—regardless of readiness, background knowledge, or support needs—can access and engage with instructional tasks. The Differentiate Instructions tool adapts existing instructions based on specific supports an educator selects, such as adjusting reading level, including a single type of scaffold, or targeting a desired length. Because this tool is designed for single shot use, it produces a clear, accurate adaptation that adheres directly to the selected inputs. Scenario: A secondary biology educator has lab instructions written for general education learners but needs versions for learners requiring additional scaffolding. Using Differentiate Instructions, the educator quickly generates modified instructions that include step-by-step breakdowns, sentence starters, or graphic organizers—making the lab more accessible without changing the learning goal. Modify reading level Adjusting the reading level helps ensure instructional content remains accessible while preserving essential vocabulary and core concepts. The Modify reading level tool rewrites text to match a specified grade level, simplifying or increasing complexity as needed while maintaining meaning. Educators can also choose to generate a glossary with clear, age-appropriate definitions of key terms. Scenario: A social studies educator wants students to work with a primary source written at a university reading level. Using Modify reading level, the educator creates a version that maintains the document’s key ideas and important historical terms while simplifying sentence structure for lower secondary learners. By adding a glossary, students can access learner friendly definitions alongside the adapted text. Add supporting examples Concrete examples strengthen understanding by connecting abstract ideas to real world applications. The Add Supporting Examples tool enhances existing instructional content by appending relevant, accurate, and age-appropriate examples—without altering the original paragraph. Scenario: An educator teaching thermal energy transfer has a paragraph explaining that heat moves from warmer objects to cooler ones, but the concept feels abstract. Using Add Supporting Examples, the educator adds real world examples—such as a metal spoon warming in hot soup or an ice cube melting on a countertop—to help learners visualize how heat transfer works. These examples reinforce understanding and make the concept more accessible for secondary learners. Fill in the Blanks, Matching and Quizzing New Learning Activities are coming soon! We’re excited to introduce three new Learning Activities designed to make classroom experiences more dynamic and personalized: Fill in the Blanks, Matching, and Quizzes. Whether it’s completing paragraphs to strengthen comprehension, pairing terms with definitions in a timed matching game, or testing knowledge through quick self-assessments, these activities bring variety and fun to learning. Fill in the blanks creates paragraphs where learners can check their understanding by filling in missing terms. Matching is a game where learners can match terms and definitions while racing against the clock, aiming for fast completion and accuracy. And Quizzes allows students to quiz themselves and assess their comprehension. Learning Activities are available across our education products, in a standalone web app, in the Teach Module, in Teams for Education, in the Study and Learn agent and Study Guides. When: Spring 2026 Teach Module updates in Teams Classwork In Teams Classwork, you can already use Copilot to create Lesson Plans, Flashcards, and Fill in the Blank Activities. Coming this Spring, you will see the ability to create and modify more content, better matching the capabilities of Teach in the Microsoft 365 Copilot App. This includes modifying content with AI, Minecraft Lessons, and more! When: Coming soon Teach Module and Class Notebook integration We're bringing Copilot-powered creation tools directly into OneNote Class Notebook. Teachers will be able to generate Learning Activities and quizzes or modify existing content (like adjusting reading level or adding supporting examples) without leaving the page where they're already planning. When: Coming soon 2. Spark classroom engagement with Microsoft Learning Zone Educators worldwide are always looking for innovative ways to engage students, personalize learning, and support individual growth, yet limited time and resources often stand in their way. Microsoft Learning Zone, a new Windows app, empowers educators to transform any idea or resource into an interactive, personalized lesson using AI on Copilot+ PCs. The app also provides actionable insights to guide instruction and support every student’s progress. Learning Zone is now available to download from the Windows app store and included at no additional cost with all Microsoft Education licenses. Just in time for Bett 2026, Learning Zone has earned the prestigious ISTE Seal of Alignment - a recognized mark of quality, accessibility, and inclusive design. This recognition reflects our commitment to delivering meaningful, inclusive, and research-backed digital learning experiences for every learner. As noted by ISTE reviewers: "Microsoft Learning Zone saves educators valuable time while delivering personalized instruction that addresses individual learning needs." Getting started with Microsoft Learning Zone is simple. Educators begin by defining their lesson goals and preferences and can also choose to reference their teaching materials or trusted in-app resources by OpenStax. From there, AI does the heavy-lifting, generating a complete, interactive lesson with engaging content slides and a variety of practice activities. Educators can also quickly create Kahoot! quizzes using AI, bringing live classroom gamification into their lessons with just a few clicks. Learning Zone is more than content creation; it provides a full classroom-ready solution: from assignment to actionable insights. Once a lesson is created and reviewed, educators can assign it to students. Students complete lessons at their own pace, on any device, while the lesson flow adapts to their responses, helping reinforce understanding, revisit missed concepts, and build confidence over time. Educators, in turn, gain clear, actionable insights into student progress and mastery, enabling them to personalize instruction and better support every learner’s growth. Learning Zone is a classroom ready solution including management and actionable insights Learning Zone also includes an extensive library of ready-to-learn lessons developed in collaboration with leading global organizations, including the Nobel Peace Center, PBS NewsHour, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), NASA, OpenStax, Figma, and Minecraft Education. Ready-to-learn lessons are available to educators and students on any Windows device and are a great way to inspire curiosity and bring meaningful learning of different subjects into the classroom. Ready-to-learn library in partnership with trusted global organizations Learning Zone is available today: Visit https://learningzone.microsoft.com to learn more and download the app. 3. New AI-powered tools for student learning in Microsoft 365 Study and Learn Agent Bring the interactive, conversational Study and Learn Agent in the Microsoft 365 Copilot App to your students. Available to all Microsoft EDU customers, the agent does not require an additional Copilot license. It is going into preview now, in January 2026. Join the Microsoft Education Insiders community at https://aka.ms/joinEIP and get information about getting access to the Preview. 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: January 2026 Preview Learning Activities app The Learning Activities Web App is now here! This web-based experience brings all your favorite activities together in one place, making it easier than ever to create, customize, and share engaging content. Whether you’re an educator designing lessons or a student building study sets, the web app offers a streamlined interface for finding or creating Flashcards and Fill in the Blanks with Matching, and Quizzes coming soon. You can easily access all your activities that you have created in other products from the web app, too. When: Available now! 4. Updates for your favorite teaching tools - Teams EDU and OneNote EDU Set AI Guidelines in Teams To help bring clarity to AI use in the classroom, AI Guidelines in Assignments allow educators to set clear expectations for when and how students can use AI—directly within the assignment experience. Educators start with a set of default, standardized AI use levels, and can apply them at the class or assignment level, with the ability to customize descriptions to reflect their school or district guidelines. These guidelines are clearly visible to students, reducing confusion and supporting responsible, transparent AI use, while also encouraging learners to use secure, education-ready Copilot. When: In Preview Q1 Add Learning Activities to Teams Assignments Learning Activities are coming to Teams Assignments and supported LMS platforms in preview, helping educators integrate interactive practice into the assignment workflows they already use. Educators can add activities such as Flashcards, Fill in the blanks, and Matching, and share resource documents that enable students to create their own learning activities within an assignment or the Classwork module. Students complete activities seamlessly within Assignments or their LMS, with progress captured as part of the assignment experience—supporting active, student driven learning while keeping setup, instruction and review in one familiar place. Students can create their own learning activities from educator-shared resources within an assignment or Classwork. When: In Preview Q1 New information literacy features in Search Progress in Teams Assignments Now students don't just gather sources—they investigate them. Four new research prompts (Source Reputation, Factual Importance, Cross-check, Source Purpose) make their thinking visible as they research. Read more about these new features in the preview blog here, and stay tuned for Microsoft Learn course updates to come. When: Available now Add Learning Zone lessons to Teams Assignments and LMS Learning Zone lessons are coming to Teams Assignments and Microsoft 365 LTI for LMS platforms in preview, allowing educators to bring interactive lessons directly into the assignments and grading workflows they already use. Educators can attach Learning Zone lessons during assignment creation, while students complete them fully embedded within Assignments or their LMS, with progress and scores automatically synchronized for review. This preview helps educators save time, reduce manual setup and grading steps, and confidently deliver interactive learning experiences—while keeping assignment creation, student work, and review all in one place. When: Preview in February Embed Learning Activities in OneNote You asked, we're building it. Soon, learners and educators alike will be able to copy a Learning Activity link, paste it into any OneNote classic page, and have it render inline – all to help folks engage without leaving the page. When: NH Spring 2026 5. Create with Copilot in your LMS In addition to supporting the new Learning Zone lessons in assignments, we are adding exciting new Create with Copilot options in Microsoft 365 LTI which bring the AI-powered capabilities of the Teach Module directly into LMS content creation workflows. From within their course, educators can use Copilot to draft lesson materials and other instructional content which is seamlessly published to the course using familiar Microsoft 365 tools. Create with Copilot is also available in LMS content editors to help educators compose content, discussion posts, and more. This includes the ability to modify existing content, if supported by the LMS platform. By embedding the creation experience where courses are designed and managed, Microsoft 365 LTI helps educators preserve instructional intent, reduce context switching, and move more quickly from planning to teaching. Microsoft 365 LTI is available to any Microsoft Education customer without additional licensing. LMS administrators can deploy the integration to an LTI 1.3 compatible LMS like Canvas, Blackboard, PowerSchool Schoology Learning, D2L/Brightspace and Moodle to get started! When: Preview in February 6. Dedicated servers coming to Minecraft Education Minecraft Education is launching a new feature that enables IT administrators and educators to run dedicated servers to host persistent worlds for use in classrooms and after-school programs, similar to Minecraft Bedrock’s dedicated servers (for the consumer version of the game). Dedicated servers enable cross-tenant gameplay, which is a gamechanger for expanding multiplayer experiences in the classroom or running Minecraft esports programs with other schools. This feature is currently in Beta to release in February for general availability for all Minecraft Education users. (Minecraft Education is available in Microsoft A3 and A5 software subscriptions for schools.) ___________________________________________________________________________________ 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 soon: Teach Module Microsoft 365 Updates for Educators • Unit Plans – available in spring • Minecraft Lesson plans – preview in February • Modify content – align to standards. Private preview now • Modify content – modify reading level. Private preview now • Modify content – add supporting examples Private preview now • Modify content – differentiate instructions. Private preview now • Teach Module integration into OneNote Class Notebooks – preview in spring Microsoft Learning Zone • Available to download from the Windows store, at no additional cost • Provide full classroom ready solution including lesson management and insights • Teach Module, Teams Assignments and LMS integration in March Microsoft 365 Updates for Students • Study and Learn Agent – preview in late January • Learning Activities – Fill in the Blanks generally available • Learning Activities – Matching Activities in private preview now • Learning Activities – Self-quizzing available in private preview in February Teams and OneNote EDU Updates • Set expected AI use in Assignments – private preview end of January • Add Flashcards to Assignments – private preview in February • New information literacy features in Search Progress • Embed Learning Activities in OneNote – private preview in spring Copilot in your Learning Management System Dedicated Minecraft EDU servers Have any feedback to share with us? As always, we'd love to hear it! Mike Tholfsen Group Product Manager Microsoft EducationMicrosoft 365 LTI is now Generally Available
Today, Microsoft is announcing a unified LTI® designed to make LMS integrations simple, with powerful capabilities to streamline and simplify deployment. Microsoft 365 LTI enhances your LMS platform whether you’re using Canvas, Schoology, Brightspace, Blackboard, Moodle™, or any other LTI 1.3 capable platform, making it easier than ever for educators and students to leverage the full suite of Microsoft 365 tools within their existing LMS workflows. The new Microsoft 365 LTI combines all the capabilities of the individual tools into one convenient tool--instead of managing multiple LTI integrations, you’ll have one unified solution that is more functional and easier to deploy and maintain. Educators and learners will benefit from a more seamless and up-to-date LMS experience for 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. Deploy and access the new Microsoft 365 LTI in your LMS with the overview and deployment guides. IMPORTANT: If you've already deployed the Microsoft 365 LTI in preview, you do not need to redeploy in your LMS – However there are a few action items for LMS admins with existing deployments: Review the deployment guide for any updates Revisit your Admin Settings, to review the apps enabled you wish your educators to have access to in their courses Ask your M365 Admin to re-consent to permissions to grant the app additional permission to display Meeting Recordings with the M365 Consent link Microsoft 365 LTI release debuts with OneNote Cass Notebook, Teams, Meetings and Reflect – all generally available. Microsoft Assignments, OneDrive, and Reading Coach join these experiences in preview and will transition to GA as ready. At-a-glance: The Microsoft 365 LTI is now generally available, bringing all your favorite Microsoft Education tools into a single, seamless experience inside your LMS. No more juggling multiple integrations - just streamlined access to everything educators and students need, right where they work. This includes: Unified access to OneDrive, Teams, Class Notebook, Reflect, and more, directly in your LMS Add content, create assignments, and schedule meetings - all from one place New – Reading Coach bringing reading self-practice for students to your LMS No need to enable multiple tools separately or clutter your LMS menus Available for all currently supported LMS platforms, including Canvas by Instructure, PowerSchool Schoology Learning, Blackboard by Anthology, D2L/Brightspace, and Moodle™, and for any LTI 1.3 Advantage compliant platform. Existing LTI retirements: Replaces deprecated Teams Meetings and Team Classes LTI tools sunsetting September 15, 2025 Replaces Microsoft OneDrive LTI, OneNote LTI, Teams Assignments LTI and Reflect LTI as they retire next 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, and Moodle™, and for any LTI 1.3 Advantage compliant platform. Learning Accelerators and AI-enhanced assignments in your LMS - without Microsoft Teams (Preview) With the 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 Microsoft Education 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, enabling more LMS users to benefit from advanced, AI-enhanced capabilities that were formerly exclusive to Microsoft Teams for Education. Assignments can be created, managed, completed, and graded, without leaving your LMS, and grades and feedback will sync automatically to the LMS gradebook. 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 LTI which will retire next September 17, 2026. NEW! - Introducing Reading Coach in your LMS (Preview) Support independent reading with confidence. The Reading Coach student experience is now available in your LMS—offering students personalized reading practice, real-time feedback on fluency and pronunciation, with engaging AI-generated stories, library passages, and the option to add their own content to keep practice fun and fresh. Available now in preview. Teams and Teams Meetings Microsoft 365 LTI replaces the former Teams Classes LTI and Teams Meetings LTI tools which reach end of life on September 15, 2025. The new Teams and Teams Meetings experiences continue in Microsoft 365 LTI with improved user experiences where users can easily schedule, manage, and launch meetings from directly within their LMS course. The tool provides streamlined views of future and past meetings, attendance insights, and a “Meet Now” capability. NEW! view all of your meeting recordings on one place in the Recordings and files tab! Automatic rostering in Class Notebooks returns with the Microsoft 365 LTI In March, we announced the retirement of automatically adding newly rostered students and co-educators to OneNote Class Notebooks provisioned through the LMS using the LTI 1.1 integration. This much-loved feature is back in the new Class Notebook app in Microsoft 365 LTI. Any instructor in the LMS course can create a Class Notebook and all co-educators and students are automatically added to the notebook--even as the LMS roster changes. In addition, the new integration enables OneNote with the benefits of LTI 1.3 conformance and a modernized provisioning flow for educators to easily deploy new Class Notebooks for their courses. Existing notebooks created in the LTI 1.1 integration will continue to work, and sections and pages can be easily copied to new notebooks. The OneNote Class Notebook app in Microsoft 365 LTI replaces the classic OneNote LTI which will retire next September 17, 2026. OneDrive and Microsoft 365 files with embedded editors and new placements (Preview) The new Microsoft 365 LTI tool expands beyond the capabilities of the existing OneDrive LTI tool. The full capabilities of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, are now available within the LMS experience for attaching content resources, collaborative documents (including Collaborations for Canvas Courses and Groups), and students editing and submitting Microsoft 365 documents as an assignment without leaving the LMS. Documents can be embedded or linked into courses and other LMS activities including discussions, announcements, pages, with proper 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. This functionality replaces the classic Microsoft OneDrive LTI which will retire September 17, 2026. Easily add Reflect to your classroom Microsoft 365 LTI also provides easy access to Microsoft Reflect to support student wellbeing in the classroom. Educators can create check-ins, view responses, and monitor trends within an LMS course. Users can access activities from Microsoft and partners such as Calm to support physical and mental wellbeing. The Reflect app in Microsoft 365 LTI replaces the classic Reflect LTI which will retire next September 17, 2026. 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. You may also sign up to receive email notifications of previews and releases of Microsoft 365 LTI 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 @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, the Microsoft 365 LTI 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. Learn more about Microsoft feedback for your organization. We can’t wait to hear your feedback! Try out the Microsoft 365 LTI today! 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.Microsoft Education Solutions Guide - available for all IT Admins, partners and schools
What is ESG- Education Solutions Guide The Microsoft Education Solution Guide (ESG) was developed to simplify and enhance understanding of the license features and products that you have available to you in a Microsoft 365 tenant. Initial focus and intent were to create better tools to understand the tenant setup and configuration to enhance security and compliance. Link to full guide is here. It consists of three stages: Goals and Objectives for ESG Goals Develop prescriptive deployment guides that provide a centralized resource with education-specific scenarios to assist organizations in defining, managing, and organizing their tenant and appropriate applications. Reduce the overall complexity of tenant and service deployment. Establish baseline recommended pathways to facilitate a common and agreed-upon configuration based on subject-matter experts. Utilize AI technology to uncover and compare recommended settings against user requirements based on documented configurations. Implement phased configurations to aid customers and partners in understanding what they may not know or should consider during discovery to meet customer expectations. Highlight unused features and products to ensure customers fully leverage the potential and benefits of their purchased product licenses. Identify opportunities for partner participation in achieving customer goals and expectations based on customer requirements and ESG findings. Create an easy pathway for customer change management to enhance control, security, compliance, and privacy of tenants. Develop custom assessments to evaluate product entry for items such as Copilot, Defender, Purview, Intune, Zero-Trust, and Microsoft Entra ID. Objectives Deliver information for features available (used/unused) to users based on license model. Prescriptive recommendations based on education scenarios. - Present upgrade license opportunities from A1 to A3 to A5. Security analysis exposing gaps and issues proactively to allow modifications before it's too late. Promote partner access to customers that have defined gaps based on assessments and are requesting partner assistance. Better discovery and assessment analysis with new tools. Designed to be more self-serving customer and partner access management. Speed up user adoption for educators and IT Admins alike. Recommended Roles for Implementation IT Admin Identity Admin Security Admin Compliance Admin OneDrive Admin SharePoint Admin Exchange Online Admin Teams Admin Navigation ESG has seven main sections in the navigations. ESG – Microsoft Solutions Guide overall, Microsoft Education license (A1-A3-A5), and Microsoft addons licenses. Baseline Phase – Overview, Products and Features, Licenses. All five sections (Setup, Identity, Applications, Security and Compliance, and Devices) Standard Phase - Overview, Products and Features, Licenses All five sections (Setup, Identity, Applications, Security and Compliance, and Devices. Advanced Phase - Overview, Products and Features, Licenses. Three sections (Identity, Applications, and Security and Compliance) Addons – Any addon products and when/where they can be added to your current license configuration. Windows – Education specific Windows based products and features. References – Any process or configuration that is not outlined in the three license phases will be included here. Phases Deployment Sequence The Baseline phase is the first step in the three-phase approach: Baseline (A1) → Standard (A3) → Advanced (A5) The Baseline phase is the foundational first phase in the Microsoft Education Solution Guide deployment sequence, aligned with the Microsoft 365 A1 education license. Standard Phase - The Standard phase is the second phase in the Microsoft Education Solution Guide deployment sequence, aligned with the Microsoft 365 A3 education license. The Advanced phase is the third and most comprehensive phase in the Microsoft Education Solution Guide deployment sequence, aligned with the Microsoft 365 A5 education license. Sections Setup Tenant setup is key to establishing a secure and valid tenant. Setup goes through domain assignments, administration, and service management. Identity Establishing an identity via Microsoft Entra ID and establishing authentication methods, Single Sign-On, and user procurement methodologies. Applications Applications like Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange Online is the core to a Microsoft tenant. Getting these applications setup are essential to allow users in education to access services and apps like Learning Accelerators. Security and Compliance Security via each phase is essential to maintain order and blocking access for bad actors. Along with security compliance/privacy considerations that are established to adhere to a multitude of local and government requirements worldwide. Devices Managed and unmanaged devices are another key to helping secure the network and potential cyber-security considerations that enter the network via these devices. How do you use ESG? ESG uses deployment guidelines for content that contain education scenario specifics. These prescriptive “Purple Boxes” allow education organizations the ability to see prescriptive guidelines and recommendations based on an edu scenario. ESG has a linked path for each modules based on the phase (Baseline,Standard,Advanced). Users can follow the deployment content to establish or redefine the tenant configuration in order to enable additional services and products. What’s Next Go to https://aka.ms/esg to access Microsoft Education Solutions Guide. Stage 2 – A custom agent to discover the tenant configuration settings and allow customers and partners the ability to qualify what is set to standard recommendation. This agent will also have the ability to access partner content and internal Microsoft resources. Using an AI Agent to discover tenant settings based on Graph API calls and Microsoft MCP Server for Enterprise to evaluate against known Microsoft recommended settings. Part 3 – Change management from discovery data baselines to access and deliver any updates/changes/modifications, daily/weekly/monthly.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.
