Making Academic Standards More Accessible
Why standards matter Academic standards are the shared language that connects curriculum, instruction, and assessment. When educators can easily access and apply them: Lesson planning becomes more intentional. You design instruction around clear learning goals rather than guessing what to cover. Assessment aligns with instruction. Quizzes, rubrics, and assignments reflect what students are actually expected to demonstrate. AI-powered tools become more relevant. AI-generated content is grounded in real curriculum expectations, not generic suggestions. Collaboration improves. Teachers across grade levels and departments can speak the same language about what students should know and do. How Microsoft Education uses standards Standards are woven into the experiences educators use every day. In the Teach module and Microsoft 365 LTI, educators can align lesson plans to specific standards by location, subject, and grade band, use the "Align to Standards" tool to refine lesson instructions, and generate quizzes and rubrics grounded in standards. In Assignments in Teams for Education and Microsoft 365 LTI, educators can tag assignments with curriculum expectations, build standards-aligned rubrics, and create a clear thread from instruction to assessment. Across AI-powered workflows, standards can serve as grounding data that helps make generated lesson plans, quizzes, and rubrics more relevant to real curriculum expectations. This reflects Microsoft’s broader approach to AI in education: using AI to support educators with useful, contextual assistance while helping institutions maintain alignment with their instructional goals, policies, and professional judgment. Educators can select standards by location, subject, and language. Expanding coverage through partnership with EdGate Making standards useful in digital tools globally requires more than a large catalog. It requires structured, machine-readable data, ongoing maintenance, and a partner with deep expertise in education standards. EdGate has spent years building and maintaining one of the largest catalogs of digitized standards in education technology. Microsoft partnered with EdGate to help make that infrastructure more accessible inside the workflows educators and institutions already use. Through this partnership, Microsoft has significantly expanded the set of standards EdGate offers, especially internationally. Together, we have grown coverage to include: All 50 U.S. states, including Common Core, NGSS, and state-specific frameworks 70+ countries, with international standards covering core subjects, vocational education, and qualification frameworks Hundreds of supplemental frameworks, from career and technical education to world languages and the arts We continue to expand coverage with new international standards rolling out regularly. EdGate offers access to over 5 million standard statements, aggregating and normalizing global standards for consistent delivery across platforms. Their capabilities include a comprehensive standards catalog, standards authoring tools used by ministries of education, API-based access for platform integration, and certified CASE 1.1 compliance. Microsoft and EdGate are partnering to make a select set of standards freely available to education institutions, lowering barriers for educators and developers who want to explore standards-aligned workflows without a commercial commitment. To expand the impact even further, EdGate is piloting a project in 1EdTech's CASE Global Ecosystem initiative, to demonstrate how interoperable, machine-readable frameworks can improve the discoverability, alignment, and portability of learning and credentialing data across platforms, institutions and borders. The CASE format: Why it matters CASE stands for Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange, an open standard from 1EdTech that defines how learning outcomes and standards are represented in a machine-readable, interoperable format. Why does CASE matter? Machine-readability: Platforms, AI tools, and learning management systems can read, search, and apply standards programmatically. Interoperability: Standards move between systems. An assignment tagged with a standard in Microsoft Teams can be understood by an LMS, a reporting tool, or a curriculum mapping platform without manual re-entry. Cross-region equivalence: CASE enables comparing and mapping standards across countries and frameworks. EdGate is a certified CASE 1.1 provider, meaning the standards they deliver to Microsoft (and to the broader ecosystem) follow this open, interoperable format. The expanded catalog we have built together benefits not just Microsoft's products, but the entire ecosystem of education technology that relies on structured standards data. A shared commitment to open standards Microsoft is proud to be a Contributing Member of 1EdTech, the organization that stewards CASE and other critical interoperability standards for education technology, including LTI, OneRoster, and Open Badges. By collaborating with fellow 1EdTech members like EdGate, we ensure that investments in standards infrastructure benefit educators everywhere, regardless of which platforms or tools they use. When standards are open, structured, and interoperable, everyone wins: educators spend less time on manual alignment, developers can build smarter tools, and students benefit from instruction that is intentionally connected to what they are expected to learn. What this means for educators Within Microsoft Education, you do not need to think about CASE or data formats to benefit from this work. What you will see is: More standards available in the Teach module and Assignments, covering more countries, subjects, and grade bands AI-powered experiences that are better grounded in your actual curriculum Less manual work translating curriculum documents into classroom materials We are committed to continuing this investment: expanding coverage, improving the experience, and working with partners like EdGate and the 1EdTech community to make standards-aligned teaching easier for educators everywhere. Helpful links Getting started with Teach Modify content: Align to Standards Microsoft Teams for Education Microsoft 365 LTI International standards currently available through EdGate Request additional standards in Microsoft Education About 1EdTech About CASE (Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange) Have questions or feedback about standards in Microsoft Education? Drop a comment below or submit a request through our Standards Feedback form.Set clear AI expectations for every assignment with Student AI Guidelines
The challenge: students don't know where they stand with AI Every educator has a different approach to AI in their classroom. Some want students using it freely. Others want AI limited to brainstorming or editing. Some assignments shouldn't involve AI at all. The problem? Students are left guessing. Educators have been piecing together workarounds — writing AI policies into assignment instructions, referencing school handbooks, or adding disclaimers to rubrics. None of these are built into the assignment itself, and students often miss them entirely. Student AI Guidelines in Assignments Student AI Guidelines give educators a structured way to set AI expectations directly inside an assignment in Microsoft Teams. When creating an assignment, educators now see a new option to set a guideline level with suggested text: Full AI use allowed. Students can use Copilot for any part of the assignment. AI for editing only. Students write their own work first, then use Copilot to polish, revise, or check grammar. AI for brainstorming only. Students can use Copilot to generate ideas or explore topics, but the final work should be their own. No AI. The assignment should be completed without AI assistance. Student AI Guidelines are available for all grade levels, on desktop and mobile. All students in the assignment see the same guideline. A note on what these guidelines are — and aren't. Student AI Guidelines are a communication tool, not a lockdown. They set clear expectations that students see in the assignment, but they don't technically block access to AI tools. They work the same way a teacher's verbal instruction does: "Here's what I expect for this assignment." The value is in making that expectation visible, consistent, and built into the assignment itself. These are starting points, not fixed rules. Each level comes with suggested text that educators can edit freely to match their school's policies, terminology, or classroom norms. If your school uses different language around AI use — or has its own framework — update the text to reflect that. The feature adapts to your school, not the other way around. Even if your school hasn't enabled Copilot, Student AI Guidelines give you a structured way to communicate AI expectations to students — whether that's encouraging responsible AI use or formalizing a no-AI policy. What students see When an educator sets a guideline, students see it in their assignment view — no hunting through instructions or attachments. The guideline card shows the educator's expectations and, for levels that allow AI use, a direct button to launch Copilot Chat. The Copilot launch button appears for students aged 13 and older at schools where an IT admin has enabled Copilot. If your school hasn't set up Copilot yet, check out the Copilot setup guide for IT admins to get started. If Copilot isn't enabled, students still see the guideline — just without the launch button. If no guideline is set, nothing changes — the student experience stays exactly as it is today. Save time: set a default and reuse across classes Two features help you avoid repeating setup work: Set as default. Any guideline level — including "No AI" — can be set as the default for all new assignments you create. If your school's policy is that most assignments should restrict AI use, set that as your default and you're covered. You can always override it on individual assignments when you want to allow more (or less) AI use. Import Settings. Once you've configured your Student AI Guidelines in one class, you can apply those same settings to other classes using Import Settings. This copies your guideline levels and custom text across classes so you don't have to re-create them each time. Learn more: Import Settings in Assignments and Grades. Why this matters This feature sits at the intersection of two things educators have been asking for: clarity around AI use, and an easy on-ramp to Copilot. Instead of competing with third-party AI tools through restriction, Student AI Guidelines give educators a way to channel AI use purposefully — on their terms, per assignment, with clear communication to students. Resources Set Student AI Guidelines on and assignment in Microsoft Teams Manage Student AI Guidelines in AssignmentsStudy and Learn Agent: your study coach, built for learning
It's 11 pm. A student is at the kitchen table with a chemistry problem they can't crack, an essay due tomorrow, and a quiz in the morning. They open their laptop, open an AI chatbot, and in thirty seconds, they have an answer, an essay, and a study guide. The thinking didn't happen. The grade might still come. That moment is why so many educators and IT leaders feel a knot in their stomach about AI in the classroom. The concerns are real, and we built with them firmly in view. Now picture the same student, same kitchen table, same 11 pm. This time the Study and Learn Agent is beside them. Patient. Tireless. Knows the material because the student is studying with their own notes. Asks the right question at the right moment. Pushes them to try first, then helps them see what they missed. Quizzes them. Introduces flashcards, fill-in-the-blanks and matching activities. Helps them build and check their understanding. The student does the thinking. The Study and Learn Agent coaches the thinking. Most students have not had access to that kind of support. Potential is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. Today, with the general availability of the Study and Learn Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot, every student K12 and Higher Education with a Microsoft Education license can get personalized coaching when they need it, where they need it, at no extra cost. Study and Learn Agent is in the left navigation and works across any subject the learner is studying. It explains concepts, supports writing without doing the writing for the students, gives step-by-step coaching on problems, generates flashcards, runs quizzes, and creates activities to build and check understanding. The agent is designed to lead with a question so the learner stays in the driver's seat. It is available in English (US) and coming to additional languages in the coming weeks. ⚙️For IT admins — read this first Study and Learn Agent runs inside Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. For your K-12 students aged 13–17, Copilot Chat is OFF by default. You have to turn it on. Until you do, students in your tenant cannot access Study and Learn. The good news: Study and Learn is available to all licenses A1 / A3 / A5, and the agent is available from the left navigation bar of M365 Copilot app and in the Chat dropdown at https://aka.ms/studyandlearn. Action: Enable Copilot Chat for your 13–17 student group in the Microsoft 365 admin center using these resources: Full step-by-step video tutorial: https://aka.ms/enablecopilotchatvideo IT documentation: Education Tenant Identifier Student Age Groups 🎉What is available at GA Conversations that coach: Scaffolded conversations on any subject or topic K12 through HED for: Understanding concepts Working through step-by-step problems Getting writing support The agent recognizes the kind of help a learner needs and adapts the conversation accordingly. Soon, images will show inline in explanations to make abstract concepts concrete — especially for visual subjects like biology, geography, and chemistry. Practice activities that stick: Flashcards to learn terms and definitions, vocabulary, and recall facts Quizzes with multiple choice and open-ended questions with per-answer explanations Fill-in-the-blank for understanding how things work, or the sequence of connected events or facts in a process Matching activities that connect terms to definitions, causes to effects, concepts to examples — building the mental web that makes knowledge usable All activities are created with the learner’s own materials, or with just a topic name. Quizzes can also be created using a web-linked resource Students can chat with the agent during and after completing an activity to get immediate and remediation help with the agent still not giving away answers Responsible AI and data privacy: Study and Learn is built into the Microsoft 365 Education environment that schools already manage, giving IT administrators familiar controls and enterprise-grade data and privacy protection rooted in Microsoft's responsible AI principles. Students get a structured, accountable AI experience, and schools get a credible, learning-first option they can deploy with confidence. An AI literacy resource teaches responsible AI use from the very first interaction. Coming soon! Inline images: GA ships with links to images, images embedded in the flow of the conversation are coming soon Multiple languages: Study and Learn has been optimized for and Generally Available in English (US). Additional languages will become available in the coming weeks. Explanation and engagement callouts: Visual call outs for questions, tips and moments of persistence 💡Built on learning science The pedagogy is the product. The Study and Learn Agent is grounded in four research-based principles about what makes learning stick. They aren't a layer on top of the experience — they shape what the agent does in every interaction. Adaptive scaffolding: meeting students where they are by activating what they already know, then providing enough support to stretch them into what's next. In practice, this is why the agent opens a chemistry problem by asking what the learner already understands about molar mass — not by launching into a worked solution. It then tunes its support — worked examples, hints, or step-by-step guidance — to match. The result is a learner who stays productively engaged instead of overwhelmed or under-challenged. Productive struggle: asking before telling, so students retrieve, attempt, and reason their way toward answers. This is why the agent invites a first attempt before offering help, and why it surfaces a misconception as a question rather than a correction. Mistakes become data, not failure — the moments where actual learning happens. Active learning: practice that sticks, with retrieval-based activities including flashcards, fill-in-the-blanks, quizzes, and matching. The agent generates activities from the learner's own materials and lets them re-attempt the items they missed. Learners can pause during an activity and chat with the agent about a card they don't understand — building clarity in the moment, without the agent giving the answer away. Pulling knowledge out of memory, with feedback in the loop, is what builds durable understanding. Application and transfer: giving students the agency to go deeper, apply their learning, or reinforce it with an activity. This is why the agent invites learners to teach concepts back, apply ideas to new problems, and connect what they're studying to real-world contexts. It's the kind of work that builds flexible understanding beyond a single test. We built this with learning science researchers, cognitive scientists, and educators in the room from the beginning. 👩🏽🏫For educators The best way to understand what Study and Learn does differently is to spend a few minutes with it. Open it at aka.ms/studyandlearn and try it with your Microsoft Education account in the M365 Copilot app on a unit you're teaching next week. Take the professional development course at aka.ms/studyandlearnmodule to get a deep dive overview, and earn a badge! Most educators tell us this is the moment the design clicks — noticing where the agent asks a question instead of giving an answer. A few things educators in our preview have found useful: Pointing learners to it for a specific moment in an assignment can be more effective than a blanket "you can use this." Something as simple as "if you get stuck on problem 4, ask Study and Learn to walk you through it after you've taken a first attempt" tends to shape how learners engage. The activities lend themselves to specific moments. Flashcards before a vocabulary check. Matching for a unit on cell biology. A quiz the day before a test, with the agent's per-answer explanations as a self-review loop. The agent itself is a useful AI literacy artifact. Some educators use its behavior as a discussion starter — "notice that it didn't give you the answer? Why do you think that is?" — to open up conversations about how to use AI well. A short framing for learners helps a lot. Naming up front that the agent will ask questions before helping, push them to try first, and quiz them on what they missed — and why that's the design — shifts how learners engage. One small tip worth passing on: the more specifically a learner can name what's tripping them up, the better the agent can help. "I can't picture what's happening here" gives the agent more to work with than "I don't get it." Feedback shapes what we ship next. There's an OCV form linked from inside the agent, and educator input has driven much of the roadmap so far. 🫱🏼🫲🏾The bet For decades, the students who got one-on-one coaching outperformed the students who didn't. That gap was a function of access — who had a tutor, who had a teacher with bandwidth, who had a parent at the kitchen table. AI is the first technology in the history of education with a real shot at closing it. That's the bet we are making. AI as a coach. Built on learning science. Built into the tools schools already trust. Available to every student, not just the ones whose families can afford it. Study and Learn is the first move. Open Microsoft 365 Copilot. Look in the left navigation. The coach is there as long as Copilot Chat is enabled. Get going at https://aka.ms/studyandlearn Resources: Enable Copilot Chat step-by-step video tutorial Educator professional development Support documentation Anoo Padte is Principal Product Manager for AI in Education at Microsoft.Introducing Learning Activities: AI-powered practice for educators and students
Practice is where learning actually happens. It’s one thing to read through a unit or sit through a lesson; it’s another to retrieve that knowledge on demand. But building good practice materials takes time that educators rarely have, and most students don’t know where to start when it comes to studying on their own. Learning Activities is designed to close that gap for both. With Learning Activities, educators can paste in lesson content and generate a shareable practice activity in under three minutes. Students can do the same with their own notes to study independently, or dive straight into an activity a teacher shared with them. The AI does the heavy lifting: creating flashcards, fill-in-the-blank exercises, matching games, and quizzes from whatever content you bring. Today we’re walking through everything that’s available, who it’s for, and how to get started. What are Learning Activities? Learning Activities is a web-based tool powered by Microsoft AI. You bring the content, and it generates four types of interactive practice activities: Flashcards: Term and definition, question and answer, or multiple-choice cards. Great for vocabulary, concepts, and content review. Fill in the Blanks: AI removes key words from your content and learners drag them back into the correct blanks. Adjustable difficulty: Easy, Medium, or Challenging. Matching: A timed game where players match terms with definitions, with a leaderboard for friendly competition. Quizzes: Students generate their own multiple-choice quizzes from study materials or even just a topic description. A powerful self-study tool. Each activity type targets a different learning moment, from first-pass recognition with flashcards to timed recall under pressure with Matching. Because the AI handles the generation, the whole thing takes seconds. Four activity types, one seamless experience Flashcards Educators can create a set of flashcards from lesson notes or an uploaded document and share them with the class in minutes. Students can also create their own sets to study independently. Choose from term and definition, Q&A, or multiple-choice card formats, or mix and match them in a single set. During practice, students flip through cards and sort them into “I know this” and “Still learning” piles. After finishing, they see a summary of where they stand and can retry only the cards they missed. Fill in the Blanks AI analyzes your content, removes key words, and builds exercises where learners drag the correct words back into the blanks. Educators can choose to let the AI lightly rephrase content for better exercises or keep the original text exactly as written. Three difficulty levels give you control over the challenge. Learners get immediate feedback after each exercise: correct answers appear in green, missed ones in red. Then they move on to the next passage. Matching The Matching game generates term-and-definition pairs from your content and turns them into a timed race. Each round randomly selects six terms from the full set, so replaying the same activity stays fresh. A leaderboard shows the top five fastest times, and players can use a custom nickname or stay anonymous. Quizzes (students only) Quizzes are created by students, for students. They paste in their study notes, describe a topic they want to be tested on, or upload a file, and the AI generates a multiple-choice quiz. Students pick 10, 15, or 20 questions and can turn on Practice mode for question-by-question feedback with instant retries, rather than waiting until the end to see results. No teacher setup required. Students can go from “I have a test tomorrow” to practicing in about a minute. End-to-end demo of Learning Activities Who can use Learning Activities? Learning Activities is built for three audiences: Educators can create and share Flashcards, Fill in the Blanks, and Matching activities with their students. After students practice, educators see lightweight insights on completions, average scores, and which specific items gave students the most trouble. Students (all ages) can practice activities shared with them by an educator using a join code or direct link. Students (age 13+) who have access to Copilot chat can create their own Flashcards, Fill in the blanks, Matching activities and Quizzes for independent study. Enterprise users can use Learning Activities to build practice materials for onboarding, training, or personal development. Same tools, same AI, applied to professional content. Where to find Learning Activities Start on the web The best place to get started is the Learning Activities web app, accessible in the education and productivity sections of the Microsoft apps list and at: learningactivities.edu.cloud.microsoft From the home screen, you can create a new activity, browse everything you’ve created or saved, and join an activity using a code a teacher shared with you. In the Teach module If you already use the Teach module in Microsoft 365, Learning Activities is built right in. Select Learning Activities in Teach and generate an activity directly from your content without switching apps. Coming soon: Study and Learn agent We’re actively integrating Learning Activities into the Study and Learn agent, so students will be able to generate practice activities inline as part of their AI-assisted study sessions, right where they’re already working. Also available in Classwork in Teams for Education Learning Activities is also available through Classwork in Teams for Education, so teachers who work primarily in Teams can create and share activities without leaving the apps they’re already in. Any activity you create, whether from the web app, the Teach module, Teams, or the Study and Learn agent, shows up in your Learning Activities home screen. Everything stays in one place. Getting started: educators Go to learningactivities.edu.cloud.microsoft. Select + New Activity and choose a type: Flashcards, Fill in the Blanks, or Matching. Paste in your content or upload a file (Word, PDF, PowerPoint, or text, up to 100,000 characters). Select your language and any format options, then select Generate. Review the output, make any edits, and select Save Activity. From the activity overview page, select Share to get a join code or share link for your students. That’s it. First activity typically takes under three minutes. Getting started: students Go to learningactivities.edu.cloud.microsoft. If your teacher shared an activity: select Join in the upper right, enter the join code, or open the direct link they sent you. To create your own study set: select + New Activity, choose Flashcards, Fill in the blanks, Matching or Quiz, paste in your notes, and generate. Getting started: enterprise users Enterprise users can access Learning Activities at learningactivities.edu.cloud.microsoft with their Microsoft 365 account. Create activities from internal documents, onboarding materials, or training content the same way an educator would. Activities live in your My Activities tab and can be shared with teammates using a join code or link. For IT admins: managing Learning Activities for your organization Learning Activities is enabled by default for eligible Microsoft 365 tenants. As an admin, you can turn it on or off for your entire organization from the Microsoft 365 admin center. Directions are here: Manage Microsoft 365 for Education AI Features - M365 Education | Microsoft Learn. View insights after your students practice Once students complete activities you’ve shared, head back to the activity overview page to see how it went. Insights available today: Students started and completed Average score The specific cards, blanks, or questions students found most challenging We’re continuing to build on this over time based on what educators tell us they need. Helpful links Learning Activities: Learning Activities - Microsoft Support Flashcards: Create Flashcards with AI - Microsoft Support Fill in the blanks: Create Fill in the blanks with AI - Microsoft Support Matching: Create Matching game with AI - Microsoft Support Quizzes: Create Quizzes using AI for Students - Microsoft Support Manage Microsoft 365 for Education AI Features - M365 Education | Microsoft Learn Learning Activities web app Have questions or feedback? Share them in the comments below — our team reads every one.Hands-on webinar: Study and Learn agent in M365 Copilot
Join us on Wednesday, May 13th @ 8am Pacific Time for an in-depth professional development webinar on the new Study & Learn agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot, which is about to become available for all students 13+ and educators. This will be a 60-minute hands-on webinar where the Product Management team will walk through the Study & Learn agent, which is purpose-built for learning. The experience goes beyond just answering questions and instead guiding students through concepts with step-by-step support, interactive activities like quizzes and flashcards, and conversations grounded in learning science. The Study & Learn agent will be globally available by the time of this webinar on May 13th, 2026. We will also be providing links for professional development credit at this session. 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. What we will cover ✅ Introduce the new Study & Learn agent ✅Understand concept/question, FC and Quiz, Matching and FIB ✅IT admin motions for enabling Copilot Chat ✅Learning Activities for students hands-on ✅CPNBs and Study Guide slides and demo 📅 Date: Tuesday, May 13th ⏰ Time: 8:00 AM Pacific 🔗 Register: https://msit.events.teams.microsoft.com/event/msit.954c5c3b-cbc0-458d-9739-49e3e8b4baf7@72f988bf-86f1-41af-91ab-2d7cd011db47Accelerating the Flow of Learning
By Vince Frankson, Authentica Solutions | Guest Post via the Microsoft Education Blog Education technology leaders are not short on vision; they are short on time. They know exactly what their Microsoft 365 environment is capable of. What they deserve are better tools, smarter automation, and a partner that shows up ready to serve. At Authentica Solutions, we pride ourselves on our culture of servant leadership, not just as a slogan, but as our guiding principle. Our mission is to support and serve district technology teams, ensuring that technology enhances their valuable work rather than making it more complex. Everything we build is organized around one purpose: accelerating the flow of learning. Not technology for its own sake... tools and services focused at getting teachers back to teaching, students back to learning, and district leaders back to the decisions that matter most. With the school year winding down and Back to School planning already on the horizon, there is no better moment to look at where your Microsoft 365 environment stands, and how the right tools and the right team can compress your timeline, free your people, and make this the smoothest Back to School launch yet. District Technology Teams Deserve Better Tools K-12 technology leaders oversee complex systems, sometimes across multiple campuses, and support a wide range of users. While Microsoft 365 offers advanced features, many remain underused due to the time and expertise required for full implementation. Microsoft’s School Data Sync (SDS) is a great example. It is a genuinely powerful free service that automates the flow of student roster and identity data from your Student Information System (SIS) into Microsoft Entra ID, provisioning Teams classrooms, Intune device groups, SharePoint sites, and OneNote Class Notebooks automatically, at scale. The platform is exceptional. Fully configuring it, keeping it healthy across an academic year, and extending its value into the rest of the data ecosystem is specialized work that deserves specialized support. Authentica addresses this gap by providing support so school IT teams can focus on high-impact tasks, helping educators and students achieve more. Authentica seed™: Built to Accelerate the Flow of Learning Authentica seed™ is Authentica’s Education Intelligence Cloud Service, designed to streamline learning by enabling clean, automated, bidirectional data pipelines. This allows teachers to access rosters quickly, students to begin learning immediately, and administrators to monitor instruction in real time, accelerating progress for everyone. Getting Your Data into Microsoft 365 seed™ sits between your SIS and SDS, handling data preparation, mapping, and delivery so your team can focus on higher-value work. Districts that previously invested significant time in validation cycles and configuration troubleshooting are reaching full value in a fraction of the time. Automated SIS-to-SDS delivery with built-in validation, so errors are caught before they ever reach your tenant. Support for OneRoster API and CSV formats across all major SIS platforms, meeting your district where it already is. Automatic provisioning of users, classes, and groups across Microsoft Entra ID, Teams, SharePoint, Exchange, and Intune for Education. Manage Student Age Groups to limit or support access to Microsoft Copilot for students 13+. Every hour returned from focusing on the data pipeline is an hour returned to learning. That is Cloud with Purpose. Getting Your Data Back Where It Belongs Learning does not stop at the edge of Microsoft 365, and neither should your data. seed™ closes the loop by moving grade data, assessment data, and engagement signals back to the platforms that need them, automatically. Back to your SIS: Keeping your system of record current and authoritative without double grade entry. To your Analytics platform: Giving administrators and instructional coaches visibility into what is working, event making Microsoft 365 activity visible, without waiting for manual exports. Building your dream data estate: What if you could combine your academic and instructional data, your operations and staff data, and your financial data into a single place? What if you could have it prepped and ready so you can ask questions with Copilot and / or AI Agents. Which schools have the most students off track right now? Top 5, and why. Where are we spending the most with the weakest results? Top 3. One connected data ecosystem. Compounding the return on every platform investment your district has made and accelerating the flow of learning throughout. UsageIQ™ Microsoft 365 Edition: Giving Leaders the Visibility They Deserve District technology leaders make consequential decisions about licensing, training, and support every year. They deserve data that makes those decisions clear. Authentica UsageIQ™ Microsoft 365 Edition was built to provide exactly that: a straightforward, actionable picture of how your Microsoft 365 environment is being used across the organization. Not a consultant engagement. Not a manual pull from the admin portal. A purpose-built, single view of your tenant that tells you what you need to know, when you need to know it. App-by-app usage across your tenant: Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Exchange, OneNote, and more, in one place. School-by-school and role-based breakdowns: See where adoption is strong and where targeted support would unlock real value. License utilization insights: Ensure every seat is earning its value and renewal conversations are grounded in actual usage data. Back to School readiness views: Identify accounts and configurations that need attention before day one, not after. When technology leaders can see clearly, they lead confidently. That visibility is not a luxury. It is what great tools are supposed to deliver. Managed Services for Microsoft 365: A Team That Has Been Here Before At Authentica, we deliver Managed Services with a servant leadership mindset. We're not just a helpdesk, our team has years of experience at Microsoft, having built education solutions like SDS, Teams for Education, and Graph APIs. We support your district as an expert extension to handle critical Microsoft 365 tasks efficiently, allowing your technology staff to focus on their key responsibilities. What Managed Services for Microsoft 365 Covers End-of-Year close support for SDS expiration management, tenant cleanup, graduating account archiving, and identity hygiene, handled on time and on spec so your team can close the year cleanly. Back to School launch for new year SDS configuration, classroom provisioning, device group refresh, and Conditional Access review, so teachers walk into a working environment on day one. Ongoing SDS health monitoring and proactive troubleshooting, so issues are resolved before they become incidents Microsoft Entra ID and identity management support across the full user lifecycle. Teams for Education configuration, governance, and adoption enablement. Intune for Education device policy and deployment support. Copilot readiness assessment and enablement, so your district is positioned for AI-powered learning when you are ready to move. This is what it looks like when your Microsoft 365 environment has a team behind it that is fully committed to your success, not just at launch, but every day. End of School Checklist: Five Things Worth Doing Before Summer Break These are the actions that make Back to School smoother, faster, and less reactive. Your team knows this; this is a reminder of what is worth prioritizing before the calendar turns. Audit Microsoft Entra ID for inactive and graduating accounts. Clean identities now mean a cleaner, more secure tenant heading into the new year, and fewer licensing surprises at renewal. Review your SDS sync health. Check error and warning logs now. Small data issues that are easy to address in the spring become August emergencies. Get ahead of them while there is room to breathe. Check your Microsoft 365 license utilization. If you are on A3 or A5, are those features actively working for your district? UsageIQ™ Microsoft 365 Edition can show you the full picture and give you a clear story heading into renewal season. Archive Teams classes from the current year. Establish your retention and archival approach before the new year roster drop. A clean tenant makes everyone faster, IT, teachers, and students. Plan your Back-to-School timeline now. Microsoft School Data Sync (SDS) provisioning for a large district takes time. Build in buffer, engage your support resources before August, and set your team up to launch the year confidently instead of reactively. We Are Here to Serve Authentica Solutions is offering a complimentary Microsoft 365 Readiness Assessment for districts that want a clear picture of where they stand before the new year begins. This is a straightforward conversation with our team, people who have been inside these systems for years, helping you identify what is working, what is ready to unlock, and where the right tools can return the most value. No pressure. Just expertise, in service of your district and the learning that happens inside it. Let’s talk to schedule your complimentary Microsoft 365 Readiness Assessment. About Authentica Solutions Authentica Solutions is an EdTech company grounded in servant leadership and built around one purpose: accelerating the flow of learning. Our team, including former Microsoft engineers who built core Microsoft 365 education products, serves K-12 districts through seed™, UsageIQ™, reachAI™, and Managed Services for Microsoft 365. Cloud with Purpose. Visit www.authenticasolutions.comHands-on Session: From idea to interactive lesson with Microsoft Learning Zone
Join us on Tuesday, May 12th at 8:00 AM Pacific for a hands-on professional development session introducing Learning Zone - a new app that helps you create interactive, classroom-ready lessons in minutes. In this 45-minute webinar, the Product Management team will guide you through core capabilities and the latest updates. You can follow along using your own Microsoft 365 Education account. Also, you will be able to get Professional Development credit with this session and we will offer a Credly badge at the end. What we will cover: ✅ Getting started with Learning Zone: Access Learning Zone and get set up ✅ Experience as a student: Join a session and see how it works from the student perspective ✅ Building your first interactive lesson: Create your first interactive lesson (in minutes!) ✅ Assigning to your class: Send lessons via link, short code, Teams Assignments, or your LMS ✅ Exploring the ready-to-learn library: Bring immediate value to your students through a variety of lessons by trusted of partners. Important note: Lesson generation is currently available only on Copilot+ PCs with any Microsoft 365 Education license (supported in English and Spanish). No Copilot+ PC? No problem. You’ll still get to try out the student experience, learn how to use the lesson library, assign interactive lessons, review insights, and integrate Learning Zone into your existing workflows. 📅 Date: Tuesday, May 12th ⏰ Time: 8:00 AM Pacific Register: https://aka.ms/LZwebinarMay26 We look forward to having you attend the event!Minecraft Education Lesson Plans in Teach: AI-powered lesson planning meets the world of Minecraft
As educators, you've told us that some of your most time-consuming work is adapting lessons for engagement, aligning them to standards, and finding ways to bring immersive experiences into your curriculum. At the same time, Minecraft Education is already one of the most effective learning tools for engaging learners in classrooms around the world, with students lighting up the moment they hear the word "Minecraft." Today, we're bringing those two things together. Minecraft Education lesson plans are now generally available in Teach. Describe your topic, pick a grade level and subject, and Teach generates a complete, standards-aligned lesson plan built around Minecraft Education activities, including the specific blocks, materials, and preparation steps you need to run it confidently, even if you've never opened Minecraft Education before. (Minecraft Education is included in most Microsoft 365 software subscriptions for schools, so you also likely have full access.) What you get Every generated Minecraft Education lesson plan includes: Standards-aligned Minecraft Education activities - Build activities and challenges that reflect your selected standards across subjects like ELA, math, science, social studies, computer science, and more Minecraft-specific materials guidance - Recommendations for the exact blocks, items, and in-game tools your students will need, so you don't have to figure it out yourself Preparation instructions - Step-by-step setup guidance for educators new to Minecraft Education, so you can walk into the classroom ready to go Differentiation and collaboration - Tiered challenge options, collaborative build tasks, and formative checks embedded within gameplay A student link - A shareable link to send directly to students so they can join the activity See it in action Once your lesson is generated, you can edit any section directly or use Enhance with AI to refine it further: add collaborative build tasks, adjust the length and tone, include accessibility supports, or regenerate with new instructions. When it's ready, save to OneDrive and open it in Word to share with colleagues, or launch the Minecraft Education app directly to set up the lesson experience. For a full walkthrough of every step, see the support article. Why this matters We know many of you already love using Minecraft Education in your classrooms, while others are curious how Minecraft can enhance your teaching to deepen student learning and engagement. Minecraft Education lesson plans in Teach make it easier to create experiences by generating a complete, customized lesson from your topic and standards, with the Minecraft-specific materials, activities, and preparation guidance built in. Whether you're looking for a fresh lesson idea in a subject you haven't tried with Minecraft Education before, or you want to quickly adapt a concept for a different grade level, this tool gives you a starting point you can make your own. You bring the teaching expertise and your knowledge of your students. Get started Try it now: Minecraft Education lesson plan Available to Faculty/Staff with a Microsoft 365 for Education license and Copilot Chat enabled Does not require a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot license Minecraft Education may already be included with your Microsoft 365 license or can be purchased separately. Check your licensing options. Helpful Links Teach module training on Microsoft Learn, now including training on Minecraft Education lesson generation Training courses for Minecraft educators Have questions or ideas? Drop them in the comments below - We'd love to hear how you plan to use Minecraft Education lesson plans in your classroom! Share your feedback with us by joining our EDU Insider Program (aka.ms/joinEIP). Until next time, Max Fritz · Microsoft EducationMore standards are coming to the Teach Module and Teams for Education!
Hi everyone! As educators, you have told us that aligning lessons, assessments, and classroom materials to the standards you actually use is one of the most important parts of making AI-powered teaching tools useful in practice. When standards are available and easy to apply, it becomes much faster to create materials that fit your local curriculum and instructional goals. That is why we are continuing to expand the standards experience across Microsoft Education. We are excited to share a new wave of international standards coming to the standards experience in Teach and in Teams for Education. These standards will support experiences in the Teach module across Lesson Plans, Quizzes, and Rubrics, and they are also coming to Assignments in Teams for Education. If you don't see your country listed, you can request more standards at this link. In this post, we will share what is coming this week, what is planned over the next two months, what we are targeting for summer, and how we plan to keep you updated going forward. Why this matters Standards alignment helps you spend less time translating curriculum requirements into classroom materials and more time supporting student learning. Whether you are building a lesson plan, generating a quiz, creating a rubric, or preparing future assignments workflows in Teams for Education, access to the right standards makes those experiences more relevant and easier to use. Our goal is to keep expanding coverage so more educators can work with the standards they already know and trust, in more countries, subjects, and grade bands. New standards added in 2025 In 2025, we expanded standards coverage with a new set of international additions, including: Austria Canada - Ontario Early Language Learners Health & PE Technology Education Art Canada - Quebec Francophone Canada - Ontario World Languages French as a Second Language Native Languages American Sign Language as a Second Language Classical Studies and International Languages Egypt England Arts Education Health & PE World Languages Technology Education Career Technical Education Finland Kuwait UK GCE AS and A Level Qualifications across a broad range of subject areas These additions helped expand standards coverage beyond core national frameworks and into more subject-specific and qualification-based experiences. Recently added We have already started rolling out new international standards this spring. Recent additions include: Czech Republic UK additions, including recent support for Scotland, Wales, and UK GCE AS and A Level qualifications New Brunswick - Technology Standards Kuwait - Language Arts, Math, Social Studies Estonia - Language Arts, Math, Science Estonia - Social Studies Latvia New Brunswick - Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies These recent additions laid the groundwork for the next wave of standards now arriving across Teach and Teams for Education. Coming this week This week, we are adding the following standards to the standards experience in Teach and Teams for Education: Finland Lithuania Norway Romania These additions continue our recent rollout of international standards and expand access for educators who want to align AI-assisted lesson creation and assessment workflows to local curriculum expectations. Coming in the next two months Over the next two months, we expect to continue expanding standards coverage with the following additions: Slovakia Sweden Egypt Canada - Quebec Francophone Standards India NCERT - Hindi Language Arts India NCERT - Sanskrit Language Arts Bahrain Lebanon Oman Qatar Greece We also have additional standards in progress that are on the roadmap, with timing still being finalized: Austria Kuwait - Science India NCERT - Urdu Language Arts Australia ACARA National Technology Education Health & PE Art Languages Canada - New Brunswick additional subject expansion Health & PE Art Languages Norway vocational standards As these become available, they will light up the same standards-backed experiences across Teach and Teams for Education. Planned for summer Looking ahead, we are planning an even broader set of standards expansions over the summer. This work is designed to add more international coverage across core subjects and additional curriculum frameworks. The following are planned for summer: Belgium - Flemish Catholic Network Standards (VVKSO) Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Canada, British Columbia ADST (Entrepreneurship & Marketing) Career Education (Career-Life Education, Career-Life Connections) Core Competencies Canada: Ontario Business Studies Canadian & World Studies Co-op Ed Guidance & Career Ed Ontario Catholic expectations (ICE) CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) Language Arts Portugal Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Germany: NRW State Kernlehrplan Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Hong Kong Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Turkey Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Vietnam Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Costa Rica Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Peru Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Guatemala Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Morocco Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Croatia Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Kenya Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Bolivia Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Chile Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Pakistan Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies Panama Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies This planned summer wave reflects our continued focus on expanding standards coverage in ways that are useful for real classroom workflows across regions. Where you will see these standards As standards coverage expands, educators will see the impact across several experiences: Teach module - Lesson Plans Teach module - Quizzes Teach module and Teams for Education – Rubrics Teams for Education – Assignments Instructions (Coming soon) This means more opportunities to use standards as part of lesson creation, assessment design, and classroom workflows without having to start from scratch. What this means for educators As more standards become available, you will be able to: Align lesson materials to more local and regional curriculum requirements Build quizzes and rubrics that better reflect what students are expected to know and do Use standards-backed workflows in Teach across more countries and subject areas Prepare for future standards-aligned experiences in Assignments in Teams for Education For educators working across multiple countries, languages, or curriculum systems, this expanded coverage can help reduce manual work and make AI-generated outputs more relevant to your teaching context. We plan to keep sharing updates We also plan to share regular blog updates roughly every quarter so you can see what standards are newly available, what is rolling out next, and where we are continuing to expand coverage. Our goal is to make these updates easier to track so educators, school leaders, and partners can stay current on what is available in the standards experience across Microsoft Education. Helpful links Getting started with Teach Modify content - Align to Standards Microsoft Teams for Education International standards currently available through EdGate Request additional standards Share feedback with us by joining our EDU Insider Program Have questions or want to let us know which standards you would like to see next? Drop a comment below or submit a request through our Standards Feedback form. We would love to hear what curriculum frameworks matter most in your classrooms. Until next time, Samantha Fisher · Microsoft EducationClassic LTI App Retirements, Preview of OneDrive LTI Migration Tool for Canvas
Classic Microsoft LTI® Apps Retiring in 2026: What You Need to Know and How to Prepare Microsoft is continuing its investment in a unified, modern Microsoft 365 LTI experience. As part of this evolution, several classic Microsoft LTI apps will be retired in September 2026. This post outlines: Which classic LTI apps are retiring and when What happens to existing course links and content created in classic LTIs retiring What actions you should take now to prepare, and start transitioning to Microsoft 365 LTI New migration tooling available to support transition Classic Microsoft LTI® Apps Retiring September 17, 2026 As we shared last September in our Microsoft 365 LTI GA release Blog, the following classic Microsoft LTI apps will be retired on September 17, 2026: Microsoft OneDrive LTI (1.3) OneNote Class Notebook LTI (1.1) Microsoft Reflect LTI (1.3) Microsoft Teams Assignments LTI (1.3) After September 17, 2026, any links or placements of these classic apps in courses will stop working. However, the files, notebooks, assignments, and check-ins created by these classic apps will continue to be available to copy and reuse. Replacements for these classic experiences are now available through the unified Microsoft 365 LTI built on the LTI® 1.3 Advantage standard. This delivers modern security, simplified identity mapping with Microsoft Entra, LMS enrollment and grade syncing, and a single deployment model for LMS administrators. We’ll continue to update our migration guides as additional tools and guidance become available. NEW: Preview the OneDrive LTI Migration Tool for Canvas Canvas LMS Customers: We are excited to announce that the Microsoft OneDrive LTI Migration Tool for Canvas is now available in Preview! This tool helps institutions using Canvas LMS migrate OneDrive content links from the classic Microsoft OneDrive LTI app to the new Microsoft 365 LTI app — preserving existing file links in courses so educators and students experience a seamless transition. For new preview deployments: detailed deployment instructions are available in the Canvas migration guide, which has been updated with configuration steps and guidance for using the migration tool. If you participated in the private preview: If you have already deployed the OneDrive LTI Migration Tool in Canvas during the private preview, no action is required. Your existing deployment will continue to work as part of the Public Preview, and in GA. If you deployed the private preview in a testing environment, we suggest that you follow the new Canvas migration guide in your production environment. Below is guidance to assist with transition from the other classic LTI apps and on additional LMS platforms. We will continue to communicate updates to this guidance as it evolves. If you use the classic Microsoft OneDrive LTI 1.3 with an LMS other than Canvas Deploy Microsoft 365 LTI with the OneDrive app enabled and guide educators to use the new Microsoft 365 LTI (Microsoft Education menus) to create file links or embeds in course content. Disable/hide/remove placements of the classic Microsoft OneDrive LTI app in your LMS but do not uninstall or disable the app. Files linked or embedded with the classic Microsoft OneDrive LTI will stop working when the app is retired, so those links and embeds must be replaced using the new Microsoft 365 LTI (Microsoft Education) app ahead of the retirement date. OneNote Class Notebook LTI 1.1 (All LMS platforms) The new OneNote Class Notebook LTI 1.3 integration is now available in the Microsoft 365 LTI app, with automatic roster sync and streamlined setup. Deploy Microsoft 365 LTI with the OneNote Class Notebook app enabled, and guide educators to use the new app. Disable/hide/remove placements of the classic OneNote integration, but do not uninstall the app to avoid migration issues during transition. While there is no direct migration path from OneNote Class Notebook LTI 1.1 notebooks to Microsoft 365 LTI Class Notebooks, educators can copy sections/pages from one notebook to another using the right-click menu on Sections and Pages (and selecting “Move/Copy”) in OneNote on Windows, OneNote Web, and OneNote for Mac. Instructions are also available for content transfer using OneNote on Mac, iOS, or Android. Microsoft Teams Assignments LTI 1.3 (All LMS platforms) Deploy Microsoft 365 LTI with the Assignments app enabled, and guide educators to create assignments using the new app. Disable/hide/remove placements of the legacy Teams Assignments LTI app as soon as you install the new Microsoft 365 LTI and enable the Assignments app, and guide you users to copy their existing assignments using the new app. Teams Assignments created by the classic LTI 1.3 app can be reused as in the new Microsoft 365 LTI Assignments experience (which does not require a Team) Assignments created in the LMS or via the Assignments app in Microsoft Teams can be copied and reused using the Create from Existing functionality in the Microsoft 365 LTI (Microsoft Education) Assignment instructor flow. Microsoft Reflect LTI 1.3 (All LMS platforms) Deploy Microsoft 365 LTI with the Reflect app enabled, and guide educators to create new Reflects in the new Microsoft 365 LTI experience. There is no migration path for reflects created in the classic Reflect LTI 1.3 app to the Reflect experience in the new Microsoft 365 LTI Reflect app. We recommend transitioning to the new Reflect experience in Microsoft 365 LTI as soon as possible, and remove the classic app ahead of the September 17, 2026 retirement. Stay Connected We love hearing from you! There are a few ways to stay engaged with Microsoft and your peers on the LMS integrations. Follow this blog! Click Register at the top right to create an account and profile for the Microsoft Tech Community and Follow the Education Blog so you don’t miss any of our updates. Join the free Education Insiders Program to preview updates, get support from other community members, meet the team, and influence the roadmap. Join us for Microsoft 365 LTI office hours to connect with your peers and share feedback directly with Microsoft experts. When: 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month @ 11AM EST Where: https://aka.ms/LTIOfficeHours Getting help and giving feedback LMS and Microsoft 365 admins can contact Microsoft Education Support to help resolve configuration and deployment issues, for themselves or on behalf of users. Educators and Learners can contact support or give feedback directly from the app through the help and feedback menu. TJ Vering Principal Product Manager Microsoft Education https://linkedin.com/in/tvering Learning Tools Interoperability® (LTI®) is a trademark of the 1EdTech Consortium, Inc. (https://1edtech.org/)
