Microsoft and our network of partners can support your journey forward with AI. Unlike many publicly available AI tools, a solution built by a Microsoft partner with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service keeps your AI interactions private, allowing you to stay in control of your institution’s information. It’s also easier to maintain compliance with data privacy laws like Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Microsoft’s commitment to Trustworthy AI means that AI is secure, safe, and private. Students, faculty, and researchers can also select from a wide array of leading models, with popular options from creators such as OpenAI, Meta, DeepSeek, and more, to find the best fit for their use cases.

In a datasheet on accelerating AI innovation, we highlight how our partner Cloudforce has developed the nebulaONE® solution, powered by Azure OpenAI Service, to simplify access to Microsoft’s most advanced generative AI capabilities. Let’s explore how it empowers institutions to achieve more.

How nebulaONE by Cloudforce aims to bring secure AI to all

Many students and faculty are already using generative AI. But as they adopt their own unsecured AI tools, it creates concerns with IT governance, security, privacy, and data protection, and it limits the ability to scale AI throughout the institution. Cloudforce, a Microsoft Supplier of the Year in 2024, has expertise in building AI solutions to address those concerns, as well as over a decade of experience designing and deploying complex infrastructure and cloud-native apps exclusively on Azure. Cloudforce built nebulaONE on Azure to use its built-in security and privacy features, and the company is engaged with dozens of higher education institutions to fulfill its mission of providing secure AI access for all.

A conversational generative AI gateway, nebulaONE allows students, faculty, researchers, and staff to harness cutting-edge AI models to reimagine learning experiences, accelerate research, protect intellectual property, and drive institutional efficiencies in every department. It includes an intuitive, multimodal chat interface for the AI interactions that are familiar to many, and it provides the ability to develop low-code, task-specific AI agents to drive innovation and efficiency across campus. The nebulaONE platform deploys to your Azure environment, so your data remains private, and you gain the compliance and security protections built into Azure AI services.

“We know leaders in higher education are facing pressure to prepare the workforce of tomorrow to succeed with AI, or risk being left behind,” says Cloudforce CEO Husein Sharaf. “We created nebulaONE to address the most pressing needs of educators and students, with a rapid implementation process that securely enables generative AI use at scale. Our campus-wide management layer keeps institutions in the driver’s seat from a cost and governance perspective, while a simple, custom-branded user interface drives user adoption. Our platform provides the foundation for a flexible AI strategy that evolves as new models and capabilities emerge.”

Cloudforce supports institutional leaders wherever you are in your journey, whether that’s exploring AI for the first time or connecting an AI platform to their full data estate. The Cloudforce team can host workshops to help identify early use cases or provide trainings and prompt-a-thons to reinforce best practices and teach you and your colleagues how to develop your own agents. They also offer assistance with change management and strategic communications to drive campus-wide adoption of nebulaONE and the uses that provide the most value for your institution.

The real-world impact of generative AI in higher education

One success story comes from the University of California, Los Angeles, John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management (UCLA Anderson). Leaders at UCLA Anderson had concerns with using public AI platforms, so they looked for a partner who could deliver a secure, private experience that enabled their priority use cases. They chose to adopt nebulaONE because it’s a fully managed platform that deploys in their Azure environment, and within about two months, they launched a generative AI chatbot to support MBA students with their capstone project.

UCLA Anderson leaders sought to develop and deploy a host of AI-powered chatbots for a variety of specific purposes, and Cloudforce validated use cases and provided hands-on training to empower UCLA staff to independently build them with nebulaONE. The school has now deployed bots to help students register for classes and provide feedback on essays, as well as a forthcoming AI-powered agent that will reduce administrative tasks for career coaches so they can spend more time with the school’s 40,000 alumni. Several months after UCLA deployed the platform, monthly active user rates continued to increase rapidly, growing by 485% from December 2024 to January 2025.

UCLA is hardly alone. A growing number of colleges and universities are deploying nebulaONE to harness the power of AI:

• California State University, Fullerton (Cal State Fullerton) now provides secure, university-managed AI for all students through TitanGPT, as the custom-branded platform is known. They have also started exploring use cases for support solutions, like an agent to streamline HelpDesk support and their IT ticketing system.
• London Business School sought to find a cost-effective, scalable AI solution, with access to a variety of AI foundation models. After a brief demo, they quickly began a full deployment to all 6,000 students, faculty, and researchers—the first in the United Kingdom to do so.
• TerpAI, the chatbot built on the nebulaONE platform at the University of Maryland, acts as a digital assistant and educational resource to help faculty and students brainstorm ideas, analyze data, create study guides, develop lesson plans, and more.
• The platform is nicknamed CWRU AI at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), where the CRWU community can select between AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4o or 3.5 Turbo, Meta’s Llama 3.2, and DeepSeek R1. CWRU AI uses AI reasoning to analyze images, PDFs, Word, and Excel files, and the community can deploy chatbots connected to specific data sources for departments or groups.

Learn more about what’s possible with AI

These examples highlight how leaders in higher education can quickly and securely implement generative AI to enhance student services, academic offerings, and operational efficiency. Ready to deploy AI at your school? Discover how nebulaONE can make AI accessible by downloading the datasheet from Microsoft and Cloudforce.

Learn more about how to get started with these resources:

• Explore the features and benefits of nebulaONE.
• Find out how institutions are reimagining student experiences with Azure OpenAI Service.
• Explore the benefits of powering your institution with Azure.
• Discover the AI learning hub, which includes documentation for adopting AI and trainings to improve AI skills for a variety of roles.

¹ Jenay Robert. 2024 EDUCAUSE AI Landscape Study​. Research report. Boulder, CO, US: EDUCAUSE, February 2024.

The post How Microsoft and Cloudforce help institutions innovate with Azure AI appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

The 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report from Microsoft and LinkedIn also found that 66% of leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills. As we celebrate National AI Literacy Day in the US on March 28 this year, it’s clear that no one company will likely be able to meet the opportunities of tomorrow. We believe it’ll take innovative partnerships to meaningfully impact the lives of people around the world with AI literacy and skills development.

Empowering learners with essential AI skills

Microsoft and Pearson, the world’s lifelong learning company, announced a strategic collaboration to help address one of the top challenges facing organizations globally: skilling for the era of AI. The partnership will focus on providing employers, workers, and learners with AI-powered products and services to help prepare the current and future workforce across industries for the evolving landscape of work in an AI-powered economy. By combining Pearson’s expertise in learning and assessment with Microsoft’s cloud and AI technologies, this partnership will play a foundational role in helping organizations realize the full value of AI through reskilling.

Microsoft and Pearson are addressing the challenges and opportunities around reskilling at the ASU-GSV Summit in San Diego, US, April 6-9, 2025. The summit is dedicated to the scaled innovations in the delivery of education and workforce skills that are critical to creating a world in which all people have equal access to the future.

At ASU-GSV, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Learning, Jeana Jorgensen, will join Pearson President of Workforce Skills, Vishaal Gupta, for a discussion on transforming skills development and talent planning for the AI era. They’ll talk about how rapid intervention is needed or we risk the AI skills gap becoming a skills chasm, threatening the ability of individuals and organizations to thrive in an AI-powered future.

I’ll be also joining Vishaal and Jeana for a discussion at ASU-GSV on skilling for the AI era. We’ll dive deeper into how the Microsoft and Pearson collaboration will transform and scale AI skilling and help organizations equip learners and workers with the critical skills they need to succeed in a technology-driven world.

Rethinking reskilling

Given the urgent need to rethink learning and reskill workers, Microsoft and Pearson will collaborate in several ways, including:

• Personalized learning at scale – Pearson will power its trusted and world-renowned content, assessment, upskilling, and certification services with Microsoft Azure cloud computing and AI infrastructure. This partnership will help Pearson further scale AI and technology capabilities across the business, expanding personalized learning and AI-enabled services to millions of learners, at different stages in their learning journey across the globe.
• Innovative collaboration – Pearson and Microsoft will launch a strategic collaboration aimed at helping people build AI proficiency and technical skills through new AI credentials and certifications. Additionally, Pearson and Microsoft will collaborate on a series of copilots, agents, and AI tools targeted at helping people develop skills—such as English language learning—and identify skills gaps seamlessly while they work.
• Investing in technology-driven careers – Microsoft will extend its current partnership with Pearson VUE, a key provider of Microsoft Cloud and Office certifications, through 2029. These certifications have already helped millions of young people, educators, and workers prepare for jobs that use Microsoft’s world-class technology. This expansion will open these vital credentials to scores of additional learners and workers around the world.
• Powering the Pearson workforce – After having piloted and tested Microsoft 365 Copilot, Pearson will expand its use by deploying it to its global workforce. This is part of an ongoing effort to introduce workplace AI tools that enhance efficiency, creativity, and productivity and drive better operational performance.

The partnership extends the efforts of both Microsoft and Pearson to provide AI skilling to people across the globe. In 2024, Microsoft and its partners trained and certified over 23 million people in digital skills. Pearson launched its Generative AI Foundations certification to equip professionals and students with the essential skills needed to work with generative AI technologies. Additionally, organizations around the world use Pearson VUE, along with Pearson’s AI-powered Faethm capability, and Credly badging to diagnose, assess, and certify skills.

Develop your AI skills

Curious about additional ways to develop AI literacy and build AI skills? Get started today and join the Microsoft AI Skills Fest. Registration is open now to engage in deep dives, experiential content, hackathons, and practical sessions that will enhance your AI skills over 50 days of discovery and learning, starting April 8, 2025.

There’s a significant opportunity to work together to build AI skills and empower the future workforce. Whether you, your team, or your students are just getting started or looking to refine your capabilities, discover resources to support your journey.

¹ IDC InfoBrief: sponsored by Microsoft, 2024 Business Opportunity of AI, IDC# US52699124, November 2024

The post Transforming the future of learning and work with AI skilling appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

A July 2024 Forrester report commissioned by Microsoft found that education institutions using Azure OpenAI Service saw improved student outcomes, streamlined operations, and increased access to technology. By Year 3, they are expected to boost content generation efficiency by 30% to 60% and improve chatbot resolution rates by 20% to 50%, driving positive impacts on graduation and employment rates.

As AI adoption accelerates, institutions must also prioritize trust by focusing on scalable security, data privacy, and governance measures. Microsoft supports this transition with AI solutions that integrate built-in protections, addressing risks such as prompt injections and bias, while maintaining data privacy and compliance to safeguard institutions.

Join us as we explore five key use cases of generative AI in higher education, along with examples of institutions that have successfully implemented AI to deliver more equitable and personalized student experiences.

1. Around-the-clock real-time campus support

As student expectations evolve, meeting their demand for around-the-clock support has become a critical factor in student satisfaction and institutional efficiency. For example, Tecnológico de Monterrey’s TECgpt is an AI platform that offers quick access to information like tuition, scholarships, and campus services, allowing users to retrieve personal details, such as scholarship status, within minutes.

Similarly, the University of South Florida improved response times and reduced staff workloads by automating IT ticketing with Azure OpenAI, launching an AI-powered Help Desk in just one week. The University of Hong Kong has also deployed several Azure OpenAI-powered chatbots to handle IT queries, administrative tasks, and course selection, freeing staff to focus on more complex issues. Education leaders are automating routine tasks and delivering personalized academic assistance at scale, boosting retention and accelerating graduation rates while streamlining operations.

I can invest more time in people now that I don’t have to worry about those recurring repetitive tasks because people are what it’s all about. It is revolutionizing all our workflows, our teaching, and our learning spaces quite rapidly. With Copilot, we’re able to do things bigger, better, but also equitably across the university space. It’s changing the way we do everything, and that is a big deal.

Tim Henkel, Assistant Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, University of South Florida (USF)

AI innovations are reshaping how institutions engage with students by offering around-the-clock support for inquiries about housing, student life, and campus services, significantly enhancing the overall student experience. These AI tools also provide personalized academic and career guidance, helping students select courses, optimize degree plans, and receive tailored advising.

Additionally, AI-powered virtual assistants streamline the financial aid process, guiding students through eligibility requirements, deadlines, and submissions, ensuring timely completion. Through AI integration, institutions can deliver responsive, student-centered services while improving operational efficiency, ultimately enriching the campus experience.

2. Personalize learning experiences at scale

In an environment where institutional success depends on student engagement and outcomes, personalized learning is becoming a strategic priority. With Data Science in Microsoft Fabric and Azure AI Services, institutions can integrate real-time data analysis from their LMS, leveraging AI to customize lessons, content, and pacing based on student performance.  AI tutors provide personalized, instant feedback, helping students make continuous progress and tackle challenging tasks with confidence. These tools empower institutions to deliver adaptive learning tailored to each student’s needs.

The Azure OpenAI Service provided remarkably high-quality hints generated by GPT-4 from a robust and scalable API that reliably handled heavy loads from hundreds of students working simultaneously near homework deadlines.

John DeNero, Faculty Director and Associate Teaching Professor, UC Berkeley

Universities around the world are leveraging AI to improve student outcomes and streamline administrative tasks. At the University of Sydney, the Cogniti platform utilizes AI teaching assistants to tailor feedback and adjust learning paths, boosting student engagement and academic success. IU International University of Applied Sciences in Germany offers an AI study buddy, Syntea, with always-available multilingual support and enhanced student engagement through personalized feedback. It also reduces course completion times by 27%, all while seamlessly integrating across platforms like myCampus and Microsoft Teams.

Similarly, UC Berkeley’s 61A-Bot, a specialized AI assistant powered by Azure OpenAI Service, has significantly enhanced student learning by providing real-time support and reducing homework completion times in their computer science courses. As institutions worldwide adopt AI-driven solutions, education leaders are transforming both learning personalization and operational efficiency, driving significant improvements in student success.

3. Accelerate learning for all with multi-language support

AI improves educational access by offering multi-language support through real-time translation, note-taking, and content delivery, enabling all students to engage fully in their preferred language. Flexible learning options allow students to review materials at their own pace, while chatbots offer seamless language transitions and targeted support to enhance comprehension and engagement.

By utilizing the advanced language models in Azure OpenAI Service, Cool English is taking an innovative step for English education in Taiwan, helping students reach their learning goals and overcome the challenges of limited opportunities for real-life conversational and writing practice.

Dr. Hao-Jan Howard Chen, Professor, Department of English at National Taiwan Normal University

This potential is already being realized through initiatives like National Taiwan Normal University’s “Cool English” platform, powered by Azure OpenAI, which has helped over 1.4 million students enhance their English skills through adaptive, conversational practice. Similarly, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) developed a multilingual chatbot to help EFL students write essays in English, offering seamless language switching and personalized guidance outside class hours. Powered by Azure OpenAI’s advanced models, the chatbot provides feedback and answers questions to help students improve their writing without generating essays for them. AI-powered language tools help create inclusive learning environments, enhance student outcomes, and attract a diverse international student body.

4. Accelerate academic research

AI is transforming academic research by accelerating discovery and innovation, and automating tasks like literature reviews, data analysis, and report generation. In April 2023, Microsoft Research launched the Accelerating Foundation Models Research (AFMR) initiative to accelerate the use of large-scale AI models in academia. Through Azure AI Services, AFMR provides universities with access to powerful foundation models, supporting research in fields such as healthcare, scientific discovery, and multicultural empowerment. With over 200 projects in 15 countries, AFMR is building a global AI research community.

If you have a really good idea, it’s very hard to just search the literature and try to find everything. This is sort of like having a super adviser, a brilliant astronomer with an encyclopedic memory who can say, ‘Well, that could be a very good idea and here’s why,’ or ‘That’s likely a bad idea and here’s why.’

Alyssa Goodman, Robert Wheeler Wilson Professor of Applied Astronomy, Harvard University

Universities are harnessing foundation models to accelerate scientific discovery and hypothesis generation. A collaboration between astronomers at Harvard University and The Australian National University has led to the development of an astronomy-focused chat application that utilizes GPT-4. This tool draws from over 300,000 astronomy papers, helping researchers extract key information and analyze data to develop new theories.

At Georgia Tech, researchers are utilizing Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service to analyze global EV charging data, uncovering insights for policy development and improving infrastructure reliability to support sustainable and equitable EV adoption. With AI solutions like Azure OpenAI Service, higher education institutions can automate repetitive tasks, improve collaboration, and scale research efforts, all while ensuring data security and focusing on high-impact academic work.

5. Trustworthy AI for education

There is a critical need for organizations to deploy AI responsibly. As AI transforms education, decision makers must ensure these systems are secure, private, and fair. A key strategy is to choose AI platforms with built-in safeguards, like content filtering and bias detection. For example, South Australia’s Department for Education successfully piloted EdChat, an AI chatbot powered by Azure AI, which protects 1,500 students across eight schools from harmful content while empower educators to focus on the benefits.

Equally important is the protection of sensitive student information. With built-in features to safeguard text content, including moderation and groundedness detection, institutions can ensure responsible AI deployment while protecting student data with enterprise-grade security and robust privacy measures to prevent breaches.

Key principles of trustworthy AI:

• Security: AI systems must be resilient against threats.
• Safety: AI must operate reliably in sensitive environments like classrooms.
• Privacy: Protecting personal data is essential to maintain trust.

AI is not just a tool—it’s the catalyst for a new era in education. By enhancing student support, personalizing learning, and accelerating academic research, AI empowers institutions to break down barriers, expand access, and create more inclusive and innovative learning environments. Those who embrace AI today will lead the future of education, building adaptable, forward-thinking institutions focused on student success.

The question is no longer if AI should be integrated, but how quickly it can be implemented to unlock its full potential. The future of education is here—is your institution ready to lead it?

Ready to transform your institution with AI? Partner with Microsoft to unlock new possibilities and drive educational success:

• Explore how AI can empower your institution.
• Download the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit.
• Use this Microsoft Learn Collection to explore, build, and deploy AI solutions with Azure AI Studio.

The post How higher education is reimagining student experiences with Azure OpenAI Service appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Educational leaders are constantly on the lookout for new methods to improve student learning and equip them for future challenges and opportunities. With the swift progress in generative AI, a new range of possibilities has opened up for educational institutions.

The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) recognized the potential of AI to enhance computer science education, enrich learning experiences, and prepare students for the workplace of the future. They used Azure OpenAI Service to deploy a custom AI chatbot to support student learning and help students with complex coursework. Their experience offers a valuable example of ways to tailor AI to the unique needs and goals of your school.

Benefits of AI in higher education

From the University of Sydney’s AI assistants for teachers to Auburn University’s workshops on building custom chatbots. From enhancing research and practical applications at Georgia Tech to streamlining query responses at the University of South Florida, it’s clear that education continues to evolve with AI innovation.

Here are just a few examples of the many ways that AI can be used to differentiate instruction and enhance student learning:

• Personalized learning: AI can tailor educational experiences to individual students’ needs, providing personalized feedback and support.
• Scalability: AI tools can handle large volumes of requests, making them ideal for large classes and education at scale.
• Constant availability: AI-powered assistants can provide support around the clock, ensuring students have access to help whenever they need it.
• Efficiency: AI can help with routine tasks, allowing educators to focus on more complex and creative aspects of teaching.
• Data-driven insights: AI can analyze student performance data to start identifying areas for improvement and optimize learning strategies.

Supporting students with AI innovation

UC Berkeley PhD student, J.D. Zamfirescu-Pereira, together with master’s student Laryn Qi and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science faculty members Narges Norouzi and John DeNero, started looking into ways to build an interactive bot. The bot would be deployed on Azure OpenAI Service, specifically GPT-4 for the classroom, to support students taking the Intro to Computer Science class.

The team developed the 61A-Bot—named after the Intro to Computer Science course—to help students through the rigorous curriculum. The 61A-Bot acts as a specialized chatbot, helping students solve complex problems independently by providing hints whenever they encounter coding challenges.

“The Azure OpenAI Service provided remarkably high-quality hints generated by GPT-4 from a robust and scalable API that reliably handled heavy loads from hundreds of students working simultaneously near homework deadlines,” says John DeNero, Faculty Director and Associate Teaching Professor.

Deploying a custom AI assistant

UC Berkeley’s 61A-Bot is part of a broader trend of using AI and large language models (LLMs) in education. The deployment occurred over two semesters, where more than 2,000 students made over 100,000 requests to the chatbot. The bot offered one-shot, contextual feedback through both a “Get Help” button within a popular code editor and a “get feedback” feature within the command-line auto grader.

This innovative approach not only reduced homework completion times but also increased the availability of support options for students. Students who used the bot experienced significant reductions in homework completion times, seeing reductions of over 30 minutes. The immediate support provided by the bot was especially appreciated during late-night study sessions.

The benefits of 61A-Bot are far-reaching—from debugging help and personalized feedback to generating course materials and answering forum questions. The bot significantly reduced homework completion times and increased opportunities for students to receive real-time feedback. UC Berkeley has demonstrated how AI tools like those created by using Azure OpenAI Service are becoming integral to educational institutions.

Enhancing learning experiences with AI

As educational institutions continue to explore AI’s role in the classroom, it’s crucial to prioritize tools that make learning more efficient. The journey of 61A-Bot is a testament to the transformative power of AI and an example of thoughtful integration to enhance education.

A key ingredient of successful education is to ensure that students are spending their time effectively. AI tools that provide individualized guidance and feedback can help students make continuous progress in learning new material and tackle challenging assignments with confidence.

John DeNero, Faculty Director and Associate Teaching Professor, UC Berkeley

To evaluate the impact of introducing 61A-Bot, the research team sought to answer three key questions: whether the hints provided by the bot helped students improve their code, how effectively the hints captured problems in student code, and whether the issues resolved by students were the same as those addressed in the hints. The results were highly encouraging, demonstrating how the bot can help enhance learning experiences and support students in their academic journey.

Gaining practical experience

Through ingenuity and dedication, the faculty and students at UC Berkeley created a tool that not only helped make learning more efficient but also helped foster a sense of independence and confidence among their peers. Their tailored implementation of a specialized chatbot provided students with valuable opportunities to gain experience with AI in a secure, controlled setting, which will be increasingly important for their future careers.

“Generative AI needs to be deployed thoughtfully and carefully in order to have a positive impact on education, and this work is urgent because we’ve observed that many students will use AI on their assignments no matter what—whether it helps or hurts their learning,” says DeNero. “Therefore, quickly developing helpful ways of using AI is a critical need, and Azure OpenAI Service allowed us to make very fast progress at scale in UC Berkeley’s largest introductory computer science course.”

This is an exciting example of how schools can responsibly and securely incorporate generative AI tools into their teaching methods. By adopting this transformative technology, you can enhance educational outcomes and prepare students for the workplace of the future.

Explore and share these AI resources:

• AI in Education Report: Learn more about the need for bridging the AI literacy gap and starting AI conversations in our AI in Education Report.
• Microsoft Education AI Toolkit: Designed to guide school leaders through the process of integrating AI into their school’s operations and building robust plans for your organization.
• Worklab: Discover the latest research insights on the future of work and generative AI

The post UC Berkeley enhances computer science education with Azure OpenAI Service appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

AI-powered tools to support educators

For educators seeking inspiring and innovative instructional strategies, Microsoft AI tools provide much needed assistance. Explore how these tools can help you save time, personalize learning, and renew your passion for teaching.

• Copilot can help you generate engaging content and individualized suggestions, freeing up more time for direct student interaction. For added data protection, sign in using your school account. Use Copilot to create personalized content and tailored feedback based on a student’s unique learning requirements. You can also get suggestions for activities, resources, and assessments aligned with learning objectives or a rubric that you can attach to get recommendations specific to your classroom needs. Copilot is available at no cost with your school account and is accessible in Windows, Edge, and on the web.
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 gives you the power of Microsoft Copilot integrated seamlessly into the Microsoft 365 apps you use every day, like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Try generating creative writing prompts, translating languages, or summarizing complex topics in Word. It can also help streamline lesson planning by creating slides in PowerPoint on any topic or from any file, saving you valuable prep time.
• Microsoft Teams for Education is packed with AI features to help you set up your classroom for success. Streamline grading with AI-powered rubrics that adapt to student responses, allowing you to spend less time grading and more time supporting your students’ learning. You can also create comprehension questions tailored to the individual needs of your students or generate modules and descriptions for your class based on the subject, grade level, and learning objectives.

Discover more ways to use AI to support your instructional practice this school year:

• Empower your classroom with the knowledge to navigate AI responsibly by integrating the AI Classroom Toolkit into your lessons. It helps educators to teach students aged 13-15 how to use AI tools effectively through critical conversations and hands-on activities that build skills like fact-checking, data privacy, and mental wellbeing.
• Build fundamental AI skills with your learners in the engaging world of Minecraft Education. AI Foundations is a new AI literacy program that includes bite-sized animated videos that explain AI to learners ages 8 and up, free teaching materials and parent guide, and an imaginative new Minecraft world called Fantastic Fairgrounds where players solve problems and explore careers with AI (available in both Minecraft Education and Bedrock Edition on the Marketplace).
• Khanmigo for Teachers is an AI-powered tool that helps you generate fresh lesson ideas, personalizes student assignments, and explore resources so you can enhance your knowledge and stay current on content area topics. Created by Khan Academy and powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Khanmigo for Teachers is available for free in English across more than 40 countries.
• Learn more ways to use Copilot in your classroom from the Microsoft Education blog post “Meet your AI assistant for education: Microsoft Copilot” and download the Copilot Quick Guide to get started today.
• Explore the training course “Enhance teaching and learning with Microsoft Copilot” to learn how to use Copilot, design effective prompts, and analyze results.

Improved efficiencies for school leaders and staff

School leaders and staffs’ days are often filled with administrative tasks like responding to emails, attending meetings, and filling out paperwork. Microsoft’s AI-powered tools and resources offer support in managing day-to-day responsibilities, helping to enhance efficiency and streamline operations. Discover how these solutions can help you optimize workflows, improve communication, and focus more on fostering a positive school community.

• The Microsoft Education AI Toolkit is designed to guide school leaders through the process of integrating AI into their school’s operations and building robust plans for your organization. This toolkit offers you insights in how others are leveraging AI-powered technology, access to a collection of the latest research on AI in schools, and supports the latest information on Microsoft’s AI technology designed for education.
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 can transform how you handle time-consuming everyday tasks like emails and meetings. Use it to summarize long email threads and draft suggested replies in Microsoft Outlook. You can also use it to summarize key discussion points in Teams meetings, helping you keep track of action items and follow-ups. Try saving time by creating professional looking slides for staff meetings or board meetings.
• Copilot in Power BI offers advanced data analysis capabilities, allowing you to generate insightful reports, visualizations, and narrative summaries. Just describe your desired outcomes, and Copilot will deliver, making it simpler to track student performance, present insights, or conduct research. This intuitive tool helps you communicate data insights clearly, supporting informed decision-making and enriching the learning experience. By consolidating data into a centralized environment and leveraging Power BI’s advanced analytics, educational institutions can gain near real-time insights into student performance and operational efficiency, saving hours of manual labor through automated data processes.

Explore more ways to use AI to enhance operational efficiencies. Check out the AI learning hub on Microsoft Learn to help you skill up and use the power of AI to transform your work.

Enhanced operations and security for school IT teams

School IT teams play an important role in ensuring the smooth operations of school technology systems. Microsoft’s AI tools provide robust solutions to support IT professionals in managing security, data, and overall IT infrastructure efficiently. Learn how these tools can help you enhance cybersecurity, streamline data management, and improve IT operations.

• GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered assistant designed to help IT teams write code faster with fewer errors. It suggests code completions and generates entire code blocks, allowing you to automate repetitive tasks and focus on more complex issues. With GitHub Copilot, you can improve your development workflows, enforce code consistency, and reduce the time spent on debugging and code reviews.
• Microsoft Defender helps IT teams amplify security through advanced, comprehensive endpoint protection with AI capabilities. Defender promotes school safety by filtering harmful content and protecting sensitive data through robust encryption. School IT teams can use Microsoft Defender to increase their efficiency while securing schools at scale. Likewise, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P2 – Students extends this industry-transforming technology to student devices, neutralizing malware and phishing attempts to safeguard your school from cyberattacks. Should an attack occur, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint P2 – Students’ automated response swiftly isolates compromised devices, minimizing damage and maintaining control.
• Copilot for Security further empowers IT teams with AI to help defend at machine speed. When integrated with Microsoft Sentinel, Copilot can summarize vast data signals into key insights, cutting through the noise to detect cyberthreats before they cause harm. Copilot can generate incident reports suitable for non-technical audiences, such as your school board, and identify user risks or generate access policies. This helps you respond to incidents in minutes instead of hours or days. Pricing for Copilot for Security and Sentinel is usage based and available as an add-on to Microsoft 365 academic licenses.

Learn more about how AI can support your IT teams:

• Discover how to better respond to security threats in this Microsoft Copilot for Security training module and uncover the steps to making the most of this AI-powered security analysis tool.
• Find out how to use AI to streamline your work with GitHub Copilot in this Microsoft Learn Official Collection.

Whether you’re an educator seeking innovative instructional strategies, a school leader aiming to improve efficiencies, or an IT professional focused on enhancing cybersecurity and data management, Microsoft’s AI-powered solutions are here to help. With tools like Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Teams for Education, and Copilot for Security, your school can achieve these goals and more. Equip your school with the AI tools it needs to thrive this school year, and focus on what truly matters—supporting and engaging your students, family, and staff.

The post Power your school year with AI solutions for educators, leaders, and IT teams appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

By leveraging Azure’s powerful tools, you can tackle today’s challenges and prepare for future success. Learn how Azure can help your IT team modernize confidently, prepare for future growth, and embrace AI integration within your educational institution.

Empower innovation with a highly secure cloud foundation

Azure helps educational institutions modernize and grow with scalable cloud solutions. With a $20 billion investment in cybersecurity, Microsoft provides robust protection, including customized hardware, integrated controls, and defenses against threats like DDoS. Supported by a global team of over 3,500 cybersecurity experts, these measures ensure that student data is secure. This allows institutions to focus on strategic goals and student success.

Azure enables efficient resource management and creates a secure, agile, and AI-ready foundation, so educators can prioritize delivering equitable learning experiences for all. Here are five ways Azure can help you transform student experiences at your educational institution and streamline operations.

1. Create personalized education experiences with AI

Azure OpenAI Service helps you transform educational experiences with AI tailored to the unique needs of your students, educators, faculty, and staff. With access to the latest AI models, like GPT-4, you can create private AI interactions for a wide range of applications like curriculum design, helpdesk efficiency, programs for advising students, and automating routine tasks.

Reimagine student experiences and streamline administrative tasks

AI can help you create intelligent experiences across your educational institution. Run Azure OpenAI Service on your data to gain insights and apply conversational AI to a variety of use cases to help your educators, faculty, and staff save time and work more efficiently. Building your own copilots allows you to chat with your data using natural language, generate and summarize content, and surface information from vast amounts of data. Specifically, you can: 

• Personalize experiences: Tailor academic content, support, or services to individual learners based on their behavior, preferences, and needs.
• Offer service and support assistants: Improve service interactions and administrative processes with quick assistance through self-service portals.
• Automate information discovery: Use AI to extract valuable insights and knowledge from large volumes of data, summarize results and insights, and generate content. 

Learn more about how educational institutions worldwide are using Azure OpenAI Service to transform experiences for students, educators, faculty, and staff.

The University of South Florida (USF) leveraged Microsoft AI solutions and Azure OpenAI Service to streamline their IT ticket classification process enabling rapid, automated ticket handling, faster response times, and satisfaction. This integration led to the swift development of AI-powered Help Desk chatbots, reducing workloads and improving efficiency.

National Taiwan Normal University utilized Azure OpenAI’s Davinci and ChatGPT to create 10 “CoolE” bots for the Cool English platform, each with a distinct personality tailored to different ages and proficiency levels. These bots engage students in scenarios like solving mysteries or exploring career insights, providing personalized learning experiences based on individual preferences and needs. This innovative approach enhances student engagement and personalizes learning experiences

IU International University of Applied Sciences leveraged the scalability, availability, and speed of the cloud to build Syntea, powered by Azure OpenAI Service. Syntea provides students with personalized, round-the-clock learning assistance that integrates seamlessly with platforms like myCampus and Microsoft Teams, delivering instant answers and personalized feedback. This AI study tool enhances learning efficiency, reducing course completion times by 27%, and exemplifies IU’s commitment to improving educational outcomes with advanced AI.

The South Australia Department for Education, in collaboration with Microsoft, used Azure AI Content Safety to secure EdChat, an educational chatbot, ensuring a safe digital learning environment by blocking harmful content. This integration allowed for a successful trial with 1,500 students and 150 teachers, demonstrating EdChat’s effectiveness in enhancing research and learning. The robust safety features enabled rapid deployment and increased student engagement, providing confidence for broader implementation.

2. Maximize the value of your data

Data is only as powerful as your educators’ and staff’s ability to use it. Azure’s modernized data analytics centralizes and manages data services, integrating disparate sources and breaking down departmental silos. This ensures secure, compliant, and accessible insights, enabling informed decision-making. Azure’s scalable solutions also alleviate the IT burden, empowering faculty and staff to focus on education and innovation.

With solutions like Microsoft Fabric, which centralize and manage data on a single, open governed foundation, you can unlock and share actionable insights across your institution. With data seamlessly flowing from Fabric, you simply describe what you need—including reports, summaries, and calculations—using conventional language, and Copilot in Fabric does the rest. You can also fuel your own tailor-made generative AI experiences in Azure AI Studio with curated data from Fabric.

USF uses Microsoft solutions to accelerate data-driven decision-making by empowering its teams to access information and enriched business insights through a self-service approach. USF freed its teams from repetitive manual tasks by connecting its information sources using Azure Synapse Analytics and Microsoft Power BI to reduce administrative work and produce reports in minutes.

3. Scalability and flexibility

Azure cloud solutions provide the scalability and flexibility schools need to accommodate growth while optimizing costs and operational efficiency. This helps IT professionals stay ahead of technological advancements and manage resources across datacenters, the edge, and multiple clouds. With this adaptability, institutions can prepare for future demands while managing costs.

Colorado State University (CSU) showcases the scalability and flexibility of Azure in modernizing their IT infrastructure. By migrating to Azure Stack HCI, CSU’s College of Business consolidated its on-premises environments into a unified ecosystem, improving the performance of SQL servers, printing systems, and remote desktop services. With Azure Stack HCI, primary and secondary (K12), and higher education institutions can easily streamline their operations, enhance efficiency, and ensure a scalable, flexible environment for students and staff.

4. Operational efficiency

With Azure, IT professionals can create reliable and secure systems that are performant with cloud and AI investments and leverage enablement support to help achieve operational efficiency. We know no two schools are alike, so whether you’re a small educational institution or a large university with many campuses, you can get customized support in three distinct ways:

• Comprehensive resources: Get easy access to cloud workload best practices, Microsoft Cloud adoption guidance, and Azure Migrate.
• Direct access to experts: Simplify your cloud journey with help from Microsoft experts and partners.
• Extensive coverage across scenarios: Find comprehensive coverage for cloud and AI adoption stages and workload scenarios to support your unique needs.

Using Azure services, Torrens University has leveraged generative AI to enhance its online learning experience, saving 20,000 hours and $2.4 million in time and resources. They have seen first-hand how Azure empowers educational institutions to achieve operational excellence and drive innovation.

5. Deliver secure access to services for students and staff, wherever they are

Cloud-based IT infrastructure, like Azure, ensures seamless access to educational resources through virtual desktops, while providing continuity and cyber resilience with backup and disaster recovery. These measures quickly restore normal operations, safeguard critical data, and maintain school operations during disruptions, protecting against data exposure, high recovery costs, and reputational damage. Azure solutions also support remote learning and work, enabling students and staff to access necessary tools from virtually anywhere, ensuring uninterrupted education.

Avans University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands uses Azure Virtual Desktop for remote exams, saving €150,000 annually and enhancing accessibility for all students and staff. Azure Virtual Desktop provides access to applications and resources in any environment with flexibility and control in a familiar computing experience that can be securely accessed on any device.

Take the next step

Azure is a key partner in educational transformation, offering tools and services to tackle today’s challenges and build a strong future. By leveraging Azure, educational institutions can drive innovation, improve efficiency, and ensure success for future generations.

Explore these resources to get started and learn how Azure can help shape the future of your educational institution. 

• Training for Azure | Microsoft Learn
• Fundamentals of Azure OpenAI Service – Training | Microsoft Learn
• Develop Generative AI solutions with Azure OpenAI Service – Training | Microsoft Learn
• Microsoft Learn for Educators Program 
• Student Developer Resources – Microsoft Azure
• Microsoft AI Bootcamp for Educators – Azure AI Fundamentals 
• Prepare to teach AI-900 Microsoft Azure AI fundamentals in academic programs

The post 5 ways Microsoft Azure can reimagine student experiences and streamline operations appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

The University of Sydney (UofS) recognized the potential of generative AI to enhance teaching practices and assessments, enrich the learning experience, and prepare students for an evolving job market. However, they quickly realized that an out-of-the-box solution wouldn’t suffice, given their unique requirements for security, customization, and contextualization. UofS has demonstrated a successful path forward using Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service to build a custom AI solution to meet their needs. By showcasing responsible and effective integration of generative AI, they provide a model for other institutions. Their experience offers valuable insights to tailor AI tools to your unique needs and goals for successful implementation.

Read the full UofS customer story to learn more about their exciting custom AI solutions.

Building a custom AI assistant

Enter Cogniti, a self-serve web app authenticated through Microsoft Entra ID, developed by Danny Liu, Professor of Educational Technologies at UofS. Cogniti is built on the secure and private Azure OpenAI Service platform and empowers faculty to create their own AI agents that they can customize and contextualize to their unique needs, helping students learn in pedagogically meaningful ways. “Faculty love the fact that they can control and therefore trust the AI and that it’s so easy to build their own agents using plain language and embed it into our learning management system for students to use,” said Liu.

With the help of Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot, Professor Liu handled the bulk of Cogniti’s development, from coding to faculty integration. “It was amazing to have Microsoft Copilot working alongside me, troubleshooting, and debugging,” he says. “I wouldn’t have been able to build Cogniti in the time that I did if it weren’t for Copilot.”

By leveraging Azure’s robust infrastructure and GitHub Copilot, Professor Liu developed Cogniti efficiently while maintaining alignment with the university’s objectives. Cogniti addressed privacy concerns by ensuring the confidentiality of prompts and responses, which are not used for further training by OpenAI. This powerful combination provides a secure environment for sensitive educational data and accelerates the development process.

Practical pedagogical applications

Cogniti has been successfully integrated into various pedagogical scenarios at UofS, enhancing student learning and faculty support.

• Bridging theory and practice: Occupational therapy students gained practical experience by role-playing with “Mrs. S,” an AI-simulated client. This allowed them to apply classroom knowledge to a realistic scenario, effectively bridging the gap between theory and practice.
• Consistent student feedback: A coordinator managing large first-year classes with 1,500 students used a Cogniti AI agent to improve grading consistency, quality, and efficiency. The agent incorporated rubrics, assignment expectations, and feedback examples, resulting in faster marking and more consistent feedback for students.
• On-demand biochemistry support: UofS teaches biochemistry to over 800 students who have thousands of questions each semester. With Cogniti, these students can engage in dialogue anytime, discussing course material, explaining their understanding, and receiving valuable feedback from the AI tutor.
• Empowering tutors in complex conversations: Following legislative changes in Australia, the University of Sydney implemented a new student support policy requiring tutors and faculty to advise students on academic issues. These meetings often lead to discussions about well-being, health, or finances. To help tutors navigate unexpected topics, the university fed scenario-specific prompts to Cogniti, offering instant guidance for questions beyond the scope of academic issues.

The benefits of Cogniti are far-reaching. Educators can now allocate more time to deeper engagement and personalized feedback, while students enjoy enhanced learning experiences through interactive AI assistance. Cogniti also offers students valuable opportunities to develop familiarity with AI within a safe, controlled environment, which will be increasingly crucial in their future careers.

The university’s commitment to equitable access to AI is clear in its decision to offer Cogniti for free to all students and staff. As Joanne Wright, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Education, states, “One of the values of Cogniti is that it can be used in a number of different learning settings. Faculty can even personalize it to meet their students’ preferences, weaknesses, or strengths.” Looking ahead, the university hopes to expand Cogniti’s use to more institutions worldwide, believing that its controllability, stability, safety, and accuracy can help dispel fears surrounding generative AI in education. Learn more about the University of Sydney’s inspiring journey with custom generative AI.

Build your own custom AI solution

If you’re interested in building your own custom generative AI solution for your institution, in a similar way to what the UofS accomplished with Cogniti, consider these first steps for getting started.

1. Purchase the necessary IT infrastructure, licenses, and software to create a custom AI application using the Azure OpenAI Service.
2. Review the Overview of Responsible AI practices for Azure OpenAI models and Azure OpenAI’s Transparency Notes to ensure responsible use of the service and understand any system limitations.
3. Assemble a group of school and instructional leaders who are enthusiastic about piloting your AI program to help design, test, and provide feedback.
4. As you begin to develop and document your implementation plan, consider addressing the concerns of all stakeholders, including community members. For guidance, consult the “Engaging your community” section within the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit.
5. Before you begin building, familiarize yourself with step-by-step technical overviews in the implementation roadmap in the “AI Navigators” section of the Microsoft Education AI Toolkit to understand how educational institutions like the Department for Education in South Australia successfully implemented their AI programs.

The UofS is also keen to partner with institutions who may want to adapt Cogniti in their own contexts. This is an inspiring example of how educational institutions can safely and responsibly build and integrate generative AI tools into teaching and learning practices. By embracing this transformative technology, you can also improve the quality of students’ education and equip them with the skills they need to thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Explore more about Azure OpenAI services and how to build custom chatbots with these resources:

• Azure AI Studio
• Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals: Generative AI
• Microsoft Copilot Studio
• GitHub Copilot Fundamentals – Understand the AI pair programmer

The post University of Sydney: Building custom AI solutions with Azure OpenAI appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Over 3,700 students from more than 100 countries participated in five weeks of virtual hacking, diving deep into the niche of education, thinking through critical questions around the use of AI in the future of learning.

Judging criteria for the Microsoft AI Classroom Hackathon

With $12,000 USD in prizes up for grabs, participating undergraduate and graduate students were asked to reimagine education in the era of AI. Winning projects demonstrated core components of Microsoft Azure—from the latest machine learning and generative AI models of Azure AI, Azure Databases such as Azure Cosmos DB and Azure SQL, and Azure App Services, such as Azure Functions or Azure Kubernetes Service.

Bonus credit was given to projects that demonstrated accessibility considerations as well as Microsoft’s Responsible AI Principles.

Winning teams spanned the globe, hailing from India, Turkey, Singapore, Canada, Germany, and the United States. Competing across categories for Best Graduate and Undergraduate Technical Applications, as well as a no-code category for generative AI, winning projects touched on themes that range from accessibility to personalized learning to gamification. Beyond cash prizes, winning teams have support to continue their projects and AI learning journeys mentorship from Microsoft, including access to Microsoft for Startups resources such as Founders Hub.

Celebrating innovation: Meet the hackathon winners

Technical Project | First Place

ChatEDU: Revolutionizing Education with Azure AI

Microsoft AI Classroom Hackathon First Place winner, ChatEDU, offers personalized study guides, multiple-choice tests, long answer formats, and context-driven sessions.

Project overview: ChatEDU is not just an educational tool, it’s a revolution in learning. By harnessing the power of Azure AI, including GPT-4 and Azure’s diverse databases and services, ChatEDU transcends traditional learning methods. Transforming any text or file into an immersive tutoring experience, ChatEDU offers personalized study guides, multiple-choice tests, long answer formats, and context-driven sessions. 

Meet the team: “We are a team of four computer science undergraduates from Vanderbilt University. Since meeting during our first year of school, we have collaborated on various projects and dedicated numerous hours to exploring the possibilities offered by emerging technologies. The Microsoft AI Classroom hackathon provided us with the ideal platform to create a tool that contributes to the community that brought us together.”

Congratulations to JP Higgens, Jason Headman, Jake Underwood, and Vasco Singh on their first-place win.

Technical Project | Second Place

Dialogues Through Time: An Educational History Game

Microsoft AI Classroom Hackathon Second Place winner, “Dialogues Through Time,” combines immersive storytelling and interactive AI-driven dialogues to offer a unique learning experience.

Project overview: Embark on a groundbreaking journey through history with “Dialogues Through Time.” This innovative educational game combines immersive storytelling, interactive AI-driven dialogues, and stunning visuals to offer a unique learning experience.

Meet the team: Kryštof Olik and Bennet Poh are based out of Munich, Germany. Kryštof has extensive expertise in AI application development, while Bennet brings experience as a skilled 3D artist and game developer to the table. “Seeing how well our skills complement one another for what is needed for this project, we started work right away once we put our ideas for the project down on paper on a chilly Thursday evening after our university lecture.”

Technical Project | Third Place

Insight: An Intelligent and Personalized Learning Experience

Microsoft AI Classroom Hackathon Third Place winner, Insight, enables users to upload lecture notes by subject, transforming them into personalized quizzes and flashcards.

Project overview: “Our unwavering mission was inspired by the quest for enhanced learning experiences. We envisioned a transformative platform where students seamlessly convert mundane lecture notes into dynamic quizzes and flashcards, thus elevating the very fabric of their educational journey. This vision aims to provide students with an effortless tool that amplifies their understanding, turning conventional study materials into interactive and engaging learning resources. Our solution, Insight, enables users to upload lecture notes by subject, transforming them into personalized quizzes and flashcards. Imagine having a personalized study guide tailored to your unique needs, a companion that not only enhances your learning capacity but makes education itself more engaging and effective.”

Meet the team: Bryan Kang and Manfred Leow are based out of Singapore and have expertise in Python and Java development. The duo plan to continue working on their project. “Our journey doesn’t end here. The future of Insight includes implementing features like AI analytics and Speech to Text for recording lectures. We are committed to refining the user experience and maximizing the potential of AI in education.

Best Undergraduate Student App

DevHub: Empowering Students with AI Mentorship

Project overview: DevHub is a machine learning-based web application that empowers students in their core skills and helps them become job-ready. This platform will help students get mentorship through a machine learning model and professional community members, a well-structured roadmap for different domains, and an internship to build real-world and complex projects. The platform focuses on providing students with the latest learning opportunities and helping them build real-world projects, enhancing their technical and core skills.

Meet the team: Abdul Raheem is a Python lover and machine learning enthusiast who loves playing with data. An open-source contributor and learner based out of Sāhīwal, Punjab, Pakistan.

“As a community person, I understand the shared struggle that my community is facing where many students are unsure about their career path, leading to unproductive time in college. Those with passion lack a structured roadmap for skill development that can make them job-ready. In my tier-3 colleges, internship opportunities are almost none to zero because of our remote location as well. To address these challenges, my friend and I built a solution to help students become job-ready.”

Best Graduate Student App

Cuepal: AI Flashcard Quizzes for Students

Microsoft AI Classroom Hackathon Best Graduate Student App, Cuepal, is a tool where student notes are transformed by OpenAI’s GPT-4 into tailored flashcards and quiz questions.

Project overview: Cuepal is an interactive, classroom-integrated tool where student notes are transformed by OpenAI’s GPT-4 into tailored flashcards and quiz questions, ensuring students remain attentive and immediately benefit from customized study materials. This approach not only reinforces learning in real-time but also streamlines the creation of educational resources.

Meet the team: Cuepal AI was a collaborative effort across continents between Wei Chun, Benedict Neo, Victoria Amoroso, Cloey Wong, and Caroline Huynh. When thinking through the vision for where the project will evolve, the team is looking towards great advances in personalized learning. “Looking ahead, we aim to introduce a teacher’s module for class and student management. Additionally, we envision integrating a digital tutor for each student, offering personalized guidance and insights into their knowledge gaps and errors. This next step will further our mission to revolutionize the educational experience through tailored, AI-enhanced learning tools.”

Best No Code Project

Neural Synchronisation: A Collaborative Learning System

Project overview: “I was going through the ideas generator to see what potential ideas we could work on when I came across Neural Synchronisation Learning which takes into account real-time feedback and assessments. I came across a hackathon project through my LinkedIn connection that provides AI support to children having difficulty writing with hand tremors so while brainstorming I decided to make a platform that integrates mental health support for individuals and, a readability format for people with essential tremors and support for introverts.”

Meet the team: Akanksha Bhimte is based out of India, and this was her first hackathon project. The accomplishments she’s most proud of: “I take pride in the development of innovative neural synchronization algorithms. These algorithms effectively identify speech dominance, encourage balanced participation, and adapt responses in real time based on the evolving dynamics within the group. Leveraging Azure Cognitive Services, our system can accurately transcribe spoken content in real-time, enhancing the overall user experience. What we learned. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to make things inclusive for people who might have a hard time learning things.”

Honorable Mention

EquEdu: Making Training Videos Accessible for the Visually Impaired

Project overview: Did you know that there are 253 million visually impaired and 360 million hearing impaired people in the world? EquEdu is a content accessibility tool that allows you to make online educational content accessible for the visually impaired.

Meet the team: “I am Atakan. I’m a visually impaired person and a product developer. Since the age of 13, I have been developing software and I try to benefit from a lot of online training content both in my school life and in my software development process. However, since there is no audio description for the visually impaired, I am often faced with sentences like “we will click here, you see it on the screen” and I cannot benefit from the training.

As someone who frequently uses AI in his daily life, when I realized that the problem that I mentioned is not only my problem, but there are millions of people like me around the world, we started to develop EquEdu, which is powered by AI.

Building foundations for innovation

Microsoft is committed to fostering innovation for the next generation of students and young professionals. For more information about upcoming educational initiatives, bookmark the Microsoft Education Blog and check back frequently for updates.

Additional resources for young professionals and early career developers are available at:

• Microsoft for Startups
• Azure for Students
• Microsoft Imagine Cup
• Microsoft Reactor

To learn more about Microsoft’s latest innovations in data and AI, read the article The Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform—Unleash your data and accelerate your transformation on the Microsoft Azure Blog. 

Overall, we are blown away by the quality of submissions and would like to provide a special thanks to all of our participants, as well as our partners at Devpost and University of South Florida, for helping to host the in-person and virtual components of the hackathon experience.

Microsoft AI Classroom Hackathon event partners from Devpost and the University of South Florida gathered for the in-person components of the hackathon.

For more information on submitted projects and winning teams from the Microsoft AI Classroom Hackathon, check out the official hackathon project gallery on Devpost.

The post Meet the winners of the Microsoft AI Classroom Hackathon appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

We believe today’s AI innovations will power a paradigm shift as big as mobile, cloud, web, or PC. That’s why we were excited to announce more than 100 new updates across every facet of the Microsoft technology portfolio—many of which will have a direct impact on education in the coming weeks, months and years. Industry experts highlighted everything from game-changing generative AI that can help save time and transform learning to new cybersecurity features that will help keep schools safe from the latest cyberattacks. 

With Microsoft Copilot I was able to near-instantly create an entire quarter-long, project-based learning assignment for fourth through eighth grades and simultaneously assign each of the Kansas standards that I had requested for every core subject.

Olivia Sumner, fourth through sixth grade teacher, Wichita Public Schools, U.S.

At first glance, many of these announcements may seem like science fiction, but the era of AI is bringing about these and many other transformational changes to education which will help personalize learning for students of various abilities and better prepare them for the future of work. 

A new era of AI has arrived

AI was everywhere in this year’s Ignite sessions including Satya Nadella’s opening keynote and over 100 sessions! Copilot was one of the standout product innovations from Microsoft this year and we’re excited about its potential in education. According to latest Work Trend Index research report, 70% of Copilot for Microsoft 365’s earliest users say that using generative AI at work has made them more productive, with 68% saying it improved the quality of their work and 77% saying that they didn’t want to give it up.  

• Copilot with commercial data protection for faculty (formerly Bing Chat Enterprise) launched earlier this year powered by world-class GPT-4 model to save educators and staff time and unlock creativity. Educators in Wichita Public Schools are leveraging the power of AI in Copilot to save valuable hours during lesson planning and to personalize learning content for students of various abilities. Check out our AI for education hub to learn how AI can support personalized learning, automate daily tasks, and provide insights for data-driven decision making.   
• Copilot in Windows is the next step toward making Windows the destination for the best AI experiences. It empowers you to create faster and makes once complicated tasks simpler by using the power of AI to lessen cognitive load. Microsoft has made accessing the power of Copilot seamless as it’s always right there on the taskbar or with the Win+C keyboard shortcut providing assistance alongside other apps. These features are available in preview on the latest Windows devices—in the classroom, lecture hall or at home.  
• Microsoft Copilot Studio announced at Ignite, is a low-code tool to customize Copilot for Microsoft 365 or build your own copilot experiences with Azure AI Studio. It brings together a set of powerful conversational capabilities including custom GPTs and generative AI plugins. IT can customize Copilot for Microsoft 365 with your own workloads—build, test, and publish standalone copilots and custom GPTs and manage and secure your customizations.  
• Microsoft has demonstrated its commitment to Responsible AI practices. In partnership with Code.org, this week we announced Minecraft Hour of Code: Generation AI. With resources to help educators run Hour of Code events in their schools and teach computer science, Hour of Code encourages all students to explore coding and responsible AI in the fun and engaging Minecraft world.  
• We announced numerous updates to Azure, including Microsoft Copilot for Azure—an AI companion for IT that simplifies day-to-day IT administration and helps IT teams unlock untapped Azure functionality.
• Another announcement, Azure AI Studio, is a unified platform to help organizations more easily explore, build, test and deploy AI apps. Finally, Azure OpenAI Service allows you to build your own Copilot and generative AI applications. To see how these developments are being used in education, read how a young inventor in UAE is building an AI Tutor with Microsoft’s AI capabilities including Azure OpenAI Service. 
• Learning Accelerators are AI-powered learning tools seamlessly integrated in Microsoft 365 Education to give individual students more opportunities to learn, practice, and receive specific coaching. Speaker Coach is a Learning Accelerator utilizing AI to give real-time pointers on pacing, pitch and filler words. Reading Progress leverages the power of Azure OpenAI Service to create personalized reading passages based on words or phonics rules that a class or specific student found most challenging. 

 Microsoft AI innovations are transforming how educators teach and students learn.

Unified and evolved cybersecurity tools

At Ignite, we also demonstrated our commitment to helping all organizations–including schools—keep their users and data secure. Considering more than 80% of malware attacks target the education sector, world-class cybersecurity solutions from Microsoft ensure that schools, districts, and ministries of education have the products and resources they need to establish and maintain a strong security posture. Microsoft technologies are built on trust. Moreover, we believe a school’s data is a school’s data—protected by the most comprehensive enterprise compliance and security controls—and is not used to train foundation AI models.   

• The future of security means both leveraging security tools built with AI and building features that help protect AI. At Ignite, Microsoft announced the next major step in this industry-defining vision: combining the power of leading solutions in security information and event management (SIEM), extended detection and response (XDR), and generative AI for security into the first unified security operations platform.  
• All of the Microsoft 365 Education plans offer built-in management and cybersecurity tools to help protect against threats. Microsoft 365 A5 plan allows you to integrate more advanced cybersecurity measures that make it easy to guard, manage, and maximize learning and productivity for students, educators, and staff. Connect with an expert to find out which plan has the right protections for your institution. 
• Effective cybersecurity starts with knowledgeable leadership and educators. Enroll in the Protecting our Future course for leaders or the Building Cybersecurity Resilience course for educators on the Microsoft Learn Educator Center to implement CISA-recommended cybersecurity practices that foster awareness and preparedness, safeguard schools, and counter cyber threats effectively. 
• Students can continue learning with the Minecraft Education Cyber Collection. The collection contains resources for learners from first grade through high school and is aligned to both Cyber.org and CSTA standards, meeting the needs of most school systems for cybersecurity education. 

Thrive in a changing world

The ways in which our tools are helping to prepare the workforce of tomorrow took center stage at Ignite, where we introduced a host of updates, ranging from improvements in the Microsoft Cloud to enhancements in the essential learning and creation tools used by schools every day. 

 Microsoft Teams and our latest AI tools can help educators, students, and leaders thrive.

• Microsoft Teams enables effective collaboration and communication for more than 320 million users around the world and we’ve seen some amazing use cases in education. At Ignite, Microsoft has announced numerous AI-powered improvements to Microsoft Teams. As part of our continued efforts to provide updates and upgrades to the Microsoft Teams experience, the Teams for Education app has been re-designed on a foundation of speed, performance, and flexibility, and has now launched as the next evolution of Microsoft Teams—new Microsoft Teams for Education. To utilize these improvements, we recommend upgrading to new Teams as soon as possible.  
• In this new era of AI, we are redefining cloud infrastructure, from silicon to systems, to prepare for AI in every school and business, and in every app. Updates to Microsoft Azure mean that IT admins can use tools like Azure AI Studio to create low-code AI services to create innovative solutions in schools. 
• Microsoft Fabric revolutionizes data analytics for education, offering an integrated platform for streamlined processes and enhanced collaboration. With Microsoft Fabric, we are excited to explore unique education use cases to optimize student outcomes, modernize data management, and facilitate secure cross-campus research. 

If you weren’t able to attend live sessions, you can still watch many of them on-demand at Microsoft Ignite. You can also learn more about how Microsoft is bringing these exciting announcements to the classroom and the lecture hall at Microsoft Education or by signing up for a free online AI course using the Microsoft Learn Educator Center. 

The post AI and security breakthroughs from Microsoft Ignite 2023 that schools won’t want to miss appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

During November at Microsoft, we focus on innovation, AI, and the cloud at one of our biggest events of the year: the Microsoft Ignite conference. It is free to join online from anywhere November 15 and 16, 2023, so anyone can learn about how Microsoft is innovating in ways that will impact teaching, learning, and the future of work. This year, a large focus of Ignite will be how Microsoft Azure brings your data together securely and privately to analyze your information and leverage other applications to provide enhanced learning, collaboration, and security. With secure access to your data on prem, in the cloud, or in a hybrid implementation, utilizing innovative education solutions with embedded AI and harnessing analytics in your career and technical education (CTE) classroom becomes easier than ever before. 

Empowering educators with the latest cloud services and AI tools

Tools like Azure OpenAI Service, Bing Chat, and Bing Chat Enterprise for faculty (now available in paid academic plans) can save you time and personalize learning experiences by leveraging the power of large language models with enhanced cloud security. Since Ignite is free to attend virtually, you and other members of your IT or instructional team can join to learn more at sessions such as: 

• The Future of Security with AI 
• Maximizing Microsoft Teams for Learning 
• AI transformations with the Microsoft Cloud 
• Making End to End Security Real 
• Inside Microsoft’s AI Innovations 
• Implement a Generative AI Solution with Azure OpenAI Service 
• Q&A for exploring AI-powered chat – let’s talk Bing Chat Enterprise 
• Visual Content Creation for Everyone: Clipchamp and Designer 
• Empowering Inclusive Innovation with Azure AI Studio Q&A
• Boost Productivity with Bing Chat Enterprise and Edge for Business 

Register for Microsoft Ignite to take part in the experience!

Leveraging cloud services and Microsoft AI tools on your CTE classroom experience

Microsoft is committed to transforming education through the use of innovative developments such as AI. Our cloud services securely gather and analyze data, embedding it into AI-powered applications to enhance learning, collaboration, productivity, and security. This is a key point. To truly get the benefits of many of our developments with AI, you need to have your data in the cloud, not locked away in an out-of-date on-prem server or data warehouse. This requirement is just as important for CTE classrooms and programs as it is for entire school districts. 

When considering the integration of cloud services and Microsoft AI tools into your CTE classroom experience, it’s essential to understand how to utilize these tools to enhance student career and technical skills. Microsoft takes some of the pressure off you when it comes to managing security to safeguard your data and student information. This delegation of certain security responsibilities not only frees up your resources for other essential classroom activities that utilize the power of responsible AI, but also leverages the inherent security features of the cloud to bolster your overall security stance.

Explore how to use Microsoft AI tools to enhance your CTE classroom experience.

If you want to learn more about how to support teaching and learning in your classroom using Microsoft’s cloud services and AI tools check out these solutions:

• Generate instant learning and visual engagement: Get information to help answer to student questions and support learning with visual aids with Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise. These tools give you access to AI-powered web chat (with added commercial data protection in Bing Chat Enterprise) that is grounded in data from the public web and provides complete, verifiable answers, along with visual responses that include graphs and charts. Use Bing Chat Enterprise with confidence knowing that Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) ensures secure access to Bing Chat Enterprise, protecting your user data and preserving chat privacy. Consider using these tools to quickly get responses with links to content sources during collaborative class discussions to dig deeper or generate visuals to explain complex concepts to students with Bing Image Creator.
• Elevate educational resources: Gather ideas and learning recommendations by incorporating tools that leverage the latest models from OpenAI. Microsoft Copilot in Windows 11, Bing and Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft 365 allows you to incorporate your own organization’s data. You can also integrate Azure OpenAI Service into your applications to ensure that staff have what they need tailored to your organization’s goals and their students’ data. For instance, you can personalize supplementary materials based on each student’s learning needs and interests or streamline tasks like writing engaging lessons or drafting assessments using standards and objectives that are tailored to your district and/or curricula. 
• Customize learning solutions: For educational systems that want to harness the power of AI by building their own tools and services, Azure OpenAI Service offers a way to harness the scale and security of Azure with OpenAI’s generative AI model capabilities. Using this service, your staff will receive more detailed information when you build an application that is sourced from data you add and manage using a no-code approach. Plus, Microsoft offers the ability to detect and mitigate harmful use with built-in responsible AI and enterprise-grade security. For example, if you’re looking for ways to simulate CTE programs that involve potentially hazardous activities, you can create a chatbot using the chat playground in Azure OpenAI Studio that allows students to practice specific safety protocols and emergency procedures in a controlled virtual environment. You could also track the career progress of your program’s alumni by collecting their trajectories and success stories to showcase program outcomes and refine your curricula to align with industry standards. 
• Open creative career pathways: Tap into the power of creative tools like Microsoft Designer, Bing Image Creator, Clipchamp, and Paint, all which are enhanced by generative AI. Designer produces an immediate visual draft of almost anything with a few simple prompts that can help learners brainstorm and iterate. These tools can provide you with innovative resources to engage students in career-specific design projects, multimedia assignments, and visual storytelling. 
• Enhance productivity:Power Platform enables you to create low-to-no-code apps and chatbots, with no formal coding experience needed, that are specific to your classroom and student needs. From tracking student submissions to auto-sending notifications and calendar events, the options are limitless. Solutions can be as simple as a flow that notifies an educator when a student completes an assessment or project, or when augmented by Azure’s AI capabilities, as advanced as an AI-infused chatbot that leverages Azure machine learning to create personalized career pathway guidance. Power BI also quickly visualizes key metrics and trends from across your institution, such as CTE program enrollment, budgets, job placement rates, student demographic information, and more. This helps provide predictive insights in accessible dashboards to inform instructional changes and program decision-making. 

Microsoft is leading the charge in bringing the power of cloud technology and AI to education. Our cloud services, particularly Microsoft Azure, are designed to enhance learning, collaboration, productivity, and security. Powerful, useful AI experiences come together in Microsoft solutions—simply, securely, and responsibly—into the products you use most. We invite you to join the Microsoft Ignite conference online for free from November 15 and 16, 2023, to discover cutting-edge AI tools like Azure OpenAI Service and Bing Chat Enterprise for faculty that can transform your educational institution. Embracing these innovations and exploring how they impact teaching and learning within your CTE program can help you revolutionize education.

Ready to take Microsoft cloud services and AI tools to the next level? Explore these resources to continue to innovate for education: 

• Support aspiring student developers in gaining skills to jump-start their careers. 
• Build your own chatbot with no coding required in Microsoft Power Platform. 
• Put your AI skills to the test by using these challenges to build innovative solutions. 

To help you make the most of these capabilities and build AI literacy, Microsoft offers free training on Microsoft Learn. Boost your confidence and explore the potential of AI in education: 

• Skill up with the latest in AI, Microsoft 365, Windows, and security in education 
• Empower educators to explore the potential of AI
• Enhance teaching and learning with Bing Chat

The post Microsoft Ignite: Bringing the innovations of the cloud to your CTE classroom appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

Whether you want to explore an immersive learning experience with Minecraft: Education Edition or provide opportunities for students to innovate and solve real issues locally and globally in the Imagine Cup, Microsoft can help you inspire your students to embrace STEM.

Representation and encouragement matter

Historically, women and people of color are vastly underrepresented in STEM careers. Girls Who Code and Logitech found that teachers had the second greatest influence (50%) in helping people pursue a technology career, only after a family member or friend (60%). Incorporating STEM opportunities into classroom instruction and highlighting diversity in STEM fields can make a difference in access for all.   

A fast-growing and ever-changing field

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 10.8% increase in STEM fields between 2021 and 2031, where non-STEM occupations are only projected to grow by 4.9%. As a result, qualified STEM careers will be in high demand. STEM presents a vast number of exciting opportunities for students to blend their passions with their future careers. Those who love the outdoors may be interested in environmental engineering, working to preserve waterways, or wildlife. If students are interested in the effects of climate on weather patterns they could become meteorologists or storm chasers!

Microsoft can support those future skills now by giving students access to tools they’ll need to pursue these careers. For example, students who love video games can begin their journey in MakeCode Arcade and develop skills to help them pursue a future career in game design.

Embracing STEM in the classroom

STEM is very hands-on, accessible, and engaging. It can be incorporated into any subject or classroom because it’s more than a subject area, it’s an invaluable mindset. Approaching learning from a STEM lens fosters curiosity, creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking that can be applied to any content area making cross-curricular connections endless.

Educator Opportunities

Microsoft is committed to supporting educators by providing a variety of entry points for embracing STEM regardless of previous experience. The Learn Educator Center offers free learning pathways, modules, and resources to help you grow professionally and innovate your classroom.  

On Learn the Hacking STEM collection is a curated group of standards-based middle school lessons written by educators for educators. They are inquiry and project-based activities that help students visualize data across science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum in exciting ways.

Student Opportunities

Engaging in STEM encourages students to explore, collaborate, and innovate their ideas. What is more fun than finding a new solution to a real problem? Students use peer and real-world feedback to improve their process, design, or solution, helping them develop important skills for their futures.

Students can utilize Learn Student Hub to explore STEM careers or learn new skills to support their interest in STEM. They can learn valuable skills for free like GitHub Student Developer, Visual Studio Code or even become a Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador! They can also earn Microsoft Certifications that start with foundational skills, then additional topics are covered ranging from Azure to AI, to data analytics and cybersecurity, preparing them for the future.

Developing sustainable solutions with Minecraft Education Edition

John Dewey High School in Brooklyn, New York, was already incorporating projects that linked students with their local community and the natural environment. So, when the school decided to do a cleanup of Coney Island Creek, they immediately saw an opportunity to create a STEM collaborative. They reached out to the Minecraft Club which were already working on a sustainable urban design challenge.

We have embraced tools like Minecraft in the classroom that help build the skills needed for young people to thrive: to express their ideas, learn confidently, and explore issues that matter to them and their communities.”

Heather Adelle, Principal, John Dewey High School

Learn how John Dewey HS and the NYCDOE are inspiring sustainability education and building career pathways in the green economy with tools like Minecraft. 

Minecraft Education Edition supports STEM skills like creative problem-solving, collaboration, and critical thinking in an immersive digital environment. Using Minecraft, John Dewey’s students were able to recreate the estuary environment and develop innovative solutions to environmental problems like pollution that threaten the oyster reefs in Brooklyn.

Microsoft makes it easy to get started using Minecraft Education Edition in the classroom. We offer training for educators from the basics of getting started to more focused content, including coding, computer science, and esports. Minecraft also provides over 600 standards-aligned ready-to-use lessons and worlds to explore.

Use these free training modules on Learn to get started.

• Minecraft: Education Edition: Teacher Academy
• Minecraft apply and enrich: Introduction to coding
• Minecraft esports teacher academy

Solving real-world issues with a global community

Microsoft supports students in their quest to create innovative solutions for impact with their annual global technology and innovation competition for students, the Imagine Cup. Over the past 21 years, more than 2 million student competitors have signed up to build and learn together, make a difference in their communities, and innovate for impact. Last year’s winner, the V Bionic team, created ExoHeal, an exoskeleton aimed at providing rehabilitation to patients with hand paralysis by effectively retraining and recovering their motor functions. Their device is 30% more effective than existing devices and solved the problems lacking in the already existent rehabilitation devices by being more precise, portable, quick, and responsive. 

The goal of Imagine Cup is to empower every student on the planet to achieve more. Young developers are invited to submit their original technology solutions utilizing Microsoft Azure for a chance to win cash, prizes, and mentoring. All students need is a passion for making positive change. Once they form an Imagine cup team, Microsoft provides training on creating a successful project for a hackathon or competition. Microsoft also provides $100 USD cloud credit and free downloadable developer tools for their project with Azure for Students.

When student teams compete in the Imagine Cup, they become part of a worldwide community of like-minded students and mentors. Encourage interested students to register as a team for the 2023 Imagine Cup now until December 2023 or inspire your students while watching the Imagine Cup World Championship in May 2023! 

Integrating STEM into the classroom can be an engaging and easy way to help students develop skills and mindsets for college and career readiness. Innovate the classroom using Microsoft’s exciting resources and opportunities for STEM teaching and learning

The post National STEM Day: NOV8 your classroom appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.

1. Strategic visions centered around tailored learning experiences, learning communities, skills and credentials, integrity, at-risk identification, and lifelong learning.
2. A digital education platform built principally on the Learning Management System (LMS) that, within the context of a course page, knows little more about a student than their student ID and the fact they are enrolled in the course.
3. A broad enterprise platform with inaccessible or disconnected data around people, identity, records, finance, curriculum, skills, timetable, facilities, resources, software, along with a crawling project to try to integrate them all.

Some leaders may triumphantly tell you they’ve overcome the integration challenge of point 3, but a second and more frank conversation with the CIO will reveal otherwise. The gold standard, at best, is a unified data layer than ingests all other systems one-way for the sole purpose of analytics.

The current state of HED digital transformation

The higher education section is, on average, well behind equivalently sized enterprise in modern digital transformation. Most universities in the world still run their Student Information Systems (SIS) using legacy software running on ageing on-prem servers. A typical workflow goes as follows: A student enrolls online through an enrolment portal. Their student ID is added to an enrolment list for a particular course offering. At 3 a.m. the SIS writes a text file (.csv) to an accessible file location then the LMS reads the file and gives the student access to the course page. This is, quite literally, the extent of digital integration seen by the LMS, which is still today the principal vector for digital education. If you are shocked reading this, then you probably don’t work at a university.

Is the future of education a new modern LMS in the cloud that talks in real time to a new SIS in the cloud? No. There will not be a new big LMS and SIS coming to market: the fundamental paradigm of those systems is no longer relevant. Student Information Systems are different colored horses and Learning Management Systems are different colored carts.

Most universities today with legacy on-prem systems are currently assessing cloud migration plans for their SIS with price tags in the tens of millions. Most have also considered switching from one LMS to another, and rarely is it worth changing.

Don’t recreate the wheel: Build upon modern platforms

For 6 years now, I have been thinking about what kind of future we want for higher education, and what the path is to get there at an institutional level. I believe that the higher education sector, in the same tradition that it leads the world in research, should lead the private sector in digital infrastructure. We lag, not lead. But we have 3 major advantages that can help us gain the lead:

• We have talented minds
• We have a structured user experience (education is a vastly more structured experience than that of a knowledge worker)
• We have a tradition of research and development partnerships

The future we want is not an LMS and an SIS; rather it is built on top of the most modern enterprise productivity platforms, and it is powered by the most modern cloud and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. It is a place for people to create and collaborate. The dozens of siloed data systems at universities need to be, one-by-one, unified on a Common Data Model (CDM), with a common authentication system, on a common cloud, with a common API. This is the foundation of the digital campus.

That system will be capable of provisioning digital environments with structure surrounding the who, what, when, where, why, and how of learning. The communication, productivity and collaboration that occurs will be contextualized with structured analytics that will empower every student with tailored experiences.

Assessing your digital learning platforms  

Let’s look at some specifics. Every university with accredited programs must manage curriculum. This usually involves structured documentation around the objective, assessment schedule and course learning outcomes for a particular subject a student can take. Every university must schedule courses using a central timetabling system that says when and where each class will happen whilst globally minimizing clashes. This is used to generate a timetable of classes with learning environment utilization. How many seats and what facilities does each room have? That is another database. What about the individual course offering? Typically, a PDF is required that sets out the course dates, the teaching staff, pass/fail requirements, the policies surrounding the course, and often the mapping between assessments, course learning outcomes, and program learning outcomes.

• Who? The identity of the student and authentication.
• What? The course as part of a program.
• When? The timetable of lectures, labs, tutorials, assignments, and exams.
• Where? The learning environment, lab, campus, and library.
• Why? The course and program learning outcomes.
• How? The course schedule, books, software, resources, and strategies.

These systems do not talk to each other and are not used to intelligently provision a structured digital classroom. The LMS is not a digital classroom, it is a digital bookshelf: resources for consumption and not creation.

A cross-institutional collaboration to build a unified platform  

I want to go even further beyond the digital classroom and invent the digital campus. Authentically digital, not a skeuomorphic second life. One that functionally enables learning, community, formative experiences, and does so as a digital twin to the physical campus: constantly connected and leveraging the physical assets and enhancing the physical campus in turn: the so-called cyber-physical campus.

Dr. Kellerman speaking at the Innovate conference in Sydney, Australia.

The one thing I am certain of is that no university can build it alone, and that the edtech sector will continue to offer more software (we want less not more) that solves minor endpoint problems without addressing the major structural challenge of data integration. We, the universities, must reclaim our digital estate, and unify our digital campus in the same fashion that our physical campuses have been already. We cannot build these systems from scratch; we must build on top of the modern cloud and services. But what we do build ourselves can be done as an open-source project with greater collective value than what we can buy off the shelf.

Meanwhile, there will be immense opportunity for IT consultants, system integrators and developers to become experts in the platform, and to create next generation experiences on top of a common next generation platform. Like the world of research publication, it will be driven by innovation and global dissemination, not propriety systems, commercialized intellectual properties, patents and trade secrets.

Come hear me speak about this topic at EDUCAUSE 2022  

At this year’s EDUCAUSE, I will be proposing the formation of an open-source software consortium for universities to begin creating and sharing interconnected solutions built on top of the Microsoft Azure and Dynamics 365 platform. Tens of millions of dollars have been spent on barely good enough, one-off software solutions by individual universities that could’ve become a shared open-source project worth hundreds of millions of dollars in development value. Many universities already have components that can be shared. A shared software stack offers the only path to realistically unlock the execution of lofty vision statements and future strategies, lifting the tide on our sector as it faces disruptive threats.

Educause 2022 will be held October 25-28 in Denver, Colorado. I will be co-presenting a session with Nick Gilbert and Osama Khan from University of Surrey, and holding an off-site reception to discuss a new cross-institutional collaboration. All are welcome!

Please also feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me @DrKellermann to further discuss edtech and HED topics.

The post How can higher education create a next generation digital campus? A call to build a modern digital core in an open-source alliance appeared first on Microsoft Education Blog.