microsoft announced a series of Artificial intelligence (AI) Microsoft 365 Education teaching and learning features, including standards-aligned unit plans, assignment-level AI rules, guided student learning tools, and educator-led interactive lessons.
This product update is announced in conjunction with Microsoft’s 2026 AI in Education special report. The report found that 92 percent of students and educational leaders and 88 percent of educators are already using AI for school-related purposes.
Microsoft surveyed 3,345 K-12 and higher education students, educators, and education leaders in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. The survey involved students ages 13 and older and was conducted from February 13th to March 9th.
New features do not all arrive at the same time. While some assignment controls are available now, learning activities are scheduled for July, some teaching and grouping tools are scheduled for August, and unit planning is scheduled for next quarter.
Microsoft is also expanding access to Copilot Notebooks, Study and Learn, Learning Zone, and educational tools that integrate with learning management systems. Availability depends on your Microsoft 365 Education license, preview participation, and administrator settings.
Teach generates a unit plan for multiple lessons
Microsoft is adding unit planning to Teach, a collection of tools for educators within the Microsoft 365 Copilot app.
Educators can enter subject, grade level, language, unit length, and supporting context and materials. Teachers then create a draft that includes an overview, key questions, and weekly structure.
Teachers can edit drafts and add lesson plans, materials, assessments, and other resources. Teach also suggests follow-up actions and allows educators to create supporting content or continue revising units through Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.
Unit plans will be available next quarter. Microsoft described this feature as the most requested addition to Teach, which currently includes 11 educational tools.
Teach supports academic standards in over 50 countries. By ISTELive 2026, Microsoft expects its standards to cover 54 countries and territories, including England, Scotland, the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, India, and countries in Europe and the Middle East.
Microsoft is also introducing Remember settings to save previously used subjects and grade levels across Teach, Teams, Microsoft Learning Tools Interoperability, and OneNote. This feature is in preview and is expected to be generally available in August.
Language detection across Teach, Teams, and Classwork uses educator content and browser settings to determine the language of generated materials. Microsoft also said it has adjusted the output to account for regional spelling, dates, and terminology for English-speaking users in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
Regional language updates are in preview and will be available in August.
Teachers can set AI rules for individual assignments
Student AI guidelines are now available within Microsoft Education Assignments, allowing educators to specify how much AI is allowed for each task.
There are four levels of this feature, ranging from no AI to full use of Copilot Chat. Teachers can customize guidance to match school or district policies, and students will see the rules they choose when they open an assignment.
Microsoft’s report identifies academic integrity as the top AI concern for 41 percent of students and 42 percent of educators.
Assignment controls allow teachers to distinguish between tasks where AI is prohibited, restricted, or expected. Microsoft does not present this setting as an enforcement or detection system, but instead provides a feature that focuses on communicating expectations before students begin work.
Microsoft is also adding standard consistency to Teams assignments. Educators can attach educational standards to assignment instructions and use the same standards when creating rubrics.
You can now add learning activities such as flashcards, quizzes, matching tasks, and fill-in-the-blank questions to your assignments and lessons. Students can also generate learning activities from documents and PDF files shared by their teachers.
Learning activities are currently in preview and will be generally available in July.
The Group Assignment tool allows teachers to reuse groups created for previous assignments and move students between groups without having to recreate tasks. Starting in August, educators will be able to provide different documents, links, and resources to individual groups within a single assignment.
Research and learning moves Copilot away from direct answers
Microsoft positions Study and Learn Agent as a guided learning experience rather than a general answer tool.
With Microsoft 365 Education, Study and Learn is available at no additional charge through Copilot Chat for students ages 13 and older. Use scaffolded questions, flashcards, quizzes, matching activities, and feedback to help students tackle concepts and writing tasks.
Access is controlled by the institution. Information technology administrators must first enable Copilot Chat for K-12 students. Study and Learn will then be available by default.
Educators will also be able to guide students through assignment-based study and learning in the coming months.
The agent is expanding beyond English in the US, with additional localized versions being rolled out. Microsoft also published a white paper outlining the learning science principles used in its design.
Copilot notebooks are now available through the Microsoft 365 Copilot app for all Microsoft 365 Education A1, A3, and A5 licenses without the need for additional Copilot premium licenses.
Students can add lecture slides, notes, handouts, reading materials, and other source materials to their notebooks. The co-pilot’s response will be based on those materials rather than relying solely on the general prompt.
The study guide feature allows you to turn uploaded materials into topic summaries, flashcards, quizzes, fill-in-the-blank activities, and matching exercises. Copilot Notebooks will also support the creation of Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations in future updates, Microsoft said.
Add educator-led live lessons to Learning Zone
Microsoft Learning Zone extends beyond self-paced activities with educator-led classroom mode.
Teachers can control the progress of live lessons while students participate via their own devices. Educators receive aggregated information about student activity in near real time, allowing them to adjust instruction during sessions.
Learning Zone lessons can also be attached to Microsoft Education Assignments. Student performance and feedback can be returned to a connected learning management system.
Starting with ISTELive 2026, educators will be able to try generating Learning Zone lessons on any Windows 11 computer until August 2027. This trial supports creating lessons with up to 10 slides.
Learning Zone currently supports lesson generation in English and Spanish. Microsoft plans to add French, Italian, Portuguese, and Japanese by the 2026 school year.
The extensive Learning Zone experience and ready-to-learn content gallery is already available in 53 languages.
Microsoft also collaborated with the Economist Education Foundation’s Topic Talks program to create a collection of free AI literacy lessons. This resource combines teacher-led discussions about the use of AI with activities covering the evaluation and validation of information produced by AI.
Educational tools move to Windows and learning platforms
Microsoft is introducing Teaching and Learning Shortcuts as a preview experience on the Windows taskbar.
Teach provides direct access to lesson plans, quizzes, rubrics, Learning Zone lessons, and other curriculum creation tools. With Learn, students can open flashcards, matching tasks, fill-in-the-blank activities, and, if eligible, the Study and Learn Agent.
Both Windows experiences are available in preview for Microsoft EDU Insiders.
Microsoft is also bringing Copilot Teaching Tools to its learning management system through Microsoft 365 Learning Tools Interoperability.
The tool can adjust the language, reading level, length, and difficulty of learning content, align materials with educational standards, and generate activities such as flashcards and corresponding exercises.
Microsoft 365 LTI works with Canvas, PowerSchool Schoology Learning, Blackboard, Brightspace by D2L, Moodle, and other platforms that support the LTI Advantage standard.
Learning management system tools do not require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Microsoft says teachers and students with eligible Microsoft Academic A1, A3, or A5 licenses can use the integrated teaching and learning features.
For instructors to access features within their courses, administrators must deploy Microsoft 365 LTI and enable Copilot Teaching Tools Preview.
Microsoft is also developing Education Data Grounding, which uses information from lessons, assignments, grades, insights, and other Microsoft education services to provide better Copilot responses.
Research identifies demand for regular AI training
A Microsoft study found that 66% of educators and 52% of students request AI training on a monthly or quarterly basis.
We also found that 87 percent of educators and leaders and 79 percent of students believe the effective and responsible use of AI is important to their students’ futures.
Justin Spelhaug, president of Microsoft Elevate, wrote on LinkedIn: “AI is already part of how students learn, educators teach, and educational institutions operate.
“The real question is: Do schools have the guidance, training, and reliable tools to help people successfully use AI?”
Microsoft Elevate for Educators provides training, credentials, community support, and development resources for teachers and education leaders.
Microsoft also supports the AI Literacy Framework developed by the European Commission and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development with CodeAI. The framework aims to provide policy makers, curriculum designers, and teachers with common expectations for what students should understand and be able to do with AI by the end of school.
Microsoft worked with ISTE and ASCD on a framework-aligned AI Literacy Certification Pathway for Educators. This credential connects you to the Microsoft Elevate for Educators expert tier, which is currently accepting applications.
Student AI guidelines are available now, with learning activities scheduled for July, and remember settings, language updates, and additional group assignment features scheduled for August. Unit plans will continue into the next quarter, and the Windows 11 Learning Zone production trial will run until August 2027.
