Microsoft is expanding the reach of its Copilot AI assistant services once again, this time for higher education institutions and their students. Previously, Microsoft launched Copilot with commercial data protection (formerly Bing Chat Enterprise) for all higher education students aged 18 and above, along with their faculty members.
Today, as part of its Reimagine Education event, Microsoft announced in a blog post that the premium Copilot for Microsoft 365 AI service will be available for higher education schools and their students starting on April 1. This will be offered as a paid add-on for schools with students who already have a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 A3/A5 license.
Microsoft also announced that a private preview program for Copilot with commercial data protection will be available for schools with students younger than 18 years old sometime in the spring of 2024.
In non-Copilot news, Microsoft revealed that new features are coming to Reading Progress and Microsoft Teams for Education later in March for no additional cost. The company says the new feature will let teachers access AI services "to draft content like rubrics, assignment instructions, personalized reading passages, and learning objectives."
Also, Microsoft revealed that a new tool, Math Progress, is entering a private preview program for educators, while the student tool Math Coach will be available as a private preview in the near future. Microsoft stated:
These tools leverage AI to help students identify where they’re struggling and provide real-time step-by-step coaching on mathematical problem solving.
The company revealed its new and free Microsoft Education AI Toolkit, which is designed to assist school leaders in making their own overall AI-based plan for their students. Finally the company revealed that a new Microsoft Defender for endpoint service that will keep the PCs that are being used by students safer to use. It will be available in the near future at a discount for all Microsoft 365 A5 subscribers.