Microsoft is Bringing More AI to the Education Market

As part of a push to bring more AI capabilities to its educational offerings, Microsoft is adding generative AI to Reading Coach, its free reading fluency app. It’s available now in preview.

“With the latest AI technology, we have an opportunity to provide learners with personalized, engaging, and transformative reading experiences,” a post credited to the Microsoft Education team reads. “Reading Coach, a Learning Accelerator now powered by generative AI, does just that.”

Today, Reading Coach provides learners with personalized reading practice and instant feedback about pronunciation and fluency, and it gives parents and educators insights into the learner’s progress. But with this AI update, Reading Coach can also dynamically create stories that adapt to the learner’s reading level and individual challenges.

“Reading Coach takes a unique approach to implementing generative AI with guardrails,” the team continues. “Learners select the story’s protagonist and setting, and they are provided with choices that alter the plot of the story as they read. Reading Coach combines these inputs with the learner’s selected reading level, and over time, words they mispronounce to dynamically create personalized stories that keep students engaged … The story content is moderated for quality, safety, and age appropriateness. And in addition to creating AI-powered stories, learners can also pick leveled passages from the curated ReadWorks library.”

Microsoft will make this new version of Reading Coach available for Windows and on the web in late January, at no cost for anyone with a Microsoft account. Educators will also be able to create Reading Coach practice assignments integrating the app with popular Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Canvas starting in late Spring 2024. (You can learn more here.)

In addition, Microsoft has other educational announcements. Microsoft Loop is now available in the Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 plans (including Student Use Benefit in early March 2024), though customers with Office 365 A1 will no longer be able to create workspaces and pages after June 30, 2024 (existing content will still be accessible). Copilot for Microsoft 365 is likewise now available to Office 365 A3 and A5 faculty customers (with no minimum seat purchase). Microsoft Teams for Education is gaining new AI features for students and educators. And Microsoft Reflect how helps educators generate options for learners so they can more easily explain the reasons behind their emotions.

Microsoft has also launched an AI for Educators Learning Path on Microsoft Learn, with three modules that help them explore the potential of AI, improve learning and teaching with Copilot, and equip and support learners with Microsoft AI tools.

You can learn more about these and other education advances in the Microsoft Education Blog.