How Microsoft 365 for Education Benefits Teachers and Students

Microsoft 365 has a lot to offer teachers, students, and educational institutions. Each Microsoft 365 Education plan includes several individual services; combining the familiar Microsoft Office desktop applications with cloud-based versions of Microsoft’s next-generation communications and collaboration services—including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365 Apps, and Teams—to help users be productive from virtually anywhere through the internet.

Microsoft 365 for Education

Remote learning has become more important than ever. Teachers and staff need to be able to access their tools from school, home or wherever they may be. Microsoft 365 Education empowers educators to unlock creativity, promote teamwork, and provides a simple and safe experience in a single, affordable solution built specifically for education.

Deploying the foundational infrastructure for built-in security and integration makes for simplified management, allowing ease in ensuring client software is updated with the latest productivity and security enhancements. The foundational infrastructure should be organized in a series of phases building upon each other and towards an environment that enables Microsoft 365 Education workloads and scenarios. It should always be the first step is Cloud deployment, which includes Networking and Identity. Following prescriptive onboarding steps will enable a smoother deployment of workloads and scenarios such as Teams for Education, Exchange, and SharePoint and OneDrive. Additionally, Microsoft recommends upgrading to the current version of Windows and Office 365 while managing and securing your organization’s devices with Intune for Education.

With a Microsoft 365 Education subscription you will have availability to the Microsoft Office Apps for your PC and Mac as well as the full set of online services for email, file storage and collaboration, meetings.

• Increased accessibility. Teachers and staff can work from wherever they are. They can also work on any platform. Whether they’re on a desktop in their classroom or on a laptop at home, they’re able to seamlessly connect to their entire system. This gives educators a greater level of accessibility and freedom.
• Save time and improve efficiency. Teachers are already busy with important tasks like creating lesson plans and connecting with students. The Microsoft 365 platform has been tailored to improve efficiency.
• Collaborate with peers. The Teams platform provides a simple and effective way for colleagues within your institution to share files, provide feedback, join meetings, and make calls.
• Improved student insights. Visualizing student data is easier with tools like Microsoft Power BI. Teachers will be able to observe how their pupils are progressing in real time, as well as identify areas where they may need to improve or where learning gaps may exist.
• Superior cybersecurity. Microsoft 365 has features such as single sign-on and active monitoring to keep instructors safe and secure while keeping their data private. Teachers should not be expected to be cybersecurity experts in addition to their other responsibilities.

In addition to these benefits for the teachers, there are also benefits of Microsoft Office for students.

What if a student never had to repeat their work because they forget to click save? Cloud syncing is only one of many great benefits of Microsoft Word for students. For students, Microsoft 365 provides:

• Learning on a professional platform: Students can take advantage of a robust, professional platform that includes not only Microsoft 365 security tools but also the Office 365 applications. Students can access the technology needed to learn as they go.
• Connect and collaborate with peers: Just as teachers can connect with colleagues, students can use the Microsoft platform to connect with their peers to form study groups and run group projects.
• Access to instructors: Students will be able to interact with instructors, send them messages and otherwise connect with them on a level that would be difficult without a collaborative communication system. Students won’t feel like they’re missing something when they’re out of the classroom.
• Learn from wherever they are: Students can study in the classroom or at home on a completely accessible system that operates in the same way regardless of the platform that’s used to connect to it.

We can guide institutions through the deployment phases for solutions for aligned with their needs and goals. Students, faculty, and staff will benefit from properly implementing the right solutions in the Modern Workplace.

Are you ready to take advantage of Microsoft 365 for Education? Do you need advice and deployment guidance? The Red River FastTrack team is one of a select number of partners with EDU distinction within the FastTrack Ready Partner program. With many years of experience working closely with educators in moving to Microsoft Education cloud, our team can assist. Connect with the Red River FastTrack team today.