Microsoft Azure helps educational institutions adapt to new realities, improve operations, and protect student and faculty information from cyber threats.
In today's rapidly evolving world, education faces unprecedented challenges that require transformation. Microsoft plays a vital role in equipping schools with the tools and resources they need to create more inclusive, equitable, and effective learning environments. With secure, flexible solutions powered by AI, Microsoft Azure helps educational institutions adapt to the new reality, streamline operations, and protect student and faculty information from cyber threats.
Leverage the powerful tools of Azure to tackle today's challenges and set yourself up for future success. Discover how Azure can help your IT team modernize with confidence, prepare for future growth, and adopt AI integration within your institution.
Accelerating innovation with a highly secure cloud infrastructure
Azure helps educational institutions modernize and grow with scalable cloud solutions. With a $20 billion investment in cybersecurity, Microsoft offers robust protection, including customized hardware, integrated controls, and defense against threats like DDoS. Supported by a global team of more than 3,500 cybersecurity experts, these measures ensure student data is safe, so institutions can focus on strategic goals and student success.
Azure enables efficient resource management and builds a secure, agile, AI-enabled foundation that helps educators prioritize equitable learning experiences for all students. Here are five ways Azure can help your educational institution transform student experiences and streamline operations.
1. Creating personalized educational experiences with AI
Azure OpenAI services help transform the educational experience with AI tailored to the unique needs of students, educators, faculty and staff. With access to the latest AI models like GPT-4, you can create private AI interactions for a variety of applications, including curriculum design, helpdesk efficiencies, student advising programs, automating routine tasks and more.
Reimagine the student experience and streamline administrative tasks
AI helps you create intelligent experiences across your institution. Run Azure OpenAI services against your data to gain insights and apply conversational AI to a variety of use cases to help educators, faculty, and staff save time and work more efficiently. Build your own Copilot to chat with your data using natural language, generate and summarize content, and extract information from vast amounts of data. Specifically, you can:
- Personalize your experience: Customize academic content, support, or services for each learner based on their behavior, preferences, and needs.
- We provide service and support assistance: Improve service interactions and management processes with quicker support through a self-service portal.
- Automate information discovery: It uses AI to extract valuable insights and knowledge from large amounts of data, summarize the results and insights, and generate content.
Learn more about how educational institutions around the world are using Azure OpenAI Services to transform experiences for students, educators, and faculty.
University of South Florida (USF) leveraged Microsoft AI solutions and Azure OpenAI services to streamline IT ticket classification processes, resulting in faster and more automated ticket handling, shorter response times, and higher satisfaction. The integration led to the rapid development of an AI-powered help desk chatbot, reducing workload and improving efficiency.
National Taiwan Normal University used Azure OpenAI's Davinci and ChatGPT to create 10 “CoolE” bots for its Cool English platform. Each bot has a different personality to suit different ages and proficiency levels. These bots engage students with scenarios like solving riddles and exploring career insights, providing a personalized learning experience based on their individual preferences and needs. This innovative approach increases student engagement and personalizes the learning experience.
Leveraging the scalability, availability, and speed of the cloud, IU International University of Applied Sciences built Syntea, powered by Azure OpenAI Services. Syntea seamlessly integrates with platforms like myCampus and Microsoft Teams to provide students with personalized, 24/7 learning assistance that provides instant answers and personalized feedback. This AI learning tool improves learning efficiency and reduces course completion time by 27%, demonstrating IU's commitment to improving educational outcomes with advanced AI.
The South Australian Department of Education partnered with Microsoft to secure their educational chatbot, EdChat, using Azure AI Content Safety to ensure a safe digital learning environment by blocking harmful content. The integration led to a successful trial with 1,500 students and 150 teachers, demonstrating EdChat's effectiveness in enhancing research and learning. Robust safety features enabled rapid deployment and improved student engagement, building confidence for wider implementation.
2. Maximize the value of your data
Data is only as powerful as your educators and staff's ability to put it to use. Azure modern data analytics centralizes data services and integrates disparate sources to eliminate departmental silos. This provides secure, compliant, and accessible insights to drive informed decisions. Azure's scalable solutions also reduce the burden on IT, allowing faculty to focus on teaching and innovation.
Solutions like Microsoft Fabric allow you to centralize your data in a single, open, governed foundation so you can leverage and share actionable insights across your organization. With data flowing seamlessly from Fabric, you can simply write reports, summaries, calculations or whatever you need using traditional languages ​​and Fabric Copilot will do the rest. You can also use curated data from Fabric to power your own bespoke generative AI experiences in Azure AI Studio.
USF uses Microsoft solutions to accelerate data-driven decision-making by giving its teams access to information and rich business insights through a self-service approach. USF used Azure Synapse Analytics and Microsoft Power BI to connect information sources, reduce administration efforts, and create reports in minutes, freeing its teams from repetitive manual tasks.
3. Scalability and flexibility
Azure cloud solutions deliver the scalability and flexibility schools need to accommodate growth while optimizing costs and operational efficiency. They enable IT professionals to keep up with technology advancements and manage resources across datacenters, edge, and multiple clouds. This adaptability helps educational institutions prepare for future demands while controlling costs.
Colorado State University (CSU) demonstrates the scalability and flexibility of Azure in modernizing its IT infrastructure. By migrating to Azure Stack HCI, CSU's College of Business consolidated its on-premises environment into a unified ecosystem and improved performance for SQL Server, printing systems, and remote desktop services. Azure Stack HCI makes it easy for K12 and higher education institutions to streamline operations, increase efficiency, and provide a scalable, flexible environment for students and staff.
4. Operational Efficiency
Azure empowers IT professionals to use their cloud and AI investments to create high-performing, reliable and secure systems, and gain operational efficiency with enablement support. Because every school is different, whether you're a small institution or a large university with many campuses, you can get customized support in three different ways:
Torrens University has seen firsthand how Azure is helping educational institutions achieve operational excellence and drive innovation by leveraging generative AI using Azure services to enhance their online learning experiences, saving 20,000 hours and $2.4 million in time and resources.
5. Provide students, faculty and staff with secure access to services wherever they are
A cloud-based IT infrastructure like Azure ensures seamless access to educational resources through virtual desktops, while providing continuity and cyber resilience through backup and disaster recovery. These measures help you quickly restore normal operations, protect critical data, and keep your school running during disruptions, preventing data leaks, expensive recovery costs, and damage to your reputation. Azure solutions also support remote learning and working, ensuring uninterrupted education by giving students and staff access to the tools they need from anywhere.
Avans University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands uses Azure Virtual Desktop for remote exams, saving €150,000 per year and improving accessibility for all students and staff. Azure Virtual Desktop provides flexible and controlled access to applications and resources in any environment, with a familiar computing experience securely accessible from any device.
Take the next step
Azure is a key partner in education transformation, providing the tools and services to tackle today's challenges and build a strong future. With Azure, educational institutions can drive innovation, increase efficiency, and ensure the success of future generations.
Explore these resources to learn how Azure can help shape the future of your educational institution.