Microsoft plans to give Microsoft 365 administrators separate controls for Learning Activities and Teach, a change aimed at school tenants that need to stage AI-powered classroom tools around local policy and deployment readiness. Roadmap item 568370 is listed as in development for worldwide general availability in September 2026.
Learning Activities will be controllable independently for educators and for students aged 13 and older, while Teach can be enabled or disabled for educators. Microsoft’s roadmap entry says the switches will live in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
The distinction matters because the two services occupy different roles. Microsoft describes Learning Activities as an experience for turning existing material into interactive study tools such as flashcards, while Teach is the educator-focused area of the Microsoft 365 Copilot app for producing and adapting lesson plans, quizzes, rubrics, and other teaching materials.
Microsoft Learn documentation currently describes both experiences as enabled by default in applicable tenants, with broad organization-level controls. The forthcoming configuration should give education IT teams a more precise rollout path: permit staff to evaluate Teach while withholding Learning Activities from students, or selectively authorize Learning Activities for educators before making it available to eligible learners.
Administrators should also distinguish creating activities from consuming them. Microsoft support documentation says students can use activities shared by educators even if they lack Copilot Chat access, while creating activities requires Copilot Chat. That operational split could affect how districts frame policy, consent, training, and classroom support.
For Microsoft 365 education administrators, the practical task before September is to map who should have access—educators, students 13 and over, or neither—and verify that student age attributes and Copilot policies align with that decision. The new controls will be most useful to organizations that treat classroom AI as a managed service, not a default-on feature.
Separate switches for classroom AI
The distinction matters because the two services occupy different roles. Microsoft describes Learning Activities as an experience for turning existing material into interactive study tools such as flashcards, while Teach is the educator-focused area of the Microsoft 365 Copilot app for producing and adapting lesson plans, quizzes, rubrics, and other teaching materials.Microsoft Learn documentation currently describes both experiences as enabled by default in applicable tenants, with broad organization-level controls. The forthcoming configuration should give education IT teams a more precise rollout path: permit staff to evaluate Teach while withholding Learning Activities from students, or selectively authorize Learning Activities for educators before making it available to eligible learners.
The age boundary remains central
Microsoft limits student access to Learning Activities to users aged 13 or older. For K–12 organizations, that places added importance on student identity data and the tenant’s age-group configuration, rather than simply treating this as another Copilot toggle.Administrators should also distinguish creating activities from consuming them. Microsoft support documentation says students can use activities shared by educators even if they lack Copilot Chat access, while creating activities requires Copilot Chat. That operational split could affect how districts frame policy, consent, training, and classroom support.
September rollout gives schools a planning window
The feature is scheduled for the web-based Microsoft 365 admin center in worldwide standard multi-tenant environments. It is not available yet, and Microsoft’s roadmap dates remain targets rather than guaranteed delivery commitments.For Microsoft 365 education administrators, the practical task before September is to map who should have access—educators, students 13 and over, or neither—and verify that student age attributes and Copilot policies align with that decision. The new controls will be most useful to organizations that treat classroom AI as a managed service, not a default-on feature.