Microsoft has rolled out Bing Chat Enterprise in preview for Microsoft 365 A3 and A5 faculty users, aiming to enhance search experiences in the education sector. This tool is designed to assist educators in planning lessons and creating content for their students.
According to the official announcement on the Microsoft Education Blog, Bing Chat Enterprise emphasizes data protection. “What goes in—and comes out—remains protected,” the Microsoft Education team stated. They further clarified that user and chat data will not be shared outside the organization, nor will it be stored or used to train Microsoft's AI models.
Microsoft unveiled the enterprise version of its Bing AI search tool in April. Bing Chat Enterprise is included at no additional cost in Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard and Business Premium. And if you don't have Microsoft 365, you can still get Bing Chat Enterprise as a stand-alone service for only $5 per user, per month.
Bing Chat Enterprise offers a range of features to assist educators. The tool can help in drafting content, personalizing learning, brainstorming ideas, summarizing documents, and improving efficiency. For instance, educators can request the tool to “Create lesson plans on the Kinematics unit for my AP Physics class” or “List 20 unique project ideas for my secondary school European history class.”
Once Bing Chat Enterprise is enabled, faculty members can access it via http://Bing.com/chat or the Microsoft Edge sidebar when signed in with their Microsoft Entra ID. The tool will be enabled by default for eligible users no earlier than September 21, 2023, unless IT admins opt out.
Search Progress: A New Learning Accelerator
In addition to Bing Chat Enterprise, Microsoft introduced Search Progress, a new Learning Accelerator for Teams for Education. This tool aims to develop students' information literacy skills, allowing educators to create, customize, and assign research projects. With Search Progress, educators can gain insights into students' search habits and queries, while students can practice and reflect on their information gathering and evaluation skills.
As an educator, you can use “Search Progress” to design and assign research projects to your students within Microsoft Teams. You can set the topic, the deadline, and the number of sources needed. Your students will then have access to “Search Coach”, an intelligent app that assists them with online research.
“Search Coach” is a virtual mentor that instructs your students on how to find sources for their projects. It shows them how to formulate effective search queries and how to assess the reliability of the resources they find. It also monitors their progress and saves their work automatically.
When your students complete their research projects, you can examine their work and see what sources they used and why. You can also provide them with feedback and suggestions for improvement. With “Search Progress” and “Search Coach”, you can help your students acquire essential research skills and accomplish their projects with confidence.
