The Educational Development and Technology (EDT) unit at the Minnesota State system office launched the Copilot Evaluation Program in summer 2024, an initiative dedicated to planning for, developing, deploying, and evaluating the effectiveness of generative AI in instructional and non-instructional settings.
EDT provided Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses to dozens of faculty and staff from across the system. These colleagues embarked upon collaborative projects intended to dive deep into the use of Copilot for curriculum design, content creation, productivity, data analysis, and much more.
The following showcases are open to all Minnesota State faculty, staff, administrators, and students. Each showcase provides an overview of the exploratory work conducted this academic year with a special emphasis on insights and lessons learned.
Showcases
AI-Powered Administrative Tasks for Enhanced Productivity at the Engineering Center of Excellence (4/15/2025 @ 2:00 p.m.)
This project aims to enhance productivity by automating time-consuming administrative tasks through the use of AI tools like Microsoft Copilot. By automating routine activities such as scheduling meetings, drafting emails, developing marketing materials, writing grants, and generating reports, time can be freed up to focus on more strategic initiatives. This will enable us to improve program quality, enhance industry partnerships, and expand STEM education outreach.
Professional Area: Industry
Evaluation Focus: Workflow productivity
Copilots: M365
SpartanBot (4/21/2025 @ 2:00 p.m.)
This project centers on the deployment of an AI chatbot to provide uninterrupted information assistance on campus, particularly during staff shortages due to vacations or illnesses. The initiative involves establishing kiosk stations that will serve as self-service points for students seeking immediate help. This AI-driven approach aims to facilitate access to essential information, with a special focus on financial aid, thereby enhancing the student experience and potentially boosting enrollment rates. Participants in this project will contribute to a technology that may address staffing challenges and foster self-help among students, ensuring that every inquiry is met with a prompt and accurate response.
Professional Area: Student Services
Evaluation Focus: Chatbot development
Copilots: Copilot Studio
Brightspace Data AI Analysis (4/21/2025 @ 2:00 p.m.)
The system office (Educational Development and Technology) and a few campuses rely on Brightspace data to inform administrative tasks, highlight student activity, and provide reporting information. This activity is to determine how Microsoft’s AI offerings can benefit or boost the effectiveness of data from Brightspace. Specifically, exploration will be focused on the ability to create PowerBI reports, leverage existing reports, or to analyze raw data to inform other processes (chatbots/search). Artificial intelligence will be used to find insights in a large amounts of data, or to assist report creators highlight relevant information. There is a large volume of Brightspace data for machine learning to use as the basis for a model.
Professional Area: D2L Brightspace Administration
Evaluation Focus: Data analysis
Copilots: M365, Copilot for PowerBI
Empowering Faculty Advisors through Development of a Virtual Advising Assistant (4/28/2025 @ 2:00 p.m.)
We propose developing a virtual advising assistant using Copilot Studio and Power Automate Premium to enhance student-centered and equitable advising. This AI-driven tool will connect advisors to real-time information and processes, such as scholarship documentation, student housing, and deadlines, while automating tasks like updating advising records and drafting follow-up emails. By streamlining these processes, advisors can focus more on engaging with and supporting students.Â
Professional Area: Advising
Evaluation Focus: Chatbot development
Copilots: Copilot Studio, Power Automate Premium
Connecting Employees to Equity-Focused Professional Development (4/29/2025 @ 11:00 a.m.)
This project aims to enhance cultural competency among campus staff by developing a chatbot that suggests equity-minded professional development opportunities based on staff position descriptions. This AI-driven tool will help staff identify areas for growth, set SMART goals, and locate free, nationally-recognized resources or workshops, addressing the varied needs of different roles.
Professional Area: Professional Development
Evaluation Focus: Chatbot development
Copilots: Copilot Studio
OER Creation Using Generative AI (4/29/2025 @ 2:00 p.m.)
This AI project will develop LEGO-style open educational resource (OER) components that ensure ease of use, high-quality content, and instructor customization. This approach is expected to significantly increase OER adoption and enhance Z-degree offerings. Resources aligned with culturally responsive pedagogies and learning science principles require substantial development time and labor. However, generative AI technologies like Microsoft Copilot can accelerate the creation of diverse educational materials, from images to interactive scenarios, ensuring they meet quality standards and are relevant to discipline-specific learning objectives.
Professional Area: Open Educational Resources
Evaluation Focus: OER educational content creation
Copilots: M365
Using Copilot for Instructional Design and Assessment (4/29/2025 @ 3:00 p.m.)
This project aims to address the growing challenge of creating authentic and high-impact assessments in the wake of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, while also meeting the needs of underserved students and maintaining manageable instructor workflows. This project will evaluate the efficacy of Microsoft Copilot in designing instructional activities and assessment tools. By leveraging Copilot’s capabilities within OneDrive and other Microsoft tools, participants will enhance lesson plans, rubrics, and instructor evaluation processes.
Professional Area: Teaching and Learning
Evaluation Focus: Educational content creation
Copilots: M365
Grounded Theory in the Cloud (4/30/25 @ 10:00 a.m.)
This Science of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) project aims to enhance instructional effectiveness and student learning outcomes through evidence-based research. This initiative will leverage Microsoft CoPilot to expedite the qualitative analysis of approximately 270 narrative responses from licensure candidates, focusing on the use of generative AI in education. By comparing AI-driven analysis with traditional grounded theory methods, the project seeks to demonstrate the efficiency and potential of AI in educational research. Faculty not directly involved in the research will conduct the CoPilot analysis to ensure unbiased results.
Professional Area: Science of Teaching and Learning (SOTL)
Evaluation Focus: Qualitative textual analysis
Copilots: M365
Designing Context Aware Instruction and Materials (5/2/2025 @ 10:00 a.m.)
This project will use Copilot for Microsoft 365 to streamline the creation of personalized, adaptive, and accessible learning materials for diverse student populations. This initiative aims to reduce the cognitive and time demands on instructors by leveraging AI to draft and transform content based on learner profiles into various formats, such as PowerPoint files. This approach will enhance student engagement and support by providing relevant and interactive materials, while allowing instructors to focus on the quality of learning experiences.
Professional Area: Teaching and Learning
Evaluation Focus: Educational content creation
Copilots: M365
Register
Register now for the showcases. After registering, a calendar appointment with details on how to join the virtual sessions will be sent.
Contact
For questions regarding these showcases or the Copilot Evaluation Program, contact Stephen Kelly.
