IU personalizes learning with Microsoft 365 Copilot

Microsoft Copilot helps IU personalize paths to tomorrow’s careers

IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU) is Germany’s largest private university—with over 600 professors and 4,000 employees serving more than 140,000 students. It offers multiple Bachelor’s, Master’s, and MBA degrees across 200 programs, helping students acquire in-demand skills not only for today’s jobs, but for professions that have yet to be invented. An impressive 94% of IU graduates find a job within three months of graduation.

Part of this future-forward thinking is incorporating AI tools and skills to create personalized, scalable, and impactful learning experiences.

Preparing college students for prosperous and satisfying careers requires balancing academic learning with practical, real-world skills. This requires tailored educational experiences aligned with a student’s unique aspirations, ensuring they acquire relevant knowledge that directly supports their professional goals.

By focusing on individual strengths and aspirations, personalized education creates a meaningful and practical pathway from the classroom to the workplace. Yet institutions aiming to personalize education for career readiness face several challenges. Outdated technology, budget constraints, and data privacy concerns can complicate new initiatives. Comprehensive training for faculty to adopt new methods is crucial yet often met with reluctance. Balancing individual flexibility with standardized curricula is also an ongoing challenge.

These were some of the concerns facing IU when attempting to use technology to personalize learning paths. Through its partnership with Microsoft, IU integrated Microsoft 365 Copilot and other AI-powered tools into its educational framework. These innovations have transformed learning, enabling students to progress faster, engage more deeply, and enter the workforce with in-demand skills.

“We see the highest demand for AI skills in engineering, tech, business, and marketing—industries where efficiency gains from generative AI are already significant,” says Dr. Marian Bodenstedt, COO Online DACH (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) Online at the IU Group. “Generative AI fundamentally disrupts the traditional model of teaching by enabling personalized, one-to-one learning at a fraction of the cost. It tailors information to a learner’s background, capacity, and interests—for example, explaining business concepts through soccer analogies for sports enthusiasts.”

Tools as tutors to support the learning journey

Tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot and Syntea, a generative AI-powered tutor, help IU integrate prompt engineering into its dynamic curriculum while delivering adaptive learning experiences. They analyze student performance, identify gaps in knowledge, and generate customized learning paths, helping IU to blend formal and informal learning, while personalizing it for career aspirations or current occupations.

“AI isn’t replacing jobs; it’s enhancing skills,” says Felix Schiessl, Head of AI Horizon & Growth Projects at IU. “Learning how to integrate and use AI effectively will define success in the modern workplace.”

IU partnered with Microsoft to develop personalized learning tools for equipping both educators and students with the skills to thrive in an AI-enabled world. Initially, IU built its own AI tools such as Syntea using OpenAI, before using Microsoft solutions for their European-focused deployments and benefits like provisioned throughput units (PTUs), which allow IU to provide learners with the fastest possible replies even in busy times.

IU Copilot School featuring Microsoft is in session

The pinnacle of IU's partnership with Microsoft focuses on enabling every student at the IU Copilot School with Microsoft 365 Copilot. IU Copilot School is a specialized sub-brand of IU, acting as a pilot program for testing AI learning technologies with smaller cohorts before scaling them to all 140,000 students. The initiative caters to early adopters eager to embrace AI while addressing skepticism among traditional learners.

“IU Copilot School aims to meet the growing demand for AI-focused learning, teaching students both how to work with AI and how to apply critical thinking to its use,” says Bodenstedt.

Microsoft 365 Copilot supports students and faculty in tasks such as meeting transcriptions, summaries, flashcard creation, and overall writing assistance. Personalized learning journeys and interactive features like deep dialogue learning empower students, especially distance learners, by providing resources and tools that enhance their learning experience and accelerate their study processes. This includes organizing your studies and learning schedule with personalized study plans that balance academic, professional, and personal commitments.

“Copilot helps students become better writers, teaching them to be concise and effectively highlight their points,” says Schiessl. “We’ve also designed courses on AI tools like prompt engineering, ensuring students learn to use these tools effectively and ethically.”

These initiatives also support IU’s sizeable student population of working adults and non-traditional students in adapting AI technologies.

Educating educators to use AI with confidence

Many of the university’s younger students are already familiar with AI-powered tools and expect a certain degree of AI integration in their education. This growing demand is reshaping the learning experience and prompting IU to provide rigorous Copilot onboarding and training for all employees. These efforts blend Microsoft Learn resources with academic-specific guidance to enhance productivity and effectiveness.

Comprehensive onboarding sessions and AI literacy programs empower faculty to integrate AI tools into their teaching methodologies, balancing pedagogical objectives with technological innovation. With these newly acquired skills, faculty are using AI to script and produce videos with avatars and develop more dynamic educational resources. This AI-driven approach not only improves accessibility but also reduces costs, enabling faculty to scale content delivery without compromising quality.

“Having Microsoft 365 Copilot allows us to deliver engaging and effective learning experiences,” says Schiessl. “We’re enabling professors to expand capabilities, like personalizing courses with AI, to make learning more impactful for students.”

In addition to deepening and enhancing learning experiences, AI is also simplifying routine and repetitive administrative tasks, freeing faculty and administrators to focus on strategic initiatives.

A focus on responsible use and transparency

Educational institutions have an ethical responsibility to ensure AI systems meet the highest standards of data protection. Transparency in data use and empowering students with control over their personal information are essential for maintaining integrity in an AI-driven educational environment.

“Some learners, particularly in social work and healthcare, express fears about reduced human interaction and data reliability with AI, which we address through education and transparency,” explains Bodenstedt. “For working adults balancing jobs and education, the kind of AI-driven dialogue-based learning that Microsoft 365 Copilot provides makes studying more engaging and less daunting than traditional methods.”

To this end, IU has implemented one of higher education’s first AI governance policies to ensure secure and compliant use of AI tools. A major aspect of these policies is that transparency and ethical data use are prioritized, fostering trust among students and faculty.

“It’s crucial to make AI use transparent as students must understand how to ethically combine their ideas with AI-generated input,” Schiessl explains. “AI literacy includes teaching students to distinguish between their work and AI contributions while addressing ethical and legal implications. AI tools like Copilot and Syntea ensure that students can dive into discussions, retrieve notes, or improve academic writing efficiently as well as ethically.”

Microsoft ensures that data and language models are hosted in the European Union, complying with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations. These rules define how organizations collect, store, and use personal data of EU residents, helping IU simplify and maintain data privacy and security.

Charting a course for continued growth and relevance

IU plans to scale the AI tools and methodologies employed in the IU Copilot School across its entire student base, using AI to make learning more accessible, inclusive, and effective.

The institution is also exploring whether summative exams are still necessary, considering the potential for continuous assessment with AI-driven feedback to complement or even reduce the reliance on traditional exams.

By deeply integrating AI tools into their educational framework, IU is empowering students to stay competitive in a global AI-driven job market. These tools not only enhance academic performance but also ensure that students graduate with the practical, technical, and ethical skills needed to thrive in dynamic industries.

“Tools like Copilot and Syntea are not just about efficiency; they’re about preparing students for a workforce increasingly reliant on AI,” says Schiessl. “After all, you’re not competing with AI, but with someone who knows how to use it better than you. So, universities need to move quickly to include AI in their curriculum to ensure students are prepared for rapid industry changes.”