In March 2022, Microsoft first introduced Reading Coach as an app available in Microsoft Teams. The app became available later for individual users outside the classroom. Today, the company has announced that Reading Coach is now available as its own Windows stand-alone app, or via its website at coach.microsoft.com, specifically for school use.
In a blog post, Microsoft says that schools that want to access the new stand-alone app can access it with a Microsoft Entra ID. School admins must enable support for Reading Coach via a signup page.
Microsoft stated the apps will help students with their reading skills in a number of ways. The biggest feature is the app's ability to create a unique story via AI for each student. The company said:
Create a story puts the story in reader’s hands by giving them the choice of a character, setting and reading level to create a unique AI generated story each time.
The blog post adds that the AI stories follow Microsoft's AI guidelines, and are moderated for the story's content quality and safety, along with setting up stories for specific age groups.
The app also lets students read from previously written content from its library. Teachers can also add their own story content as well.
Reading Coach lets students read stories out loud. The app's speech recognition technology, combined with AI features, allows it to analyze how students read, and detect if they find specific words hard to read. After each session, the app shows an overall score and can also generate word practice sessions with those challenging words.
Students who improve will be rewarded with special badges and will gain access to new characters and settings for future AI-created stories.
Microsoft plans to offer more reading challenges and courses from companies like Canvas by Instructure and Schoology Learning later this spring.
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