Using the Microsoft Education Integration in Canvas

Microsoft Education offers different integrations within Canvas in a single dashboard: Class Notebook, Teams Meetings, Teams, Reflect, and Assignments. This article will provide an overview and instructions for each.

Description 

Integrations are a way to utilize the tools and functionality provided by other vendors within your Canvas courses. Microsoft Education offers different integrations within Canvas in a single dashboard: Class Notebook, Teams Meetings, Teams, Reflect, and Assignments. This article will provide an overview and instructions for each.

The Microsoft Education integration is a replacement for Microsoft Teams classes and Microsoft Teams meetings integrations, which OIT retired on August 22nd, 2025. Microsoft retired these older integrations on September 15, 2025. Microsoft is in the process of consolidating all separate applications into the Microsoft Education space. OneDrive is the final separate tool in our Canvas environment to have a separate integration.

Microsoft will retire their current OneDrive integration in September 2026. All instructors need to prepare to transition to Microsoft Education in Canvas to leverage OneDrive. Please review the OneDrive section below to learn more about the timeline to transition and to learn more about how to leverage Microsoft's migration tool to move content from the legacy tool to Microsoft Education.

Environment 

Canvas in your web browser 

Solution 

• Step 1: Enable Microsoft Sync 
• Step 2: Set up Microsoft Education
• Step 3: Configure any of the following
  • Class Notebook
  • Teams Meetings 
  • Teams Classes
  • Reflect 
  • Reading Coach
  • Insights
  • Teams Assignments
  • OneDrive

Enable Microsoft Sync 

Note: If you intend to cross-list or merge multiple courses in Canvas, you should do so before you enable Microsoft Sync, which will automatically create your Teams Class based on Canvas course enrollment.   

1. Navigate to your Canvas course. 
2. Select Settings from the course navigation menu. 
3. On the Settings page, select Integrations. 
4. Ensure the Microsoft Sync is set to on (the toggle switch should be pushed to the right). 
5. Select Sync Now.

Set up Microsoft Education 

Once you have completed other course set up activities, you are ready to launch Microsoft Education for your course. 

1. Log in to your Canvas course  
2. Select Microsoft Education from the Course Navigation menu  
3. Select Continue Setup 
4. Optional: If you would like to opt out of receiving email notifications about new features and service changes to the Microsoft 365 LTI app, select Notifications, and toggle off Email Notifications 
5. Select General 
6. Select the features that you would like to use.  
7. Choices include;  Class Notebook, Teams Meetings, Teams, Reflect, Reading Coach, Insights, Assignments, and OneDrive.  
8. If you wish you change your selections later, identify and select your user icon (upper right course), and select Course Settings.   
9. Select Done 
10. Wait for your class to be set up – this may take a few minutes. You will see a dashboard showing tiles for the items you enabled (with the exception of Assignments) once your class has been set up. You may return to this dashboard at anytime by selecting Microsoft Education in your Course Navigation menu.  

Class Notebook 

If you enabled Class Notebook during Microsoft Education setup, you can create and manage a OneNote Class Notebook. This notebook can be used to distribute content, provide individual workspaces for students, and collaborate in real time. 

To access your Class Notebook, select Microsoft Education from the Course Navigation menu, and then select Class Notebook. From there you will be able to set up a OneNote Class Notebook. You can create custom sections or choose pre-made sections.  

Section types include:  

• Collaboration space: teacher and student can edit 
• Content library: teacher can edit and student can view 
• Teacher-only section: private space for teachers 
• Student-only section: private space for students 

Learn more about using Class Notebooks in your Canvas course.

Teams Meetings  

If you enabled Teams Meetings during Microsoft Education setup you can schedule Teams meetings with all or select students from within the course. The meeting invitation will show up in the instructor’s and recipient’s Outlook calendar, as with any normal Teams meeting invitation. 

If you select the option for Anyone can join, that option does not send a meeting invitation to Outlook calendars or Teams, it is only visible within the Teams Meeting section of Microsoft Education.
  
It is important to note that the meetings do not appear in the Canvas course calendar. If you would like them to appear in the Canvas course calendar, you would need to manually add the calendar entry.   

Add a Teams Meeting to your Canvas Course Calendar  

1. Create the Teams meeting and make a note of the date, time, and meeting link.  
2. In your Canvas course, go to Settings and select Course Calendar from the right menu.  
3. If you are teaching more than one course, ensure that the proper course is selected within the calendar.  
4. Select the + and then select Event to create a new event.  
   1. Give it the title, date, time, and link from your Teams Meeting.  
   2. Select Submit.  

Learn more about Microsoft Teams meetings in your Canvas course.

Teams Classes  

Your Team will automatically be created based on your Canvas course enrollment when you enable Microsoft Sync. The Teams Class will have the same name as your Canvas course. The membership of the Teams Class will be automatically populated by the enrollments (students) in your Canvas course. Student add/drops from the Canvas course will automatically update in the Teams Class.  

To access your Team, select Microsoft Education from the Course Navigation menu, and then select Teams from the dashboard. From there you will see your team and be able to open it in a new window.  

When you have your Teams Class configured to your specifications, don’t forget to Activate the Team to allow students to access it. You can activate your Team by selecting the Activate button on your Team icon from the dashboard. Students will be able to access the Teams Class from the link within your Canvas course, or any way that they would normally access Teams (browser, app, etc.).  

Learn more about using Teams Classes in your Canvas course

Reflect 

If you enabled Reflect during Microsoft Education setup you can use Reflect to create check-ins and gain wellbeing insights. To access Reflect, select Microsoft Education from the Course Navigation menu, and then select Reflect. 

Learn more about Getting Started with Microsoft Reflect in your Canvas course

Teams Assignments  

Microsoft Education Assignments brings the Learning Accelerators: Reading Progress, Math Progress. Search Progress and Speaker Progress along with multiple document submissions, Microsoft Forms, OneNote Pages, Flip Video recordings and all of the new generative AI features of Assignments to your Canvas course. The integration allows you to add Teams Assignments right into your Canvas course in the Assignments or Modules areas, and syncs the grades directly to your Canvas gradebook.

This video from Microsoft provides an overview of these AI functions.  

Adding a Teams Assignment to your Canvas Course  

In your Canvas course, select  Assignments  in the course navigation menu.  

•  Using the kebab (three dots) menu to the right of the +Assignments button, select Microsoft Education. 
• Select the assignment or learning accelerator you would like to use. 
  • Pro tip: From existing will allow you to select an assignment you have already created within your Team to link to your course.
• Follow the on screen prompts to create your assignment.
  • Pro tip:  Use the AI options to help create or modify your instructions.
• Select Save and you will see your assignment listed in Canvas
• Select the kebab (three dots) menu next to the assignments, to select Assign To if you would like to customize who the assignment is presented to.
• You will also need to Publish the assignment before it is visible to your students. 

You can also add a Teams Assignments from the Module page in your Canvas course.

• Using the kebab (three dots) menu to the right of the +Module button, select Microsoft Education.
• Select the assignment or learning accelerator you would like to use. 
  • Pro tip: From existing will allow you to select an assignment you have already created within your Team to link to your course.
• Follow the on screen prompts to create your assignment.
  • Pro tip:  Use the AI options to help create or modify your instructions.
• Select Save and you will see your assignment listed in Canvas
• Select the kebab (three dots) menu next to the assignments, to select Assign To if you would like to customize who the assignment is presented to.
• You will also need to Publish the assignment before it is visible to your students. 

View this Microsoft Support page for Assignment Basics, Details, and Features. 

Reading Coach

Students can create and read stories, and library passages in many languages with pronunciation detection in multiple English dialects. Emerging readers and learners with dyslexia can build confidence with Immersive Reader.

Learn More about using Reading Coach in your Canvas course.

Insights

Education Insights empowers educators to explore diverse sets of actionable student data and make informed decisions to support each student’s unique needs.  With Education Insights, educators can easily streamline their decision-making process, analyze academic, social, emotional, and engagement trends, and spot students who may be struggling academically or facing social challenges.

OneDrive

Microsoft will be retiring their current OneDrive integration in September 2026. This impacts instructors accessing OneDrive through the Canvas course menu as Microsoft OneDrive or in the rich content editor as the cloud icon.  User will access all Microsoft tools within Canvas through its Microsoft Education integration by Fall 2026. Instructors are encouraged to take action and transition to using Microsoft Education for OneDrive access.  Instructors should also use Microsoft's migration tool (detailed below) to identify and automatically re-link content in the Microsoft Education space.

For summer classes:  The Office of Information Technology (OIT) recommends transitioning to Microsoft Education this summer, so you are familiar with the updated workflow before fall semester.

• Create new OneDrive content only in Microsoft Education within Canvas. The ability to "create new content" with the old OneDrive integration will be disabled Tuesday, May 5, 2026, to support the transitions to Microsoft Education.  Existing links using the old integration will continue to work throughout the summer term.
• Use the Microsoft migration tool to transition content from the "old" OneDrive integration to Microsoft Education in Canvas.
• Please note that the migration tool works to identify and re-link a variety of content, but not Collaborations that were using OneDrive.  Collaborations will need to be recreated within the Microsoft Education integration.

For fall classes: Beginning Fall Semester 2026, Microsoft Education will be the only way to access OneDrive in Canvas.  Instructors should review and update their course content before September 2026 to ensure all OneDrive links use the new integration before the semester begins.

• Use the Microsoft migration tool to transition content from the "old" OneDrive integration to Microsoft Education in Canvas. The migration tool will no longer be available after Microsoft retires the OneDrive integration in September.
• Please note that the migration tool works to identify and re-link a variety of content, but not Collaborations that were using OneDrive.  Collaborations will need to be recreated within the Microsoft Education integration.

If your content is not updated before fall, Canvas links created with the legacy OneDrive tool will no longer work, and you will need to manually re-link materials using Microsoft Education in Canvas.

Content created with the old Microsoft OneDrive configuration will not automatically transfer over to the new Microsoft Education OneDrive option unless you use the migration tool prior to September 8, 2026.  After 5pm on September 8, attempting to access any content embedded or linked using the old OneDrive integration will result in an error message.  The content would then need to be shared again using the Microsoft Education integration.

Using the Migration Tool

1. Navigate to your Canvas course (this process can be repeated in each course as needed).
2. On the course Home or Settings pages, select OneDrive Migration Tool from the right-side menu.
3. If this is the first time you have run the migration tool, you will be asked to provide authorization to use the tool.
   1. Select the Authorize button to grant access to the migration tool to review your Microsoft course content.
4. The migration tool will scan the content for any items that can be migrated to the new Microsoft Education OneDrive tool.
   1. The OneDrive Migration Tool scans for files that are linked or embedded in Assignments, Modules, Pages, Announcements, Discussions, Syllabus and Original Quizzes.
   2. Course Collaborations created with the legacy OneDrive integration aren't migrated and should be recreated using the Microsoft Education integration.
5. All eligible content items will be selected by default; you may deselect an item to exclude it from migration.
6. Select the Migrate button.
7. A pop-up will appear to confirm that you wish to proceed with migration.  Select Migrate to continue.
8. Progress indicators will appear for each item and for the overall progress until the migration completes.
9. When the migration completes, a summary will appear that confirms the success for all migrated content items.
10. Select Done to return to the Migration Tool start page.

Sharing Content

If you want to share content with students in your course from OneDrive within Canvas, you can do so through the Microsoft Education integration.  OneDrive within Microsoft Education supports the ability to share content with students, created collaborative assignments, or to allow students to submit assignments directly from OneDrive.

Sharing Content via the Rich Content Editor

• Within Canvas, anywhere you have access to the Rich Content Editor select Microsoft Education from the tool bar.
• This will open a new window which contains your existing OneDrive content, select the item you would like to share.
• You will then be prompted to either create a link to this item, or to embed the content within Canvas.
  • Select the option appropriate for your needs
  • Note that files with the .xls extension cannot be embedded

Sharing Content within a Module

• Navigate to the Module in question
• One the Module title bar select the plus sign +
• In the new window, select External Tool
• From the list of External Tools select Microsoft Education
• Select the appropriate option from the dashboard
• Confirm your selections
• Select Add Item

Templated Assignment

• Within your Canvas course, create an Assignment
• In the Assignment Submission settings select External Tool
• Select Find
• Select Microsoft Education
• Search for the file you wish to serve as the template for this assignment
• Select Attach
• Configure the remainder of your assignment settings as needed.

Creating a Collaborative Assignment

Please see our Collaborations in Canvas knowledge base article for more information on Collaborative Assignments.

Student Submissions

When a file submission assignment is created, and OneDrive is enabled within Microsoft Education for your course, students will have an option for Microsoft Education within their submission attempt which will allow them to submit an assignment from OneDrive without first having to download the file.

 

Get Help from Microsoft 

• Contact - Microsoft Support for support with the Microsoft Education integration and any of its related features. 

Get Help from Canvas

• Live chat with Canvas support (Faculty) 
• Get 24-hours/7-days a week Canvas support  
  • Dial the Canvas Support Hotline number located under "Get Help" in the Canvas Global Navigation Menu 
  • Contact OIT at 740‑593‑1222 if you need help logging in, accessing test or practice courses, or using tools that connect to Canvas.

Get Help from OIT

• Use the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) ticket form to submit a help ticket 
• Visit the Technology Resources and Training page for available training 

Additional Resources 

• Video overview of AI Assignment Features  
• Self-paced Microsoft course on Teams Assignments  
• Microsoft Teams Meetings in Canvas  
• Microsoft Teams Classes Canvas Integration  
• Ohio University Help and Resources for Microsoft Teams  
• Merging Courses in Canvas (Cross Listing)  
• Canvas Experts Blog – Cross Listed Courses