Use Microsoft Copilot

Last updated on March 29, 2024

Generative AI is a powerful new technology with many applications for teaching and learning. However, its daunting for some educators to dive into a novel technology that can be used inappropriately, especially in an educational context. While it might be a little intimidating at first, its well worth exploring, both to see how it can be useful to you and how it might be leveraged by your students.

This tutorial will cover the basics of using Microsoft’s GenAI product, Copilot. Copilot is now available for all faculty, staff, and students at MSU Denver, so its a good place to start if your experimenting with the technology for the first time.

Related Resources

• Start Using Generative AI in Your Course – this spotlight takes a deep dive into practical concerns and best practices when using GenAI in education.
• Copilot Example Showcase – this is a collection of practical demonstrations of using Copilot.

Directions

1. Go to copilot.microsoft.com.
   • Copilot currently only works with either the Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge web browsers.
2. Click the blue Sign In button in the center of the page.
3. Log-in with your MSU Denver credentials.

There are three Conversation Styles to choose from:

• More Precise responses will hew more closely to Copilots source material.
• More Creative responses will depart from them and include more originality, which might mean more errors.
• More Balanced is suitable for everyday use.

4. Click the Ask me anything… text box at the bottom of the page.
5. Enter a Prompt.
6. Click the Arrow icon in the text box or press the Enter button.
   • Copilot will now generate its response. This can take some time depending on the complexity of the prompt.
7. Hover over any Underlined Text, or the footnote number following it, to show a link to where Copilot got its information.
8. Click the Link to open that website in a new tab.

There are several buttons in the bottom left-hand corner of each Copilot response:

• Click the Thumbs Up button to Like a response, indicating you found it helpful.
• Click the Thumbs Down button to Dislike a response, indicating you didn’t find it helpful.
• Click the Square icon to copy the response to your clipboard, which you can then paste somewhere else.
• Click the Down Arrow icon to Export the response, allowing you to save it to your computer as a Word, PDF, or text file.
• Click the Bing icon to search your prompt on Bing.
• Click the Speaker icon to hear the response read aloud.

9. Click the blue New Topic button in the bottom left-hand corner to start a new conversation with Copilot.
   • This will erase of of the response Copilot has generated so far.
10. Click Notebook in the top-left-hand corner of the page to open a long-form prompt and response interface.