Announcing: Homeschool pilot program for Office 365 Education

Anonymous
2016-11-14T21:30:25+00:00

Hi everyone,

My name is Mike Tholfsen, and I am a Principal Program Manager for Office 365 Education, here to talk about a special offer for all homeschoolers today.

On November 14, 2016, we started a pilot program to make Office 365 Education available to homeschoolers across the United States.  This is a limited-time pilot to help us collect feedback and learn more on  how key education tools like Class Notebook, Forms, and Microsoft Classroom can work better and empower home educators and homeschoolers in the comfort of their own home.

Due to overwhelming demand of the pilot, we have already fillled up our inital set of spots.  We are trying to open up a few more in the coming weeks, but for now the pilot is closed.

If you’re already trying out the pilot and need help, we’ll be answering your questions right here, so please read on and post your inquires below.

How do I apply for the program?

To apply and learn more about the pilot program, visit Homeschool pilot program for Office 365 Education.  

Am I eligible to apply?

Learn more on eligibility and how to apply by visiting Eligibility for the Office 365 Homeschool pilot program.

Is there any device requirement?

No, we are piloting this program across devices.

How do I get started with the pilot program?

To get started, we recommend you read Get started with the homeschool pilot program for Office 365 Education.

Thank you for your interest, we look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Mike

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Accessibility

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-11-17T19:52:17+00:00

    Mike,

    Thank you for starting something like this.  I'm glad to see that Microsoft hasn't forgotten those of us who have chosen to homeschool vs going to public/private schools. 

    I have already signed up, been accepted to the pilot program, and have registered our homeschool with Microsoft.  I really want to get started with Minecraft for education for my kids but I really wanted to try it out first and see how it works before spending the money on it.  I know $5 a year isn't a lot of money (and for us it isn't) but to some people it can be a huge issue.  Is there anyway to do a trial lesson and see how my kids like it before committing to it?

    Again thank you for starting this pilot program and, on a personal note, I wanted to say my faith in Microsoft has been really been renewed.

    Keep up the good work!

    Cheers!

    Jason Ward

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-11-16T04:00:57+00:00

    Hi Dillon,

    Regarding “Was in the process of signing manually and had issues when it asked for a domain name”, do you mean that you’ve entered the linkand clicked the “Sign up manually” to apply for the Homeschool pilot program?

     

    According to this article, the Office 365 Homeschool pilot program is available to the first US families that sign up, either with their existing email address, or using a Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) ID.

    To better understand the issue, would you mind capturing 2 screenshots and sending them to me? One is about “it asked for a domain name”, and the other one is about “got an error message telling me the link had expired”.

    Meanwhile, I’d like to collect the tenant information of your Office 365 organization and forward it to our related team to help you fix the issue.

    I’ve sent you a private message to collect the tenant information. Please follow the link below to reply to it:

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/privatemessages/list

    Thanks,

    Mouran

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-15T05:08:12+00:00

    Hi,

    Was in the process of signing manually and had issues when it asked for a domain name.  I wasn't sure what to do at first but when I had figured out to click skip it was after I had tried to go back in the browser and got ano error message telling me the link had expired.  how do in get back in so in can finish the process?

    Thanks,

    Dillon W

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-11-15T04:07:03+00:00

    Hi Suzanne - thanks for trying this out.  Just to confirm, the offer that we are piloting is the same plan that we offer K-12 and HigherEd, which is free access for the Office Web apps (Word Online, PPT Online, etc.) , Class Notebooks, free storage, MS Forms, and other parts of the offer.  It is very similar to what you see under "Office 365 Education" at this link https://products.office.com/en-us/academic/compare-office-365-education-plans 

    This offer does *not* include the Office desktop clients for free.  So I just want to confirm this is what you are asking about.

    -Mike

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-11-15T01:40:39+00:00

    Thank you for offering Homeschoolers this program.  I was able to sign up and I can log into my account.  When I try to install Office 365, however, the only options are for phones and tablets.  I want to install this on my PC.  Can you direct me on this?

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    6 people found this answer helpful.
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