Case Study: Georgia State University boosts students’ digital literacy and workplace readiness with Microsoft Azure

A twenty-first century education that teaches technical skills to serve a lifetime

Georgia State University, an Atlanta-based institution serving more than 32,000 students across 250 programs, needed to better prepare graduates for a technology-driven workplace and replace aging on‑premises systems. Faculty also reported wide variation in students’ digital skills, so the university sought a campus-wide approach to build practical, employer‑relevant tech proficiency.

In 2012 Georgia State adopted Microsoft Office 365—starting with Exchange Online and extending to OneDrive, SharePoint, Skype for Business, Power BI pilots and a Digital Literacy Innovation Fellowship—plus device and Honors College pilots to embed digital tools across the curriculum. The result: improved collaboration and access, more than half the campus using OneDrive, student portfolios and analytics skills for future employers, and repurposed labs and workflows that better reflect real‑world technologies.

Georgia State University

Phil Ventimiglia

Chief Innovation Officer