Features of Minecraft Education

Minecraft Education is a version of the popular open world game, Minecraft, specifically designed for education. It contains features that make Minecraft more accessible and effective in a classroom setting including the following which differentiate it from the Bedrock and Java editions:

Dedicated Server (October 2025):  Host persistent worlds for use in classrooms and after-school programs (similar to the way Bedrock Dedicated Servers can be used with the consumer version of Minecraft). Minecraft Education now offers the option to self-host Dedicated Servers or join another tenant’s Dedicated Servers through cross-tenant play.

Cloud Storage (February 2024): Allows you to back up your worlds to OneDrive and sync them across devices that you log into. Worlds are automatically saved to OneDrive upon closing the world as a backup. 

Single Sign on (SSO) SSO like networks, works differently and is implemented differently at schools depending on the service they're using. SSO is available for Minecraft Education if the user is logging into their domain joined device with the same Office 365 Education credentials they use to login to the game. If you are interested in learning more about your Sign on Services' compatibility with Office 365 or Minecraft Education please contact them directly.

Immersive Reader: A feature that allows for users to have content from the game translated through audio.

Chemistry Resource Pack (February 2018) Discover the building blocks of matter, combine elements into useful compounds and Minecraft items, and conduct amazing experiments with new lessons and a downloadable world.

3D Exporting (October 2017) Use your Minecraft Education creations in the real world and share them via Remix 3D!

Classroom Mode is a companion app for Minecraft Education that shows a high-level map view of the world, a list of all the students, the ability for a teacher to teleport students, and a chat window to communicate. Classroom Mode is provided for Educators who may want to observe student activity without being in the game, and is not needed for students to play.

Easy Classroom Collaboration Educators have told us that one of the greatest benefits of Minecraft Education is the ability for students to collaborate together to build projects and solve problems. An entire classroom of up to thirty (30) students can play in a world together with no separate server setup required. Students can work together in pairs or groups simply by joining their classmates’ world.

Special blocks allow you to control the world you have set up for a lesson. Minecraft Education includes blocks not currently found in other editions of Minecraft designed especially for educators and world creators. These specialty blocks are designed to help you preserve structures you wish to keep, prevent world visitors from wandering too far, and section off designated areas to build.

Non-Player Characters An educator may create an NPC (Non-Player Character) to act as a guide for students in the game, giving instruction, providing more information, and also allowing educators to insert an active web link to additional references.

Cameras, Portfolio, and writable books An important aspect of teaching with Minecraft is being able to collect evidence of learning in the game, and being able to track student progression. The camera and portfolio features allows students to take screenshots of their work and document the development of their projects.

Chalkboards Creators can use chalkboards to communicate learning goals, provide additional information and give explicit instructions within the game. Chalkboards come in three different sizes – Slate (1×1), Poster (2×1), and Board (2×3).

Simple, Secure sign-in Individual student and teacher logins with Office 365 Education accounts ensure data privacy & security while playing Minecraft Education.

Tutorial World For educators or students new to Minecraft, a tutorial world is available that will guide players on in-game navigation, crafting, and placing or breaking blocks.

Lessons Full lessons for educators to use in their classroom. These lessons are available for the Education only.

Premium Support Full support from live agents for all of your needs relating to Minecraft Education.

In-Game library In game categorization of lessons and worlds allows for easy access to great content

Secure multiplayer Enjoy multiplayer games with other users on your same Office 365 tenant, and easily join others worlds quickly and securely with pictoral "join codes"

Teacher permissions Teachers are able to join worlds with operator permissions. Teachers and hosts can also change the permission levels of other players in any world they join.