The University of Sydney has made its Cogniti AI education platform available on Microsoft Marketplace, extending access to a system that allows educators to create course-specific AI agents configured around their own curriculum, teaching practices and course materials, as reported by Edtech Innovation Hub.

Cogniti agents can provide personalised feedback on student work, run simulated scenarios and guide students through complex problems, with each agent designed and controlled by an individual educator rather than operating as a general-purpose AI assistant across multiple courses.

Hundreds of University of Sydney educators are already using Cogniti across subjects including engineering, science, languages and cultures. Engineering and science educators have used agents to summarise technical information, quiz students and provide immediate feedback, while language educators have created conversation practice agents matched to individual student skill levels.

Professor Danny Liu, Cogniti's architect at the University of Sydney, said the platform is designed to keep educators in control of how AI operates within their courses. "We're giving them a tool where they can control how AI can be used effectively, because they're the experts in their curriculum and teaching practices," he said.

The platform has also been trialled by nursing educators at Unitec, Manukau Institute of Technology and Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology in New Zealand, where three agents were developed covering drug calculations, patient deterioration and the de-escalation of situations involving distressed patients.

Dr James Oldfield, Manager of Digital Learning at Unitec, described one student's experience with the drug calculation agent. "They really took to working with the agent, spent quite a bit of time with it, and essentially aced the test. They came back to the teacher with very positive, unsolicited feedback," he said.

Jonathan Adams, Education Technology Advisor at Toi Ohomai, said the around-the-clock availability of the agents is particularly valuable for students managing competing demands. "Having these sorts of tools available around the clock means students can get help exactly when they need it," he said, noting that most student interactions with the agents take place outside standard business hours.

The University of Sydney has not disclosed pricing, licensing arrangements or technical requirements for organisations adopting the platform through the Microsoft Marketplace listing.

Access the full details of the Cogniti platform and its Microsoft Marketplace listing in the full report.