As an educator, you may have faced situations where you wished you had a custom app that could help you with your tasks, such as managing inventory, tracking volunteers, conducting surveys, etc. However, creating an app from scratch can be daunting, especially if you don’t have any coding or app development skills.

That’s where PowerApps copilot comes in. PowerApps copilot is a new feature that allows you to create custom apps by simply describing what you want the app to do. You can use natural language to specify the app’s name, data sources, screens, and actions. The copilot will then generate a working app that you can test and refine. You can also use the PowerApps studio to further customize the app’s design, logic, and functionality.

In this blog post, I will share my experience of using PowerApps copilot to create a parent volunteer app. I will also highlight some of the advantages of using this feature and how it can help educators create custom apps that can help their district save time and money.

Creating a Parent Volunteer App with PowerApps Copilot

One of the challenges a small school can face is managing and coordinating parent volunteers for various school events and activities. I thought it would be helpful to have an app that could help track and manage parent volunteers, such as their availability, preferences, assignments, feedback, etc.

PowerApps copilot is a great tool to create such an app. Here are the steps that I followed and was able to create a working app in under an hour:

1. I opened PowerApps and clicked on the Create tab. I then selected the Copilot option.
2. I typed the following prompt in the text box: “I want to create a parent volunteer app that can help me track and manage parent volunteers for my school. The app should have a screen where I can see the list of parent volunteers, their contact information, and their availability.“

1. Next the copilot built a table to represent the data structure. Here I could continue to provide inputs to the copilot to add columns, rename, or other manipulations to the data structure. For example, I could have prompted the copilot to add a column to not whether the volunteer has had a background check or not. The copilot would not only create the column but would select the appropriate data type. In this case it would be Boolean to mark either true or false.

1. After clicking create app, the copilot went to work creating the app.

1. Once complete, the app opens in the PowerApps studio. This is where you can further refine the app to meet your needs.

As you can see, the copilot built a nice app that is organized into a list on the left and a main body that shows a details card. The list is searchable and has a button to add a new contact. The main card for each contact has the options to edit and delete the currently selected contact. Amazingly, this app has a lot of functionality right out of the box, and all I had to do is state what kind of app I wanted. Of course, this app isn’t complete, but this foundation has given me a great start to build the app out for more functionality. This also give me a functioning app that I can explore to see how things work and learn about how to build apps in PowerApps.

Advantages of Using PowerApps Copilot

I was very impressed by how easy and fast it was to create a custom app with PowerApps copilot. Some of the advantages of using this feature are:

• Ease of use: You don’t need to have any coding or app development skills to use the copilot. You can just type or speak your app idea and get a prototype in minutes.
• Flexibility: You can create apps for various scenarios and purposes, such as managing inventory, tracking volunteers, conducting surveys, etc. You can also connect to different data sources, such as Excel, SharePoint, SQL, etc.
• Efficiency: You can save time and money by creating apps that can automate tasks, streamline workflows, and improve productivity. You can also share your apps with others and collaborate on them.

I know from experience that educators have limited time, and developing an app seems nearly impossible – even if you know that the app will save time in the long run. With copilot you can get a functioning app that might even be good enough for problem that needs to be solved.

Conclusion

PowerApps copilot is a powerful and innovative feature that can help educators create custom apps that can help their district save time and money. I encourage you to try it out and see what kind of apps you can create with it. You can also check out the PowerApps copilot documentation for more information and guidance.