higher-education

Higher Education Plugin for Claude Cowork

An AI-powered productivity plugin for faculty, academic administrators, and research administrators — built for Claude Cowork and Claude Code.

Covers the full scope of higher education knowledge work: course design, grant writing, scholarly communication, institutional governance, student-facing work, and research compliance.

Note: This plugin assists with academic and administrative workflows. It does not make academic decisions on behalf of the user. Outputs — especially compliance documents, letters of recommendation, and grant narratives — should be reviewed by the appropriate institutional professionals before reliance or submission.

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Roles Supported

• Faculty — Course design, grant writing, scholarly writing, peer review, student communication
• Department Chair / Associate Dean — Governance, program review, accreditation, committee work
• Dean / Provost — Institutional reports, board communications, strategic planning
• Research Administrator — Pre-award, post-award, IRB, compliance documentation
• Academic Advisor — Student communication, advising documentation

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What's Included

Skills (fire automatically when relevant)

Skill	What it does
course-design	Syllabi, learning objectives, assignments, rubrics, course schedules
grant-writing	Specific aims, NIH/NSF/NEH narratives, budget justification, resubmissions
scholarly-writing	Manuscripts, abstracts, cover letters, response to reviewers
governance	Accreditation, program review, committee reports, board communications
student-communication	Rec letters, feedback, advising notes, difficult student situations
research-administration	IRB protocols, sponsor reporting, compliance documentation

Slash Commands (invoke explicitly)

Command	What it does
/syllabus	Build or revise a course syllabus from scratch
/grant-narrative	Draft specific aims, significance, approach, or full narrative
/rec-letter	Draft a letter of recommendation (student or colleague)
/committee-report	Draft a governance report, accreditation narrative, or memo
/peer-review	Draft a peer review report for a journal manuscript
/grading	Build rubrics, draft feedback, or prepare grade dispute responses

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Connectors

This plugin is configured to connect to:

• Google Workspace (Drive, Docs, Gmail, Calendar)
• Microsoft 365 (SharePoint, Outlook, Teams)
• Grants.gov / NIH Reporter
• Learning Management System (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle)
• Academic Databases (PubMed, JSTOR, Scopus)

See CONNECTORS.md to configure connectors for your institution's tool stack. If you only use one workspace platform (Google or Microsoft), remove the other from .mcp.json to reduce context overhead.

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Installation

One-click (macOS)

1. Download install.command from this repo.
2. Double-click it in Finder. Terminal will open and run the installer.
3. Restart Claude Desktop. The plugin's skills and commands are available in Cowork.

If macOS blocks the file with "cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer", right-click it and choose Open, then click Open in the dialog. Alternatively: xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/install.command.

One-line (macOS / Linux)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mzrascoff/higher-ed-cowork-plugins/main/install.sh | bash

From a clone

git clone https://github.com/mzrascoff/higher-ed-cowork-plugins.git
cd higher-ed-cowork-plugins
./install.command

Via Claude Code marketplace

claude plugin marketplace add mzrascoff/higher-ed-cowork-plugins
claude plugin install higher-education@higher-ed-cowork-plugins

Manual / Cowork upload

Or upload the cloned folder directly from Cowork's plugin panel.

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Customization

This plugin is a generic starting point. It becomes significantly more powerful when you configure it for your institution.

Create a .claude/ directory in your working folder and add local configuration files:

.claude/
├── course-design.local.md       # Your discipline, LMS, institution policies
├── grant-writing.local.md       # Your F&A rate, SRO contacts, common sponsors
├── scholarly-writing.local.md   # Your field, preferred journals, citation style
├── governance.local.md          # Your accreditor, governance structure, strategic plan
├── student-communication.local.md  # Campus resources, advising approach
└── research-administration.local.md  # IRB system, compliance contacts, active awards

Each skill's SKILL.md describes what to put in its local configuration file.