ipad 1:1 class sets ebooksBy Sydney Kalnay, Training Specialist.

As educators, you know that meeting students in their favored environment – the digital space – can engender trust while helping them adopt the 21st century skills they’ll need to succeed in the future. To that end, many teachers are finding ways to incorporate more e-learning strategies and new technology into their classrooms.

One effective method of meeting students in that space is to offer digital content as part of the curriculum, either in addition to or as an alternative to print. Teaming up with your school librarian or media specialist to procure digital editions of books you are already using for your units and lessons can help make the transition simple. Another option is to talk to the provider of your LMS, if your school uses one, to see if the program offers any built-in tools for assigning the digital content you buy.

If you use OverDrive for your digital content we have the best of both worlds – digital content in affordable class set models and teacher-friendly tools to help manage assigning materials to your students.

Class sets

Class sets, a way of “renting” copies of titles in OverDrive Marketplace, our online administrative portal, allow your whole class to read the same digital title at the same time, with one dedicated copy available for each student during a time period that you specify. This per-user lending model is offered by select publishers, and is less expensive than its traditional lending model counterpart.

When you purchase a class set, you purchase the title for a set of specific students for a predetermined length of time. The title will be automatically checked out to each student on the start date that you choose and are automatically returned at the end of that period; the titles do not remain a part of your school’s permanent OverDrive collection.

For a short but thorough tutorial about purchasing digital content in a class set model, view our Class Sets staff training module.

Title assignments

Title assignments is a tool in OverDrive Marketplace that allows you to assign copies of a digital title that your school already owns to your entire class at once. When you assign a title in your collection to students, it will be automatically checked out for the date range that you specify.

The title assignments tool is unique because it works with the digital content that already exists in your OverDrive collection; you do not need to purchase new content unless you do not already own enough copies of a title for each of the students you are assigning to. In that case, a teacher could purchase just the additional copies he or she needs for that class or, if they do not wish to add more copies to the school’s collection permanently, could consider “renting” titles through a class set model.

For more information on how to use the Title assignments tool in OverDrive Marketplace, view our Title assignments staff training module.

Consider these tools and others as ways to empower educators to take charge of their calendar and their curriculum, and allow for an easy shift from an analog to a digital classroom.