More than 23,000 schools worldwide now offering students 24/7 access to ebooks and audiobooks for class and leisure reading

 

 

CLEVELAND – November 13, 2019 – OverDrive Education today announced that its K-12 student reading app, Sora, is now available to more than 23,000 schools nationwide, an increase of 5,000 since 2018. Millions of students at public and private schools across the U.S. now have the opportunity to access Sora to borrow ebooks and audiobooks for classroom and pleasure reading.

Sora’s rapid ascent has been attributed to the sharp increase in digital content usage in the classroom – up 15% since 2016 to more than 92 percent of all classrooms, according to The 2019 K-12 Digital Content Report from ASCD. Other contributing factors include the rising popularity of 1:1 device programs, which the report found were in place in 49% of schools today, an increase of 23% over 2016. Sora users also benefit from access to an expansive catalog of ebooks and audiobooks, with millions of titles from thousands of publishers available in every subject.

“The noteworthy growth of our Sora student reading app is a testament to how digital resources are critical in the classroom,” said Brian Potash, head of school growth for OverDrive Education. “We created Sora to help kids learn to love reading using technology they know best, while also providing students and teachers with resources they need to create enthusiasm about classroom assignments.”

Educators that have implemented Sora in the classroom have noted improvement in students’ reading achievements. From the beginning compared to the end of the school year, students with Sora nearly doubled the amount of time they spent reading. Additionally, ebook and audiobook reading increased 240% when students connected the app to their local public library versus solely accessing their school’s collection.

The case for Sora adoption is also aided by the app’s unique feature set. Teachers and school librarians can meet the curricular needs of all students by using the app to assign titles from their school’s ebook and audiobook collection. Sora, which is now compatible with Google Classroom, can also show educators an aggregate view by school of the number of books students have opened daily, plus the average reading time per session.

For students, Sora expands their age-appropriate reading options via an in-app function that prompts them to add access to their local public library. Furthermore, Sora enables students to read books in the format of their choosing and download titles to read offline, so that access is never dependent on an internet connection – which, in turn, helps encourage independent reading outside the classroom.

To learn more about Sora and get a free one-month trial, please visit discoversora.com.

 

 

About OverDrive Education – a division of Rakuten OverDrive

OverDrive Education is the leading global digital reading platform for K-12, offering the industry’s largest catalog of ebooks, audiobooks and streaming video. As a 100% digital company serving 43,000 libraries and schools worldwide, OverDrive combines technology with content to support learning and reading in the classroom, library and home on all major devices, including iOS®, Android™, Chromebook™, and Kindle® (US only). OverDrive Education released Sora, the student reading app, in September 2018. Founded in 1986, OverDrive and OverDrive Education are based in Cleveland, Ohio USA, and owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten. company.overdrive.com/education/


Contact:
David Burleigh
Director of Brand Marketing & Communications
dburleigh@overdrive.com

 

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