New secure dashboard equips educators to effectively support learning outcomes

 

 

CLEVELAND – September 30, 2021 – As digital book usage in the classroom grows, so does the need for educators to access valuable insights about student reading activity. In response, OverDrive Education today announced its new dashboard providing authorized educators secure access to student reading data from the Sora app. Sora is the leading student reading app used by more than 50,000 schools worldwide.

This new data tool provides educators the ability to track students’ individual and aggregated reading progress of ebooks and audiobooks through Sora. Educators are using this information to inform lesson plans and deliver individualized support for each student. OverDrive Education adheres to industry best practices of protecting student-level data and privacy. The student reading dashboard is available at no cost to all educators and schools, even for districts using Sora with the free  donated collections of hundreds of digital books.

Schools across the U.S. are using ESF, ESSER, CARES and other government relief funding to purchase digital books to combat unfinished learning from the pandemic. As students read titles such as Eyes That Kiss in the Corners, Esperanza Rising and The Crossover Graphic Novel, educators with appropriate permissions can benefit from the student dashboard to securely view reading data. Teachers can learn how each student engages with assigned readings and support discussions with parents and families about a student’s reading progress. Administrators can use the dashboard to evaluate the effectiveness of their required reading titles, assess the ROI of digital book purchases and make better informed data-driven title selections.

“As a data-driven school district, we are always looking for ways to identify resources that improve our students’ achievement,” said Angela Daigle, Library Services Department Head at Millard Public Schools in Omaha, Nebraska. “We know that students are using Sora today because we can see usage data. With the new student dashboard, we’ll be able to make data-driven decisions about literacy initiatives.”

Educators with appropriate permissions can securely view reading data by student as well as by class, including:

  • Number of books opened
  • Time read
  • Number of reading sessions
  • Number of active days
  • Average time per session
  • Average time per book
  • Achievements earned

The student reading dashboard also reports how students progressed with digital books accessed from their local public library in Sora. This data is available in OverDrive Marketplace, the platform enabling schools’ access to data as well as vast digital book catalogs. Here, teachers can manage their digital collection, including curation, title assignments and more.

OverDrive Education General Manager Angela Arnold added, “We developed the student reading dashboard based on what educators, literacy coaches and school librarians said they need to empower students in the classroom. At minimum, teachers can know if the student read an assigned book or not—no guessing. The pandemic-driven shift to digital tools like Sora gives educators new ways to help students meet reading objectives. Our data is both sensible and actionable.”

For more information about the student reading dashboard, visit https://resources.overdrive.com/using-the-student-dashboard-in-marketplace.

Educators can learn more about Sora at https://discoversora.com.

 

About OverDrive Education and the Sora student reading app

OverDrive Education, a division of OverDrive, offers the industry’s largest catalog of ebooks and audiobooks for over 50,000 K-12 schools and millions of students worldwide. The company’s student reading app, Sora, provides every student with access to the right books. Supporting the need to read required curriculum titles, class sets and pleasure reading digital books, Sora’s powerful learning tools and insights help meet the needs of students and educators. Sora was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2019. Founded in 1986, OverDrive – the leading digital reading platform for libraries – and OverDrive Education are based in Cleveland, Ohio USA. www.overdrive.com/schools

 

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

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