Educational Technology at IU13

With most student checkouts already happening in Sora, OverDrive will soon start the process of retiring the legacy OverDrive app and encouraging all students to use Sora as the primary app to enjoy your digital collection.

The first step will be to remove the OverDrive app from the Apple App Store, Google Play, and Microsoft Store starting February 23, 2022. At the same time, the download links for the legacy OverDrive desktop app for Windows and Mac will be removed from overdrive.com/apps.

How this initial change will impact users

• Current OverDrive app users (mobile and desktop) can continue to use the app.
• New users looking for the OverDrive app will be directed to Sora.
• All users can continue to use, borrow, and open titles from your school’s .lib.overdrive.com OverDrive website via a browser until we begin further migration to Sora.

What happens next
Your school should actively promote Sora and remove references to the OverDrive app from school websites and promotional materials. In future phases, we will encourage OverDrive app users to switch to Sora, with a goal of moving most over by the end of 2022. We are committed to supporting a smooth transition for you and your students and will send you updates on the plans and timing for the eventual retirement of the OverDrive app.

Learn about Sora with step-by-step short, informative lessons that are part of OverDrive's free self-paced trainings: Getting Started with Sora - for Educators and Getting Started with Sora - for Students

Pick and choose the features and lessons you’re interested in, and complete them in any order you like. Modules are unique self-serve learning experience that includes a variety of media such as text and images, videos and audio, knowledge checks, links to additional resources and other interactive blocks. 

This year, OverDrive has added the Sora for Classrooms and Curriculum self-paced training module to help educators explore the use of Sora’s flexible reading tools for lesson planning, curriculum development and more.  At-a-glance, K-12 staff can discover how Sora’s features connect to classrooms and curriculum with this editable chart.

OverDrive's Big Library Read launches on November 1st. This year's title is Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards is available to all IU13 districts for sim-use checkouts until November 15th.  Marketing materials, such as flyers, social media posts, and images to promote to high school students and teachers can be found here.

A recent announcement from OverDrive:

We are happy to announce that OverDrive has acquired TeachingBooks.net. TeachingBooks creates, acquires and maintains an expansive, exclusive collection of digital resources that deepen students' understanding of children's and young adult books. It is the best source of supplemental materials that enables you to support curriculum needs and enrich literacy instruction while enhancing students' engagement with books and reading. See press release.

TeachingBooks has been creating and maintaining enrichment content about children's and young adult books since 2001, and now offers more than 265,000 resources in their catalog to enrich how a book is taught in the classroom. They currently work with more than 50,000 schools and libraries, supporting students' and readers' appreciation and enjoyment of books.