Now Available: Class Sets of Titles That Can be Used in a Whole-class Read

Over the last few years Heartland AEA and other AEAs have created a robust ebook collection of fiction and nonfiction titles in MackinVIA. Much of the collection has been built with recommendations from teachers. There are multiple copies of most titles, but not enough titles to meet the needs of a whole-class read or unit study for a specific period of time.

Some background.

Ebooks are sold by publishers in different licensing models—perpetual license, 2-year subscription, 26-checkout and more. Why do we mention this? The publishers determine which titles are available in which models and the price. Heartland AEA looked at a couple of vendors that aggregate ebook content from publishers and then resell. Mackin had the publisher relationships, titles, plus the MackinVIA reader that most of our students already use.

The new class set model.

• This summer many K-12 publishers have (finally!) decided to offer a class set licensing model. Schools can order x number of ebook copies that can be assigned to individual students for a set number of days (usually 30, 60, or 90 days). It’s basically a rental.
• If your school, for example, orders 50 copies and 47 were used this school year, the remainder will roll over for next year.
• How much? It depends. For budgeting purposes, you could use an average of $3.50/copy. Some titles are $.86 some are $5.30.
• Mackin will provide the school a title registration code for the student. The individual class set title is only available to that student.

Why consider class sets?

• Guaranteed availability for the number of days you purchase.
• Familiar ebook reader format (in MackinVIA and AEA Scout.)
• Students can write in the book—highlight, underline, take notes.
• When the license expires, the notes and highlights remain in the student’s account for easy access.
• Roll-over unused ebooks to the next school year.

Before you order.

You might want to think about who will schedule and take on some admin responsibilities for creating accounts. Click here and scroll down to the Admin Overview of Class Sets video to determine what setup will work best for your school or district.

How to order.

• Create an account at www.mackin.com. Be sure to click Use Iowa State Contract Pricing when you create your admin account profile. We’re pleased to report that there is a 7% discount through AEA Purchasing--AEPA Contract #020-C.
• You can search for the individual titles or authors at www.mackin.com.

How to assign the ebook to a student.

• Students will need a personal account in MackinVIA. We’d like to suggest you use the student Google or Microsoft login. It can be a self-registration process or import of user data. More info is at https://help.mackinvia.com/backpack-accounts/.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page to the Student Overview of Class Sets video that shows the process for activating the code.

Heartland AEA hopes that this new class set model will help support your curriculum. We also encourage you to continue to recommend titles that Heartland AEA can purchase for the general MackinVIA collection.