Epic! Student Login Guide: Unleashing the Power of Digital Reading

Epic! is a digital platform providing students and educators with access to a vast library of digital books, videos, and quizzes. It is accessible on computers, tablets, and mobile phones. Epic! is a digital tool that teachers can use to enhance students’ reading skills. The school version is free for teachers and districts from 7 am to 4 pm on weekdays. To enable student access outside of school hours, Epic! offers a subscription service.

The Educational Benefits of Epic!

Digital texts encourage students to interact with, jump to, and draw on multiple readings compared to traditional classroom’s linear way of teaching reading skill. Learners are able to comprehend the reading content easier supplemented with multimodal texts. Using a similar digital story platform- Storybird to improve students’ reading skills is also demonstrated in Koehler and Christiansen’s article (2016). Listening skills can be developed as well using Epic!, as the audiobook function allows learners to slow down or rewind the content when needed. The audio dictionary on the Spanish-based apps also helped with L2 learner’s listening comprehension.

How Educators Can Leverage Epic!

Epic! provides a digital library where teachers can search for reading materials, assign readings to students, and assess comprehension using quizzes. It is geared towards students aged 12 and under.

To use Epic!, teachers need to switch to Epic! School and verify their school information. After registering, they can add students to their "class" and group them based on reading levels. Reading materials can be found by typing keywords in the search box. Each digital book comes with audio texts, a dictionary, and videos. Epic! also allows teachers to create their own quizzes.

Applying the SAMR Model with Epic!

The SAMR model can help educators incorporate digital libraries like Epic! into their classrooms.

Read also: Meet Yoshi at Epic Universe

Substitution: Instead of reading a physical storybook, teachers can select a digital book in Epic! for students to read at their own pace.
Augmentation: The quizzes available for most books in Epic! allow teachers to assess student comprehension at their own pace.
Modification: Teachers can create assignments that ask students to analyze how the visuals and audio in a digital book contribute to their comprehension.
Redefinition: Students can collaborate to create virtual library projects with themes of their choice, using books and videos from Epic! and integrating them into a Google Slides presentation.

Expanding Communication and Learning with Epic!

Epic! can be useful for parent-teacher and teacher-student communication regarding reading materials and assignments.

For Language Teachers: Epic! can be used for grammar lessons. For instance, language teachers can ask their students to read a book in Epic! that contains a couple of pairs of antonyms, write those antonyms down and guide the students to figure out the definition of antonyms. Then students need to find at least a pair of antonyms by themselves when switching to a new context/book. Alternative practices can also be included such as fill-in-the-blank activity.

For Language Learners: Learners are found to use various strategies to monitor their learning and make connections in the digital textbook environment. L2 learners can also employ Epic! to make reading more efficient. One way is to preview the visual content of the book and develop an overall idea about what might happen in this story before starting to read.

Epic! for Educators: A Comprehensive Guide

Epic! offers unlimited access to over 40,000 ebooks, videos, quizzes and more! Students can read to themselves or listen to books read aloud. The books are leveled so students can know they’re reading a “just right” book and the titles they offer are AWESOME! The great news is as an educator, you can get a FREE Epic account for you and your class.

Navigating the Educator Homepage

When you first log-in you’ll find yourself on the educator homepage. As you scroll across the page you’ll find a monthly activity calendar you can share with students and families. The calendar offers little daily challenges that will get students creating, learning and reading about all different topics. During school hours (7am-4pm) your students will have unlimited access to the Epic library. But a really awesome feature is that you can invite families to create a FREE PARENT ACCOUNT! Once you have created your class roster, click on “My Students”.

Collaboration Made Easy

Epic makes collaboration so easy! Is your entire grade studying the water cycle? You can share your collection of water cycle videos and books with your colleagues by simply clicking “share”. Epic is an incredible resource that ALL educators should be taking advantage of!

Creative Assignments with Epic!

One of the best ways to engage students with Epic! is through creative assignments. Here are a few ideas:

Book Companions: Assign students a book and provide them with questions to answer while reading. Follow up with an assignment that complements the book's themes.
Google Slides Presentations: Have students create presentations about books they've read, teaching the class about the story or subject matter.
Reading Accountability Quizzes: Utilize the quizzes available on Epic! to check students' reading comprehension and make it a fun weekly activity.
Student-Led Lessons: Empower students to become the teacher by having them create and present lessons on topics they are passionate about.
Holiday Collections: Curate and assign holiday-themed collections to students, encouraging them to read about different celebrations and traditions.
Teacher Read-Alouds: Record yourself reading a book from Epic! and share it with your students, providing a personal touch to the reading experience.
Digital Book Projects: Assign novels on Epic! and have students complete digital book projects, such as creating a newspaper or blog based on the story.

Student Login Guide: Accessing Epic!

Here's how students log into your educator classroom:

Have your students go to kids.getepic.com/students or use the Epic app on their Android/iOS device, and click "Enter Class Code".
Students enter their classroom code
How can educators invite students to read on Epic School? Educators can invite students to read on Epic School using the instructions located in the educator dashboard.

Integrating Epic! with Beanstack

Once your site has enabled the Epic! integration, your students can quickly and easily import their Epic! Once they have successfully entered their class code or Epic! Once the credentials are accepted, the reader will then be able to pick which Epic! profiles route to which Beanstack readers. If they are using a class code, the student will find and select their name from their entire class in Epic! and route it to their Beanstack reader name. If they are using a parent/family account, they will map their Epic! name to the correct Beanstack reader name. They will do this once, and the system will remember the selection for the next time. It may take a few moments to import the specified reading sessions. Readers should import often to ensure all reading is synced with Beantack.

Important Considerations for Integration

Epic! imports are not retroactive prior to integration and import dates, including start date, cannot be specified. Imports can also only apply to recent Epic! sessions. Once you have Epic! integrated with your site, your readers should make sure to import reading from Epic! local time. If an error occurs outside this window, please wait until the next available period to try again. Epic! reading sessions do not count toward all log and challenge types. Due to data sharing limitations, Epic! Epic! accounts with any duplicate names cannot import their reading sessions. To fix this, users will need to visit the Epic! Epic! data will appear in Reports and Insights. However, readers’ Beanstack logging and Epic!

Read also: Pricing for Epic Universe Tickets

Epic! Family: Extending Learning Beyond the Classroom

Your students and their families can use Epic before and after school and on weekends by subscribing to Epic Family . With Epic Family, students get unlimited, anytime access to our entire library of over 40,000 books, including Epic Originals, Read-To-Me books, videos, animated books, audiobooks and Motion Comics. Epic Family also includes fun, interactive learning tools that keep kids motivated as they build their vocabulary & reading comprehension skills.

We’re offer a special, limited-time discount that educators may share with their students and their families if they purchase an annual plan. You can share it via flyer or by sending a message through your educator dashboard. Simply log in to your dashboard, then click on "Share Offer" below to learn more about how to share the special promotion!

Accessing Epic! on Various Devices

Epic is available on any web browser (on a laptop or desktop computer), or the Epic app on any iOS or Android device. (Be sure parents update their app for the latest version.)

Accessibility Features on Epic!

At Epic, we are committed to making our platform accessible to all users, including those with visual and hearing impairments.

Read-To-Me books: Professionally recorded narration reads aloud while the book plays. Pages turn automatically and words are highlighted as they’re read aloud.
Audiobooks: Professionally recorded narration reads the book aloud. Unlike Read-To-Me books, audiobooks are strictly audio-there is no visual book or pages to follow along with.

In addition, we recommend exploring third-party apps available on both Apple and Google platforms.

Seeing AI (iOS): Designed to assist individuals with visual impairments.
Sound Amplifier (Android): Designed to improve the listening experience for users with hearing difficulties.

By exploring these recommended apps alongside Epic's built-in accessibility features, you can create a more inclusive and accessible learning environment for all users.

Troubleshooting: Password Reset

I forgot my password. Please click or tap on the "forgot your password?" link located at the bottom of the sign-in page of the app/site.

Alternatives to Epic! in LPS

Epic provides a collection of high-interest ebooks to elementary readers. Access is instant and simultaneous. Alternatives to Epic in LPS Free and always available!Library Services provides access to hundreds of multi-user ebooks that students can read at school or at home any time of day or night, 24/7/365. These books are chosen by librarians and curriculum specialists in the district and reflect the current curriculum being taught.

PLEASE NOTE: Epic! does not replace our curriculum already in place in Lincoln Public Schools. It is a resource to support instruction. Library Media Services has a wealth of databases and eBooks which are available and integrated into lesson plans and can also be found on LibGuides and on your school’s library page.

Classroom Management Tips for Epic!

Epic offers many educational videos in addition to the books. However, sometimes students will just watch videos instead of reading books. Teachers can disable educational videos. If the teacher disables videos, they will be disabled for everyone in the class, even the teacher.

Utilizing LPS Epic! Project Collections

Click on the link below for the collection that you are interested in. If you are not signed into your Epic! account, you will see a sign in button on the top left corner of the screen. Click here to sign into your account. Once you are signed in you will need to navigate back to this page with the LPS Epic!

Engaging Students with Collections

Project an eBook and read it aloud to the class.
Assign a collection to students and have them access the books on their device. A video with directions on how to assign a collection can be found in the LPS Epic! Video Tutorials playlist above.
Have the students take a quiz on the book. Some books already have quizzes, but teachers can always make their own quiz for a book. A video with directions on how to assign a collection can be found in the LPS Epic!

Customizing Your Library

Above the eBooks in the collection, you will find a button that says “Copy”. If you click this button it will add the collection to your personal library. To access your library, click the heart icon on the top of the page that says “My Library”. Once the collection has been copied to your library, you can edit the books in your collection. You can delete a book, by hovering over it with your mouse and clicking the red X. When searching for books you can add them to this collection.

tags: #epic #books #student #login #guide