Minecraft Education Edition – Buying & Managing Licenses

Students playing Minecraft Education Edition

UPDATE 2: Nikkie Lang, from Opaheke Primary School, has published a fantastic blog that shows the process from a school’s perspective from start to finish. This is well worth reading by clicking here.

UPDATE: Since making this blog I’ve come across an authoritative step by step guide on TechNet that you can view here. I do encourage you to check that out as well. It shows how to assign licenses purchased from:

1. Directly in the Microsoft Windows Store For Business, and
2. Purchased as part of an EES  Agreement through Volume Licensing

Unsurprisingly, more schools are exploring Minecraft Education Edition as an easy way to managing licensing for students, and developers are already creating and sharing new Minecraft worlds for the Education Edition.

The homepage of Minecraft Education Edition is the best place to start for those new to using Minecraft for their students, but if you’re interested in how to buy / manage licenses (including assigning/reclaiming) then I’ve made a step by step guide for you below.

• You need to sign into the Microsoft Windows Store For Business using your school / work account (i.e. Office365)

• Make sure you sign in with your school O365 account – this will need to be an administrator account:

• Once you’re signed in, search for “Minecraft” in the search box at the top right hand corner and then select “Minecraft Education Edition”:

• You will then have an option to “Buy” or “Manage” your licenses:

• UPDATE: Schools in NZ can purchase licences from Datacom via the MoE School agreement (this is recommended). If you’ve not purchased any licenses already (&you want to get them directly from the MBSW) then select “Buy” and you will be presented with pricing and quantities. You will need to pay via credit card to purchase these. Step through the purchase process to complete your licensing procurement. REMEMBER: you can assign/reclaim these licenses between students so you may not need to buy one license for every student in your school (see below for how to manage this process).
• When you are ready to assign licenses to students click on the “Manage” button to the right of the “Buy” button and you can start to assign licenses. The easiest way to do this is click the “Invite People” to the bottom right of the screen and then this allows you to easily search for the names of students in your class / school and assign them  (You don’t need to type the full email address, only the name of the student). See below:

• Once you’ve completed the above you’re done! The student can sign into Minecraft Education Edition with their School Office365 email address/password and get playing!

• Note that because the student is using their O365 credentials the game automatically names them with their first name and first initial of their surname for identification:

• Students/Teachers with currently assigned licenses are shown below the “Buy / Install Trial” button:

• To reclaim (remove) licenses so they can be reassigned to another student, then the administrator in the Windows Store For Business simply needs to tick the names of students they wish to remove the license from and then select the ellipsis (three dots) to the right of the names of one of the people selected and then click “reclaim licenses”:

So there you have it! A quick guide on how to purchase,assign and reclaim licenses for Minecraft Education Edition. If you run into problems or have questions then feel free to leave a comment the section below.