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Minecraft Education Edition - Hints, Tips and Troubleshooting

 

To enhance your adventures in Minecraft Education Edition, here are some tips and tricks that will power up the experience! Try out the following advice and you'll be on your way to becoming a Minecraft Education Edition Guru!

Basic Controls in Minecraft

When you enter a world for the first time you might find it difficult to become familiar with all the keyboard and mouse controls. The basic controls are:

  • W = Move Forward
  • S = Move Backward
  • A = Move Left
  • D = Move Right
  • Mouse = Look around

For a more comprehensive guide to the controls download and print the Minecraft Education Edition Keyboard and Mouse Controls Guide, a snapshot of which is below.

Minecraft EE Keyboard and Mouse controls guide

To increase your confidence in Minecraft Education Edition, it is recommended that you begin your adventure in the tutorial world - one of the options when you first open Minecraft Education Edition.

Licensing

You might have noticed that some of your students or colleagues are recieving a different message when they access Minecraft Education Edition (such as the one below), or worse still their access has been suspended.

This is due to the fact the user does not have a full license to Minecraft Education Edition. Users automatically recieve a limited number of sessions to trial Minecraft Education Edition. You will find this soon comes to an end and you will need to reapply for a license for this user using the form located on the Minecraft Education Edition Intranet page.

Sharing and joining worlds

One of the features of Minecraft Education Edition is the ability for students and teachers to collaborate inside the same Minecraft World. In a school with a variety of devices you may however encounter some connection issues.

At the time of writing, one of the most common issues is that users have different versions of Minecraft Education Edition installed. Please ensure you have checked that all students have the latest version. This should not be a problem on eT4L machines that have installed the Windows 10 App, but may be a concern with Mac OS or BYODs.

To determine the version of Minecraft installed, check the version number shown in the bottom right hand corner of the launch screen. The image below identifies the version as 'v1.0.18.'

To install the latest version on a MacOS device, you will need to uninstall Minecraft and then reinstall from the Minecraft Education Edition downloads page.

Windows 10 computers should update automatically, however if you access the Windows Store and then choose the Minecraft Education Edition App, you should be able to force an update if one is available.

For more information on joining worlds see this knowledge article.

Minecraft splash screen

World Settings - Multi-player

When students or teachers create a world there are a few settings that can be selected, one of which is multi-player mode. This is a great feature for collaboration, but there are also times when students may wish to keep their worlds private.

New worlds are created in Multi-player mode by default but users can alter this selection.

1. Open Minecraft Education Edition, and click on 'Play' (as shown above) to begin

2. Click on 'Create New' to create a new world

Minecraft Worlds tab

3. Select the world you wish to create or click on 'Generate Random' if you are feeling adventurous.

The World Settings window will appear as pictured below.

World settings window

4. Choose Multi-player

The Multi-player Options Window will then appear. To disable Multi-player, the slider needs to be set to the left. You can toggle this switch simply by clicking on it (the screen-shot below depicts a Multi-player world).

NB in the image above you will also see the option to enable 'cheats' this is something you will need to switch on if you wish to utilise the Classroom Mode companion application. See this article for more details on Companion Apps.

Multiplayer settings window

World Settings - Game Mode

Another setting that you may wish to adjust is Minecraft's game Mode. There are two options, 'Creative' and 'Survival' mode.

  • Creative mode allows users to access blocks of all shapes and sizes with a focus on building and creation
  • Survival mode is more oriented towards game-play where users will need to search for resources and defend their belongings from other Minecrafters.

For beginners it is recommended to start in Creative Mode. You may find an application for Survival mode as your students become more familiar with Minecraft.

To change your world settings, access the World Settings Menu as detailed in steps 1 > 3 of the previous section (World Settings - Multi-player).

4. Then click on the game mode that is currently selected (in the example below 'Survival') to reveal the options list.

Game Mode settings window

5. Then select your desired option.

Game Mode settings window

World Settings - Difficulty

World Difficulty is an third setting you may wish to adjust. The default setting is 'Peaceful'. This is a game environment where the focus remains on creation and there are few enemies. As you move up the difficulty settings, players will need to become more vigilant in order to protect their structures and belongings from in-world enemies.

For beginners, it is recommended to begin by using the 'Peaceful' setting, you may find an application for the other difficulty levels as your students become more familiar with Minecraft.

Again this can be adjusted by accessing the World Settings Menu as detailed in steps 1 > 3 of the previous section (World Settings - Multi-player).

4. Then click on the difficulty level that is currently selected (in the example below 'Peaceful') to reveal the options list.

Game Difficulty settings window

5. Then select your desired option.

Game Difficulty settings window

NSW DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION - INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIRECTORATE