For schools

Live sessions

Live sessions let a teacher host a real-time class quiz where students answer cards on their own devices and the teacher watches a live leaderboard update as answers come in.

What a live session is

A live session is a synchronous, in-classroom activity. The teacher starts it from their class page, picks a topic or set of topics, and from that moment every student in the class sees a prominent join prompt on their dashboard. Students tap to join and answer the same set of cards on their own device, in a simplified live runner, while the teacher's screen shows a ranked leaderboard updating in real time as answers arrive.

The key difference from homework is timing. Homework is asynchronous: students complete it at their own pace outside the classroom. A live session is a shared moment. Everyone answers simultaneously, and the teacher can see who is keeping up and who is struggling without interrupting the activity. The energy of competing alongside classmates makes it feel more like a quiz than revision.

Live session answers earn XP normally (10 XP per correct card) and the session appears in each student's session history. However, live sessions use a separate recording path and do not update a student's spaced-repetition mastery data. The SM-2 review intervals on individual cards are not affected.

Streak and mastery note: live sessions do not count toward a student's daily streak, and they do not update card-level mastery (the Unseen → Mastered levels). They earn XP and appear in session history only. To maintain their streak, students still need to complete a regular practice session on the same day.

Starting a session (teacher)

Live sessions are started from the class page at /teach/[classId]/live. You need to be the class teacher or a Head of Department to start one.

Go to Class in the top nav and open your class page.
Click ⚡ Start a live class to open the session configuration screen. If a session is already running for this class the button reads Resume live class instead, and takes you back to it.
Choose your topic scope. Three options:
- Single topic: pick one topic from the class subject. Cards are drawn only from that topic. Best for a focused post-lesson check-in.
- Multiple topics: select two or more topics using the checkboxes. Cards are pulled from all selected topics, comma-joined internally. Best for a unit revision session covering several interconnected areas.
- Mixed: draws from across the whole spec. Best for end-of-term reviews or a whole-class Friday quiz.
Set a card count using the range slider (5–50 cards, default 10). For a lesson starter, 10–15 cards works well. For a full period revision session, 30–50 cards is appropriate.
Click Start live class. The session goes live immediately. Students see the join banner on their dashboard within seconds.

Which cards are dealt. The card set is drawn at random from the class's own scope: its exam board, its Science route (GCSE Science), and its topic or subtopic filter from class settings, narrowed further by the topics you pick here. Only five card types are dealt, the ones the live screen can show and mark: multiple choice and true/false (tapped), and recall, cloze and calculation (typed). Match-pairs, Fill the gap (scaffold) and the Beta Mark it (evaluate) cards are left out, so a topic made up mostly of those can run short. Typed answers are marked the same way as in ordinary practice, and calculation cards keep their tolerance, their unit and the 0.25 = 25% rule.

Tip: open the teacher leaderboard on a browser tab projected on the classroom board before clicking Start. Students can glance up and see their position update as they answer, which keeps energy high without requiring you to narrate it.

One live class per class at a time. Starting a session automatically ends any session still open for that class, so you can never end up with two running side by side. A teacher who forgot to end yesterday's session does not have to go back and tidy it up first. Different classes are independent: you can run one in each.

Joining a live session (students)

Students do not need a separate code or link. Because they are already members of the class, Educator detects the active session automatically.

When a live session is active, a prominent banner appears at the top of the student's dashboard, headed Live class · in progress. It tells them their teacher just started a live class, names the topic (or shows Mixed cards when no single topic was picked), and gives them a Join button.
The student taps Join and opens the live-class screen, a simplified runner built for the classroom rather than the everyday practice flow. Every student works through the same set of cards, in the same order, chosen when the teacher pressed Start.
Each answer is sent back to the teacher's live view in real time. The leaderboard updates as soon as the student submits a response.
The student sees their own score and the normal card-by-card feedback (correct / incorrect, card back shown after each answer). Students do not see the full ranked leaderboard on their own device. That is the teacher's projected view. However, after each correct answer their device shows a brief notification if their rank improves (e.g. “Up to #3!”). Students never see notifications about falling in rank or being overtaken on their own device. The teacher's projected board does show overtake banners including student names. This is teacher-controlled and classroom-contextualised.

Students who are absent or join late can still tap Join while the session is active. They will start from the beginning of the card set, and their answers will feed into the leaderboard from the point they joined. XP (but not mastery or streak) applies regardless of when they joined, consistent with how all live session answers are handled.

Note: the join banner is driven by which class a student most recently joined, not by every class they belong to. If a student is in two of your classes (e.g. Food GCSE and Food KS3 with the same teacher) and you start a session in the class their dashboard isn't currently pointed at, no banner appears for them at all - not the wrong one, just none. They can still take part by opening the session link directly, so for a two-class student it's worth sharing the link rather than relying on the banner.

The teacher's live view

While a live session is running, the teacher sees a ranked leaderboard showing every student who has joined. The board updates in real time. As each student submits an answer, their score and accuracy figure refresh on screen.

Ranked order: Students are ranked by total score (correct answers) within the session. Ties are broken by how many cards they have attempted, so the student who is further through the set appears higher, and remaining ties fall back to name order. It is a deliberately simple rule: it rewards getting on with it rather than stopping to protect an accuracy figure.
Score and accuracy: Each row shows the student's username, how many cards they have answered correctly, and their accuracy percentage so far. This lets you see at a glance whether a student is getting through cards quickly but carelessly, or answering slowly but accurately.
Who's struggling: Students near the bottom of the leaderboard with low accuracy are struggling with the topic. This is a signal to check in with them after the session or revisit the content in the next lesson. You can see this without interrupting the session or asking students to raise their hands.
Four headline tiles: Above the scoreboard sit Joined and Finished (both as a fraction of the class roster), Total answers, and Class accuracy. They are the same four during the session and after it ends. There is no per-topic breakdown here: for accuracy by topic, use the Class accuracy by topic section on the class page, which is built from independent practice rather than live answers.
End of session: Click End live class when you are ready to stop. The status strip switches to Session ended and the final scoreboard stays on screen, which is what you project for the debrief. A session cannot be restarted once ended; start a new one instead.

Forgot to end it? Educator does it for you. A session closes itself automatically once 30 minutes have passed with no answer submitted, or 30 minutes after it started if nobody ever joined. Everyone who answered still gets their session recorded and their XP banked, exactly as if you had pressed the button. So ending the session is about controlling the moment you debrief, not about protecting anyone's data. A session left open at the end of a lesson will not sit there collecting stray answers from the corridor.

Privacy note: the teacher's live leaderboard shows real student names because it is a teacher-only view within a school's own data. Student names are never exposed on public or global leaderboards. School accounts are always scoped to class and school boards only. See Leaderboards for the full privacy model.

Live class history

Every live class a group has run is kept. The live panel on the class page shows the most recent one behind a See last scoreboard link, and a See all link opens the full history at /teach/[classId]/live/history, newest first.

Each row gives the topic (or Mixed across the spec), the date and time, the card count, the class accuracy, and how many students finished out of those who joined. A session still running is flagged Live. Click any row to reopen its scoreboard exactly as it was.

This is the record to use when you want to show progress over a half-term, or to check what you covered and how the class did before planning the next lesson. The same page is visible to the class teacher and to the Head of Department for that subject.

Topics and mixed mode

The topic scope you choose shapes how useful the session is. Each mode suits a different point in the teaching cycle.

Single topic

Cards are drawn exclusively from the topic you pick. This is the most focused option: every question in the session is directly relevant to what you just taught. The accuracy data at the end maps cleanly onto a single area of the spec, giving you a precise read on whether students absorbed the lesson.

Best used: post-lesson check-in, starter activity recapping the previous lesson, or targeted intervention on a topic the Class accuracy by topic section shows as red.

Multiple topics

Cards are pulled from all of the topics you check. The session interleaves the cards, which is beneficial for memory consolidation: answering cards from related topics in the same session strengthens connections between concepts rather than treating them as isolated silos.

Best used: a revision lesson covering a unit or module before an assessment, or mid-term review when you want to revisit a cluster of connected topics together.

Mixed (whole spec)

The session draws cards randomly from across the class's whole scope (every topic, or just the topics and subtopics ticked in class settings if you have narrowed the class): the same cards are served to every student regardless of their individual mastery state. This differs from regular practice where each student gets a personalised card order. No single topic dominates, making it a broad diagnostic of where the class stands collectively.

Best used: end-of-term or pre-exam whole-class review; a competitive Friday quiz where variety keeps students engaged; any session where you want to see which topics surface most frequently as weak across the class.

XP during live sessions: XP is earned at a flat 10 XP per correct card. Event bonuses do not apply: even if a boss battle is running, a live class still pays 10. That XP adds to the student's overall total - the same total rank is calculated from, so live sessions do count toward rank - and it appears on the class and school leaderboards for the period. It does not touch league standing, the per-subject XP/streak figures, or card mastery.

Three card types are excluded from live sessions. Whatever topic scope you pick, match-pairs, Fill the gap (scaffold) and Mark it (evaluate) cards are left out of the live card pool, because the live screen has no tap-to-pair, dropdown-passage or mark-band interaction. Only multiple choice, true/false, recall, cloze and calculation cards appear. The excluded types remain available in normal practice (evaluate cards in Mark it mode).

When to use live sessions

Live sessions are not a replacement for regular daily practice. They are a classroom tool that complements the spaced-repetition habit students build outside school. Used well, they turn otherwise passive revision time into an active, visible signal of where the class is and where they need more work.

Post-lesson check-in: Run a single-topic session on the content you just taught. A low accuracy rate is a direct signal that the concept needs reteaching before you move on. You have the data to justify the decision rather than relying on a show of hands.
Lesson starter: Five to ten minutes recapping the previous lesson while students settle. The join banner on their dashboard means no setup delay. Students pick up their devices and join immediately. The leaderboard on the board keeps energy up from the first minute.
Revision lesson: Run a multi-topic session covering a full unit. The session itself gives you one class accuracy figure rather than a per-topic breakdown, so if you want to know which areas to spend remaining revision time on, either run one session per topic or read Class accuracy by topic on the class page, which is built from independent practice. More efficient than a teacher-led question-and-answer session because every student is answering simultaneously rather than waiting their turn.
Competitive Friday quiz: Mixed mode, projected on the board, leaderboard visible to the class. Lower stakes than a formal assessment; higher energy than silent independent practice. Works particularly well at the end of the week when student attention can be harder to hold.

Streak and mastery reminder: live sessions earn XP but do not update mastery levels or advance the daily streak. The XP does appear on the class and school leaderboard for the period, and it counts toward the student's overall rank. What it doesn't touch is the separate per-subject XP and streak totals the app keeps behind the scenes. Remind students that they still need to complete a regular session that day to protect their streak. Setting homework on the same topic immediately after the live session is an effective way to drive that follow-up.

Tips for running a great live session

Keep it to 10–15 minutes. Short live sessions are higher energy and fit naturally into a lesson as a bookend activity. Sessions longer than 20 minutes tend to lose pace. If you want an extended revision block, consider alternating between a live session and a brief discussion of the results.
Use single-topic for a post-lesson check-in. The more targeted the topic, the more actionable the accuracy data. A Mixed session after a lesson gives you a general read; a single-topic session on exactly what you taught gives you a specific one.
Use Mixed for a whole-class revision race. The variety of questions in a Mixed session means even students who are stronger in some areas will meet cards they find difficult. It levels the competitive field slightly compared to a topic where one student has clearly done more targeted practice.
Project the leaderboard. Cast your browser tab showing the teacher host board to the classroom display. Students can see their rank update live, which drives engagement without requiring any teacher commentary. The leaderboard is intentionally framed around scores, not relative drops. Students see their own progress, not “you've been overtaken” messaging.
Debrief the results. After ending the session, read the class accuracy figure off the final board and, if you ran a single-topic session, you already know which topic it refers to. A two-minute verbal debrief (“we were at 48% on enzyme inhibitors. We'll revisit that on Thursday”) converts the data into a classroom action.
Check who didn't join. The host board shows which students have joined and are answering. If several students are missing, they may have missed the dashboard banner (device off, not logged in, etc.). A verbal prompt to “open Educator and tap Join” usually resolves it in seconds.
Pair with homework on the same topic. Run a live session as the lesson activity, then set homework on the same topic for that evening. Students get a classroom warm-up followed by an independent consolidation pass, which is a stronger spaced-repetition schedule than either activity alone.

School setup & permissions: creating classes, managing students, homework assignments, and school licensing
Practice: all practice modes, card types, XP, streaks, and the adaptive card picker
Leaderboards: class and school leaderboards, privacy model for school students, and the individual league system