Activities (such as formatives, lessons, and common assessments) can be assigned to students in classes, or to guest students, using three unique pacing modes:

Formative's traditional Student Paced mode allows for self-paced lessons and assessments that provide real-time data, so teachers can send immediate feedback. With Teacher Paced mode, you have the option to control the pace of questions so the whole class can progress together!

Here's how you to get started:

Open one of your existing assignments, build a new one from scratch by adding content, questions, or uploading existing materials, or grab a copy of a pre-made activity from the Library tab.

Click the 'Assign' button at the top right corner of your screen. A list of all your classes will appear in a dropdown menu. Any classes this activity is currently actively assigned to (in any pacing mode) will be listed at the top of the list. You can return to Teacher Paced active session by clicking on the screen icon next to the class.

If you previously assigned the activity in Student or Game Paced mode, you can change the pacing to Teacher Paced. Continue reading to learn how!

To assign the activity in Teacher Paced mode (whether to currently unassigned classes, or to classes that were previously assigned using a different pacing mode):

Locate the class you would like to assign to at this time and then click on the gear icon next to it.

Select 'Teacher Paced' from the pacing options and proceed to adjust the assign settings to your preference.

Choose how students are paced:
In your assign settings, look for the Pace section. Three levels of pacing options are available within the dropdown:

Together these let you run a session at whatever grain fits your lesson - a full section, a single item, or a single question!

When ready - click 'Assign' at the bottom of the settings window.

From here you will be directed to the Teacher-Paced Presentation's Lobby. Need to go back to the editor or the main responses tab? Click the 'back' arrow in the top bar, or click the triple dots at the top right corner and select 'Exit session view' from the dropdown.

Your formative's teacher notes are accessible from the document icon at the top of the Teacher-Paced controls panel of the lobby, above the student roster, allowing you to review your notes before you start the session!

Join Instructions for students will display on the screen. For students in a class, you can provide your students with the title of the formative to access from within their own Formative accounts or send them a direct link.

Guest students, on the other hand, will have the option to join the teacher-paced formative either by using a join link / code, or scanning a QR code with their device's camera.

If you have paused or navigated out of the Teacher Paced Mode, simply repeat step 2 (above) to resume.

If needed, click the triple dots at the top of the Teacher-paced controls panel, and select Session settings to adjust your Grading & Feedback settings

Once the preferred settings have been adjusted, click "Apply"

The class roster will appear on the right side panel.

Here a live-presence indicator on the student's initials/avatar will turn green when the student joins the session. If the live-presence indicator is gray, it means the student has not joined yet.

Similarly, if you've assigned to Guest Students, you will see the names of the guests who have joined appearing on the right side panel along with the live-presence indicator.

To accommodate for differentiation, you can choose to release one or more of your students from the Teacher-Paced mode and allow them to work on their own pace (Student-Paced). This can be done both before and after you start presenting.

To release students from Teacher-Paced mode from the lobby:

These students will immediately be released to Student-Paced mode.

If you released only some students - the presentation icon next to the released students' names will change to a lightning bolt icon, and a clear indication of "student-paced" will be displayed under their names for quick identification.

If you released everyone, the teacher-paced lobby will close. You could then click to go back to your editor page.

To pull individual released students back from Student-Paced mode into Teacher-Paced mode reverse your actions:

The students will immediately be pulled back into the Teacher-Paced mode and join on the same page the rest of the class is on. The lightning bolt icon will be removed, and the student-pace indicator below their names will disappear.

If you'd like to see what your students are seeing, or present the student view on an external screen - click the triple dots at the top of the Teacher-paced controls panel and select View Broadcast. The Broadcast view will open in a new tab. This can be done both before and after you start presenting.

When you are ready to begin presenting, simply click 'Start' at the bottom right corner of your screen, or alternatively click the 3 dots at the top right and select 'Open presenter view' and then click 'Start'. A launch animation will play on the button, and the presentation control view will open.

By default, launching the presenter view, or clicking 'start' directly from the lobby, will pop your teacher remote out into a separate, dedicated and resizable browser window. This is perfect for dual-monitor setups! You can keep this private control window on your laptop screen (to privately review student responses and pacing controls) while moving the main Broadcast window to your extended display or projector for the students to see.

This is where you can control which question or group of questions students are seeing and pace their progress. Any student that joins in will automatically view the current question or section you are presenting.

If you prefer the control panel to remain on the same window, you can switch it to appear in a minimized version at the bottom of the screen by clicking the X at the top right corner of the pop-out window.

All the dropdown functions and settings are available in both versions of the on-screen control panel.

To give you more flexibility while presenting in your classroom, the session options menu on the control panel includes a Control from phone option. This allows you to untether your teacher controls from your desk. Selecting the option (from the triple dots dropdown menu) will generate a QR code. Scan it with your mobile device's camera to open the teacher remote on your phone. This allows you to circulate the classroom, check individual student responses, and advance the lesson from the palm of your hand while the main presentation remains on your projector or smartboard.
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If you need to change how students are progressing through the formative, you can easily adjust your Pacing settings (Pace by section / Keep grouped items together) mid-session! Simply navigate to your Session settings to switch between sections, items or questions pacing at any time.

When you present questions in a teacher-paced session, clicking on the bar-graph icon will open the responses view (inside your control panel if you're using presenter or phone control; and on the main display page if you're using the on-screen minimized control bar). From here you can toggle between a responses gallery view and the frequency chart view.

When presenting a whole section in a teacher-paced session, once you access the responses view of one question, your will also have access to a row of question chips - one per question in the section.

This allows you to circulate through individual questions to check for understanding or pick something to discuss, without pulling students off the task they’re on. Your students stay on the whole section the entire time - selecting a chip only changes what you see, not what they're working on.

When a section has both a teacher note and questions, a notes toggle (document icon) appears at the top of the control panel. Use the toggle to switch between the note and the pacing/responses interface.

Within the control panel you also have the option to pause the presentation. Clicking the pause button will suspend the assignment temporarily. This prevents students from continuing to work on the formative while allowing you to keep the assignment open.

When the presentation is paused, students are no longer able to answer the question they are on until you click to resume. This is a powerful tool allowing you to call back your students' attention for a discussion, giving your students a short break, or if you need to make adjustment to your formative in real time.

Once you are ready to resume, click the play button and students will be allowed to continue answering the question they are on.

In the Teacher Paced control mode, teachers do not have the ability to enter responses as students do. It is also not the recommended view to present on a large screen to your students. If you're presenting to the class on a large screen, click on the "View Broadcast" option from the triple dots dropdown menu. Note: The projected board students see now mirrors your formative’s theme for a more consistent look on screen!

This will open the Broadcast view in a new tab, where you will also be able to enter responses. As you are pacing the presentation via the Teacher Paced control mode, the Broadcast view will adjust accordingly.

Reviewing a question in your remote / control panel via Question Chips is just for you. To actually show the class, click the Show on board button inside the control panel; to stop presenting click the button again.

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When you do, the projected board switches from the full section to just the question you’re reviewing, with its responses revealed for the whole class to see. It’s built for those “let’s look at this one together” moments!
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In summary, the full flow is:

To accommodate for differentiation, you can choose to release one or more of your students from the Teacher-Paced mode and allow them to work on their own pace (Student-Paced). This can be done both before and after you start presenting.

These students will immediately be released to Student-Paced mode.A lightning bolt icon will appear next to the released students' names along with an indication they are now working in Student-Paced mode.

The students will immediately be pulled back into the Teacher-Paced mode and join on the same page the rest of the class is on. The lightning bolt icon and the student-paced indication will disappear.

From the triple dots menu select "View responses in new tab". All student responses will populate in real-time in the Responses page of the formative, just like they do for every other formative you assign. This will be on a separate tab from your Teacher Paced session. If you are screen-sharing for your class and would like to share the full view with them, you can display responses for students to see simply by switching tabs!

From this page you can grade, send feedback and drill down into different sorting and filtering options to include batching scores by standards.

To protect student privacy when sharing your responses tab, make sure you hide student names (under "settings") and randomize sort order at the top of the page:

To learn more about navigating the Responses page, viewing and scoring student submissions, see here!

Once you reach the final item in the activity, the "End session" menu will automatically replace the "Next" button in the navigation footer. Select the "End session" dropdown to finish. Here you can choose from two options:

From the triple dots menu, you can select the same options as above, as well as additional ones:

Once an option has been selected, an end slide will display with the appropriate status of the formative at that time (assignment closed, assignment switched to student-paced, or assignment submitted). At this time you can click to close the window, or select "Restart" from the bottom right corner of your screen to go back to the lobby view and restart the presentation.

Alternatively, you can also use the "Pause" option to suspend the assignment temporarily. This prevents students from continuing the formative while allowing you to keep the assignment open.

Yes! See above for step-by-step instructions on the 3 methods to view and display responses and frequency charts for students.

To protect student privacy when displaying responses, make sure you hide student names (under "settings") and randomize sort order.

Students will not be able to access any questions on the formative until you start the live session.

Once the lesson has started, students will only view the question, group of questions or sections you have selected on your Teacher Paced remote / control panel.

When releasing students to Student Paced mode their screen will immediately change to the regular Student-Paced view and a notification will pop up notifying them that you are allowing them to proceed at their on pace. When you pull the students back into Teacher Paced mode, their screen will immediately change to the Teacher-Paced view and they will join in on the same question or item the rest of the class is on.

If you close the tab, students will still be able to answer the question where you left off but will not be able to continue to the next question until you reopen the tab and continue the session. To return to student-paced mode, you must re-open the tab and choose "Switch to student paced" from the "End Session" or dropdown menu.

Students are not able to adjust the question they are on when Teacher Paced mode is active. They will only be able to go back to a previous question if you take the action on your presentation remote / control panel. If you want, you can select "End Session" in the Teacher Paced mode tab and choose "Switch to Student Paced." This will return the formative to the traditional format, where students can view and navigate all questions (see above).

Alternatively, if you want to allow only select students to go back to previous questions on their own, you can release just these students to student-paced mode following the instruction listed above.

The chip row appears when you're presenting a whole section. Turn on "Pace by section" in your assign settings or under "Session settings" while presenting.

If you are presenting a section: When "Pace by section" is turned on, clicking a question chip on your remote to review responses will not change the students' screens. They will remain on the full section so they can continue working! If you want to force the students' screens to focus on a specific question, use the Broadcast responses button to spotlight it on the projected board.

If you are not pacing by section: Make sure that you have the correct class's Teacher Paced Mode presentation control page open. Each class has its own individual presentation control page. You can check which class you are presenting to in the upper left corner of the Teacher Paced Mode tab.

Make sure that you have the correct class's Teacher Paced Mode presentation control page open. Each class has its own individual presentation control page.

Go to your original formative's Editor page, click on the triple dots menu at the top right corner and select "Join Instructions". Then proceed to click on the class you should be presenting to at this time to go to the correct presentation control page.

Yes! You can control which questions students see in the Teacher Paced tab, and still view responses and send feedback from the "Responses" screen. See here for more details.

Yes! Students will still see the blue chat bubble icon under each question as you reveal them. Any feedback you send will also show on their screen.

Yes, but it will require bulk-assigning. While assigning to a single class launches Teacher-Paced control page in the same tab, bulk assigning is handled differently. When teachers select multiple classes and choose Teacher-Paced Mode (or Game-Paced Mode), the system will automatically default to opening multiple browser tabs—one for each assigned class.
Each class will have its' own lobby page and its' own presentation control page. You will need to pay attention as to which class you are pacing on each of the tabs.

While there isn't currently a way to control pacing for multiple classes on the same lobby/presentation control page, our team would love to hear more about your needs with assigning multiple classes while in teacher paced so please be sure to provide your feedback through your Formative Dashboard under "Resources" and "Submit a Suggestion."