What is Real-Time Collaboration?

Formative makes it easy for teams to build high-quality assessments together. Whether you are co-teaching or building a common formative assessment for your department, our real-time collaboration tools ensure everyone stays on the same page.

Real-Time Presence (Live Avatars)

Never wonder if a colleague is already working on a question. With Live Avatars, you can see exactly where your teammates are active within a Formative. Hovering over each bubble, you'll be able to view the name of the collaborator, their nickname (if applicable), their email address, and their level of access to the formative (Owner, Assign Only, Edit & Assign).

Where to find them: Avatars appear at the top of shared formatives to show who is in the document. You will also see them directly to the side of individual questions in the builder (both the main editing page and the side navigation bar, indicating exactly which item a colleague is currently viewing or editing.
Real-time updates: As a teammate moves through the assignment, their avatar moves with them instantly, preventing overlapping edits.

Expand View

Clicking any of the avatars will open a right-side collaborators panel, where you can view the full list of collaborators at once. Simply click on the "Collaborators' section to expand the view. If no collaborators are active within the formative at any given time, clicking the sharing icon at the top will open the same panel.

This Collaborators list will include all collaborators whether they are currently active within the formative at the same time or not. A live dot indicator will turn green if the collaborator is active, and gray if the collaborator is not active.

Manage Collaborators

Within the right-side collaborators panel, click the "Add Collaborators" button to share the formative with additional colleagues, send a copy, or publish to the library

NOTE: only the owner and collaborators with "Assign & Edit" permissions can use this function. If you have "Assign Only" permission, these functions will be grayed-out and non-accessible.

Version History (formerly known as Activity Log)

From this side panel view you can also check the version history of the formative to see recent edits and activities performed by your colleagues.

At this time the following actions will be logged:

Adding a collaborator
Removing a collaborator
Changing a collaborator's permission level (Assign Only / Edit & Assign)

Tracking Changes on Questions (Last Edit By)

Keep track of the most recent updates to your shared content to maintain version control.

Attribution: Beneath shared questions, you will see a "Last edit by" timestamp along with the name of the teacher who made the change.
Visual Consistency: To help you identify teammates at a glance, each user is assigned a consistent, randomized color for their avatar across all shared flows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can two people edit the same question at once?

While you can see who is viewing a question via their avatar, we recommend communicating with your teammate if you both need to make edits to the same field simultaneously. This ensures all changes save correctly.

Do "Functionalized Questions" work with these features?

Yes! All question types—including our newest functionalized behaviors (creation, scoring, and response types)—fully support real-time presence and "Last Edit By" tracking.