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Teacher Paced Mode (Present a Formative) - Redesign Early Access
Teacher Paced Mode (Present a Formative) - Redesign Early Access

Guide students through a lesson or assessment so everyone can stay on the same page.

Neta Raz Studnitski avatar
Written by Neta Raz Studnitski
Updated over a week ago

Formative is working on a redesign to the Teacher Paced mode which is expected to be fully released during Fall 2024. You can check out the new experience by opting-in to Early Access from your account's Settings page:

What is Teacher Paced Mode?

Formative's traditional format 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 present and control the pace of questions so the whole class can progress together!

Here's how you can get started:

Step 1: Create your lesson/assessment

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

Step 2: Present to your students

  1. Click the 'Present' button at the top right corner of your screen.

  2. Select Teacher Paced mode

  3. Click into the "Select a Class" field on the right side settings panel. A list of all your classes will appear in a dropdown menu. Any classes this formative is currently actively assigned to (either in Student-Paced or Teacher-Paced modes) will be listed at the top of the list. Below will appear all the classes this formative is not currently assigned to

  4. Locate the class you would like to present to at this time and click on its' title

  5. Proceed to adjust the Teacher Paced Settings for After Submission, Return Scores, and Return Correct Answers (you will have an option to change this later too)

  6. When ready, click "start" at the bottom of the right side settings panel

Note to Silver/Gold users: Teacher Paced mode will automatically disable the options to restrict to individual students, schedule open and close times, and set a time limit. These controls can be restored when Teacher Paced mode is turned off.

Step 3: Open Teacher-Paced Lobby

From here you will be directed to the Teacher-Paced presentation's Lobby, which will launch in a new tab.
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-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).

Step 4: Adjust After Submission Settings

If needed, click the Gear icon in the bottom right corner to adjust your Grading & Feedback settings (i.e. after submission behavior, returning scores and returning answers). Once the preferred settings have been selected, click "Apply".

Step 5: Check who joined the session

Click on the students count icon at the bottom right of your screen to expand the list on the right side panel. Here you will be presented with a list of all the students in your assigned class. 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.

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.

Differentiate pacing for individual students (from lobby)

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:

  1. Click the students list icon at the bottom right corner of your screen

  2. In the right side panel: un-check the boxes next to the students' names - the presentation icon next to the student name will change to a lightning bolt icon

  3. Click the blue "Confirm" button at the top of the list

These students will immediately be released to Student-Paced mode. The presentation icon next to the released students' names will change to a lightning bolt icon, signifying they are now working in Student-Paced mode.

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

  1. Click the students list icon at the bottom right corner of your screen

  2. In the right side panel: check the boxes next to the students' names - the lightning bolt icon will change to the presentation icon

  3. Click the blue "Confirm" button at the top of the lsit

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 icon will change back from the lightning bolt (Student-pace) icon to the presentation icon.

Preview Broadcast

If you'd like to see what your students are seeing, or present the student view on an external screen - click the View Broadcast button on the bottom left side of your screen (right next to the "start" button). The Broadcast view will open in a new tab. This can be done both before and after you start presenting.

Step 6: Start the lesson!

When you are ready to begin presenting, simply click "Start" at the bottom right corner of your screen. Once the countdown has finished, the presentation control view will open. 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.

Pace by questions or sections

To navigate between questions and content items you can use the arrow buttons to move forward or backward, or click to select the desired section and question/content item from the dropdown lists at the bottom left corner of your screen.

By default the questions and content items displayed for selection in the right-side dropdown will correspond to the section selected in the left-side dropdown.

Pause Presentation

Next to the navigation bar you also have the option to pause the presentation. Clicking "Pause" will to 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.

Broadcast View

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 as there may be items on this control mode that students should not be able to view. If you're presenting to the class on a large screen and/or would like to demo responses to your students simply click on the "View Broadcast" icon at the bottom of your screen.

This will open the recommended Broadcast view in a new tab, where you will also be able to enter responses as well as present responses entered by the students (note that on the Broadcast view student names will be hidden by default). As you are pacing the presentation via the Teacher Paced control mode, the Broadcast view will adjust accordingly:

Toggling student responses on or off within the Broadcast view is done from the Responses tab of the Teacher Paced control mode. Simply click on "Responses" at the top of the page, and toggle ON/OFF the "Show Responses" button at the bottom of your screen:

Differentiate pacing for individual students (during presentation)

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:

  1. Click the students list icon at the bottom right corner of your screen

  2. In the right side panel: un-check the boxes next to the students' names - the presentation icon next to the student name will change to a lightning bolt icon

  3. Click the blue "Confirm" button at the top of the list

These students will immediately be released to Student-Paced mode. The presentation icon next to the released students' names will change to a lightning bolt icon, signifying they are now working in Student-Paced mode.

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

  1. Click the students list icon at the bottom right corner of your screen

  2. In the right side panel: check the boxes next to the students' names - the lightning bolt icon will change to the presentation icon

  3. Click the blue "Confirm" button at the top of the lsit

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 icon will change back from the lightning bolt (Student-pace) icon to the presentation icon.

View Student Activity

Click on "Activity" at the top of the presentation control page to view your students' activity on the displayed question. Here you can find out which of your students provided an answer to the question and which students have not answered yet.

View / Display Responses & Frequency Charts

There are three ways for you to view student responses and frequency charts and also display them to your class:

  • Present Responses (only) on the Broadcast View

Click the Broadcast view button to launch the presentation in a separate window, then toggle ON "Show Responses" on the Presentation Control page. The student responses will be displayed anonymously next to the question on your Broadcast view.

  • Display responses & frequency chart from the presentation control page

Note: This view is for presentation purposes only and you can not grade or send feedback to students from it. If you need to grade or send feedback, please use the method below instead.

Click "Responses" at the top of your screen to navigate to the Responses Gallery and Frequency Chart tab. There, you can navigate between the Responses sub-tab which will present all the response cards of the students to this question, and the Frequency sub-tab which will present the frequency of responses across the class to this question.

Responses can be sorted randomly or by response order, simply click the sort button to choose your preference.

Click on "View Options" to select:

  1. Presenting the correct answer above the responses gallery

  2. Hide/Display students' names (note: student names will be hidden as a default, you can un-toggle the button to reveal the names)

  3. Hide/Display responses by students who responded to this question while in Student-Paced mode

  • Display Responses & Frequency Chart on a separate tab

Click on the "view responses" icon at the bottom of the screen. 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, 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:

End the session

Once you have finished presenting, select the "End session" dropdown from the bottom of your screen. Here you can choose from four options:

  • Switch to student paced: Keeps the assignment open and allows students to view and answer all questions at their own pace and submit at their own time.

  • Close assignment: If all students have provided answers, this closes the assignment for the students.

  • Force submission: Submits students' assignments for grading, regardless of completion. You will be given the option to select which students to force-submit and you'll have the option to force submit for the entire class as well. More on force submission can be found in this article.

  • Return to Lobby: Takes you back to the main presentation lobby without changing any settings for the students.

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 from the bottom of your screen, to suspend the assignment temporarily. This prevents students from continuing the formative while allowing you to keep the assignment open.

❓FAQ❓

🙋🏽 Am I able to display responses and frequency charts for students to see?

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.

🙋🏽‍♀️ What does Teacher Paced Mode look like for my students?

Students will not be able to access any questions on the formative until you start the live session. Once you do, they will only view the question or group of questions you have selected on the Teacher Paced mode tab.

Once the lesson has started, the navigation bar at the top will indicate to students which question you are displaying by highlighting the question number/group in blue:

🙋🏿‍♂️ I differentiated pacing, what will the released students experience when released to Student Paced mode and when pulled back into Teacher Paced mode?

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, regardless of having answered it already or not.

🙋🏼 What happens if I close the Teacher Paced mode tab?

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" dropdown menu.

🙋🏻‍♀️ Can my students go back to previous questions?

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 control bar. 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 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 in section 3 above.

🙋🏿‍♂️ My students' screens aren't changing when I change the question

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:

You can check which class you are presenting to in the upper left corner of the Teacher Paced Mode tab.

🙋🏻 Am I still able to send students feedback?

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.

🙋🏽 Are my students still able to ask questions in the feedback chat?

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.

🙋🏿‍♂️ Can I control more than one class with teacher paced mode?

Yes, however each class will be controlled separately - not on the same page. You can start presenting to multiple classes, and each class presentation will open in a new tab. 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."

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