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 enter the standard practice flow — answering cards on their own device — 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, the teacher can see who is keeping up and who is struggling without interrupting the activity, and 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 Live session to open the session configuration screen.
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.

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.

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: “Your class has a live session — join now.”
The student taps Join and enters the standard practice flow, scoped automatically to the topics the teacher selected.
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: students can only join a live session from the class they belong to. If a student is in two of your classes (e.g. Food GCSE and Food KS3 with the same teacher), the join banner is specific to the class where the session was started.

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 accuracy — if two students have the same number of correct answers, the one with the higher correct-to-attempted ratio appears higher.
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.
End of session: Click End session when you are ready to stop. A results summary is displayed showing the final ranked standings and class-level accuracy per topic. This screen is suitable for projecting as a debrief at the end of the activity.

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.

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 them, 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 entire class spec — 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 the standard rate — 10 XP per correct card. If a boss-battle event is active at the time the session runs, the event bonus applies here too. Live sessions are not second-class XP sources; they contribute fully to rank progression and league standings.

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 class-level topic breakdown at the end shows which areas to focus remaining revision time on. 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. XP from live sessions contributes to overall XP but does not update subject-specific standings on the subject leaderboard — live session XP goes to your overall total only. 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, use the class-level accuracy summary to call out one or two topics where accuracy was low. A two-minute verbal debrief — “most of us struggled 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