Teacher guide
Use the management portal to choose a ready-made challenge from the library, assign it to a class, and read each session. When you are ready, write challenges of your own. This guide covers the simple path first, then authoring.
For course launches, see Using an LMS (optional).
Run your first class on a ready-made challenge in a few steps. The portal starts with tutorial mode on, with a six-step Getting started checklist: Choose a challenge, Build a roster and share its class code, Assign it, Read a session report, Check safeguard flags and Write your own challenge; see Tutorial mode.
Open the management address from your institution and sign in with your work email address. Signing in.
In Templates, show the platform library and open a challenge to read it. Choosing a challenge from the library.
Create a roster, then generate its class code or join link for students. Rosters.
Add the challenge to an assignment for your roster and set a due date. Support mode and the other settings are under More options. Assignments.
Open Reports to see each student's score, mastery and transcript. Reading a session report. Check the Safeguard flags list too: Safeguard flags.
Clone a library challenge and adapt it. Adapting a library challenge.
The admin portal starts with tutorial mode on. The dashboard shows a Getting started checklist, and each workflow page shows a guide card reading Step n of m, with a link to the matching section of this guide and a Turn off tutorial button. The teacher track has six steps:
For a teacher, ticks come from your own work: a step is ticked once you have, for example, created a roster or an assignment, or a student has finished a run so there is a report to read. Some steps, such as checking safeguard flags, are only pointers and are never ticked. If you also administer an institution or the platform, the dashboard counts cover more than your own work, so the steps show as pointers without ticks.
To turn the tutorial off, use Turn off tutorial on a guide card. To bring it back, select the school icon in the app bar. The setting belongs to your account, so it follows you across devices and browsers.
How to use this guide
This guide is divided into numbered workflows, each a task made of numbered steps. Workflows 1 to 7 take you from signing in to choosing a library challenge, building a roster, assigning it, and reading the reports. Workflows 8 to 11 cover creating your own challenge: cloning, templates with labels and standards, publishing versions, and the teacher assistant.
Workflow 1
When an administrator creates your account, the portal can send you a welcome email from noreply@cognificance.com. It holds the sign-in link, a temporary password, and links to this guide and Get started. You set a new password at first sign-in. The temporary password stops working in the email after 7 days; after that, use Forgot password?. If the email does not arrive, check your spam folder or ask your administrator to resend it. A resent email carries no password and points you to Forgot password.
Open the management address from your institution. It sends you directly to the sign in form.
Enter both in the sign in form. The portal never sees or resets your password.
The tab returns to the portal by itself and lands on the dashboard. Nothing needs to be clicked in between.
Read the privacy policy and terms of use, tick both boxes, and choose Agree. You are asked again when either document changes.
Workflow 2
A teacher sees Templates, Assignments, Sessions, Open Safeguards, Completion, and Rosters. Users and Institutions appear only for institution and platform administrators. The linked tiles open their lists, and the panels below show open safeguards and recent sessions.
What you see in an institution lasts as long as your teacher membership there. When an institution removes you, its assignments, sessions, rosters, programs, safeguard flags and students' progress leave your lists and your dashboard counts, including the ones you created; new safeguard flags on those assignments go to the institution's administrators, and its assignments are no longer offered when you link a course from your LMS; and you can no longer edit, publish, translate, reshare or archive the templates you shared with it; work you created outside any institution stays yours. Your LMS account link is not removed with the membership, so while it stays linked, launching from that institution's LMS as an instructor makes you a teacher there again.
The drawer links to Dashboard, Templates, Rosters, Assignments, Reports, Safeguards, and About. About links to the privacy policy, terms of use, and third-party notices. User accounts and institution settings belong to institution administrators.
Lists provide search, a New button, and row actions. Search matches part of a title or name without regard to capitalization: carbon finds A Carbon Budget for the School Trip. Templates and assignments match titles; rosters match names. Reports match student names, assignment titles, and template titles; safeguards match student names and reasons. Other filters still apply. Select a record to open it; dialogs confirm actions such as archiving or removing.
Workflow 3
A template is a challenge you can assign. Choose Templates in the drawer and set Show to Platform library. The library is a set of ready-made, published challenges, several of each type, maintained by the platform, and many more are coming. Each row is marked System - read only. My templates lists your own templates and any your institution shares with its teachers, which are just as ready to assign, and All templates lists both.
Type part of a title in the search box: carbon finds A Carbon Budget for the School Trip. Type sets how the conversation runs (see the challenge types reference). Type, Subject, Label, Framework, Item code and Grade filter the list. Grade lists the grades the available items cover, starting at grade 7 (learners are 13 or older), narrowed to the selected framework when one is chosen; it is hidden when the available items (or the selected framework) cover no grade from 7 up. The Label filter takes more than one label and shows templates that carry any of them; framework, code and grade narrow to templates with an alignment that matches all you set, and an item with no grade band matches no grade. A framework with an item code also finds templates aligned to what that item covers: an assessment target or claim finds templates aligned to the standards it assesses, up to two links away. Each row shows its type, subject, labels, alignments (up to three codes, then a count; hover a code for its framework, label and grades, or open the template to see them all; the frameworks' notices sit above the list), locale, and latest published version.
A 13+, 16+ or 18+ chip marks a template for older students. A student under that age, or one with no date of birth on record, cannot start it. The assignment form warns you when you add a rated template to a challenge chain, but does not stop you saving, because the age check happens when each student starts.
Select its title. A library template opens read-only: its description, its subject, age rating, difficulty, labels and alignments, and its version history with the full scenario, constraints, goal, and criteria. The one action is Clone this template.
A library template does not need to be copied or changed to be used: note its title, build a roster if you want one (workflow 4), and add the template to an assignment (workflow 5). To change its wording first, clone it (workflow 8).
Workflow 4
A roster is a named group for repeated assignments. Assignments can also target one student directly.
Enter a roster name and select one of the institutions you teach in. If you teach in one institution, it is already selected. The institution cannot be changed after the roster is saved, because the roster's enrollments and assignments belong to that institution. Add students on the roster's page after saving.
Search with Add student, choose a person, and select Add. Each student must belong to the roster's institution. Remove a person from the table. Removing a student from a roster unenrolls them from that class only; they stay a student of the institution. A student leaves the institution, and every class in it, only when an institution administrator releases them or they leave it themselves.
Save applies enrollment changes. If another student joins or the class list changes while the page is open, saving asks you to reload the class before applying your edits. This keeps new joins in the class. Leaving without saving discards your edits.
The key icon on a roster's row opens its class join code. Choose Generate code to make one, or Rotate code to replace an existing code with a new one - the old code stops working the moment you rotate. Copy the code or share the join link it fills in for students, and set an optional expiry and a max use count. Disable revokes the code immediately without issuing a new one. A code also stops working while its class or its institution is archived.
A student signs up with the code, or opens your join link, which fills the code in for them; see Signing up and signing in. Either way lands them on your roster as a Student, with no admin involvement. A student who already has an account and opens the join link instead sees a "class code waiting" card on their dashboard and joins from there; see Joining another class.
Workflow 5
An assignment connects a student or roster to one or more published challenge versions, an optional theme, a limit on student turns, and an availability window.
If you teach in more than one institution, choose the Institution first: the student or roster, and every template in the chain, must fit it. If you teach in one, it is already chosen. Then set Assign to to Student or Roster, and search for the person or group. A student reaches an assignment set on them by name only while they are a student of its institution: once they leave or are released, it no longer appears in their assignments and cannot be started.
Add published templates in sequence: your own templates, your institution's shared ones, or platform library templates. Each row uses the template's newest published version; a template listed twice uses an older version for the repeat. To pick an older version, or a support mode for that challenge alone, open the row's options with the sliders button. Once the options are closed, a note under the row names an older version or a mode of its own, whether you chose it or the repeat did. Use the arrows to reorder, Add another challenge to extend, and the bin to remove a row. A row whose template carries an age rating shows the rating and a warning that younger students, or students with no date of birth on record, cannot start it.
The Title is filled in from the first challenge you pick; change it if you like. Due date is optional: the assignment closes at that time, and the student sees Due, then Closed. That is all a new assignment needs, so you can choose Save now. Everything below is under More options, which starts closed and says which settings you changed, or "Using recommended defaults".
Max student turns is filled in with the platform's default. A session closes, with its report, after that many student messages if it has not finished sooner. The highest value accepted is the platform's ceiling, or a lower one your institution sets; the field names the limit if you go over it. A change made later applies only to sessions started after saving.
Support mode sets how much help students get, and is Guided by default. Guided shows the student the steps as they go, each marked done or not yet, and lets them ask for hints. Standard keeps the steps hidden until the report and still allows hints. Challenge shows no steps and allows no hints, and a step met in Challenge mode always earns full credit. Each row of the challenge chain has its own Support mode select in the row's options: leave it on Use assignment default, or pick a mode for that challenge alone. Allow students to step down to Guided is on by default: a student in Standard or Challenge mode can then switch the run to Guided, never the other way. Turn it off to keep every run in the mode you set. Changes apply to sessions started after saving. Compare the modes.
Theme re-skins the narrative the agent speaks in, without changing the task or the grading. The same reasoning challenge can be set in a harbour for one class and a hospital for another, and the reports stay comparable because only the surface changed.
Description and Theme are both prose you write, and it is easy to mix them up. Description is set on the template, is the same wherever the template is used, is shown to people in lists and cards, and never reaches the agent or the judge. Theme is set per assignment, wraps the narrative the agent speaks in on every turn, never changes the constraints or the goal, and never reaches the judge or scoring, so grades stay comparable across themes. The conversation itself is configured by Type, plus the Scenario, Constraints and Goal on the published version, plus this Theme.
Opens at, under More options, is optional: left blank, the assignment opens as soon as you save. Both dates are enforced. The student sees Opens, Due, or Closed, and cannot start or continue outside the window. The due date must follow the opening time. Each selected date uses its own daylight-saving offset; times that do not exist during a clock change show a field error.
The page lists sessions, turns, dates, and report links. The institution, assignee and chain are read-only; title, theme, turn limit, support mode, the step-down switch, and dates remain editable. The chain lists each challenge's own support mode, or Use assignment default.
Cancel assignment stops new starts and marks open sessions Cancelled. Completed sessions keep their record and report. The assignment leaves the list until you select Show cancelled and archived; create a new assignment if the work should continue.
Workflow 6
Use Reports filters for institution, student, roster, assignment, template, status, or start date. Choose Apply filters, then View on a row; Clear filters restores the list.
The report shows the student, status, turn and hint counts, the support mode, dates, and links to related assignment, template version, and roster. The Support mode tile shows the mode the run is in, which is Guided once a student stepped down, and whether stepping down was allowed. Compare the modes.
Pending sessions show no evaluation. A session that ends Abandoned after the student sent at least one response is still graded, as a partial attempt on the work done before it ended; its report says so above the score. One abandoned before the student answered has no report, and says so. The hint count includes the hints the student asked for with I'm stuck. A finished session shows an overall score, a written summary, and, when enabled, four fixed dimension scores with a rationale each: conceptual accuracy, communication clarity, problem-solving approach, and completeness. See the challenge types reference for how the judge and the score are produced. Checkpoints list the milestones the judge tracked for the challenge type, whether each was met, and at which turn; the transcript marks a milestone where it happened.
The Mastery tile shows the run's band, read from the credit of its required steps (the template's steps, or the type's milestones when it has none). By default a step met without a hint earns full credit; met at hint level 1, 2 or 3 it earns 80, 60 or 40 percent; a step the student made real progress on without finishing earns 20 percent. The percentage under the band is that credit across the required steps; by default below 40 is Beginning, 40 up to 65 Developing, 65 up to 85 Proficient, and 85 and above Mastered. A platform administrator can change these credits and band edges. The checkpoints table shows each step as Met, Met with hint N, Attempted or Not met, with its credit, the support mode it was met in (Met in), and turn. The Reports list shows the support mode of every session and the band for every graded one.
Above the evaluation of a solo run, Student progress, marked "From runs you can open", shows what that student's counted runs whose reports you can open (their runs under assignments you created) add up to: their XP and, for each challenge type, their mastery (the average step credit over the latest of those runs, the last 5 by default), latest band and number of runs. Under the table, Evidence toward each framework lists the items those runs measured directly: the thinking skills the evaluation dimensions measure and the standards the templates are aligned to, each with the student's mastery (the average of the latest observations, the last 5 by default), its level when the framework has levels (never on an assessment framework, where it would read as a predicted result), the number of observations and when the latest was made, with the framework's copyright or licence notice under the table when it has one. It is formative evidence from the student's runs, not a test result. It counts only runs whose reports you can already open, never the student's other work or any outside assessment results their institution imports, so it shows no overall level and no badges: a badge is earned once per type, so which badges a student has would tell of runs you cannot open. The card is hidden when none of those runs has been counted. You see one student at a time and there is no ranking or class comparison. Each time you open it, the read is recorded in the access log the same way as other reads of student records. Students see the same figures, with their badges and a suggested next challenge, on their own dashboard (see the student guide).
The transcript is the student-visible conversation, labeled by speaker. Internal instructions and grading rules are excluded.
Workflow 7
A flag is raised when the AI sees a disclosure of self-harm, abuse or serious distress in a student's message. The student gets a short supportive reply, the session pauses, and the student sees a paused message in place of the response box until the flag is reviewed. A flag with the reason "AI service content filter blocked a student message" is different: the AI service's filter blocked the message before the AI saw it, in any category the filter screens (not only disclosures). The student gets no supportive reply, only a note that the message was passed to a person and a suggestion to talk to someone they trust, and the session is not held: the student can choose Resume and carry on. Review it all the same. Flags appear in the Safeguard flags list, in the dashboard's Open Safeguards count, and as a notification on your Notifications page. You see and review the flags raised on runs of your own assignments; your institution administrator sees every flag in the institution.
Opening a flag shows its context and the student-visible transcript.
Clear and Escalate both require reviewer notes and a reason. The notes and reason are saved with the flag for staff: the student never sees them or who reviewed the flag. Clearing the last open flag on a session lets the student carry on where they left off; escalating leaves the session paused until someone clears it. A content-filter flag holds nothing, so clearing or escalating it records your decision without changing the session, which may already be finished.
Not yet available
The AI's own detection covers safeguarding disclosures only, not inappropriate language or academic-integrity concerns; a message the AI service's content filter blocks, such as hateful or sexual content, raises a content-filter flag as described above. The beta sends no email, so watch your Notifications page and the Safeguard flags list.
Creating your own challenge
Workflows 1 to 7 are all you need to run a class on ready-made challenges. Making your own takes more steps: you can adapt a copy of an existing challenge (workflow 8), or define a template and file it with labels and standards (workflow 9), write and publish the challenge itself as a version (workflow 10), and draft both with the teacher assistant (workflow 11). A finished template is assigned exactly as in workflow 5.
Workflow 8
Editing a copy of a published challenge is the shortest way to a challenge of your own. Clone is available on any published, non-archived template you can read: on its row in the list, or with Clone this template on a library template's page.
A clone copies the title (with " (copy)" appended), description, type, locale, subject, age rating, labels, alignments (except any retired since, or of a framework not currently available), and the source's latest published content, and lands you on the new template's own page. The copy is Personal and yours to edit.
A clone always publishes Version 1 from the source's latest content, so it is assignable immediately. Editing and publishing again adds Version 2, leaving the clone's own Version 1 unchanged.
Change the template's fields as in workflow 9 and publish a new version of the challenge as in workflow 10, with the teacher assistant's help if you like (workflow 11).
Workflow 9
A template is a reusable reasoning exercise, the same kind of record you assigned from the library, and it has two layers. The fields on the template itself, Title, Kind of challenge, Visibility, Language, Subject, Age rating, Difficulty, Description, Labels, and Alignments, say what kind of challenge it is, who may use it, and how it is filed; none of them reach the agent. The challenge itself, the scenario, constraints, goal, and evaluation criteria, lives in a published version, covered in the next workflow, so it can be frozen and revised without the record of past sessions changing underneath it.
Search templates by title, and narrow the list with Show, Type, Subject, Label, Framework, Item code, and Grade above it. The Grade picker notes that its grades come from the items' grade bands. Grade lists the grades the available items cover, starting at grade 7 (learners are 13 or older), narrowed to the selected framework when one is chosen; it is hidden when the available items (or the selected framework) cover no grade from 7 up. A template matches a grade only through an item whose grade band includes it, so an item with no grade band (a thinking skill, for example) matches no grade. Standards are school-curriculum aligned, so templates for older or college learners usually carry no grade and appear when Grade is left empty. Show starts at My templates: yours, plus any your institution shares with its teachers. Platform library and All templates are covered in workflow 3. Use Show archived to find retired work.
The form opens on what a template needs: a title, the kind of challenge, and optionally its subject, age rating, description and standards. Settings that already have a sensible default (Visibility, Language, Difficulty and Labels) sit under More options, which starts closed and says which settings you changed, or "Using recommended defaults". Enter a title, and a Description written for the student rather than for you: it is the short summary shown in lists and on the student's card, saying what the challenge is about. It is not read by the agent, and it is not the narrative the agent speaks in, that is the assignment's Theme, set per assignment and covered in workflow 5. Kind of challenge sets the rules the agent runs the conversation by: each kind is a card naming it and what it does, and you select one by clicking its card. The kind and the Language are set when the challenge is created and cannot be changed later. See the challenge types reference for what each kind does and how it is graded (more types are coming). Socratic Constraint is selected to start with. Language, under More options, records the language the challenge is written in, and starts on en-US.
Visibility, under More options, is filled in as Personal, and a template you create is saved as Personal: only you see it, assign it, and change it. Templates your institution administrator shares at Institution visibility appear to every teacher in that institution, who can assign and clone them but not edit them. Platform library templates (Visibility System) are read-only, but every teacher can browse them, assign them directly, or clone one into a template of their own.
Subject files the template under a topic (Everyday reasoning, Philosophy and ethics, AI and technology, Science, and so on) for the Subject filter on the Templates list. Both fields are optional. Age rating (13+, 16+ or 18+) marks content that is not for every age: a rated template blocks a student under that age, or one with no recorded date of birth, from starting it. Leave it empty for a challenge any student may start. Difficulty, under More options, is also optional: Unrated, or 1 Introductory, 2 Intermediate or 3 Advanced. Students see it as a pill on library cards and can filter the library by it; it does not change how the challenge runs or is graded.
Labels, under More options, are your own words for finding a template again, such as "climate" or "persuasion". Type one under Add a label and choose Add, or pick a suggestion as you type: the list offers labels already in use on templates you can see, so you can reuse a spelling instead of inventing a second one. A template holds up to 10 labels, each up to 40 characters, and a label that differs only in capitals is the same label. Remove one with the close mark on its chip. Labels are shared across the whole platform and are visible to anyone who can see the template, so keep them to the topic; a platform administrator can rename, merge or delete a label that does not belong.
Alignments tie the template to items from a fixed catalog: learning standards such as NGSS, Common Core, C3, the England national curriculum, Texas TEKS or Florida B.E.S.T. (including practice items such as the NGSS science and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts and the Common Core ELA anchor standards), competencies such as the Australian Curriculum capabilities and the UNESCO and OECD/European Commission AI literacy frameworks, assessment targets from California's CAASPP Smarter Balanced tests and the California Science Test, and the Cognificance thinking skills the challenge types measure. Standards are optional. To add one, choose Add a standard under Standards: a search window opens. Type part of a code or of the item's wording in Find a standard by code or words, or choose a Kind, a Framework or a Grade. Kind offers only the kinds an available framework has (Standards, Assessment and Competency today), and choosing one narrows Framework to frameworks of that kind. Grade lists the grades the available items cover, starting at grade 7 (learners are 13 or older), narrowed to the selected framework when one is chosen; it is hidden when the available items (or the selected framework) cover no grade from 7 up. Then choose Search and Add on each row you want; the window stays open so you can add several, and Done closes it. Each standard you add appears as a chip under Standards; remove one with the close mark on its chip. Only items in the catalog can be added, and the catalog's descriptions are short: the official wording, shortened where needed, for openly licensed frameworks such as the Australian Curriculum and the national curriculum in England, and summaries in our own words for the others. Reading descriptions distinguish literary and informational texts, and disciplinary writing has its own descriptions. Across grades, topic tags keep the shared skill, such as word meanings, before the grade-specific details, so you can search for that skill; under the alignments, each code links to its official source page. Under the standards, one closed line, Also supports, counts what they carry over to through the catalog: for a standard, the assessment targets that assess it and their claims. Select the line to open the list, grouped by framework; the frameworks' notices stay shown either way. These are shown, not saved, and do not count toward the limit; when a standard leads to more than the editor can list, the count ends in a plus sign and the list shows the nearest and says more exist. A template holds up to 10 alignments. An item fits when the challenge really exercises that thinking, not merely when it shares a topic; a few well-chosen items are better than ten loose ones.
Some frameworks require a copyright, trademark or attribution line wherever their standards appear. The editor shows each notice under the standards it applies to, and the same notices are listed on the third-party notices page. ISTE Standards, the CASEL framework and the AI4K12 Five Big Ideas in AI are not available yet, pending permission from their publishers, so they do not appear in the Add a standard window.
Save creates the template, with its labels and alignments. It cannot be assigned until it has a published version. Labels and alignments belong to the template, not to a version: changing them later takes effect at once and does not create a new version.
The archive action on a template's row hides it and stops it being chosen for new assignments. Existing sessions and reports remain available. Turn on Show archived to find it again and restore it. Platform library templates cannot be archived.
Workflow 10
The version form opens. Publishing creates a version that cannot be edited later, so the form opens only from this action.
These fields are what the agent and the judge actually read. The Scenario is what the student is given, and what the agent works from turn by turn; it is the only field most versions need. A Socratic Constraint challenge should also have at least one Constraint for the student to question, so for that kind Constraints sits beside the Scenario and the readiness line reminds you while it is empty. The rest are under More options, already filled in: on a first version with recommended defaults for the template's kind, on later ones with the previous version's values. The line under More options names the ones that differ from the kind's recommended defaults, and More options opens by itself if one of its fields would stop the publish. Constraints, one per line, are rules the agent holds the student to, and the judge reads them too. The Goal is where the agent steers the conversation, and the judge reads it as well. The Evaluation criteria, one per line, are what the judge grades the student's messages against. Time limit (minutes) is optional: leave it blank and the session runs untimed, or set 1 to 240 minutes and the session closes at the limit and is graded on the work done, showing as Timed out. Only time between turns counts towards it, capped at fifteen minutes per gap. Challenge title defaults to the template title; goal and criteria default to values for the chosen Type, listed in the challenge types reference.
Steps are optional. Add one with Add step for each part of the problem the student works through, in order: for example name the quantities and their units, write the relationship, compute, check against the limit, and interpret. Move a step with the up and down arrows, remove it with the bin, and clear Required for a step the challenge is complete without. Up to ten steps. Say what the student does, never the result. When a version has steps, the judge tracks and credits each one on its own instead of the type's own milestones, and the report shows which steps the student completed and how much help each took.
Under the fields, the portal checks the content as you type. Ready to publish means nothing is missing. A red chip names something that would stop the publish, such as an empty scenario, and Publish stays disabled until it is fixed. An amber chip flags content that is only thin, such as a very short scenario, no constraints, or no goal (the type's default is then used); it never stops you publishing.
Publishing adds an assignable, immutable version. Later versions leave earlier versions and their sessions unchanged.
Each new version starts from the previous fields. Assignments keep the version they were created with.
Workflow 11
The assistant can take up to two minutes to reply during beta; a notice beside the message box says so, and your draft is kept if a reply times out. If the AI service's content filter declines your request, the notice asks you to rephrase it, and that request does not use up a message of your daily limit. A reply the content filter stops after it started, a reply that fails because the AI service is unavailable or slow, a reply cut off for length, and a review of a saved version that could not complete still count.
The Teacher assistant panel sits to the right of the template form, on a new template and on any template you can edit. It does not appear on a template you can only read, such as a platform library template.
Type the topic, the class, and what students should reason about, then choose Send, or press Enter (Shift+Enter starts a new line). The assistant can suggest a challenge type and say why, compare types, and ask you one question at a time. Ask it to draft the challenge when you are ready. If an administrator has paused AI features during a provider outage, a message says AI sessions are paused for a short while; your message stays in the box, so send it again in a couple of minutes. AI features can also pause for the rest of the day when the platform reaches its daily AI spend limit; the message then says so, and it clears at midnight UTC, or sooner if a platform administrator raises the limit. Nothing you wrote is lost. If the assistant takes too long or cannot answer, a notice above the message box says nothing was changed. If its reply was too long to finish, the notice says so and asks for a shorter or narrower change, because sending the same message again would be cut off the same way. Your message returns to the box so you can send it again.
A draft arrives as a Proposal card under the conversation: a one-line summary, the title, description, type and difficulty it would set, and the scenario, constraints, goal, time limit, evaluation criteria, and steps of the version it would publish. Ask the assistant to break the problem into steps and it proposes them; a proposal that does not mention steps keeps the ones you have. The same readiness chips as the publish form flag anything that would block publishing or is thin. When you ask, the assistant also looks up standards in the catalog, starting from the thinking skills the challenge type exercises, and proposes Labels and Alignments on the card, each item with its code, short description and framework notice. Its suggestions also name the assessment targets each standard supports, so you can see the assessment side before you choose. A line reading "(unchanged)" means the proposal leaves that field alone; "(none: clears the labels)" means confirming would remove them.
Nothing is saved until you choose Confirm and save. On a new template that creates the template and publishes the proposed content as Version 1, the same as Save followed by Publish. On an existing template it updates the title, description, labels and alignments if they changed and publishes the content as a new version. The labels and alignments on the card are the ones saved, whatever the form shows: to change them, ask the assistant for a revised proposal, or discard it and edit them in the form. Discard drops the card and changes nothing. A template's type cannot change once it exists, so for a different type start a new template.
After a confirmed save the assistant reviews the saved version: a score out of five each for the scenario, constraints, goal, and criteria, whether any field gives the answer away, what is missing, and suggested fixes. Act on it by asking for a revised proposal, or by publishing a new version yourself. If the AI review cannot complete, the version is still saved and the automatic checks are shown.
The assistant never saves, publishes, or changes anything by itself, including labels and alignments; only your click on Confirm and save does. It can propose only items that exist in the catalog. It will not write a worked answer, a solution, or the conclusion students should reach into any field: the scenario sets out the situation, and the student does the thinking. It sees only this template and your unsaved form, and the conversation is not kept once you leave the page.
The assistant has a daily limit: by default 100 messages per person per day (the automatic review of a saved version counts as one), counted from midnight UTC. When you reach it, a notice above the message box reads "Daily assistant limit reached. It resets at midnight UTC." and your message is not sent or counted; the count starts again at midnight UTC. A message that was accepted but then failed (for example when the AI provider has a problem) still counts toward the day. Sending many messages within a minute also pauses the assistant briefly: wait a moment and send again.
Workflow 12
The bell in the app bar shows how many notifications you have not read, and opens the Notifications page, also in the navigation drawer. It reports work you set being published and students finishing a challenge you assigned. Assignment and safeguarding notifications are queued when the change is saved and may take a few seconds to appear. There is no email, and no way yet to choose which notifications you receive. By default, a notification is removed 90 days after you read it, or 180 days after it was sent if you never read it. Opening the page marks every unread notification of yours as read, up to the newest one it shows, in a single request, including older unread ones that are not on screen; those start the 90-day clock when you open the page.
The top-right icon switches the portal between light and dark themes.
On a narrow window the drawer hides. Choose the menu button to open it over the page.
There is no delete button for your own account or your students'. Your account owns your classes, templates, and assignments, and your students' records belong to your institution. Send any request to erase an account to your institution administrator, who can erase students and teachers from Institution users after moving any of your classes still in use. Independent learners can delete their own accounts.
The sign-out icon ends your session. Use it on a shared machine. If a sign-in is cancelled, takes too long or was started in another tab, the portal shows Sign-in did not complete with Sign in again, or Back to dashboard if you are still signed in; if it keeps happening, note the time and tell your platform administrator.
Define, publish, assign, and review challenges, draft them with the teacher assistant, or start from the platform library. Build rosters, set turn limits and availability windows, cancel assignments, and clear or escalate safeguard flags.
Programs, bulk operations, exports, and additional challenge types are planned. LMS content selection is available when LTI is enabled and accounts are linked. User accounts and institution settings belong to institution administrators.
When your institution has LTI launch enabled and its LMS registration permits instructor access, open the course activity to reach the launch-mode teacher page. It can offer a link to the assignment or roster in the admin portal when that destination is configured; the admin portal uses its own sign-in. The course must already be linked to a roster by an institution administrator. Learners open the activity in a new window by default and work without a separate portal sign-in. Overall or dimension grades return after evaluation; completion credit applies to fully or partially finished activities. See integrations for availability.
When enabled on the platform and the institution's LMS is registered, with LTI launch and deep linking enabled, teachers can select their own published templates or course assignments from the LMS content picker. If account access cannot be resolved or the teacher lacks membership in the course institution, the picker asks the institution administrator to check the account. Publishing a template requires a course roster reachable by the linked teacher account, just as in the assignment editor. An institution administrator must first link the LMS account to the teacher's existing account through the admin API. If the picker has no content, ask your administrator to check that link.
Choose an overall score, a dimension from the selected challenge type, or completion credit. Unknown dimension names show the available names. Completion credit applies only to finished or partially finished activities, not timed-out runs. When the picker opens a new window, submit the selection there and return to your course within eight minutes; the original course frame has one extra minute to retry brief connection failures and complete the placement.
The course content picker retries brief failures while loading choices. Your selection is sent once, and the portal waits for the platform's answer.
Open Banners in the admin portal to create a plain-text announcement of up to 500 characters, with Info, Warning or Critical severity. Teachers can target students in one or more rosters they own. Institution administrators can target their own institutions and narrow by role; platform administrators can target everyone or selected roles, institutions and rosters. When several target kinds are selected, a recipient must match every kind.
Set the start and stop dates in your browser's local time; the stop must follow the start. Active announcements appear above the portal header, with Critical announcements first. They refresh on sign-in or app load and every five minutes. Closing a banner in the admin site dismisses it for the browser session, including page reloads; a new browser session can show it again while its schedule is active.
Each selected date uses its own daylight-saving offset; times that do not exist during a clock change show a field error. Administrators can also narrow their audiences by roster. The roster picker lists active rosters within your banner authoring reach. Unavailable or archived saved targets remain visible and must be removed before saving; the server checks the audience when you save. Loaded announcements appear and disappear at their scheduled times even when a refresh fails. When several announcements are visible, scroll within the bounded banner area; you can focus it and scroll with the keyboard.
The admin site signs you out after your effective inactivity timeout, initially 2 hours. Your institution administrator can set separate overrides for admins, teachers and students, each from 120 to 2880 minutes (2 hours to 2 days), or leave a role empty to use its platform default. A platform administrator can change the separate defaults for institution students, institution teachers, independent learners, and institution and platform administrators in Configuration without a deployment or restart. Teachers cannot change these settings unless they also administer the institution. With multiple active institution memberships, the shortest effective timeout applies; platform administrators always use the admin-site default.
A dialog warns two minutes before sign-out, with a live countdown and Stay signed in. Typing, clicking, scrolling, touching, and returning to a visible tab count as activity across your admin tabs. Waking after the deadline signs you out immediately. Automatic or scripted scrolling does not count as activity. Continuing to work or choosing Stay signed in also renews your sign-in. Save work before stepping away; inactivity sign-out does not save drafts. Settings take effect on the next profile request when you reload the page.
Request allowances apply across the whole service. If you reach a limit, wait for the time shown before trying again. If AI requests are temporarily unavailable, wait and try again when the service recovers. When many people use the AI at once, a start, a turn, an assistant request or a team summary can be answered that the AI is busy; nothing is changed or counted, so try again in a moment. The beta also limits sizes: a class holds up to 40 students, so a join past that is refused with This class is full and a roster edit that would pass it with A class can hold at most 40 students, and a teacher can have up to 8 classes that are not archived, counting a restored class; archive a class to make room for a new or restored one.
Align challenges to standards, competencies or assessment targets in the catalog. Need another framework? Teachers and institution administrators can use Request a framework or assessment in the template editor's Add a standard window, or choose that category on Contact. Your institution administrator can also import your district or school framework in Catalog; it is private to your institution, so you see its items in the Add a standard window and the teacher assistant only for your institution's templates. Platform administrators import shared frameworks for every school. See Standards and assessments.
Open a class or assignment and select Gap view. Choose an enabled framework, including your institution's own. Review its hierarchy, learner coverage, mean mastery and level (no level on an assessment framework, where it would read as a predicted result), observation count and last observed date. For frameworks with rated standards or assessment items, choose a Thinking demand rating (1-4) to filter, or Highest thinking demand first to order by demand; both apply before the 100-item cap. Each item lists its demanded Cognificance skills. Cognificance Domain, Strand and Skill rows are not rated, so their demand filter and demand order are disabled. Cognificance and the Cognificance Critical Thinking Profile are available in the same framework list; the Profile is formative only, with no predicted or certified score. Choose Weakest first, or open an item's learners, including learners with no evidence. Evidence on standards also contributes to the assessment targets that assess them and to their claims; contributing items are listed. Missing evidence is never scored as zero. These are formative observations, never predicted assessment scores.
Teachers read their own classes and runs under assignments they authored; institution administrators read their institution's scope. Views support up to 500 current learners and show up to 100 items in the selected demand filter and order (by code otherwise). Each item uses itself plus at most 99 contributing items, and one view reads at most 1,000 distinct items; warnings identify capped data. Weakest ordering applies to the listed subset. Class tables can be downloaded as CSV when exports are enabled. Only owning institution administrators and platform administrators see imported external levels, by administration and learner count, when both external-results switches are on. Teachers never see the overlay; external results never enter mastery or coverage. See Standards and assessments.
The Gap view excludes descriptive Progression and Indicator rows in every framework. Domain, Strand and Skill rows remain. Demand filtering hides unrated items, including parents. Highest demand first uses weakest mastery as a tiebreak when both orders are selected. Contributing evidence reached only through Demands is marked "via Cognificance skill". Template filtering and "Also supports" do not follow Demands.
The Cognificance layer and Profile are included with AI Challenge. Alignment items show a 1-4 thinking-demand rating and the skills they demand where annotated. The reference describes domains, strands, grade-band progressions and observable indicators. The Profile is formative only, with no certified or predicted score. AI-literacy skills, persistence and evidence evaluation are defined for mapping but are not separately scored by current dimensions.
