Real-Time Assignments
Hello reader! I hope your December is off to a great start.
We just published an update that makes tracking your students’ progress a whole lot better. It’s based on an idea that came directly from teacher feedback, which is always my favorite kind of change to work on.
The problem
For a long time, the way we handled assignment submissions was pretty simple: we would wait until the game was over—either the student answered all the questions or they ran out of time—and then we’d save all their answers at once.
This worked fine in most cases, but last month, I got nearly identical feedback from two different teachers. The core question was:
If my students don’t complete the assignment before the bell rings, or if they have to stop early, can I still see their results, even if the assignment is incomplete?
And the answer, before now, was unfortunately, “No.” If they stopped playing before reaching the final screen, the work they did complete was lost to your reports. That’s frustrating for you and certainly not fair to the student’s effort.
The solution
We’ve completely changed how assignments are saved behind the scenes. The process is now:
- ➡️ Start: The moment a student begins an assignment we save an empty submission entry for them.
- 🔄 Continuous saving: Every time a student answers a word, whether it’s correct or incorrect, we save that single word’s result to their submission.
- ✅ Completion: Only when they reach the final screen is the assignment finalized and marked as Completed.
This means that if a student has to stop playing after 10 words, it’s ok. Those 10 words will be saved and visible to their teacher.
Live assignment results
To help you track incomplete assignment submissions, the table at the bottom of the page now includes a Status column and filters that let you show or hide submissions based on thier status.
These are the three statuses you’ll see there:
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Completed | The student reached the end of the |
| Incomplete | The student is either playing right now, or they stopped before Their current progress is saved and visible. |
| Just started | The student started the assignment but has not answered any words yet. |
You know what else? This data is now live. 🔵
We previously updated the assignment details page once per minute. This was usually fine, but it could feel sluggish at times. Now, the whole page feels snappy and responsive because every answer immediately triggers an update.
Check out the demo video above. On the left, you’ll see the assignment details page update in real time as I play the assignment game on the right. Watch how a new row gets added instantly, and how the status, time, and results update with every single answer. I especially love how the term performance overview updates and changes its colors immediately as those new answers stream in.
Give it a try! Next time your students are working on an assignment in class, keep the assignment details page open on your screen and watch the results roll in live.