Knoword

Reference guide

This guide covers a number of topics and features of Knoword, and should serve as a handy reference if you ever need it. If there's anything missing or something that could be explained better, send us a message to let us know.

Table of contents

How to play

The main objective of Knoword is to guess words based on their definition and first letter. The game ends when either the time runs out, or all of the words in that particular game or pack have been answered. Correct answers put time back on the clock. If you don't know the answer, you can skip to the next question.

Subsequent correct answers add to your "streak", but skipped words will break it. When your streak reaches 5 or greater, the skip button will turn into a hint button. The next time you don't know a word, you can use the hint to expose the next letter in the word.

You can skip words or use your hint by pressing the esc key to save time from moving your mouse

Packs

Packs are curated sets of words, usually revolving around a topic (trivia) or as part of a school curriculum. Anybody with an account can create a pack by visiting the "My packs" page when logged in, and clicking the "Create pack" button near the top of the page.

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Add words

The pack editor offers three ways to add words to your pack:

  1. Search from words that are featured in the difficulty-based game modes, or any of the words that you've previously added.
  2. Create a new word, either manually entering a definition, or using the Auto option to search for definitions. You can create a text definition, or press the button to upload or search for an image clue.
  3. Import words from a CSV file. Hit the button to the right of the "Add word" button, upload your file, and select the columns you want to match with our import fields.

Image clues

Knoword allows you to define a word using an image rather than text. Watch the short video below to learn how to use image clues, and see how they appear in-game.

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Import fields

When importing words, you can designate certain columns in your data as properties of your words. The following properties are supported:

Field nameRequiredDescription
SolutionYesThe complete word being defined, or correct answer to the question being posed
DefinitionYesA definition or clue to help figure out the solution
Part of speechNoMust be one of noun, verb, adjective, or adverb
AttributionNoWhere this definition was sourced from, if applicable

For more information about importing words, and some helpful techniques for curating lists and generating CSV files, check out the following video tutorial:

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Pack artwork

Pack artwork adds personality and a splash of color to any pack. Upload artwork and choose a color scheme by pressing the button in the corner of the pack preview. For best results, we recommend using an image 600px x 800px or larger.

A note about visibility

By default, packs are set to Public visibility. This means they will show up in the pack browse pages and suggested packs for anybody to stumble upon and play. In the pack editor, can set this option to Unlisted to prevent your pack from appearing in these public areas.

Setting your pack to Unlisted does NOT prevent people from playing your pack, however. This might be useful if you're a teacher with packs that you want to keep a secret from the public, but share with your students.

In addition to having its visibility set to Public, a pack must contain at least 10 words to be listed publicly.

Assignments

Assignments are a way for teachers to see the results of their students playing a particular pack. When you create an assignment, you must give it a name (ie. "Week 12 vocab exercise") and select a pack to assign using the pack search tool.

Packs that you create will be listed under the search input after it has been focused, but before you've typed any search terms.

You may also choose a time limit (or none), and add notes that will appear on the screen before your student starts the assignment. You can set a due date and time for the assignment, after which students won't be able to start an assignment. However, assignment submissions will still be accepted if the due date passed while the game was in progress.

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Sharing with students

After you've created an assignment, your students can access it three ways. Click on the table row for your newly-created assignment to open the assignment details panel and:

  1. Share the unique assignment URL via email or other.
  2. Let your students know the Class code located next to the URL input. They can enter this code using the Enter class code input on the home page to be taken to the assignment.
  3. Connect to Google Classroom using the blue button below the URL input and add this assignment as classwork. The notes and due date that you set in the assignment will be carried over to Google Classroom, and a link to the assignment will appear in your students' feeds.

Playing an assignment

Before an assignment begins, some information about the assignment is shown in the bottom corner of the page, and the time limit at the top. After that, it's just like playing a pack. The results of each game are saved under the name of the logged-in Knoword account in your assignment details panel.

⚠️ An account is not required to submit an assignment. If an assignment is loaded with no account logged in, there will be an input in the middle of the page asking for the full name of the person playing. This name will appear in your submissions table after the game is completed.

Viewing submissions

As students complete the assignment, their results will be logged in your assignment details panel. You can view the frequency and quality of submissions over time using the scatter plot, or comb through the data in the table. You can also download all submissions as an Excel spreadsheet or CSV if you prefer to read the data elsewhere.

If you keep the assignment details open while students are completing games, you'll be able to see their results appear in real time.

Click on one of the rows in the submissions table to view more information about that particular game, like total time taken and longest streak. For even deeper insight about a student's performance, Knoword Pro members can see the specific words viewed and the result (correct/skip). That view looks like this:

spark
planet
principal
tourist
lamp
bird
figure
shark