14. Live Mode

Live mode lets you see what your students are working on in CurricuLLM as it happens. This AI for schools feature provides real-time monitoring of student learning, helping you identify who needs help, understand which concepts are clicking, spot disengagement, and generate personalised support activities—all during the lesson.

What is Live Mode?

Real-Time Classroom Monitoring

Live mode gives you a window into your students' learning as they use CurricuLLM during class. Instead of waiting until after the lesson to see what happened, you get immediate insight into:

• What topics students are exploring right now
• Which concepts they're asking about most frequently
• Who is engaged and who might be stuck or off-task
• Common misconceptions appearing across multiple students

Key Capabilities

Class Selection: Choose which class you want to monitor from your dashboard. Switch between classes instantly if you teach multiple groups.

Student Activity Tracking: See a live feed of student interactions without reading every individual message. The system identifies patterns and themes across your class.

Concept Analysis: CurricuLLM automatically recognises which curriculum concepts students are working with and shows you how well they're understanding them.

Grouping Insights: The system identifies students who are struggling with similar concepts, making it easy to form support groups on the spot.

Activity Generation: Request a personalised 10-minute activity for any group of students who need extra support. No materials, no prep time required.

Benefits for Teachers

Immediate Intervention: Spot struggles as they happen, not after the lesson ends. Help students before confusion becomes frustration.

No Material Prep: Generated activities require zero physical resources. Everything can be delivered verbally or on devices students already have.

Efficient Support: Group students by need automatically. Spend time teaching, not diagnosing or organising.

Evidence-Based Decisions: Make choices based on what students are actually working on, not guesses about who might be struggling.

Maintains Teaching Flow: Monitor in the background while you teach. You stay in control of the classroom, with information when you need it.

How Live Mode Differs from Post-Lesson Analytics

Timing: Live mode shows what's happening now. Post-lesson analytics show what happened after class is over.

Purpose: Live mode supports immediate teaching decisions during the lesson. Analytics help you plan for tomorrow or next week.

Detail: Live mode focuses on actionable patterns (who needs help right now). Analytics provide deeper trend analysis over time.

Intervention: Live mode lets you respond while students are still working. Analytics inform your planning for future lessons.

Both tools work together: use Live mode for in-class support, use analytics to understand long-term patterns and plan curriculum coverage.

Setting Up and Selecting a Class

Starting Live mode takes seconds. Choose your class and view real-time analytics as students work.

Accessing Live Mode

• Click the Analytics button
• Select Live
• Pick your class
• Wait for student data to be analysed

As students in your class begin to use CurricuLLM for a common activity, analytics will appear.

Activity Generator: A tool to create personalised 10-minute activities for selected students or groups.

Best Practices for Classroom Setup

When to Activate Live Mode:

• At the start of independent work: Before students begin using CurricuLLM for practice, research, or revision
• During planned AI-assisted activities: When you've designed a lesson where students will work with CurricuLLM
• For formative assessment: When you want to check understanding during a topic

Don't activate Live mode:

• During whole-class direct instruction (students won't be using CurricuLLM)
• When students are doing non-digital work
• During assessments where you want students working completely independently

Setting Student Expectations

Be Transparent: Tell students you'll be using Live mode to help support them during the lesson. Frame it as a tool that helps you know who needs help, not as surveillance.

Example script: "Today while you work, I'll be using Live mode so I can see which concepts are tricky for different groups. This helps me know who to check in with and what extra activities might be useful."

Emphasize Support: Students should understand Live mode helps you help them more effectively, not catch them doing something wrong.

Starting Your First Session

Plan Ahead: The first time you use Live mode, choose a lesson where you know students will spend at least 15-20 minutes using CurricuLLM. This gives you enough time to get familiar with the interface.

Start Simple: Focus on just one or two aspects the first time. Maybe just watch the engagement indicators, or just look at concept understanding. Don't try to use every feature at once.

Reflect After: After your first Live mode session, think about what was helpful and what you might do differently next time.

Understanding What Students Are Working On

As students converse with CurricuLLM, the system automatically determines the activity and displays analytics in real-time.

Automatic Activity Detection

As students converse with CurricuLLM, the activity will be determined automatically.

If it gets it wrong, just hit Clear to start again.

After a few moments, areas of success and areas for improvement will begin to appear.

Identifying Students Who Need Help

Areas for improvement appear in the Live mode dashboard, showing which students are struggling with each concept.

Viewing Areas for Improvement

Areas of improvement will appear in the Live mode dashboard.

You will see which students are struggling with each concept.

Getting Personalized Activities

It's possible to click an area for improvement and get a personalised activity to assist them.

Areas of Success

Live mode also shows areas of success, highlighting which students are mastering each concept.

Viewing Areas of Success

Alongside areas for improvement, the Live mode dashboard displays areas of success.

You can see which students are performing well with each concept, helping you identify strengths across your class.

Detecting Disengagement

Live mode helps you spot when students aren't engaged with their learning. You can see who's inactive, who's off-task, and use this information to intervene early.

Signs of Non-Engagement

Live mode tracks engagement indicators and alerts you to potential disengagement:

No Activity: A student who should be working shows no interactions with CurricuLLM for an extended period.

Time Threshold: After 10-15 minutes of inactivity during independent work time, the student appears in your disengagement alert list.

Why Live Mode Helps

• Catch misconceptions before they become embedded knowledge
• Support students at the moment they need it most
• Spend less time guessing who needs help and more time actually helping
• Create flexible, responsive lessons that adapt to real student needs
• Maintain curriculum coverage while still personalising support
• Reduce the gap between recognising a problem and solving it
• Spot disengagement before students fall far behind
• Distinguish between "finished and bored" and "stuck and frustrated"
• Intervene at the right time with the right support
• Reduce time students spend off-task or confused
• Understand engagement patterns to improve lesson design
• Re-engage students proactively rather than reactively
• Turn concept struggles into learning opportunities within the same lesson
• Provide targeted support without complex preparation
• Keep students engaged rather than sitting stuck for extended periods
• Use class time efficiently by addressing problems as they occur
• Maintain lesson momentum while still supporting struggling students
• Build student confidence through supported practice on their specific difficulty

Teacher Tips

• Start Live mode at the beginning of activities where students will use CurricuLLM, not mid-task
• Use it during independent practice, research tasks, or revision sessions
• Don't feel you need to respond to everything you see—focus on patterns across multiple students
• Combine what you see in Live mode with your own observations of the classroom
• Try it with just one class first to build confidence before using it with all groups
• Set up your device before students start working so you're ready when they are
• Test Live mode with a small activity first before using it in a high-stakes lesson
• If you teach back-to-back classes, keep Live mode open and just switch the class selector
• Consider having Live mode on a second screen if you're working at your desk
• Check your class lists are correct before the term starts so the right students appear
• Check engagement indicators every 10-15 minutes, not constantly
• Start with a friendly check-in when you approach disengaged students
• Don't assume inactivity means the student isn't trying—they might be stuck
• Use your visual observation alongside Live mode data
• Some students legitimately work more slowly—don't mistake deliberate pace for disengagement
• If many students are disengaged, the issue is likely the task, not the students
• Build relationships so students feel comfortable telling you when they're stuck
• Generate activities for groups of 3+ students for maximum efficiency
• Read the generated activity before delivering it—sometimes you'll want to adjust wording for your class
• Position struggling groups where you can facilitate while still monitoring the rest of the class
• Have students return to independent work after the 10-minute activity to apply what they learned
• If the generated activity doesn't quite fit, you can request a new one in seconds
• Save effective activities in your notes for future use with different students
• Some activities work well as whole-class interventions if many students struggle

Everyday Examples

Live mode is like having a teaching assistant who watches all your students' work simultaneously and taps you on the shoulder saying, "These three students are stuck on the same thing—here's a quick activity to help them." You stay focused on teaching while getting exactly the information you need, when you need it, in a form you can act on immediately.

Setting up Live mode is like turning on a classroom monitor at the start of group work. You check it's showing the right class, position it where you can see it while teaching, and then you're ready. It runs quietly in the background until you need to glance at it for information.

Detecting disengagement with Live mode is like having a dashboard light that signals when something needs attention in your car. You're not staring at it constantly, but when the light comes on, you know to check what's happening. The light doesn't tell you exactly what's wrong, but it tells you where to look. Then you use your judgment and expertise to figure out what the student needs.

Generating personalised activities with Live mode is like having an experienced teaching colleague standing next to you. When you say, "These three students don't understand comparing fractions—they think bigger denominators mean bigger fractions," your colleague instantly responds with, "Here's a 10-minute activity that addresses exactly that misconception. No resources needed. Just gather them and do this." You don't need to think of the activity, you just need to facilitate it. The heavy lifting of designing targeted intervention happens automatically.