The 5 signals
Five things a teacher wants to know — answered while the student plays.
Each of these updates in real time as the game runs. No test, no
quiz, no separate assessment window. The 5 signals live today; a
6th (Social) ships with our multiplayer roadmap.
01
Are they getting the answers right?
Accuracy + response time, combined.
Fast + right scores high. Slow + right still counts. Wrong under time pressure signals a gap, not just a mistake. Teacher-speak: they know it fluently vs they can figure it out vs they don't know it yet.
02
Are they trying, or just clicking?
Real engagement, not just seat-time.
Tracks meaningful actions per minute — placements, upgrades, using the study button. A student who's disengaged and clicking randomly looks completely different from one who's genuinely playing.
03
Can they plan, or do they just guess?
Strategic reasoning + adaptability.
Diversity of tower types they place, synergies they discover, whether they change tactics mid-wave when things aren't working. Shows spatial reasoning — the kind of thinking a multiple-choice quiz can never test.
04
Do they push through, or give up?
Grit + emotional regulation under pressure.
How they recover after losing lives. Whether accuracy tanks after a setback or stays steady. A window into the "SEL" side of learning that report cards miss and standardized tests can't touch.
05
Are they improving within the lesson?
Learning velocity, second half vs first.
Compares performance in the second half of a session vs the first. Captures the exact "aha moment" moment a one-shot test misses — the thing that tells you a student learned something today, not last week.
+1
Do they collaborate? (coming soon)
Cooperation ships with our multiplayer games.
The single-player game doesn't measure social skills — but the pipeline is wired for it. The 3 multiplayer games on our roadmap add a 6th signal: cooperation, communication, and role-taking.
