GuidesWebinarsCase studiesWhite PapersBlogOther ResourcesFrançais

Introducing Proactive Mode and Reactive Mode

Classcraft TeamApril 21, 2023

Introducing Proactive Mode and Reactive Mode

After lots of research and hard work, our development team is very excited to be launching a new update to the platform that’s available for all Free and Premium licenses — Proactive Mode and Reactive Mode

Proactive Mode refers to a new set of changes that allows teachers to manage powers, Hearts, and damage in a more intuitive and time-efficient way. Reactive Mode refers to the existing system that you are currently used to. Let’s take a closer look to learn more about why we made the changes and how everything works!

Why we created the new modes

The biggest motivation behind this update has been, as always, a desire to refine Classcraft for maximum ease of use while also keeping things adaptable in the ways that matter most. Not everyone uses Classcraft the same way or has the same needs, so it’s important to us that teachers have enough flexibility to get the experience they want from the platform.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve gotten a lot of feedback specifically about powers, Hearts, and damage. There were four main points that came up the most, so let’s take a look at each of them and how they factor into the new modes.

1.Dealing with damage when it occurs may stop the flow of class 

Classcraft is always most successful when it’s fully blended into the classroom environment and everyone is as engaged and immersed as possible. It’s been important for us to refine damage management so that teachers can apply damage without unnecessary interruptions to class time.

Proactive Mode addresses this by allowing students to use powers ahead of time rather than only when Hearts have been lost. This way, a teacher can remove Hearts without having to go through the process of waiting for students to respond and make further decisions about what happens next.

2. When damage is not applied immediately, it can be hard to find and track 

Once we launched the New Classcraft Experience in 2021, all damage was automatically sent to the delayed damage queue. Unfortunately, this made it more time-consuming for teachers to find and track damage. Since it’s very important to us to make sure that Classcraft helps teachers save time on behavior support, we made it a top priority to improve this.

Proactive Mode includes the recent changes we made, which brought back the window that allows teachers to decide whether or not they want to send damage to the delayed damage queue. This is also included in Reactive Mode, so it’ll be easier no matter which mode you use!

3. It’s hard to know how many Hearts students will lose when they protect their teammates

In the current system, a student will lose Hearts when protecting a classmate. This has been connected to a number of factors that can make the management of Hearts difficult for teachers, and we know that it might also discourage students from helping each other out. So, we’ve made it a priority to change this as well!

Proactive Mode makes it so that students no longer lose any Hearts when protecting their classmates.

4. What happens when a student protects another isn’t clear 

From the teacher’s perspective, the current system can be a bit unclear about what exactly has happened when a student protects another classmate.

Proactive Mode improves the flow of information and the interface so that it’s easier to tell who benefits from the power and how they’re affected.

How to activate Proactive Mode

As a reminder, Proactive Mode contains all of the above improvements and more, while Reactive Mode simply refers to the current functionality that you’re used to in Classcraft. 

It’s easy to choose which mode you want and even switch between them to decide which one is right for you, so don’t hesitate to give Proactive Mode a try!

If you currently have a Free or Premium account with Classcraft, you can try out Proactive Mode by creating a new class and choosing that mode in the advanced options during class setup. Keep in mind that all of the classes you create after this will be set to Proactive Mode by default, so if you want to disable it for another new class and go back to Reactive Mode, be sure to double-check the mode selection before finalizing your class setup.

If you’re starting a new Free or Premium account as of the release of this blog article, the classes you create will be set to Proactive Mode by default, but you can still choose which mode you want during setup.

You can switch the mode of any class at any time using your class settings.

Feel free to take Proactive Mode for a spin and see how it feels! We hope it works well for you and your students. A gigantic thank-you goes out to everyone who has given us feedback on these aspects of Classcraft, we couldn’t have made these improvements without you!

News and Updates

Check out Classcrafts' updates

Login Now