Frequently asked questions : Settings
Students’ settings are managed in the Student Management tool (accessible via the Coach tab in the menu bar). This tool shows a list of all your students and their settings. Below you can read about the settings and how to use the student management tool.
- Add a student to your student management who already has a Chessity account. See also: Is it possible to convert an existing account into a student account?
- Add a new student. You activate one of your purchased accounts and set it up for the student.
- Pupils who have been inactive for a longer period of time are no longer shown in the student list. This button makes them visible again.
- Sort the student list by user name (alphabetically ascending or descending) or use the search field to search for a user name.
- Sort the student list by name (first name alphabetically ascending or descending) or search for a name using the search field.
- Add a note.
- Sort the list by group (alphabetically ascending or descending) or search for a group using the search field.
- Extend the premium account period by 12 months. These 12 months will commence after the original expiry date. In order to renew an account, you need to have enough premium accounts in stock.
- Change your student's password or personal information.
- Turns the Simplified mode (the children's learning environment) on or off. Default setting: Simplified mode on. See also: What is the Beginner mode?
- Unlock all lessons for an advanced student. He or she can skip easy lessons. Our advice is to be reluctant in unlocking lessons. Default setting: all lessons locked.
- Shield the student from contacts with strangers. By ticking Protect student, you ensure that children can only communicate within their own group. Default setting: Protected status on.
- Enable or disable the chat feature. The chat feature is a popular function within classes but sometimes leads to unwanted behavior. We recommend that you allow this function to be performed under normal circumstances, as it provides children with an important 21st-century skill. Default setting: chat enabled.
- Lock or unlock the Arena. With a locked arena the student must first get 5 stars (per week) to be able to play games in the Arena. Default setting: Arena locked with star lock.
- Enable or disable Chessto tasks. Chessto keeps track of which lesson(s) still have to be made in order to get a new sticker on the way to the exam. Once a week, Chessto distributes these lessons to the pupils as a special mission. If a student already has been assigned tasks by their teacher, Chessto does not hand out missions. Default setting: Chessto tasks on.
- Use this green button to show or hide the 'Groups' widget.
- This button allows you to purchase one or more new student accounts, which you can activate when you need to. Above the button you can see how many accounts you still have in stock.
- Use this widget to divide your students into groups.
- Use this widget to remove students from groups.
- This is a useful feature if you want to change settings for multiple students in one go. Manually tick the students in question, or tick ‘Select all’ to select all students at once.
- The most important settings are briefly explained here.
A chess piece next to the profile picture indicates the highest exam a user has passed. If you haven't passed an exam yet, there's no chess piece next to your avatar. If you have passed the Pawn Exam, a pawn will appear next to your profile picture. Passed the Bishop Exam? Then there is a bishop next to the picture.
This FAQ relates to individual (private) accounts. For users with a student account, see Why is it that my student doesn't have full funcitonality?
When you created your account, you had the option to use the Beginner mode. If you have chosen the Beginner mode, the website is simplified and not all features are displayed.
Simplified mode (limited features):
Regular mode (all features):
To disable the simplified mode and activate all functions, go to My Account – User Interface and uncheck the box for the Beginner mode:
Note:
If you have a student account (created by a coach), you cannot change this setting yourself. Ask your coach to change your settings.
For coaches:
The extensive coaching and student management features are only available to users who have indicatedin their account settings that they are coaches. Go to My Account - User interface to set up a coach profile.
The default setting for student accounts is that the student starts working in child-friendly beginner mode. This is a simplified version of the site that is ideal for primary school children.
Simplified mode
In the normal view, the homepage shows all kinds of features that children don't need, such as blogs and statistics. These only distract children. In the simplified, child-friendly beginner mode, only those features are available that children need:
Students that use the simplified mode, are shown grey badges in their start-up screen, which match the learning objectives of their chess level. As soon as they have sufficiently mastered a learning objective, the badge is displayed in colour. Once they have earned all badges, the student can take their exam.
Learning environment especially for children
It's not just the home page that looks different in the child-friendly beginner mode. The biggest difference between the children's version of Chessity and regular display can be seen when looking at the lessons.
In the regular display the chess lessons at are prestened in a spreadsheet view:
In the children’s mode, the learning environment looks completely different. In the Pawn Level, for instance, the children are taken to a river where a friendly frog jumps from lesson to lesson:
The content of the chess lessons is exactly the same, but the design is much more playful and that really appeals to children.
If you work at a primary school or teach young children, we recommend that you always let the students work in the simplified mode.
Cause 1
The default setting in Chessity is that all lessons are locked. You have to unlock a new lesson first by successfully completing the lesson before it. If you haven't unlocked a lesson yet, you can't go any further.
Individual users can unlock all lessons in their account settings. Users with a student account cannot do this themselves. The teacher can do this via Manage Students tool on the Coach tab
Cause 2
You haven't got enough stars to make a mix lesson yet. Every fifth lesson in the sesson series is a mixed assignment lesson that repeats the content of the four previous lessons. In those four lessons you have to get a minimum number of stars to be able to make the mix lessons. If you don't have enough stars, then you till haven't mastered the required skills yet and you have to obtain more stars first.
Cause 3
The three days unlimited play of your free account are up. A free account offers three days of unlimited access to all Chessity features, including all classes. After three days you need a premium account for continued access to all content. With a free account, you can only do the first five lessons of each level. Previously earned results are not lost. As soon as you upgrade to a premium account, you can continue where you left off.
It is possible to adjust the appearance of the site and the availably functions to your own situation.
NB: the instructions below only apply to individual users. The user settings of student accounts can only be changed by the coach.
Click on the arrow of the drop-down menu on the top right of your screen and choose ‘My Account’. Under the heading ‘User interface’, you have a number of options.
If you don’t know exactly what to click, click on the button ‘Run wizard’. The wizard is a tool that asks a few simple questions. By answering those questions, you can choose the Chessity settings that match your requirements.
This is how the wizard works
First, indicate whether you are a beginner (beginner), advanced chess player (chess player) or chess teacher or trainer (coach):
If you click on beginner, you can choose whether or not you want to use the simplified beginner interface:
The simplified site is ideal for children at primary school age. This setting provides a child-friendly desgin (a river with a frog). Things that kids don’t need, like blog and statistics, are not shown. In addition, this setting forces children to follow the lessons in the predetermined order. New lessons need to be unlocked by completing the lessons that come before.
Of course, as a beginner, you can also choose not to use the simplified site. You won’t have to unlock new lessons, but you can follow them in the order you prefer. The beginner lessons are available in the child-friendly design as well as in the normal interface. This setting is especially suitable for older children and adults.
If you click on chess player, you don’t have to answer an additional question. You have access to all the normal functions of Chessity. If you do want to take beginner lessons, you can choose whether to do so in the child-friendly or normal environment. It is not necessary to unlock lessons before you can follow them. You can start immediately at your own level.
If you click on coach, you do get a second question:
For chess coaches, it is usually more convenient to have access to all the lessons without first having to follow them all. If that is what you want, click on ‘yes, unlock all lessons’.
Once you have answered these questions, click on ‘Save your choices’. You now have access to Chessity in the environment that fits you (or your child or the student on whose behalf you choose the settings). If you are not entirely satisfied, you can always go back to ‘My account’ and change your settings, either by checking or unchecking options manually, or once again using the wizard.
Turning features on or off
Click on the arrow at the top right of your screen and choose 'My account'. Under the heading 'User interface' you can turn a number of features on or off:
Beginner mode: the website will be displayed in the simplified, child-friendly view. Please note: if you check this box, not all features are available anymore. See also: I don’t have full functionality. Why is that?
Enable stickers: on your homepage stickers are shown that indicate how far you have progressed on your way to the next exam:
Chessto tasks: make use of the smart functionality of Chessity's virtual coach Chessto. The smart robot Chessto keeps an eye on which lesson(s) still need to be made to get a new sticker on the way to the next exam. Once a week, Chessto will assign these lessons to you as a special mission. If Chessto has assigned tasks to you, you will see this backpack on your homepage:
(image in Dutch)
Unlock all themes: you don't need to do a lesson to unlock the next one.
Click on the arrow in the top right of your screen (next to your empty profile picture):
Go to My account. Below the heading Avatar, you can upload images to use as your profile picture, or choose one of the premade avatars.
If you have registered via www.chessity.com, the default language is English. Click on the arrow in the top right of your screen (next to your profile picture) and go to My account.
Under the heading User interface, choose the language you want to use. Don’t forget to save your settings.
Chessto is the virtual chess teacher in Chessity. It is a friendly little robot that helps chess learners to learn new skills, coaches them while playing a chess game and guides them through their learning. Chessto uses artificial intelligence specially developed by Chessity and is completely unique in chess education.
Chessto was designed for educational settings, such as schools and chess academies. Given the enormous success of Chessto, the robot is now also available for individual users. With Chessto you have your own personal chess teacher.
You will automatically get Chessto features if your profile is set to 'Player'. Read here how you can check this and how you can change your settings if needed. If you have a coach profile, you need to enable Chessto tasks manually (the functionality of Chessto in the chess lessons is always available, regardless of whether you use Chessto tasks or not).
This is what Chessto does:
1. Explaining and teaching
How does a knight move? Can a queen make far moves? And how do you take an opponent's piece without losing one of your own pieces? At Pawn Level, Chessto acts as a virtual chess teacher that helps children learn how to play chess.
Chessto also plays a prominent role in teaching and practicing new chess skills. Not only does it help you to understand these concepts properly, it also activates prior knowledge in a structured way. This makes it easier to process and remember the new information. You will automate the thinking steps, so that you can better apply the lessons you have learned in your chess games.
Chessto doesn't mind explaining things three times, ten times, or even twenty times. It never loses its patience and is always helpful and cheerful. However, the robot has deliberately been programmed in such a way that you cannot sit back and let Chessto do the work.
2. Coaching during a game
Chessto is full of sophisticated artificial intelligence. As soon as you are able to play a real game of chess, it helps you during your games with tips and advice based on your personal level of chess and user data. Chessto teaches you proper opening strategies and what choices you have to make in the different phases of a chess game. Think of aspects like developing pieces, castling and king safety, and attacking safely. At the right time, focused on your personal learning objectives, while Chessto adapts to your level. In short, Chessto offers truly customized learning, that focuses on what it is all about: the chess student.
Our user data shows that the chess level of learners improves by leaps and bounds in a very short period of time. After half an hour of playing chess with Chessto, the effect is already measurable!
3. Coaching in the learning process
Chessto keeps an eye on which lesson(s) still need to be made in order to get a new badge on the way to the exam. It coaches you in your learning process.
Once a week, Chessto assignes these lessons to you as a special mission. If Chessto has assigned you tasks, you will see this backpack on your homepage:
(image in Dutch)
Mission accomplished? Then a new badge will be displayed on the homepage and you are one a step closer to your chess diploma.
Once all stickers have been received, you can take an exam. Chessto's guidance, both in the exam coaching and during the lessons, ensures that you learn even more efficiently, so that you can quickly obtain chess diplomas and enjoy learning.
4. Coaching after a failed exam
If you fail the exam, Chessto comes back into action. It analyses the mistakes that were made during the exam and on the basis of this it compiles a package of lessons that need to be practised in order to pass the next attempt.
Yes, you can. Click on the little cog on the top left of the chess board.
You will now see a number of options:
With the scale buttons, you can set the size of the pieces. Click on close to hide these options.
Depending on your screen size, you may not be able te see the entire chess board. It is possible to adjust the size of the board by clicking on the cog icon on the top left fot the chess board:
You will now see a number of options:
With the zoom buttons, you can set the size of the chess board to make it fit your screen. Click on close to hide these options.
Yes, that is possible. To the top left of the chess board, you see a cog icon.
If you click on that, you see a number of buttons with which you can change the settings of the chess board:
With the Coords button, you can display the coordinates. By clicking on the button once more, you can hide the coordinates again.
Click on close to hide the options.
Sometimes, it is useful to look at a position from your opponent’s perspective. In which case you want to be able to flip the chess board. You can do so by clicking on the cog icon to the top left of the chess board:
You now see a number of options:
With the Board button, you can chance perspective (white-black).
Click on close to hide the options.
With this button, you can give someone else access to your Chessity account. By authorizing someone else, you give that user the same rights to your account that you have. This function is especially handy for chess coaches who are working at multiple schools or at different chess clubs. The coach can now log in to his own account, but has access to all the group accounts that he or she uses.
Granting and withdrawing access
To grant someone else access to your account, you enter the name of the account that you want to authorize. Click on he + to confirm.
Your account is now linked and added to the overview of accounts that you have authorized. On this page, you can withdraw your authorization any time you want.
Switching between accounts
As soon as your account is linked to another account, in your personal menu, the following menu item appears: Switch account. You can use this option to switch between accounts.
Multiple teachers/trainers at a school/chess club?
Schools and chess academies often have multiple teachers using Chessity for teaching different groups of children. Although you could use this feature in such a situation, it's not the most convenient. Most teachers and trainers like to see only their 'own' children and not all the children of a school or club.
To have several teachers or trainers from one school or club work together, use the special coaching tool Coach Manager:
You can use this to switch between different accounts to which you have access. The menu item is only visible when you have been authorized to use another person’s account.
You can do this in the tool Manage Student Accounts (accessible via the Coach tab in the menu bar).
Click on the icon with the pencil behind the student's name to change the email address.
