General settings
The Settings area within the Administrator console lets you change the appearance and operation for yourself and your students.
Changing settings for all student users
By logging in to your TTRS administrator console and selecting the Students tab within the Settings section, any changes you make will be applied universally to all new student accounts.
NB Changes that you wish to apply for individual students need to be made from within the user console of each student.
There are tips on several of the options to help explain what each one means. Hover over any of the question marks when you are looking at the settings pages to see more information.
There are options under the headings of general, appearance, typing, audio and correction. The administrator also has email notifications for themselves.
Examples of available options
General
Show trophy achievements on the statistics page (On/off) - Default ON
When a student has completed a level, a trophy appears under their “My Stats” page. This can be turned off here.
Show WPM score in module completion window - Default OFF
If this option is enabled, students will see their WPM (words per minute) score in the module completion window after each module. This is turned off by default so the student focuses on their accuracy instead of speed, but this can be turned on if preferred.
Show score in the module completion window - Default ON
If this option is enabled, students will see their accuracy score in the module completion window. If this is disabled, they will see a checkmark icon instead. Some students may prefer not to see the score.
Show graph in module completion window - Default ON
If this option is enabled, students will see a graph with statistics for all the completed modules of the level. If it’s turned off, they will see a compact version of the window without the graph. Some students may prefer not to see a graph or score.
Typing settings
Remember and Repeat
‘Remember and Repeat’ is a feature based on a popular classroom spelling strategy that has students read a word, cover it, write it down, then check to see how they did. It works by getting them to enhance their short term memory processing so they can hold an image of the word for longer amounts of time. When this is switched on, students see a word and type it, then it disappears and they must type it again from memory. It’s useful if you want learners to pay particular attention to spelling for a certain module.
Copy Typing
‘Copy Typing’ is when there’s a line of text above and they copy it on a line below. When it’s off, they’ll be overtyping a word on one line. When it’s on, they have one line of text above and they are typing on the line below.
Audio settings
Voice options
Be aware that selecting a USA voice will trigger the word lists which use US spellings and, similarly, selecting a UK voice will trigger words using UK spellings.
There are four UK voices and three US voices to choose from. The * next to the name means it's a computer-generated voice.
Training
When this is turned on, students will hear a voice providing hand position and basic typing instruction in the first 8 modules.
Correction settings
Announce backspace key
When this is turned on, the backspace key will be announced every time a student makes a mistake. This can be demotivating and frustrating for some users, especially those who struggle with fine motor skills and/or auditory processing difficulties.
As the backspace key is also indicated by the on-screen hand guides, you can try turning this setting off to see if it is less distracting for your student.
One mistake option
When the one mistake option is enabled, a user must correct any mistakes before moving on. To ensure accuracy in spelling and typing, we recommend leaving this setting on.
When the one mistake option is disabled, users can make mistakes while typing and still complete a module. However, keys that were typed incorrectly will not be shown on screen.
Note, turning this setting off can cause an extended key press to register as multiple letters and spelling mistakes. This is a common issue for beginner typists and individuals who struggle with fine motor skills. Keep this setting on to prevent the keyboard from over-responding in this way.
Further support
If you are unsure about any settings after viewing the tips, please contact the TTRS support team. You may also like to sign up for one of our free training webinars to hear more about different settings.