Inklings Geography

Support

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Common questions

How does my student answer?
On the screen. Most questions have buttons to pick from; distances, times, coordinates and counts are typed into boxes laid out like the answer, with the units already written and small pickers for north or south, a.m. or p.m. and the day. Tap Submit when every problem is answered and the sheet is marked straight away.

What is the globe tour before each worksheet?
A short guided tour: the globe opens, turns to the part of the world the worksheet is about, and a narrator goes over exactly what the worksheet will ask, with captions on screen. Your student can pause it, hear a sentence again, and skip a tour once they have heard every part of it before. In Settings → Globe tour you can turn it off, choose the narrator, or stop students skipping. The globe button above the worksheet plays it again.

How do I see the answers?
Tap the three-dots button at the top of the worksheet and choose Answer key. If you have set a parent PIN you will be asked for it first, so a student cannot reach the answers on their own; with no PIN set, it opens straight away.

How do I see how a problem is worked?
After Submit, each mistake opens with the full worked solution: the fact to remember first, then the reasoning one step at a time, usually with the map redrawn and the answer and its neighbours named on it, and then a fresh question like it to try. For the topic as a whole, tap How-to on its section heading.

Do I have to use a PIN?
No, but it is recommended, since your student uses the app on their own. With no PIN the answer key, settings and tests open freely. Set one in Settings → Parent, and turn it off again there with Disable PIN, which asks for the current PIN so a student cannot do it.

I've forgotten my PIN.
There is no way back into the answer key, settings, the reset button or Disable PIN without it, and no recovery code, because the PIN is stored only as a one-way hash, so it cannot be read back off the device by anyone, including us. The only route is to delete the app and install it again, which clears every student and starts you at setup. Please pick something you will remember, and note that a student who watches you type it will know it too.

How does it decide what to give next?
The course is taken topic by topic, in order, and each worksheet draws on up to six topics: the ones your student is working on, plus an occasional refresher from something already mastered. A topic that is new gets two problems with a short list of choices beside each; as your student gets it right it gets more, and the choices go away. A topic counts as mastered after three worksheets in a row with at least ninety per cent correct, and then the next topic in the course takes its place. Both numbers can be changed in Settings → Completion criteria: 85 to 100 per cent, and two to five worksheets. Getting a refresher wrong puts that topic back into rotation.

How is a level paced, and when are the tests?
Each level (a grade, or a course such as World Geography) is worked through in four quarters, and each quarter is finished before the next one opens. When only one or two topics are left in a quarter, the worksheet is topped up to three with topics your student has already completed in it, starting with the ones they found hardest. When the last topic is complete the app offers a test: a Mid-Term after the first quarter, the Semester Final at the halfway point, a second Mid-Term after the third quarter, and the Final at the end of the level. A Mid-Term covers its quarter, the Semester Final the first half, and the Final the whole level. You can skip any of them.

My student is getting problems that are too easy.
Go to Progress, open the level they are past, and tick what they already know. Ticking a topic also ticks everything it builds on, plus every topic two or more levels below it, so you can usually mark a whole year in one tap with Level Completed.

Why does the same topic keep coming back?
Either it is not mastered yet, or it is appearing as a refresher. Refreshers come from topics already mastered and are there to keep them from fading. You can make them rarer or more frequent in Settings → Review problems.

What is the globe in the middle of the bar?
It is the Help globe. Tap it and a real globe opens, with buttons for its maps (mountains, countries and capitals, states, rivers, oceans, lakes, islands, deserts, tundra and forests) and switches for a compass rose and the lines of latitude and longitude. Drag to spin the Earth, pinch to zoom, double-tap to zoom in, and tap any country (or U.S. state) to see its name and capital. It works without an internet connection.

How do I add another student?
Tap the name at the top of any screen, then Manage students, then Add student. You can have up to thirty on one device. Each keeps their own progress, worksheets and history, and the parent PIN is shared across all of them. When you add a student you can mark what they already know, so an older student does not start at maps and globes.

Can I change how long a worksheet is?
Yes, in Settings, along with the most pages a worksheet may run to. Problems with a map take more room than a one-line question, so a worksheet of maps has fewer problems on it.

Can I make a worksheet or test of my own?
Yes. Create Test, in the bar at the bottom, builds a test from the topics on your student's recent worksheets. Manual mode lets you choose any topics from the whole course and the number of problems. Your student answers both on the screen, and they are marked and kept in History.

Can we still use paper?
Yes. Print and Share PDF are in the parent's menu (the three dots), laid out for US Letter paper.

Where is my student's progress stored?
On your device, and nowhere else. Inklings Geography makes no network connections of its own. If you back up your device, the app's data is part of that backup, the same as any other app.

How do I delete a student, or everything?
To remove one student, open Manage students and swipe their name. To erase everything, use Settings → Reset all progress, which needs the PIN if one is set. Deleting the app removes all of it permanently.