Using the Virtual Help Queue

As a teacher, one of the things I really like about Magma Maths is the built-in Help Queue. In a traditional classroom, when a child is stuck or confused, they’ll usually put their hand up to ask for help. But equally, there’s a fair chance they won’t - they might be embarrassed, or they might find it awkward.

With Magma, this barrier is completely removed thanks to the digital Help Queue. It’s super easy for both teacher and student to use.

Here I am as a teacher, looking at the Heat Map while my students work through this assignment. I can see that one of my students is getting a little stuck on a particular question. Of course, I can tap onto this and see what’s going on in real time. But when you’ve got 30 children working at once, you may not pick up on it straight away.

Look at the top toolbar - a notification has just come in. This is the Help Queue. When I tap on it, I can see that Callum, in this case, needs some help. I can press Show and it will jump straight to the question Callum is working on. I can even go back to see his previous solutions.

At this point, if lots of the class are stuck on the same question, I might model it to the whole class. Or, I might go and see Callum directly. I can take my iPad, and when I get there I simply tap Solve to model the problem one-to-one. When we’re finished, he can clear the Help Queue himself, or I can tap back on the button and remove him from the list.

From the teacher’s perspective, it’s really easy to see who needs support and respond quickly. But from the student’s perspective, it’s simple and discreet to ask for help.

Here’s an example. A different student is working on a different question. You can see the Help icon in the top left-hand corner above the question. Tapping this first brings up Lava, the AI assistant, which can offer some hints and guidance. If the student wants, they can interact with Lava to get unstuck.

If they still need teacher support, they can tap the Help Queue button. Just like that, they’ll see how many students are ahead of them. In this case, there’s no one else waiting. The teacher can then come and support them as soon as possible.

It’s a very simple feature, but I can see a lot of students finding this a far easier way to ask for help. And for me as a teacher, it helps me direct my time where it’s needed most during the lesson. I think that’s pretty great.