Basics: teacher tasks and student preferences (L2 / L3)
How class defaults, individual tasks, and student preferences combine—and what takes priority when a task exists.
Audience: Teachers / students · Applies to: SaaS / private
Goal: Understand the priority of class defaults, individual tasks, and student preferences so that settings behave as expected.
L2: Teacher settings
Teachers configure settings within the range enabled by the organization:
| Setting | Purpose | Entry point |
|---|---|---|
| Class practice defaults | Pre-fills frequently used practice types, scenarios, and other values when a task is created | Teacher app → Me → Settings → Class practice settings (practice config page can also jump there) |
| Individual task | Supplies the final settings for one assignment and may override class defaults | Teacher app → Tasks |
Rules:
- Class defaults cannot enable a practice type that the organization has not allowed.
- An individual task overrides class defaults but still cannot exceed organization policy.
- Exam tasks use the exam rules set on the task.
See Class practice defaults and Assign speaking tasks.
After publication, students see the task under Speaking → To-do and open the matching surface. Most day-to-day types use Speaking tasks; multi-party tasks and exams have their own tabs. See Practice types · pipelines · scenarios and Speaking tabs overview.
L3: Student preferences
Students can change only approved experience-related fields, such as:
- How corrections are displayed
- Whether AI audio plays automatically
- Free-practice preferences when no assignment exists, provided the organization allows self-directed practice
When a teacher task exists, its practice type, scenario, exam rules, and other task settings take priority. Student preferences cannot loosen task or organization restrictions.
Entry point: Student app → Me → Settings → practice-related settings. See App settings.
Merge rule (simplified)
Effective settings ≈ platform ∩ organization policy
∩ (task settings when a task exists; otherwise free-practice rules)
∪ student preferences (approved fields only)
| Situation | What takes priority |
|---|---|
| A student opens a teacher-assigned to-do | Task settings (L2) |
| No to-do exists and the organization allows self-directed practice | Organization policy + student preferences (L3) |
| A student wants a practice type that the organization has not enabled | Unavailable until an admin enables it |
Tips for teachers and students
- Teachers: confirm organization policy before setting class defaults.
- Students: complete assigned to-dos first; before free practice, confirm that the organization allows it.
- Both: use the read-only four-layer summary on the settings page to align expectations.