Class Tools — Volume Meter (The Makus Valley)
The Volume Meter is a tool that measures your classroom volume and encourages students to quiet down.
To use the Volume Meter, you must be using a compatible browser (such as Chrome or Edge) as the game requires access to a microphone. To start it:
- Access your class dashboard
- Click the tools icon (toolbox) in the sidebar navigation
- Click the Volume Meter icon on the Class Tools list
Learn more about:
Setting up the Volume Meter
If Classcraft asks you, enable microphone access otherwise the feature will not function properly.
Once you access the Volume Meter, start by setting up a reward: All students in the class who is not marked as absent will receive the reward. Every time students go over the threshold, the rewards may be cut in half!
At first, you can define a reward in Experience Points only.
Starting from the Exploration phase, if you have a Premium or School license, you can select Experience Points, Gold Pieces, or both as a reward for student.
In the Mastery phase, you can also choose for students to lose Hearts every time they're too loud and go over the threshold. If you choose to enable this option, keep the damage low (1 or 2 ) to avoid overly penalizing character classes with less Hearts.
Optionally, you can set up a Timer. Rewards will automatically be granted to all the students when the timer is done.
When you're ready, click Next to set your volume threshold.
Then, set the maximum volume you want your students to reach: this is your threshold. When the dark purple bar goes over the pink indicator, it means that the students are being too loud, rewards may get halved, they may lose Hearts.
Ask students to make a lot of noise so you can determine what is “too much” and move the pink indicator to set the threshold. You can readjust this indicator anytime the meter is active.
Once you're ready, click Start!
Running the Volume Meter
The Volume Meter until it's run its course. At any time you can:
- Reset the meter to return to the setup screen
- Click Finish to reward students
The Volume Meter will run for as long as you leave it (or as long as the timer you've set). You can remain on the Volume Meter screen or navigate to other parts of Classcraft, as long as you remain in the current class.
When students go over the threshold, decide how you want to handle it:
- False alarm: Resume the activity with no consequences
- Keep going: This will cut the reward in half (and remove Hearts from students if you enabled that option) and resume the activity.
At any point, you can navigate away from the Volume Meter screen as long as you remain in the same class. The meter will appear as a banner at the top of your game screen so you can keep track of the current volume and click Finish anytime.