Skills Navigator - FAQ & Help

📋 Overview

What the Skills Navigator is and when to use it

The Skills Navigator is a full-screen browsing interface that gives you access to every math skill in the Maths Quest Pro library. It is designed for teachers who want to browse, preview, select, and take action on skills — all from a single, unified screen.

When to Use the Skills Navigator

Exploring the skill library — Browse all available skills organized by domain, category, and grade level.
Building a practice session — Select multiple skills and launch practice, Boss Battle, Car Race, or Worksheet mode directly.
Creating assignments — Queue up skills and generate shareable links or skill codes for students.
Printing worksheets — Select skills and send them to the print system in one click.
Building quizzes — Queue skills and send them to the Quiz Builder.
Previewing questions — Hover over any skill to see a sample question before adding it to your selection.

💡

The Skills Navigator is a teacher-only feature. It is not visible in Student mode. Switch to Teacher mode using the toggle in the top navigation bar to access it.

🚪 Opening the Skills Navigator

How to launch the full-screen navigator

To open the Skills Navigator:

Switch to Teacher mode using the Student/Teacher toggle in the top-right corner of the navigation bar.
Locate the 🧭 Skills Navigator button in the top navigation bar.
Click the button to open the full-screen Skills Navigator overlay.

The navigator takes over the entire screen, providing maximum space for browsing and selecting skills. To close it, click the X button in the top-right corner, or press Escape.

ℹ️

If you do not see the Skills Navigator button, confirm you are in Teacher mode. The button is hidden in Student mode to keep the interface simple for students.

📚 Browsing Skills

The three-panel layout and how skills are organized

The Skills Navigator uses a three-panel layout:

Left Panel: Skill Grid

The left panel contains the main skill browsing area. Skills are organized hierarchically:

Domain sections — The top-level groupings (e.g., "Number & Operations," "Fractions, Decimals & Percents," "Geometry & Measurement," "Data & Statistics," "Algebraic Thinking"). Each domain has a colored header.
Category groups — Within each domain, skills are grouped by category (e.g., "Addition," "Multiplication," "Angles"). Category names appear as sub-headers.
Skill cards — Individual skills appear as clickable cards within their category group. Each card displays the skill name and a grade circle indicating the grade level.

Scroll through the grid to explore all available skills, or use the filtering tools (see Section 4) to narrow the list.

Middle Panel: Preview

The middle panel shows a live preview of a sample question when you hover over (or click) a skill card. This lets you see exactly what kind of question the skill generates before adding it to your selection. See Section 6: Preview Panel for full details.

⚠️

The preview panel is hidden on screens narrower than 1024px to save space on smaller displays. On these screens, the navigator operates with two panels (skill grid + queue).

Right Panel: Selected Skills Queue

The right panel shows your currently selected skills. As you click skill cards to add them, they appear here as a list. You can remove individual skills or clear all selections. See Section 7: Selected Skills Queue for full details.

🔍 Filtering & Searching

Narrow the skill list with domain, grade, and text filters

The Skills Navigator provides four filtering mechanisms at the top of the skill grid. Filters use AND logic — all active filters must match for a skill to be shown.

Domain Pills

A row of clickable pills at the top of the navigator, one for each domain:

All — Shows every skill (default).
Number & Operations
Fractions, Decimals & Percents
Geometry & Measurement
Data & Statistics
Algebraic Thinking

Click a domain pill to show only skills in that domain. Click "All" to clear the domain filter.

Category Dropdown

When a domain is selected, a category dropdown appears, listing all categories within that domain. Select a category to further narrow the skills shown. For example, selecting "Number & Operations" and then "Multiplication" shows only multiplication skills.

Grade Pills

A row of grade-level pills lets you filter skills by their Common Core grade alignment:

K Kindergarten 1 Grade 1 2 Grade 2 3 Grade 3 4 Grade 4 5 Grade 5 6 Grade 6 M Multi-grade

Click a grade pill to show only skills at that grade level. This is especially useful when planning lessons for a specific grade or when differentiating instruction.

Search Box

Type any keyword into the search box to instantly filter skills by name. The search matches against skill names, category names, and domain names. For example:

Typing fraction shows all fraction-related skills across every domain.
Typing area shows area/perimeter skills in Geometry & Measurement.
Typing word shows word problem skills across all operations.

The search filter combines with domain and grade filters using AND logic. So you can select "Grade 4" and type "multiply" to find only Grade 4 multiplication skills.

💡

All filters work together with AND logic. For example, selecting the "Geometry & Measurement" domain pill, the "Grade 5" grade pill, and typing "area" in the search box will show only Grade 5 area-related skills in the Geometry domain.

🎴 Skill Cards

Understanding and interacting with individual skill cards

Each skill in the grid is displayed as a card. Here is what each card shows and how to interact with it:

Card Anatomy

Skill name — The full name of the skill (e.g., "Add Fractions (Visual)," "Long Division," "Angles — Classify").
Grade circle — A small colored circle indicating the skill's grade level. The color corresponds to the grade (see legend below).

Grade Circle Colors

K Red 1 Orange 2 Yellow 3 Green 4 Blue 5 Purple 6 Pink M Gray (Multi)

Interacting with Cards

Click to add — Click a skill card to add it to the Selected Skills Queue (right panel). The card highlights with a checkmark to show it is selected.
Click again to remove — Click a selected card again to deselect it and remove it from the queue.
Hover to preview — Hover over a card to see a sample question in the Preview Panel (middle panel). This does not select the card; it only shows a preview.

💡

The checkmark/highlight on selected cards persists even when you change filters. You can select skills from one domain, switch to another domain, select more skills, and all selections are preserved in the queue.

👁️ Preview Panel

See a sample question before selecting a skill

The Preview Panel occupies the middle column of the three-panel layout. When you hover over a skill card, the preview panel instantly generates and displays a sample question for that skill.

What the Preview Shows

Question text — The full question as a student would see it (e.g., "What is 3/4 + 1/2?").
Visual / SVG — If the skill includes a visual component (geometry diagram, number line, fraction model, clock, etc.), it is rendered in the preview.
Multiple-choice options — If the skill generates MC options, they are shown with the correct answer highlighted in green.
Answer — The correct answer is displayed below the question.
Hint — The hint text that would be available to students during gameplay.

Regenerate Button

Click the "Regenerate" button in the preview panel to generate a new sample question for the same skill. This is useful for seeing the variety of questions a skill can produce. Each click produces a different randomly-generated question.

⚠️

The Preview Panel is hidden on screens narrower than 1024px (tablets in portrait mode, smaller laptops). On these screens, the navigator shows only the skill grid (left) and selected queue (right). To see previews, use a wider screen or rotate a tablet to landscape.

✅ Selected Skills Queue

Manage your selected skills before taking action

The right panel of the Skills Navigator displays all skills you have selected. This is your working list — think of it as a "cart" of skills ready for action.

Queue Contents

Each selected skill appears as a row showing the skill name, a grade circle (color-coded by grade level), and a category icon or label.
The total count of selected skills is displayed at the top of the queue panel.

Managing the Queue

Remove a single skill — Click the X button on any skill in the queue to remove it. The corresponding card in the skill grid will also deselect.
Clear all — Click the "Clear All" button at the top of the queue to remove every selected skill at once.

ℹ️

The queue persists as long as the Skills Navigator is open. Changing filters (domain, grade, search) does not clear the queue. However, closing the Skills Navigator does clear the queue unless you have taken action (started a game, shared a link, etc.).

🎬 Action Bar

Take action on your selected skills

The Action Bar is fixed at the bottom of the Skills Navigator. It contains buttons that let you use your selected skills in different ways. The buttons become active when at least one skill is selected.

Button	Action	Description
Practice	Start Practice Mode	Closes the navigator and begins a mixed practice session with all selected skills. Questions are drawn randomly from the pool.
Boss	Start Boss Battle	Closes the navigator and starts a Boss Battle game using the selected skills.
Race	Start Car Race	Closes the navigator and starts a Car Race game using the selected skills.
Worksheet	Generate Worksheet	Closes the navigator and generates an interactive worksheet with questions from the selected skills.
Print	Open Print Dialog	Opens the print settings dialog to generate a printable PDF/HTML worksheet from the selected skills.
Share	Open Share Settings	Opens the Share Settings panel to generate a shareable link (Direct Play or Quick Start) for the selected skills.
Code	Generate Skill Code	Generates a compact skill code string that encodes the selected skills. The code can be shared with other teachers or applied later.
Quiz	Send to Quiz Builder	Sends the selected skills to the Quiz Builder, where you can generate questions and build a formal assessment.
Clear	Clear All Selections	Removes all selected skills from the queue. This is the same as clicking "Clear All" in the queue panel.

💡

The Practice, Boss, Race, and Worksheet buttons close the navigator and immediately start the game. Make sure your selection is complete before clicking. The Share, Code, and Print buttons open additional configuration dialogs.

☑️ Select / Deselect All Visible

Bulk add or remove all currently visible skills

Two buttons in the header area of the skill grid provide bulk selection controls:

"Add Visible" (or "Select All") — Adds every skill that is currently visible in the filtered skill grid to the Selected Skills Queue. If you have filtered by domain, grade, or search text, only the matching skills are added.
"Remove Visible" (or "Deselect All") — Removes all currently visible skills from the queue. Skills selected from other filters that are not currently visible remain in the queue.

Example Workflow

Select the "Fractions, Decimals & Percents" domain pill.
Click "Grade 4" grade pill to filter to Grade 4 fraction skills.
Click "Add Visible" to add all Grade 4 fraction skills to the queue.
Now switch to the "Number & Operations" domain and "Grade 4" grade pill.
Click "Add Visible" again to also add all Grade 4 number operation skills.
Your queue now contains all Grade 4 fraction AND number operation skills.

ℹ️

"Add Visible" and "Remove Visible" operate only on the skills currently shown in the grid after all filters are applied. They do not affect skills that are filtered out. This lets you build up a selection incrementally by applying different filters and adding each batch.

💡 Tips & Best Practices

Get the most out of the Skills Navigator

Use Filters to Narrow by Domain or Grade

With 150+ skills in the library, browsing everything at once can be overwhelming. Start by selecting a domain pill and/or a grade pill to focus on the skills relevant to your lesson. You can always expand later.

For a single-topic lesson: filter by domain + category + grade.
For a review session: filter by grade only to see all skills at that level.
For differentiation: create one selection at Grade 3, share it with struggling students, then create another at Grade 5 for advanced students.

Hover Before Adding to See Question Style

Not sure what a skill looks like in practice? Hover over the card to see a real sample question in the Preview Panel. This helps you verify:

The question type matches what you expect (text entry, multiple choice, visual, etc.).
The difficulty level is appropriate for your students.
The visual elements (if any) are clear and useful.

Click "Regenerate" in the preview to see additional question variants. Some skills produce a wide variety of question formats.

Use "Add Visible" for Quick Bulk Selection

When you want to select all skills in a category or grade level, use the "Add Visible" button rather than clicking each card individually. This is much faster for building large selections.

Example: To select all Grade 5 skills, click the "Grade 5" pill, then click "Add Visible." Instantly, every Grade 5 skill is in your queue.

Build Mixed Selections Across Domains

The queue preserves selections when you change filters. Take advantage of this to build a mixed selection spanning multiple domains:

Filter to "Number & Operations" → select a few skills.
Switch to "Fractions" → add a few more.
Switch to "Geometry" → add one or two.
All selections remain in the queue, ready for a well-rounded mixed practice session.

Use the Search Box for Speed

If you know the name of the skill you want, the search box is the fastest way to find it. Type a few characters and the grid instantly updates. Some useful search terms:

multiply — all multiplication-related skills
fraction — all fraction skills
word — all word problem skills
visual — all skills with visual components
clock — time and clock skills
area — area and perimeter skills

Check the Queue Before Taking Action

Before clicking an action bar button (Practice, Print, Share, etc.), review the right panel to confirm your selection is complete. The queue panel shows exactly which skills will be used.

Common mistakes to avoid:

Forgetting to clear a previous selection before starting a new one.
Having skills from an unrelated filter still in the queue.
Starting a game mode before verifying the queue has the right number of skills.