Activities & XP
How activity tracking and XP calculation works
Overview
Activities are what students do in your app: completing quizzes, solving problems, practicing skills, and demonstrating learning.
XP rewards students for completing activities based on accuracy and time spent.
No Credit for Passive Activities
Passive activities like watching videos or reading articles don't earn XP on their own.
Students must demonstrate understanding through an activity first.
How Activity Tracking Works
You send two types of Caliper events:
ActivityEvent: Records completion with score and XPTimeSpentEvent: Tracks active vs inactive learning time
These events flow to Timeback's analytics system and power dashboards, reports, and adaptive features.
Using Playcademy?
Activity tracking is handled automatically via startActivity() and endActivity().
XP Calculation
1 XP = 1 minute of active learning time. Your app calculates XP and sends it via the Caliper ActivityEvent. Timeback stores the value you provide without modification, so your XP values appear directly in student dashboards and educator reports.
Follow the standard
Stick to the 1 XP = 1 minute of actual learning time convention.
This keeps XP meaningful across the Timeback ecosystem and ensures your app's data is comparable in reports and dashboards.
XP Rules
XP is awarded based on accuracy and attempt number. The 80% accuracy threshold ensures students have actually mastered the material before earning XP.
First attempt:
| Accuracy | Multiplier | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 100% | 1.25x | Bonus for perfect accuracy |
| 80-99% | 1.0x | Full XP for mastery |
| < 80% | 0x | No XP (mastery not demonstrated) |
Re-attempts (diminishing returns to encourage focused first attempts):
| Attempt | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| 1st re-attempt | 0.5x |
| 2nd re-attempt | 0.25x |
| 3rd+ re-attempts | 0x |
This rewards accuracy and discourages guess-and-check behavior.
Students who achieve 80%+ accuracy on their first attempt earn the most XP.
Time Tracking
Timeback distinguishes between:
- Active time: Student actively engaging with content
- Inactive time: Student idle or away from keyboard
This helps identify when students are truly learning rather than just having the app open.
What You Can Do With This Data
Activity and XP data flows into Timeback's analytics system, where it can power:
- Progress dashboards for students and educators
- Reports on learning outcomes
- Adaptive features in your app (if you choose to build them)
How you use this data depends on your app and your audience.