Start here
Content has to be built in order, because each layer needs the one above it to exist first. Nothing you add touches the game until an admin merges it, so there's no way to break anything.
Two ways in
Not sure what a concept or a topic is?
Adding questions
three routes — pick by how many you have🎓 A few, for your own lecture
Pick your lecture once and the page is a single form: pick what the question is about, type it, fill the options, tick the right one, Add to queue. It stays open for the next one — no course or topic to choose, because your lecture already answers both.
❓ One question, anywhere in the game
Use this when the question isn't from your own lecture, or you want the full set of fields. Go to Add anything → Question, then:
- Pick the concept it belongs to. Search the box by name — the line underneath tells you which lecture that concept sits in, so you can check you've got the right one. Reuse an existing concept wherever you can.
- Write the prompt, fill in the options, and click the radio button next to the correct one.
- Add an explanation. Students see it after answering, so it's the part that actually teaches.
- Check the live preview on the right — that's the question exactly as it appears mid-run — then Add to queue.
Everything except the prompt, options and answer is optional. Difficulty, hashtags and a lecture override are there if you want them.
A whole course at once
the four-step sheet route1 · Get the template sheet
Work in Google Sheets — one row per question. Make a copy of the template so you have the exact column layout; there's a tab in it for questions and one for lectures. Type your name and email at the top of this page too — that's how your work gets credited, and how an admin can reach you about it.
2 · Fill it in
Questions: course code (e.g. MEDS3002), lecture (e.g. L14), topic (module), concept name, the prompt, four options, and which is correct. If the item doesn't exist yet it's created for you. Lectures & learning outcomes: lecture number, name, and the outcomes separated by semicolons — one row per lecture, on the lectures tab of the sheet.
Topics (modules) and courses have to exist before a row can point at them — see The order to do things in at the top of this page. Both can be added under Add anything, and both take about a minute.
3 · Paste it into the tool
Select the filled-in rows in your sheet, copy, then click a cell in the table here and paste — it fills every cell you copied and grows the table if needed. Each row is checked as you go; anything missing gets a note and, where possible, a button straight to the fix.
4 · It goes to the team queue
Everything lands in Team queue, live, where the whole team can see it. An admin reviews and merges it into the game — usually in a batch. You can edit or fix your own submissions there until they're merged. Players' in-game reports about existing questions show up separately under Reports.
Who can do what
| Anyone | Admin only |
|---|---|
| Add or edit courses, topics, lectures, learning outcomes, concepts and questions; request deletions; flag anything for review | Merge the queue into the real game file; remove things from the queue; see who contributed what; read the answer analytics |
Admins: Eason, Sara, Caitlin, Stephanie, Valerie, Henry — unlock under with the PIN.
My lecture
Pick your lecture once, then add questions straight to it. Everything goes to the Team queue for review, same as anywhere else.
Which lecture are you adding for?
Lecture not in the list? It has to be added first — one row with its number, name and learning outcomes.
Set up a course
Four steps, in the order the game needs them. The map on the right is the course as it stands right now — live content and anything still waiting in the queue — and it updates the moment you add something, so you can always see where it went.
How it's organised
The shape of everything behind the game, drawn with real content from this course. Built for explaining it to someone new — including the two questions everyone asks, which are "what's an item?" and "where does the lecture go?".
Browse content
Everything currently in the game, course → topic → item. Open an item to see its full detail and questions, edit it, add a question to it, or delete it. Built live from game-data.js.
🔍 What's missing (items with empty fields)
Every merged item, checked against the fields you tick and grouped by course and topic. Untick anything your team doesn't care about.
🎓 Courses & lectures
The university courses items and questions can be tagged with. Add new ones from inside the item or question form.
# Hashtags in use
Every hashtag already used, with what carries it. Reuse these (they autocomplete in the forms) instead of near-duplicates.
Study guide preview
The study guide the way students see it, with a ⚠ warning on every card that's missing something. Pick your lecture to see only your own cards. Open a card and hit Edit to fix it from there. Anything still in the Team queue shows here too, marked ⏳ waiting for review.
Lectures
Pick your course. Every lecture it has is listed below with its learning outcomes and how much content is tagged to it. Add a lecture with the form, or hit ✏️ on any row to change it.
➕ Add a lecture
📄 Have the whole list? Paste it from a spreadsheet i
Three columns — Lecture #, Name, LO (outcomes separated by semicolons). Select them in Sheets or Excel, copy, click the first cell here and paste; the table grows to fit. Uses the course picked above.
| Lecture # | Name | LO (separate with ;) |
|---|
Question bank
Every question already in game-data.js as one flat, filterable list — pick a course, topic or lecture instead of expanding items one at a time under Browse content.
🔁 Duplicate questions
Questions that were added twice — the same prompt, or a near-identical one with the same answer — across every course, including new questions still waiting in the Team queue. Look at each group, keep the best one, and delete the rest.
Add content
Pick what you're adding. Fill in the form on the left, check the live preview on the right, then Add to queue.
Study guide item
One item = one drug, mutation, checkpoint, technique or concept that gets its own page in the study guide.
More options — notes, active recall, SAQs, references, images, several lectures
👁 Live preview — how it looks in the study guide
Generated code i
Multiple-choice question
Asked in the game when a player hits this topic. Every question belongs to one item.
More options — a different lecture than its item
👁 Live preview — how it looks in the game
Generated code
Adding many questions at once? Use instead.
New topic (module)
A topic is what a course calls a module — a group of concepts inside one course, e.g. Genetics inside MEDS3002. Created empty; you add concepts to it afterwards.
Tip
Topic names must be unique across the whole game. Check Browse content first — you may be able to file the item under an existing topic instead.
New course / subject area
A whole new unit, like "MEDS3002" — a card of its own on the game's home screen. Check first in case it's already there under a different name. Like everything else it goes to the Team queue for an admin to review, and afterwards you add its lectures, topics and concepts.
Generated code
Lecture learning outcomes
Shown as a bullet list at the top of that lecture in the game's "Browse by lecture" view.
Many lectures at once? Use the pasteable table in instead.
Generated code
Fun fact question
Standalone trivia — not tied to any course, topic or item. Used only for the "shield a grenade by answering a question" mini-game in Group Race; never counts toward stage progress.
Preview
Generated code
Existing fun fact questions
Import from a spreadsheet
Work in Google Sheets or Excel, then select and copy a range and paste it here. Every row is checked before anything is added, and everything still lands in the Team queue for review. Nothing is ever deleted by an import.
Paste directly from Google Sheets / Excel
The most flexible import — course, topic and item are given per row. A blank Question ID column creates a new question; a matching one updates that question in place. If the item doesn't exist yet it is created for you — open it afterward to fill in description/mechanism/fun facts. Select a range in your spreadsheet, copy, click a cell here, and paste: it fills in as many cells as you copied, growing the table if needed. Fix anything by hand, add or remove rows, then check & queue.
Column reference
| Column | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Question ID | no | Blank = new question. A real id (from the export) = update that question in place; its course/lecture/topic/item columns are then ignored so it can't be moved by accident. Hidden by default — the checkbox above shows it. |
| Course, Topic, Item | yes | Course code or name, topic id or name, item name. An unknown item is created. |
| Lecture | no | e.g. L12 — the lecture a newly created item is filed under. L01/l1 also work. |
| Prompt, Option A–D, Correct | yes | Correct is A, B, C or D. |
| Explanation, Hashtags, Difficulty | no | Semicolon-separated tags; easy / medium / hard. |
Team queue
Everything waiting to go into the game, live for the whole team. Filter or search to find what you want to check, and press 👁 Preview to see a question the way students will. Edits show the current version next to the proposed one. Reports from players live in their own tab.
📥 Content to merge
Big batches (like a pasted spreadsheet) are folded into one line per course and topic. Click a group to open it. 🚩 asks an admin to remove an entry; ✕ removes it (developer, after merging).
Reports from players
Problems players reported from inside the game, grouped by the question or concept they're about. Fix it with ✏️, then press ✅ Mark solved and add a short note on what you did. Solved reports move to the ✅ Solved list (Reopen if it comes back). They're never merged into the game.
Feedback
Trouble with the tool, something confusing, a bug, or an idea? Say so here. Anyone can send — only admins and the developer can read what's been sent in.
Submitted so far
Log in
Three roles, each tied to your email at the top of the page. The developer can do everything: merging into the game, removing queue entries, and managing admins. Admins do everything else — stages, lecturers, contributors, data analysis. Each lecturer / UC gets their own code from an admin, which opens Data analysis for their own course only.
Everything, including merging into the game, removing queue entries and managing admins. Your email at the top must be the developer's.
Stages, lecturers, contributors and data analysis. Your email at the top must be on the admin list.
Your own code from the admin. Opens Data analysis for your course only. Your email at the top of the page must be the one the code was made for.
FAQ — how do I…
The everyday jobs, step by step. Each answer has a button that takes you straight to the right place.
Stages
How far a Runner game goes for each course: how many stages, and how many correct answers per topic a player needs to clear each one. Changes go through the Team queue and land with the next merge. Admin only.
Contributors
Everyone who's added, edited, or reported something, and what it was. Admin-only — this is how you find someone's email to follow up about their questions.
Data analysis
How students are doing on the questions — totals from every answer in the game. No individual student is ever identified.
Where students struggle
% of answers that were correct. Hardest at the top. Click a row to see its questions.
Questions to look at
Questions the answers suggest are wrong, unclear, too hard or too easy — each with the reason, in plain words.
📋 Every question
How to read these numbers
% correct counts every answer, including students' second and third tries. 🟢 75%+ is comfortable, 🟡 50–74% is mixed, 🔴 under 50% means most students are getting it wrong.
Check the answer key appears when more students pick one of the wrong options than the marked answer, or when the stronger students do worse than the weaker ones — both usually mean the marked answer or the wording is off.
Unclear means strong and weak students do about equally well on it, so it isn't really testing understanding. This uses each student's first try only, and needs 10+ first tries before it says anything.
Too easy means almost everyone gets it right first time. That isn't wrong — it just doesn't tell students apart.
Small numbers are noisy: one wrong answer out of two attempts is "50% correct". Rows with few answers are greyed out.
Evaluation survey
Answers to the “Rate the game” survey (feedback.html ↗), turned into numbers you can drop straight into the report. Responses include names and emails, so keep exports private.