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Interactive Sessions · Tutorial

Standalone sessions with CSV

You don't need a deck for a quick quiz. Interactive Sessions runs a single activity, such as a multiple-choice quiz, a Match-Up or a Card Sort, straight onto students' devices. Load your questions from a CSV file, share the room code, and you're live in under a minute.

About 5 minutes For teachers Uses a CSV file

Before you start

  • An OctoDecks account, and a computer connected to your board.
  • A CSV file of questions. Make one in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers and save or download it as .csv. Or use our example: mcq-materials-and-properties.csv.

In this guide: we run a five-question multiple-choice quiz on Materials & Properties from a CSV, with two students joining on their phones.

1

Open Interactive Sessions

From the Teacher Hub, click Start a session on the Interactive Sessions card. You'll see every activity you can run, with your saved packs underneath in My Library.

All the activities. We'll use Multiple Choice (1).
2

Prepare your CSV

A CSV is a spreadsheet saved as plain text. The first row is the header and every row after it is one question. For multiple choice, the columns are:

questionabcdcorrect_1indexed
Which material is a thermoplastic?AcrylicEpoxy resinCast ironPlywood1
Which of these is a ferrous metal?Mild steelAluminiumCopperBrass1

correct_1indexed is the number of the right answer: 1 for a, 2 for b, and so on. The formats for every other activity are in the reference table at the end.

Commas in your text? Spreadsheet apps handle this for you when they save a CSV. If you're typing a CSV by hand, put quotation marks around any cell that contains a comma, for example "Smooth, low absorbency".
3

Choose an activity

Click Multiple Choice. A setup window opens with a room code already made. Click New code if you want a different one.

You can type questions in by hand here, but a CSV is quicker for anything more than two or three.

4

Upload the CSV

Under Or upload CSV, click Choose file and pick your CSV. Every question appears in a list below, with a tick next to the correct answer.

The setup window, with its room code.
After uploading: five questions ready to go.

Check the ticks are on the right answers. Click the red × to remove a question you don't want.

5

Start and share the code

Click Start activity. The board shows the room code in large letters, with the web address students need in the corner.

Where to join (1), and your controls (2).

Students go to octodecks.app, type the code and tap Join lesson. They don't need an account.

6

Students answer

Each student sees the current question on their device, picks an answer and taps Submit Answer. Their number (for example 001) and the room code show at the top.

What students see.
7

Show the results

Click View Results. Answers are counted live, and the correct answer stays hidden until you click Show Answer. Click Next Question → to move everyone on together.

With the answer showing, the correct bar turns green. Move on with Next Question (1).
8

End the activity

Click End Session at the bottom of the board. Students go back to the join screen and the code stops working. To run something else straight away, click New Activity instead.

Want a record first? Export to CSV downloads the responses before you end.

Responses are deleted when you end. Export first if you want to keep them.
9

Save packs to My Library

If you'll use a question set again, save it once and launch it with one click next time.

  1. Under My Library, click + Add your own.
  2. Choose the Activity type. The list reminds you of the columns each type needs.
  3. Add a title, subject and year, then upload your CSV or paste it into the box.
  4. Click Save to My Library.
Saved packs appear in My Library. Click Launch (1) to run one.

Packs are saved in your browser. If you've set up a backup folder in the Deck Library, they're backed up there too. To share a pack with a colleague, give them the CSV. They can load it with Import.

☰

CSV format reference

The first row of your CSV must use exactly these column names.

ActivityColumns (header row)
Multiple Choicequestion,a,b,c,d,correct_1indexed
Match-Upterm,definition
Card Sort / Card Matchtitle,subtitle,image_url,property1_label,property1_value,…
Bingokeyword,question (one row per square, e.g. 16 for 4×4)
Prize Ladderquestion,a,b,c,d,correct_letter,image_url
World Explorertype,question,a,b,c,d,answer,difficulty,hint
Trivial Pursuitcategory,question,choice A,choice B,choice C,choice D,correct

Example files: Multiple Choice · Match-Up · Card Sort. More are on the Resources page.

You've run a standalone session

You loaded a question set from a CSV, shared a room code, showed live results, and saved a pack to use again. The same steps work for every activity in the list.

Previous guide Generating a student worksheet Turn your deck into a printable worksheet with a key-word crossword. Next guide Running Card Match in class All four game modes, and how to write a Card Match CSV with images.