Getting Started

Welcome to AcademicVoice. This guide gets you from first launch to a student communicating on the board.

Badges show where behavior differs by edition: School · Pro · Clinician. Where there is no badge, it works the same in every edition.

1. First launch

The first time you open AcademicVoice, it walks you through a short setup:

1. Simple Start - a brief welcome that introduces the board.
2. Guided Setup - a few questions to prepare the app for your student.
3. Choose your state - pick the U.S. state you teach in. This tailors the academic standards shown later. You only do this once.

You can change these choices later in Settings (see chapter 05).

2. Set up your staff PIN

A PIN keeps student-facing communication separate from the adult settings and reports.

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Access & PIN.
3. Choose Add (or the staff-account option), enter a 4-digit PIN, and pick a role.
4. Save.

School Pro - set a PIN (recommended before classroom use):

• On School you can add more than one staff account (a staff roster) - useful when several adults share one iPad.
• On Pro there is a single PIN for the one adult who owns the device.
• After a PIN is set, School Pro ask for it whenever someone opens Settings or edits content - so a student tapping around cannot change their own setup.

Clinician: the Clinician edition does not require a PIN to open Settings. It is built for a professional using their own device.

Why this matters: starting an assessment always requires a staff PIN, in every edition (see chapter 03). Setting one up now avoids a "can't start" surprise later.

3. Add your students

One iPad can hold up to 5 students, each with their own board, vocabulary, and progress.

1. Open Settings (enter your PIN if asked).
2. Tap Student Profile.
3. Add a student: enter a name and a grade band.
4. Repeat for each student, up to five.

If you try to add a sixth student, the app will let you know the device is full - remove or move a student first.

Switching between students

• Tap the student circle - the small colored circle with the student's initial, near the top of the board.
• Switching always asks for a staff PIN first. A student can never open another student's board or records by tapping around. On a Pro family device, your family PIN works; in School and Clinician settings, a Parent/Guardian sign-in can work with their own child but cannot switch the device to a different student.
• Each student keeps their own board layout, vocabulary, mastery progress, access settings, and eye-gaze calibration - switching students switches all of it.

4. Set a student's grade and level

Two settings shape what a student sees. Both live in Settings → Student Profile and are saved per student.

1. Grade Band - sets the academic level of vocabulary and units offered.
2. Vocabulary Access Mode / CCS Level - how much vocabulary complexity to show. You can override the suggested level if a student needs something different.

If a student uses an alternate-standards level (for example, Florida Access Points), you set that here too - see Alternate Academic Standards in chapter 03, because it also changes how assessments are presented.

5. You're ready

At this point a student can open their board and start communicating. Next steps:

• Chapter 01 - Daily communication: the board, the sentence strip, and speaking.
• Chapter 02 - Academic units: turning on a unit and what it puts on the board.
• Chapter 04 - Accessibility setup: switch scanning, eye-gaze, VoiceOver, low vision - set up a student's access method.

Quick reference - what needs a PIN

Everyday communication - tapping the board and speaking - never needs a PIN.