Hints and Explanations give students immediate, targeted feedback while they take quizzes on BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr.
When a student is stuck, they can request a hint before answering. After answering, they see an explanation of why the correct answer is correct — reinforcing understanding and encouraging reflection rather than guessing.
By providing scaffolding and reinforcement directly to the student, Hints and Explanations help reduce the need for re-teaching by building background knowledge in the moment where it's needed. When used for whole-class instruction in Live Mode, the correct answer explanation can be revealed to the class alongside the correct answer, offering a ready-made launching point for group discussion.
Key Features
Hints on demand — Students can view a limited number of hints before submitting their answer to a question. A hint pops up in the lower-left corner of the quiz.
Correct answer explanations — When reviewing their answer to a question, students see an explanation of why the correct answer is correct.
Teachers control hints in the Assignment Builder — Hints can be toggled on or off for assigned and live quizzes, with the maximum number of hints a student can use set by the teacher.
Teachers control hints in Live Mode — The same on/off toggle and hint limits controls are set by the teacher when starting a Live Mode Quiz.
Hint usage in reports — Teachers can see on each question, which students used a hint, helping them identify which concepts need follow-up.
IN THIS ARTICLE
What You'll Need
Using Hints and Explanations
Using Hints and Explanations as a Student
Using Hints and Explanations as a Teacher
Next Steps
Frequently Asked Questions
What You'll Need
To use Hints:
- An individual teacher or student account included in a School or Homeschool plan
To use Explanations:
- A School, Classroom, Homeschool, or Family subscription that includes BrainPOP (3-8+) and/or BrainPOP Jr.
- A desktop or tablet display is required. Smaller screens such as mobile devices are not supported.
Using Hints and Explanations
IN THIS SECTION
Using Hints and Explanations as a Student
Hints
Explanations
Using Hints and Explanations as a Teacher
In the Assignment Builder
In Preview Mode (Practice or Graded)
In Live Mode
In Answer Keys
In Reports
Using Hints and Explanations as a Student
Hints
While viewing a question in an assigned quiz or during a Live Mode quiz, students will see the Hint button in the lower-left corner of the quiz if a hint is available for that question.
- Students can choose Hint to reveal a hint for the question, then read the hint and use it to help select an answer.
- The Hint button will show how many hints the student has remaining (based on the settings you choose as the teacher).
Explanations
Students will see an Explanation when reviewing the correct answer for a question, regardless of whether Hints are enabled.
In Practice Mode
In Practice mode, students will see an Explanation after selecting the correct answer, before proceeding to the next question. They'll also see the Explanation when choosing View result to revisit their answer from the results page after completing the Quiz.
In Graded Mode
In Graded mode, students will see the Explanation when they choose View result from the results page and revisit the question to compare their answer with the correct answer in the Answer Key.
In Live Mode
In a Live Mode session, students who have joined from their own devices will see the explanation in their participant view. When the teacher chooses View Results to reveal the correct answer and compare the answers given by the whole class, students will also see the explanation alongside their own answer.
Using Hints and Explanations as a Teacher
As a Teacher you'll see Hints and Explanations the same way students do in some cases, and in some additional ways to assist with instruction, lesson planning, and grading.
Teachers decide whether hints are available to students in the Assignment or Live Mode settings.
- Toggle Hints On or Off. If there is at least one hint available in the Quiz, the toggle will be set to On by default.
-
With Hints enabled, set the maximum number of hints a student may use per quiz using the plus (+) and minus (-) buttons.
The number of hints will be set to three (3) by default.
The maximum number of hints will be the number of questions in the quiz that have a hint. (Note that not every quiz question may have a hint. See the FAQ for more information about what types of quiz questions have hints.)
In the Assignment Builder
While creating an assignment that includes a Quiz, locate the Hints option in the Quiz settings. Choose your preferred settings, and finish creating the assignment as usual.
In Preview Mode (Practice or Graded)
You can see hints and explanations the same way students do when previewing a Quiz in Practice or Graded Mode:
- The Hint button and the hints appear in the lower-left corner of the quiz if there is a hint available for the question.
- The explanation appears after submitting the correct answer in Practice Mode, before proceeding to the next question.
- The explanation appears when choosing View result from the results page to review answers in both Practice and Graded Modes.
In Live Mode
When starting a Quiz using Live Mode, locate the Hints option on the Settings page before starting the live session. Choose your preferred settings, and then start the session as usual.
Without Devices
While leading a Live Mode session without devices, you'll see the Hint button in the lower-left corner of the quiz if a hint is available for that question.
After the first answer attempt is submitted, you'll see the option to show or hide the explanation.
On Devices
While leading a Live Mode session on devices, students will see the hints in their participant view if hints are enabled.
You'll see the option to show or hide the explanation when you reveal the correct answer and the class results for a question:
In Answer Keys
As a Teacher, you'll be able to see all of the hints and explanations available for a Quiz when viewing the Teacher version of the Answer Key.
In Reports
You can view whether individual students used hints, and which questions they sought help with using hints, in Assignment Reports and Live Mode Session reports.
Assignment Reports
In Assignment Reports, you'll see where students sought help from hints on individual questions in the Activity Progress tab. Select the Quiz, and a hint icon will appear beside questions where students used a hint:
You can see the hints used by a student when viewing their full quiz results from the Assignment Progress tab:
Next Steps
Once you've explored Hints and Explanations with your class:
Review hint usage in reports to see which questions challenged students the most. This can help you decide what to re-teach or reinforce in a future lesson, or how to provide scaffolding and differentiation for students who need it.
Try it in Live Mode if you haven't already — Using the correct answer explanation as part of the results reveal moment is a great way to spark class discussion while students are still thinking about the question and their own answer.
Adjust your hint settings "style" based on what you observe. If you find students are leaning on hints too heavily, try reducing the maximum hints students can use in your next assignment. If you find students are struggling with certain topics, try allowing more hints.
Frequently Asked Questions
What activities offer Hints and Explanations?
Hints and Explanations are currently available in Quizzes in BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. (They are not currently available in BrainPOP ELL, BrainPOP Science, BrainPOP Español, or BrainPOP Français.)
However, there are some topics and question types in BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. where a Quiz will not have hints or explanations:
- On Math topics
- On questions with certain answer types: drag-and-drop answers, text-highlight answers, open-ended written response, and image answer choices.
Students can see explanations for any Quiz questions that have them, however they will only see Hints if they have been enabled by the teacher in an Assignment or Live Mode Quiz.
Can I turn Hints on or off for only one assignment?
Yes. You can have hints on for some assignments and off for others. Each assignment has its own settings, and hints can be toggled on or off for each assignment when it is created using the Assignment Builder.
How many hints can a student use?
When a teacher has enabled Hints, a student can use as many hints as the teacher chooses as the maximum, up to the total number of hints available for all questions in the Quiz. By default, the maximum is set to 3 hints.
Teachers can change the maximum number of hints students can use in the settings for the Assignment or Live Mode Quiz.
Can students see hints if they are taking a quiz on their own?
No. Hints can only be used by students when a teacher has enabled them in an Assignment or Live Mode Quiz. When a student takes a quiz outside of an Assignment or Live Mode session, hints are not available.
Can students see explanations if they are taking a quiz on their own?
Yes. Students can see explanations in Practice Mode after they submit a correct answer, and in both Practice and Graded mode when they revisit a question to review their answer from the results page after completing the quiz.
Can teachers see hints and rationales if they are previewing the quiz?
Yes. When you preview a Quiz in Practice or Graded Mode as a teacher, you will see hints and explanations on every question where they are available.
Teachers can also see all available hints and rationales in the Answer Key.
Can students see the correct answer explanation before they answer?
No. Hints are available before answering, while correct answer explanations are available after choosing the correct answer (in Practice Mode) or when revisiting a question to review their answer from the results page (in both Graded Mode and Practice Mode).
Will I be able to tell if students used hints on their assignment?
Yes. If a student used a hint on an assigned Quiz, a hint indicator will appear next to the question where they used the hint on the Activity Progress tab of the Assignment Report.
From the Assignment Progress tab, you can see what hints were given to the student on the question where they were used, as well as the student's answer and the correct answer explanation, so you can see how the student is building background knowledge and where they may need additional scaffolding or differentiation.
Do hints give away the answer?
No. Hints are designed to help students reason toward the correct answer — they provide targeted guidance and support productive struggle, without giving away the answer.
What happens if a hint or explanation doesn't seem right or is unhelpful?
If you encounter a hint that seems inaccurate or unhelpful, we welcome you to reach out to us to share your feedback so that our learning designers can review it.
When providing feedback we encourage you to be as specific as possible, sharing the topic, grade level, question, the hint or explanation provided, and why it was inaccurate or unhelpful or how it could be improved.
Are hints and explanations available on the BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. mobile apps?
No. Hints and Explanations are only available in BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. Quizzes when using a browser with an adequate screen size (desktop and tablet).