Classes
It's what explains words while you and your students read anything on the web. Assignments work in the browser without it; everything else needs it.
Your classes, your students and everything they've written are exactly as you left them — nothing was deleted. Continue and it all picks up where it stopped.
Your classes
Join code ·
| Student | Lookups | Words / Sentences | Last active | Engagement |
|---|
Activity — last 30 days
Most looked-up words
Students covered by this account
| Name | Teacher | Classes | Billed |
|---|
Grant access
Name a person by email and they're covered when they sign in — they don't need an account yet. Use this for someone outside your email domain, or when you're licensing named people rather than the whole school.
The usual route is simpler: give your teacher code to staff, and their students are covered by this account as soon as they join a class.
Licensed people
| Role | Status | Granted |
|---|
Student places
Counted per person, not per class — a student in three of your classes takes one place. A student who pays for Explica themselves doesn't take one at all.
Invite a student
Send a link. They sign in with Google, land straight in your class, and never have to type a code.
Or share a join code
Send a student the join code below. They sign in with Google at your Explica web address, open My work, and enter it under Join a class.
Your students
| Student | Classes | Activity | Place |
|---|
No students yet. Share a class join code above and they'll appear here.
Invite a teacher
Send a link. They sign in with Google and join your school as staff — their students are then covered by this account, so you never deal with students directly.
Or give staff your teacher code — it does the same thing without a per-person link: —
Teaching staff
| Teacher | Classes | Students |
|---|
No teachers yet — invite one above.
Your account
Organization
Teacher code
Teachers enter this once to unlock the console. Students never need it.
—Switch to a personal account
Gives up the teaching console and uses Explica for your own learning instead. Your classes are archived rather than deleted and student work is kept, so you can unlock teacher tools again later.
Your students lose the access you were providing. Anyone covered by your plan stops being covered by it — they can still use Explica on their own subscription. Billing for this account stops at the end of the current period.
Current plan
- Plan
- —
- Status
- —
- Students
- —
- Organization type
- —
Usage and cost
Plans
Payment isn't connected yet — changing a plan here updates the account's configuration so you can model it, but no card is charged.
Getting your class running
- Create a class under Classes — name it and pick the language.
- Give your students the six-character join code it shows you.
- Students sign in with Google at your Explica web address and enter that code under My work.
- Set a reading or a piece of writing, and their progress appears under the class.
Assignments run in the browser with nothing installed, which is what makes them work on a locked-down school device. Everything else — explanations while reading a news article, a paper, an email — needs the extension, so it's worth installing for yourself and telling your students to add it.
Your students
Three student accounts are included. Anyone who joins one of your classes with the join code takes one of those places; after that they're $5 a month each. You can see who is currently taking a place under My students.
Getting your school running
- Set your email domain and seat count in Settings.
- Choose whether everyone at your domain is covered, or only people you license individually.
- Share the teacher code with staff so they can open this console.
- Teachers create classes and give students the class join code.
- Students sign in and enter that class code.
Common questions
How do students actually trigger it?
With the extension installed and signed in: highlight a word or sentence while reading and an Explain button appears. While writing — an email, a form, a document — they double-click after their last word, or select some of what they've written, and the writing helper appears. It hides again as they resume typing. Google Docs works the same way through the add-on.
How does a student get access?
Either you cover them — they take one of your student places when they join a class — or they subscribe themselves for $5 a month, which uses none of your places. Both work; you don't have to choose the same way for everyone.
What happens when I go past my included places?
Nothing breaks. My students shows who is beyond your included places and what they cost. You can pay for them, remove them from your classes, or ask them to subscribe themselves.
Does a student in three of my classes take three places?
No. Places are counted per person, so one student is one place however many of your classes they're in.
Do my students need the browser extension?
Not for assignments — readings and writing run in the browser, which is what makes them work on a locked-down school device. They do need it for explanations while reading anything else.
Can I see whether a student actually did the reading?
You can see active time, which pages they spent it on, and how many words they looked up. Those are engagement signals, not proof — nothing measurable from a browser can establish that someone read and understood a text, and the console is deliberately worded so it isn't mistaken for that.
How accurate are the explanations?
They're AI-generated and can be wrong, especially on rare words, dialect, or older texts. Treat them as a study aid rather than an authority, and don't use them as a source of truth for assessment.
What happens to student work if I stop teaching?
Switching to a personal account archives your classes rather than deleting them, and student work is kept. Students stop being covered by your plan but keep their own accounts and history.
Still stuck?
We answer these ourselves, usually the same day.
Google Docs
Explica also installs into Google Docs as an add-on, so students get the same help while writing essays there. Ask us to enable it for your account.