About the MyLab player

Your course has a player that you use to enter answers to questions in several types of assignments. The questions automatically open in the player, and it checks your answers and reports the results to you and your instructor.

The player is HTML5-based and runs on tablets, laptops, and desktop systems. The player supports the JAWS screen reader on laptop and desktop systems, but not on mobile devices.

Depending on your course, you won't work on all assignments in the player. For example, Writing Skills, Writing Practice, and Writing Assignment essays are worked in their own editors rather than in the player.

More about the MyLab player

For an activity such as homework or Extra Practice, the player displays the Question Help button that displays a drop-down list of the question help tools. For homework activities with Skill Builder adaptive practice, the player displays the Skill Builder button next to the Question Help button. You can select the Skill Builder button to receive help answering a question.

When an answer might require use of the math palette, the player displays it when you tap or click in the answer text box.

You also have the option of using the player's on-screen keyboard that provides both a standard keyboard and access to the math palette. See Use the on-screen keyboard and Use the math palette for details.

For homework activities, the player will time out if you start an activity and then stop work on it for a set period of time. See Inactivity time outs on homework for more information.

When you're reviewing a completed activity or assessment, you cannot do any work in the review mode but you can see which answers you answered correctly or incorrectly.

Player settings

The MyLab player displays a gear icon to the right of the Question Help button. When you select the gear, it displays the following options:

Accessibility: Select this option to enable or disable your device's accessibility features. (You cannot currently use a screen reader with the player on a tablet.)
When Accessibility is selected, it changes the answer field for a free-response question to a simple edit field and accepts answers in command-line language. This is what a screen-reader user would need to use for answer input. A keyboard user would also need to turn this on, since you can't access either on-screen keyboard with keystrokes.
On-Screen Keyboard: Select this option to specify how you want to control the display of the player's on-screen keyboard on tablets. The options are Automatic, On, or Off; see Other ways to work with the on-screen keyboard for information on these options.
About: Select this option to display information about the player.

Activities, assessments, and reviews in the player

The MyLab player works differently depending on what you are doing:

Activities: When you work an activity or Extra Practice question, you can check whether you answered a question correctly. You get more than one chance to answer a question before the player tells you the answer. For an activity, the player also lets you access Question Help tools, such as videos and help with figuring out an answer.
Assessments: When you work a quiz or test, you cannot check your answers or access any Question Help tools.
Reviews: When you select a Review link for an assignment on your Activities page or your Results page, the player opens in review mode. You can see which questions you answered correctly or incorrectly. For an incorrect answer, you can roll your mouse over the correct answer to view your answer. Any changes you make in review mode do not affect your score, so there is no Save or Submit button. There are no Question Help tools, either.