Getting help

The Alethris Guides are Alethris's own documentation: how to run an academy on Alethris, how to learn on it, and how to check what it issues. They are written by the people who build Alethris and are free to read in two places:

• On the Alethris website, alethris.com, under Guides, without an account or signing in.
• In the Alethris Hub, under Guides, once you are signed in. There, Alethris saves how far you have read in each Guide.

The Guides are also what Alethris Help answers from, so a question asked in Help leads back to the lesson that answers it. Reading a Guide earns nothing: a Guide issues no credential and appears on no Skills Passport.

How a Guide is arranged

A Guide covers one subject, such as signing in, running a cohort or checking a credential. It is divided into lessons, grouped into modules when it is long, and each lesson answers one question. Every Guide is marked for the readers it is written for: For everyone, For academies or For learners. Its number of lessons and its reading time in minutes are shown with its title.

Read the Guides on the Alethris website

The public library is under Guides in the header and the footer of alethris.com. It arranges the Guides on three shelves: Alethris for anyone, Setting up and running an academy and Learning on Alethris. Each card shows the number of lessons, the reading time and the date the Guide was last updated.

1. Choose Read the guide on a card. The whole Guide opens as one page, with its lessons listed beside the text. On a narrower screen, such as a phone, a Lesson list sits above the text and the full list under it.
2. Choose a lesson in that list to jump to it.
3. At the foot of the page, Previous and Next lead to the neighbouring Guides, and All guides returns to the library.

The website keeps no record of where you stopped. To keep your place, choose Read it signed in, which opens the same Guide in the Hub.

Read in the Hub and keep your place

The Hub's Guides page, headed Alethris Guides, lists every published Guide with your own progress in each. Staff reach the same page from Guides under Support in the academy workspace.

1. Choose Guides in the Hub menu.
2. Narrow the list with All, For learners or For academies. A Guide for everyone appears under both filters.
3. Choose Start beside a Guide, or Continue beside one you have begun. A Guide you have finished offers Read again.
4. Read the lesson, then choose Mark lesson complete. Alethris marks it read and opens the next lesson you have not finished.
5. To move without marking, choose Next lesson, or pick any lesson under Lessons beside the text. On a narrower screen, such as a phone, use the Lesson list above the text instead.

Your progress, beside the text on a wide screen or under it on a narrower one, shows how much of the Guide you have read, and the line under the Guide's title counts the lessons read on any screen. Your place is saved to your Alethris account, so you can stop at any point and carry on from any device. After the last lesson, Guide finished suggests a Guide to read next: choose Read this guide, or All guides to go back to the list.

When a Guide changes

Alethris sometimes publishes a newer edition of a Guide. A Guide you have started stays on the edition you started, and its page shows the edition you are reading, such as "edition 2". When a newer edition exists, the Guide's row and its page show Restart on the newer edition. Restarting moves you to the new edition and resets your progress in that Guide; your earlier reading is kept as history.

When a Guide will not open

• "This guide does not exist, or it is no longer published." The link is wrong, or the Guide has been taken down. Choose Back to Guides and look for it in the list.
• "The guides could not be loaded. Try again in a moment." The list could not be read just now. Choose Try again.
• "This could not be marked read just now. Try again in a moment." The lesson stays unread. Choose Mark lesson complete again.
• "The library could not be read just now." The website could not reach the library. Refresh the page, or read the Guides in the Hub instead.

Alethris Help is the assistant for questions about using Alethris: what a rubric is, how learners pay, how to publish a programme. It answers in plain words from the published Alethris Guides and names the lessons it drew on, so you can read further where the answer came from. Anyone signed in to Alethris can use it, learners and academy staff alike. Alethris pays for it: Help uses none of an academy's AI credits, and it works even when an academy has switched its own assistants off.

Help knows how Alethris works, not what is in your account. It cannot see any academy's records — your programmes, payments, marks or learners — so it cannot say why a particular payment failed or what your assessor wrote. For questions like those, ask your academy or raise a support case.

Where to find Alethris Help

Alethris Help is in three places, and your conversations follow you between them.

• In the Alethris Hub, the round question-mark button in the bottom right-hand corner of every Hub page opens it. The Ask instead of reading box on the Hub's Guides page asks it too.
• In your learning workspace at an academy, choose Help in the menu.
• In the academy workspace, choose Alethris Help under Support in the menu. Every member of staff has it, whatever their role.

Each place suggests questions for its readers, such as "How does my Skills Passport work?" in a learning workspace, or "What is the difference between an edition and a cohort?" for staff, and Help answers for the reader in that place first: a learner in a learning workspace, staff in the academy workspace.

Ask a question

1. Open Alethris Help.
2. Type your question in the box marked Ask about Alethris… and send it, or choose one of the suggested questions.
3. Wait while Help reads the Guides. The answer appears as it is written.
4. To ask a follow-up, type it in the box under the answer. It joins the same conversation.

Each question asked from Help's first page starts a new conversation, named after that question and listed under Recent. Choose a conversation under Recent to return to it.

Check the lessons behind an answer

An answer that drew on the Guides ends with a count such as 2 sources. Choose it to list the lessons used, then choose a lesson to open it in the Guides in a new tab. An answer with no sources offers Browse the Guides instead. When the Guides do not cover a question, Help says so rather than guessing, and it declines questions that are not about Alethris.

How long conversations last

A Help conversation clears three days after its last message. Its questions and answers are removed, and opening it shows "This conversation has cleared" with Start a new conversation. Each new message gives the conversation another three days. Your Help conversations are yours alone: no one at your academy can read them.

To remove a conversation sooner, choose Delete conversation, the cross beside it under Recent. It is deleted at once, with no confirmation and no way to bring it back.

The daily limit

Each person can ask Alethris Help up to 30 questions a day, counted across the Hub and every academy. The count starts again at midnight UTC, which is 1:00 am in Nigeria. At the limit, Help says when "Questions open again", in your own clock, and offers Browse the Guides: the Guides stay open in the meantime.

When Help cannot answer

• "The question could not be sent. Nothing was lost — try again." The question did not reach Help. On Help's first page the box empties when you send, so type the question again and send it.
• "The answer could not be generated. Ask again in a moment." Ask the same question again.
• "This question was not answered. Ask it again if you still need it." This note sits under a question whose answer never arrived. Ask it again.
• "This conversation could not be found" The link is wrong, or the conversation belongs to another account. Choose Start a new conversation. A conversation you deleted shows "This conversation has cleared" instead.

A follow-up that cannot be sent from inside a conversation leaves the box empty and shows no message, so if your question does not appear above the box, type it again.

When the Guides are not enough, ask a person. In the Hub, choose Support in the menu, then New case; Help's first page also offers Open a support case under When Help is not enough. In a learning workspace, Help's first page offers Open a support case in your Alethris Hub. In the academy workspace, staff who handle their academy's support cases see Raise a support case for your academy there instead. A support case does not include your Help conversation, so write what you need into the case itself.

Alethris has three assistants, and each answers a different kind of question. Alethris Help answers how Alethris itself works. The Study Guide helps a learner with their programme. The staff copilot helps an academy's staff with the academy's own records. Help belongs to Alethris and is always there for anyone signed in; the other two belong to each academy, which decides whether to switch them on and pays for every answer from its AI credits.

Which one to ask

The question decides the assistant. Ask Alethris Help "how do I…?" questions about Alethris: how to pay a fee, what a rubric is, how to publish a programme. Ask the Study Guide, as a learner, about your own programme: what a lesson means, what an assignment asks for, what is due this week. Ask the staff copilot, as a member of staff, about your academy: which learners need attention, what work is waiting for review, how a cohort is doing.

Alethris Help

Alethris Help is the round question-mark button on every Hub page, Help in a learning workspace, and Alethris Help under Support in the academy workspace. It answers only from the published Alethris Guides and names the lessons it used. It cannot see any academy's records, so it never knows your marks, payments or learners. Nobody has to switch it on, it uses no AI credits, and each person can ask it up to 30 questions a day.

The Study Guide

The Study Guide is the learner's assistant, inside the learning workspace at an academy. It appears as Study Guide in the menu, as a round button with a sparkle mark in the bottom right-hand corner, and as suggested questions on lessons and assignments. Its answers carry the name the academy gave it, often the academy's own name followed by Study Guide; the menu always says Study Guide.

The Study Guide answers from your programmes at that academy — their lessons, what you have due, your progress and your assessors' feedback — and nothing outside them, and each answer shows what it used. With assessed work it follows your academy's rules: depending on the programme, it explains, gives hints, or only clarifies what the work asks for, and beside a formal assessment it only clarifies.

The academy decides whether learners have it. When it is off, Study Guide does not appear in the menu, and the Study Guide page says the assistant "is not switched on for this academy", or that your academy "has switched" it "off for this programme". Its answers are paid for from the academy's AI credits, within daily limits the academy sets; learners never pay for it.

The staff copilot

The staff copilot is the assistant in the academy workspace. It carries the name the academy gave it, often the academy's own name followed by Copilot. It opens from the round button with a sparkle mark in the bottom right-hand corner, and from Insights with assistant on a programme or Summarise with assistant on a learner's risk case. It answers questions by looking up the academy's own figures, learners who need attention, work waiting for review, cohorts and fees, and links each answer to the records it used. It also drafts, such as an announcement, which nobody receives until a person posts it.

Owners, administrators, instructors, mentors and assessors can use the staff copilot. Finance administrators cannot: their role does not include it. It appears only once the academy has switched the copilot on, which publishes its profile, and every answer is paid for from the academy's AI credits.

What no assistant does

No assistant decides anything that matters about a person. Assessment decisions, competencies, credentials, payments and access are always decided by people at the academy, and an assistant's draft changes nothing until someone applies it. Alethris Help never acts for you at all; it explains.

A support case puts a question or a problem in front of a person at Alethris Support. Anyone signed in to the Alethris Hub can raise one, whether they learn at an academy, work at one, or both. Raise a case when something on Alethris itself is wrong: you cannot get into your account, a payment does not match what you paid, a credential shows the wrong name or date, a lesson or a file will not open.

Support works on the platform: accounts, payments, credentials and the record itself. Your programme, its content and its assessment belong to the academy teaching it, so ask the academy's staff about a mark, a deadline or a lesson's content.

Who can read your case

A case you raise in the Hub is between you and Alethris Support. No one at your academy can read it, including the owner, administrators and finance staff. If a case ever needs the academy's involvement, Alethris Support asks you first.

Before you raise one

Many questions, from payments to credentials, are already answered in the Alethris Guides, and Alethris Help can find the answer for you in a moment. If you cannot sign in at all, you cannot reach Support in the Hub; write to support@alethris.com instead.

Raise a case

1. In the Alethris Hub, choose Support in the menu, then New case.
2. Under Category, choose the one that fits best: Account access, Learner payment, Enrolment, Learning delivery, File or media, AI, Credential or Other. The category decides who at Alethris Support reviews your case first, so nothing is chosen for you.
3. If the category is about a record, choose it under Which payment is it about?, Which enrolment is it about? or Which credential is it about?. This is optional; naming it lets Support look at that record directly. To name none, choose Not a particular payment, Not a particular enrolment or Not a particular credential.
4. Under Subject, write one line. It becomes the case's title.
5. Under What happened, describe the problem. Include anything that identifies the record: a reference, a date, a programme name.
6. Choose Raise case.

The category decides which record you can name. Learner payment names one of your payments; Enrolment, Learning delivery, File or media and AI name one of your enrolments; Credential names one of your credentials. Account access and Other name none.

Start from the record itself

Some pages open a new case already about their record, from the panel beside them on a wide screen, or under them on a narrower one. Beside a receipt under Payments, Something wrong? offers Ask about this payment; beside a credential under Credentials, it offers Ask about this credential. Beside the list on the Support page, the categories listed under Raise a case open the form with that category chosen.

What happens next

The case opens straight away with the status Open. Above its subject it shows its category and a reference such as SUP-7K4M-9QX2, which identifies the case if you write to Alethris Support about it. When Alethris Support replies or changes the case's status, you receive a notification in the Hub and an email, and the whole conversation stays on the case's page.

Academy cases are separate

If you run an academy, cases about the academy itself, such as its plan, its settings or a learner's payment, are raised from Support cases in the academy workspace, which owners, administrators and finance administrators can open; a finance administrator raises and reads only the cases about the plan and learners' payments. Those cases belong to the academy, and the Records, support and closing an academy guide explains them. A case about your own account still belongs in the Hub.

When the case cannot be raised

• "Choose the category that fits best." Pick a category before choosing Raise case.
• "The subject needs at least 5 characters." Write a fuller subject, up to 200 characters.
• "Tell us a little more — at least 10 characters." Add detail under What happened.
• "The record you chose is not on your account. Choose another, or raise the case without one." Pick a different record, or choose the Not a particular option at the top of the list.
• "The record you chose could not be checked just now. Try again, or raise the case without one." Try again in a moment, or raise the case without naming the record.
• "The case could not be raised. Nothing was lost — try again." Choose Raise case again.

If your records cannot be loaded, the form says so and you can still raise the case without naming one.

Every support case you raise in the Alethris Hub stays under Support, with its whole conversation, even after it closes. When Alethris Support replies or changes a case's status, you receive a notification in the Hub and an email, so you do not need to keep checking. Only you and Alethris Support can read your cases; your academy cannot.

Find your cases

The Support page lists your cases in the order they want attention:

• Needs you holds cases where Alethris Support is waiting for your answer.
• Open holds cases that Support has still to answer or is working on.
• Resolved holds cases Support has marked as solved.
• Closed holds finished cases.

Each row shows the category and the case's reference, its subject, when it was raised or last changed, how many replies it has, and its status. Choose a row to open the case.

What each status means

• Open — the case is waiting for Alethris Support: new, reopened, answered by you before anyone at Support had taken it, or handed back to the team when the person working on it moved on.
• In progress — someone at Alethris Support is working on it.
• Awaiting you — Support has asked you something. The case waits until you reply.
• Resolved — Support considers the problem solved. You can still reopen it for 14 days.
• Closed — the case is finished and cannot be reopened.

Reply to Alethris Support

The case's page shows its category, reference, subject and status, then the conversation, with each message marked You or Alethris Support and dated. If you named a record when you raised the case, a link to it appears under the subject.

1. Open the case under Support.
2. Write in Your reply. Replies are plain text: you can include links, but not attachments.
3. Choose Send reply.

A reply to a case awaiting you sends it back to Alethris Support: it returns to In progress when someone at Support has taken it, and to Open when nobody has yet. A reply to a resolved case, within 14 days of its resolution, opens it again. If Alethris Support replied or changed the case while you were writing, your reply is still sent, and the page shows the case as it now stands.

Close a case

Close a case when you no longer need help with it, whether it was solved or not.

1. On the case's page, choose Close case.
2. In Close this case?, say briefly why it is done — solved, no longer needed, or anything else. A sentence is enough.
3. Choose Close case.

While a resolved case can still be reopened, its page offers Reopen case instead of Close case, and the case closes by itself when its 14 days are over.

Reopen a resolved case

When Alethris Support resolves a case, you have 14 days to say the problem has come back. While that window is open, the case's page offers Reopen case.

1. Choose Reopen case.
2. In Reopen this case?, say briefly what has come back.
3. Choose Reopen case. The case returns to Open and the conversation continues where it left off.

A resolved case that nobody reopens closes by itself 14 days after it was resolved.

How long a case is kept

A case is kept for three years after it closes. After that, what was written in it is removed, and its replies read "This message was removed." Closing a case does not delete it: it stays in your list under Closed.

When a change does not go through

• "This case changed since you opened the page. Reload to see where it stands." The case changed while you had it open, or it can no longer be closed or reopened, for example because its 14 days have passed. Reload the page to see its status.
• "The case could not be closed. Nothing changed." or "The case could not be reopened. Nothing changed." The change was refused. Reload the page and try again; if it is refused again, raise a new case.
• "The reply could not be sent. It is still here — try again." Your reply stays in the box. Choose Send reply again.
• "This case no longer takes replies. Raise a new case if you still need help." The case was resolved more than 14 days ago, or it has closed. Your reply stays in the box, so you can copy it into a new case.
• "This case does not exist, or it is not yours." The link is wrong, or the case belongs to another account. Open Support to see your own cases.

A notice from Alethris is one line across the top of every page, starting "Alethris ·". Alethris shows it when there is something everyone should know at once: maintenance planned for tonight, or a problem that people are living through now, such as uploads running slowly. It comes from Alethris, not from your academy, and everyone sees the same line, whether they learn, work at an academy or are not signed in.

Where the notice appears

The notice appears on every page of Alethris while it lasts: the Alethris Hub, the sign-in and sign-up pages, every academy's website, the academy workspace that staff use, the learner workspace and the page for checking a credential. It sits above each page's own header, so it is the first thing on the page. On a phone it wraps onto as many lines as it needs.

A notice shows within a minute of Alethris putting it up, on pages that are already open as well as on pages you open afterwards, and it leaves the same way, within a minute of ending. You do not need to reload a page to see it arrive or go.

The two kinds of notice

A notice is one of two kinds, and its colour and sign say which.

• Information, in blue with an information sign, is news you may want to plan around, such as maintenance at a stated time.
• Disruption, in amber with a warning sign, is something happening now, such as slow uploads or sign-in pausing for a few minutes.

Some notices end with Read more. It opens a page Alethris chose, such as a status page with the latest news, in a new tab, so the page you were on stays open.

Dismiss a notice

To hide a notice, select Dismiss this notice, the cross at the end of the line. The notice disappears at once and stays hidden on that website in this browser, including after a reload.

A dismissal belongs to the website and the browser where you made it. The Alethris Hub and each academy's website are separate websites, so a notice you dismissed in the Hub still shows on your academy's pages until you dismiss it there too. Another browser, or another device, still shows the notice.

When Alethris puts up a new notice, it shows again everywhere, even if you dismissed the one before. A notice you dismissed is never replaced silently.

What to do during a disruption

A disruption notice says what is affected. If it describes the trouble you are having, Alethris already knows and is working on it, so there is no need to raise a support case about it; try again once the notice has gone. If your trouble is something the notice does not describe, raise a support case as usual.

Notices and your academy's news

Your academy cannot put up a notice from Alethris or change one; only Alethris can. News from your academy reaches you another way: as an announcement in your notifications, and in the learner workspace under Announcements. A notice from Alethris sends no email and never appears in your notifications.

Alethris can pause every assistant at once, in every academy, when something is wrong with them, such as a provider giving answers it should not. While they are paused, each assistant says "Alethris has paused its assistants for now." and takes no new questions or drafts. Your academy did not switch anything off, and you do not need to do anything: the assistants come back as they were when Alethris resumes them.

What learners see

A learner's Study Guide stays in the workspace menu while it is paused. Its page and its panel show "Alethris has paused its assistants for now. Your lessons, assignments and results are unaffected." in place of the box for asking, and the buttons that ask about a lesson or an assignment are not offered. Earlier conversations are still listed. Lessons, assignments, results and everything else in the workspace work as usual.

What staff see

The staff copilot still opens from the console. Its panel shows "Alethris has paused its assistants for now. This academy's AI settings are unchanged." and the box for asking cannot be used. Places that draft with the assistant, such as programme insights, say that drafting is not available here and give the same sentence, or are not offered. Everything can still be written by hand.

Your academy's AI settings are not changed by a pause. Assistants switched on stay switched on, tasks and profiles stay as they are, and the switch in Academy settings still shows what your academy chose.

Alethris Help while assistants are paused

Alethris Help is paused too. Asking it a question shows "Alethris has paused its assistants for now. The Guides stay open in the meantime." The Guides library, where Help finds its answers, is open as usual, so you can still read the lesson you need.

What happens to work already running

A question or draft that had already started when Alethris paused the assistants finishes, and is charged as usual. Nothing new starts while they are paused, so nothing new is charged. Your academy's AI credits are not touched by the pause itself.

How you find out

Alethris often puts a notice across the top of every page while it has paused its assistants, saying what has happened and, where it can, when it expects them back.

If an assistant says it is switched off rather than paused, that is your academy's own setting, not a pause by Alethris.