Install the app and learn offline

As a learner, you can add your academy to your phone, tablet or computer as an app. It carries the academy's name and an icon of its initials, opens in its own window rather than a browser tab, and goes straight to your learning. Nothing is downloaded from an app store: your browser adds the academy's workspace to your home screen, Dock or app list.

Each academy where you study is its own app. Installing one academy does not install another, and the lessons you keep for offline are kept for that academy only.

Where the offer appears

The offer to install sits in the menu of your learning workspace, below the list of pages. On a phone, open the menu with the menu button at the top of the screen. The offer appears only where your browser can install the app, and only once your browser is ready to offer it: some browsers wait until you have used the academy for a while.

Choose No thanks to hide the offer. It then stays hidden in that browser for that academy.

Install on an Android phone or tablet

In Chrome, Edge and other browsers that offer installation themselves:

1. Open the menu of your learning workspace.
2. Under "Add academy to your home screen", choose Add.
3. Confirm in the box your browser opens.

In Firefox on Android, the offer gives written steps instead of a button: "Open Firefox's menu, then choose Add app to Home screen."

Install on an iPhone or iPad

On an iPhone or iPad, browsers add apps through the Share menu, so the offer gives the steps rather than a button: "Tap Share, then Add to Home Screen." This works in Safari, and in Chrome, Firefox and Edge on the same device.

1. Open your learning workspace in the browser.
2. Tap Share.
3. Choose Add to Home Screen, then confirm.

Install on a computer

In Chrome and Edge on a computer, the offer reads "Install academy on this computer".

1. Find the offer in the menu of your learning workspace, below the list of pages.
2. Choose Install, then confirm in the box your browser opens.

In Safari 26 or later on a Mac, the offer reads "Add academy to your Dock", with the steps "In Safari's menu bar, choose File, then Add to Dock." In other browsers on a computer, such as Firefox, no offer appears.

What the app opens to

The app opens to your learning at that academy. If you are on one programme there, it opens straight into it. If you are on several, it asks which to carry on with, under Carry on with. If you have no programme open yet, it says "No programme to open yet": a programme opens there once your place is active.

An installed app has no browser back button, so a page deeper in the app shows a link back to the page above it: a lesson links back to Modules, an assignment to Assignments, your submission or feedback to Assignment, and a Help conversation to Help.

When the offer does not appear

• The app is already installed. Inside the installed app the offer is never shown. In Chrome and Edge it also leaves the browser once the app is installed, and returns if you remove the app. The written steps in Safari on a Mac, on an iPhone or iPad and in Firefox on Android stay in the browser after you install, until you choose No thanks.
• You chose No thanks. The offer stays hidden in that browser for that academy.
• Your browser has not offered it yet. Chrome and Edge decide when a site may be installed. Keep using the academy, and the offer appears once your browser allows it.
• Your browser cannot install apps. Use one of the browsers above. A browser that loads pages through its own servers to save data, such as Opera Mini in its extreme data-saving mode, cannot install the app or keep lessons offline.

The Alethris Hub does not offer to install itself. Lessons you keep for offline are held by each academy's own app, so open the academy to read them.

As a learner, you can keep a lesson on your phone, tablet or computer so that it opens without a connection: on a journey, in a place with no signal, or when your data has run out. You keep lessons one at a time, from the lesson itself, and you see what each one will cost in data before anything is downloaded.

Keeping a lesson works in your academy's app and in the browser alike. The lesson is kept for your account, at that academy, in that browser.

Keep a lesson

The Keep for offline card sits beside each lesson, or below it on a narrower screen.

1. Open the lesson while you have a connection.
2. On the card, which reads "Keep this lesson on your device so it opens without a connection.", choose Keep for offline.
3. Read the size. The card says, for example, "3 files — about 12 MB." A lesson of text alone says "This lesson is text only, so keeping it uses almost none of your data."
4. Choose Keep it to download the lesson, or Not now to leave it.

Nothing is downloaded until you choose Keep it: working out the size uses almost no data. Where a file's size cannot be read in advance, the card says "or more" after the figure, or that "the size is not known until they arrive".

What is kept, and what is not

A kept lesson holds its text, its pictures and its files. Video is not kept, and a lesson with video says so before you keep it: "Video is not kept. Everything else in this lesson opens without a connection." The video plays again once you are back online.

The kept copy is the lesson as your programme's edition holds it. When the academy corrects the wording of a lesson you kept, your copy takes the corrected words the next time you open that programme with a connection, without being kept again.

Once it is kept

The card's heading changes to Kept on this device, and it says "This lesson opens without a connection." with the space it uses. Remove lets the lesson go from your device whenever you like; you can keep it again later. All saved lessons, beside the card's heading, opens Saved on this device, the page that lists every lesson you have kept at this academy.

When you first keep a lesson, your browser may ask whether this site can store data on your device. If it does not grant that, the card adds "Your phone may clear this if it runs low on space, or if you do not open the academy for a while." Installing your academy's app makes this less likely.

Read a kept lesson without a connection

With no connection, opening a lesson you kept shows the copy on your device, marked "saved on this device", with the note "There is no connection, so this is the copy kept on this device. Once you are back online, open the lesson again to mark it complete." Once your connection is back, choose Try the connection again at the foot of the lesson to open the full lesson.

If you open the app or any other page with no connection, you see a page headed "This page needs a connection" with your kept lessons listed under Saved on this device, each with its programme and module. Choose one to read it. A lesson that was not kept says "This lesson is not on this device".

When a lesson cannot be kept

• "There is no room for this. 250 MB is the most that can be kept on this device, so remove a lesson you have finished with first." Your kept lessons at this academy would pass the limit. Choose All saved lessons, beside the card's heading, remove a lesson you no longer need, then try again. Nothing is removed for you.
• "This could not be kept just now. Nothing on this device has changed." The download did not finish. Choose Try again once your connection is steady.
• The lesson is locked to you. Only a lesson you can open can be kept.

As a learner, you can keep studying when your connection drops. Your academy's learning workspace keeps what you write on your device and sends it to the academy once the connection returns. Some things need a connection, and the workspace says so rather than pretending otherwise.

The connection bar

The bar across the top of the learning workspace appears only when the academy cannot be reached, or when some of your work could not be sent. It never appears just because a connection is slow.

• "No connection. Pages you opened in the last half hour still work." No finished lesson is waiting to be sent. A draft says where it stands in its own bar.
• "No connection. Your work is kept on this device and will be sent when it returns." Lessons you finished are waiting to be sent, and a badge counts them, as "2 waiting".
• "Some of your work could not be sent." Something needs you. See the last section of this lesson.

What still works

Without a connection you can still:

• Read pages you opened in the last half hour, in the window or app you opened them in.
• Read the lessons you kept for offline. The lesson Keep a lesson for offline explains how to keep one.
• Write your submission draft. The draft's bar reads Saved on this device, with "It will be sent to the academy when the connection returns." Group work says the same of your group, and keeps your What you did note with the draft.
• Finish lessons. Choose Mark lesson complete, or Mark complete and continue, as usual. The lesson shows Completed with "Sent when you are back online.", and the next lesson is not opened, because it may need a connection.

If you open the app, or a page you have not opened recently, with no connection, you see a page headed "This page needs a connection", which lists the lessons you kept. It says "Your submission drafts and the lessons you finish are kept on this device, and sent when the connection returns." and opens the page you asked for by itself once you are back online.

What waits, and when it is sent

Work kept on your device is sent once the academy can be reached again:

• A draft is sent as soon as the connection returns while the draft is open, or the next time you open it. If the draft changed elsewhere in the meantime, the page asks which version to keep.
• A lesson you finished is sent once you are back online with any page of your programme open (Home, Modules or a lesson), or the next time you open one. Lessons are sent in the order you finished them. Until one is sent, the academy does not count it, so your progress elsewhere may still show it as unfinished.

When the connection returns, the "No connection" bar and its count go at once, and what was waiting is sent from whichever page of your programme is open.

Work waiting on your device stays there until it is sent, unless you sign out (Sign out asks first), someone else signs in on the same browser, or the device clears it for space. The lesson Updates, storage and signing out explains what signing out clears.

What needs a connection

Some things are never kept to send later, and need you to be online:

• Handing in an attempt. Lateness is judged by when your attempt reaches the academy, so Submit attempt, or Hand in attempt for group work, works only with a connection. Without one it says "No connection. Nothing has changed — try again once you are back online." Your draft stays on the page.
• Uploading a file to your draft.
• Asking the Study Guide or Alethris Help.
• Watching video, which is never kept on the device.
• Paying fees.

When work could not be sent

If the academy refuses something your device sends, the bar turns to "Some of your work could not be sent." Choose See what to list each item, such as "A lesson you finished", with the reason:

• The academy's reason, for example when a lesson cannot be completed before the required lessons ahead of it.
• "Waiting for you to sign in again." Your sign-in ran out before the item was sent.
• "This waited too long to be sent." A lesson you finished could not be sent within 14 days.

Each item has Try again and Discard. Try again sends that item again; sign in first if it was waiting for you to. An item that waited too long is refused again. Discard removes it from your device, so a lesson you finished shows as unfinished until you mark it complete again.

As a learner, your device holds some of your learning for you: lessons you kept for offline, drafts written without a connection, and lessons you finished that are still to be sent. This lesson covers how the app updates itself, how much it keeps, and what signing out clears.

Updates to the app

When a new version of your academy's app is ready, a bar appears at the top of the learning workspace: "A new version is ready. Refresh when it suits you — nothing you are working on will be lost." Choose Refresh to move to it. The app does not refresh until you choose Refresh, in this window or in another window of the same academy, so you are not interrupted in the middle of writing.

A new version of the app does not change what you are learning. Your lessons and assignments come from the edition of the programme your place is on. When the academy corrects the wording of a lesson you kept for offline, your copy takes the corrected words the next time you open that programme with a connection.

How much your device keeps

Up to 250 MB of lessons can be kept for you on one device at each academy. Each lesson's Keep for offline card shows how much it uses once kept, and Remove on the same card lets it go. A lesson of text alone uses almost no space; pictures and files take more.

Your learning workspace also has a page headed Saved on this device, which lists every lesson you kept with its programme, module and size, the total against 250 MB, an estimate of the free space on the device, and Remove beside each lesson. Open it with All saved lessons, beside the heading of a lesson's Keep for offline card, or type "saved" into Search this programme.

Your device may clear kept lessons on its own if it runs short of space, or if you do not open the academy for a long time, unless your browser has agreed to keep them. Where it has not, the lesson's card says "Your phone may clear this if it runs low on space, or if you do not open the academy for a while." A cleared lesson can be kept again whenever you have a connection.

When access ends

When your access to a programme is suspended or ends, the lessons you kept for it are removed from your device the next time you open any of your learning at that academy with a connection, because you may no longer read them. The next time you open Saved on this device, it says "Some saved lessons were removed". Your progress is not affected: it is held by the academy, not by the device. If your access returns, keep the lessons again.

Signing out

To sign out of the learning workspace, open your account menu at the foot of the workspace menu and choose Sign out. Signing out clears everything the app kept on that device for that academy: the lessons you kept, drafts not yet sent, lessons you finished that are still waiting, and pages kept for offline reading. It signs you out of that academy only and opens its home page.

When the device holds work the academy has not received, Sign out first asks Sign out and lose unsent work? and counts it, such as "1 change and 1 draft"; a change is a lesson you finished. Choose Stay signed in to keep it, or Sign out anyway to delete it.

Signing out works without a connection too. The device is cleared and signed out at once, and the page says "You are signed out on this device" and "Alethris will end the session as soon as you are back online." When the connection returns, Alethris ends the session by itself and the academy's home page opens, signed out. If a page headed Finishing signing out stays on screen, Alethris tries again by itself, or you can choose Try again.

Of the ways to sign out, only this Sign out clears what the academy's app kept. Signing out of the Alethris Hub, or Sign out everywhere on the Hub's Account page, leaves it in place.

A device you share

If someone else signs in on the same browser at the same academy, the app clears what it was keeping for the previous person as soon as their first page opens, before it keeps anything for the new one. Nobody can open another person's kept lessons or drafts, and the page shown with no connection says "Sign in to see what you saved" when nobody is signed in.

On a shared device, sign out of the learning workspace when you finish, once your work has been sent.

When something is missing

• A kept lesson has gone. Your access may have ended, you may have signed out, someone else may have signed in on the same browser, or the device may have cleared it for space. Keep it again with a connection.
• "There is no room for this." Keeping the lesson would take what is kept for you past 250 MB. Remove a lesson you have finished with, then keep the new one.