Team, roles and permissions

Every person who works in your academy holds one or more staff roles, and those roles decide what they can see and do in the academy workspace. A member of staff can hold several roles at once, and what they can do is the sum of them: an instructor who also marks work holds both the Instructor and the Assessor role.

Learners are not part of the team. The Learner role comes with an enrolment rather than an invitation, and nothing you change on the Team page adds or removes it.

The six staff roles

The Team page, under Academy settings, describes each role in one line. These are the same words.

What the owner can do that nobody else can

An academy has exactly one owner, and the owner can do everything every other role can. Two things belong to the owner alone: transferring ownership to another member of staff, and closing the academy. Three more are shared only with finance administrators: setting up or changing the settlement account, which is the bank account the academy's earnings are paid into; changing the academy's plan; and buying AI credits.

The owner role is never ticked on the Team page and cannot be offered in an invitation. It moves only when the owner hands it on.

Administrators and finance administrators

An administrator runs the academy day to day. Administrators publish programme editions, create cohorts and assign their staff, decide applications, enrol learners, issue credentials, post announcements, change the academy's settings, and manage the team itself — inviting people, changing roles, and suspending or removing members. An administrator can read the billing pages but cannot change the plan.

A finance administrator handles money without touching teaching. A finance administrator sees payments, records and confirms bank transfers, issues refunds, reads earnings and payouts, sees what each sponsor owes and records sponsor payments, and looks after the settlement account, the subscription and AI credits. A finance administrator does not see programmes, cohorts, submissions or risk, and cannot use the staff copilot. Only the owner, or a finance administrator, can give someone this role or take it away.

Instructors, mentors and assessors

These three roles teach, support and judge, and most of what they see is narrowed to the cohorts, and self-paced programmes, they are assigned to.

• An instructor runs sessions and takes registers, edits programme drafts and assignments, posts announcements, forms groups for group work, and follows up learners flagged at risk. An instructor can ask a learner for changes to their work but cannot approve or reject it, and cannot publish an edition or take a published programme down.
• A mentor supports learners: following up risk flags, recording interventions, posting announcements, and asking for changes to work. A mentor reads registers but does not take them, and does not edit programmes.
• An assessor reviews submissions against their rubric and decides whether the work is approved, rejected or returned for changes. For a cohort's work, approving or rejecting also needs a place on the cohort as its assessor. Self-paced work needs only the role, until anyone is seated on its programme's staff: then it needs a place there as its assessor.

Owners and administrators do not approve or reject work by virtue of their role. An owner or administrator who also marks work holds the Assessor role as well.

Seeing who holds what

To see each member's roles, open Academy settings, then Team. The Members list shows the roles beside each name, and the Role and Status filters narrow it. Beside the list, What each role can do repeats the descriptions in the table above; choose Show the roles to open it.

When no role fits

The six roles are fixed, and an academy cannot create its own. When someone needs part of what a role allows, give them that role and let cohort assignments narrow what they see. When a role gives someone more than they should have, take it away from their row on the Team page; the change applies the next time they load a page.

A staff role decides what kind of work a person can do. A place on a cohort's staff decides which learners and which work they do it for. If you run an academy, you assign staff to each cohort, and that assignment is what puts a cohort in front of its instructors, mentors and assessors.

Owners and administrators manage cohort staff. Instructors, mentors and assessors cannot add themselves to a cohort.

The four responsibilities on a cohort

Each person on a cohort's staff holds one or more responsibilities there, and each must match a role they already hold. The Cohort staff dialog sums them up: "Administrators oversee the cohort, instructors run its sessions, mentors support its learners and assessors mark their work."

• Administrator — an Owner or Admin who oversees the cohort.
• Instructor — runs sessions and is told when a learner needs attention.
• Mentor — supports learners and is told when one needs attention.
• Assessor — reviews and marks the cohort's submissions.

A person appears once on a cohort's staff, with every responsibility they hold there. Someone who holds several matching roles, such as Instructor and Assessor, can be given any of them or all of them at once, which suits a small academy where one person teaches and marks.

Assign staff to a cohort

To put someone on a cohort's staff, open Cohorts, open the cohort, and find the Staff section. It offers Add staff while nobody is assigned and Manage staff once someone is. Either opens the Cohort staff dialog.

1. Under Add a person, choose the person. Each is listed with the responsibilities their roles allow, such as "Iyabo Ogundimu · Assessor, Administrator", and nobody already on the cohort is offered.
2. On their row, which shows their academy roles, tick each responsibility they will hold on this cohort. The first one their roles allow is ticked for you.
3. Repeat for everyone the cohort needs, and choose Save staff.

To change what someone does, tick or untick the boxes on their row; only the responsibilities their roles allow are offered. To take someone off the cohort, choose Remove on their row. Changes take effect when you choose Save staff, and the confirmation reads "Staff saved".

If the dialog says "Nobody in the academy holds a staff role yet.", give members roles on the Team page under Academy settings, then return to the cohort and add them. "Everyone with a staff role is on this cohort." means there is nobody left to add.

What an assignment changes

An assignment widens what an instructor, mentor or assessor sees and can do for that cohort:

• Submissions. Instructors, mentors and assessors see the submissions of the cohorts they are assigned to. Owners and administrators see every cohort's submissions.
• Approving work. Approving or rejecting a cohort's work needs the Assessor role and a place on that cohort as its assessor. Anyone who can review work can still ask a learner for changes.
• Learners who need attention. Instructors and mentors on a cohort are told when one of its learners is flagged at risk.
• Their own cohorts first. The Overview page shows instructors, mentors and assessors the cohorts they are assigned to, and Sessions & attendance can be narrowed to Your cohorts.

Instructors and mentors are also named on the cohort's public page, under the heading "The person teaching it" or "The people teaching it", so a visitor deciding whether to apply knows who teaches it. Assessors and administrators are not shown publicly.

Before a cohort can be published

A cohort cannot be published until at least one instructor is on its staff. A cohort with nobody assigned says so on its page: "Publishing needs at least one instructor."

Self-paced learners

Some learners study at their own pace and belong to no cohort, so their programme carries the staff list instead, in the Staff section of the programme's page. While nobody is seated there, the programme's self-paced work is seen by every instructor, mentor and assessor, and anyone with the Assessor role can approve or reject it; instructors and mentors can ask for changes. Once anyone is seated, the work goes only to the people seated and to owners and administrators, and only an assessor seated there approves or rejects it.

When a cohort ends

Once a cohort is completed or cancelled, its staff list is closed and can no longer be changed. The record of who taught and assessed it stays with the cohort.

Learners on a self-paced programme study at their own pace and belong to no cohort, so the programme itself carries the staff list a cohort would. The Staff section on a self-paced programme's page names the instructors, mentors and assessors who work on its self-paced learners. Owners and administrators choose them; everyone else who can open the programme can read the list.

While nobody is seated, the section reads No staff seated and nothing is narrowed: every instructor, mentor and assessor in the academy works on the programme's self-paced work, and anyone with the Assessor role can approve or reject it. Seat people when you want the work to go to them alone.

The three responsibilities on a programme

Each person on a programme's staff holds one or more of three responsibilities there, Instructor, Mentor and Assessor, each matching a role they already hold. Only an assessor seated on the programme can approve or reject its self-paced work. A programme has no Administrator responsibility, because owners and administrators already oversee every programme.

Seat staff on a programme

To seat people, open Programmes, open the programme, and find the Staff section below Cohorts. It offers Add staff while nobody is seated and Manage staff once someone is. Either opens the Programme staff dialog.

1. Under Add a person, choose the person. Each is listed with the responsibilities their roles allow, such as "Iyabo Ogundimu · Assessor", and nobody already seated is offered.
2. On their row, which shows their academy roles, tick each responsibility they will hold on this programme. The first one their roles allow is ticked for you.
3. Repeat for everyone the programme needs, and choose Save staff.

To change what someone does, tick or untick the boxes on their row. A row with nothing ticked says "Choose at least one responsibility, or remove them.", and Save staff waits until you do. To take someone off, choose Remove on their row. The confirmation reads "Staff saved".

If the dialog says "Nobody in the academy holds the Instructor, Mentor or Assessor role yet.", give members one of those roles on the Team page under Academy settings first.

What seating staff changes

Seating anyone narrows the programme's self-paced work to the people seated, and the section says so: "Only the people here, and Owners and Admins, see this programme's self-paced work and learners."

• Submissions. The programme's self-paced work appears on the Submissions page and in search only for the people seated, and for owners and administrators.
• Approving work. Only someone seated as the programme's assessor can approve or reject its self-paced work. Anyone else holding a review can still ask for changes, including an owner or administrator with the Assessor role who is not seated.
• Reassigning. A review of the work can be moved only to the people seated, or to an owner or administrator.
• Hand-in notices. The programme's assessors are told when a learner hands in work. With nobody seated as its assessor, owners and administrators who hold the Assessor role are told instead, or every owner and administrator when none of them does.
• Learners. The programme's self-paced learners appear on the Learners page for the people seated, who can open their records. While nobody is seated, only owners, administrators and finance administrators see them there.

Learners who join the same programme through a cohort keep their cohort's staff either way, and self-paced figures in Analytics stay with owners and administrators.

Give the work back to everyone

Emptying the list returns the programme's self-paced work to every instructor, mentor and assessor. Choose Manage staff, choose Remove on each row, and choose Save staff. The dialog says "Nobody is seated on this programme, so its self-paced work goes to every Instructor, Mentor and Assessor.", and the section shows No staff seated again.

A seat also ends when its holder is suspended or removed from the academy, or loses the role it needs; the Team page's dialog names the programme first. When the last seat ends, the programme opens to the roles again. Reactivating someone or giving the role back does not restore it.

A programme that moves to cohorts

A programme whose schedule changes to Together, on set dates keeps its Staff section while anyone is still seated, with "This programme now runs in cohorts. The people here still have the learners who enrolled while it was self-paced." Once you empty the list, the section leaves the page. On a published programme, it follows the published edition's schedule.

When it does not work

• "This programme's staff changed while the list was open. Close this and open it again." Someone saved the list meanwhile. Close the dialog, open it again, and make your change on the list as it now stands.
• "Each person on the staff must be an active member of the academy whose roles allow their responsibility." Someone's roles or status changed while the dialog was open. Check them on the Team page, then open the dialog again.
• There is no Add staff or Manage staff. Only owners and administrators change a programme's staff, and a deleted programme's list cannot be changed.

To add someone to your academy's team, send them an invitation from the Team page. The invitation names the roles they will hold, and they join the moment they accept it. Owners and administrators can invite people.

Everyone at Alethris has one account of their own, which they use at every academy they belong to. An invitation does not create a separate login for your academy: the person accepts it with their own Alethris account, or creates one as they accept.

Send an invitation

1. Open Academy settings, then Team.
2. Choose Invite someone.
3. Enter their Email address. The invitation can only be accepted by this address.
4. Optionally, enter their Name. It appears in the email so they know it is meant for them.
5. Under What they will do, tick every role they should hold. Instructor is ticked to start with. Only the owner or a finance administrator can offer Finance administrator.
6. Choose Send invitation.

The dialog confirms with Invitation sent and the date the link stops working. Choose Invite another to send the next one, or Done to close it.

The owner role is not offered. It changes hands only through a transfer of ownership, so a new owner is first invited with other roles and then made owner from their row.

What the person invited does

The invitation arrives by email with a link. Following it opens a page headed "Academy name invited you to join", showing the role and the date the invitation expires.

• If they have an Alethris account, they sign in and choose Accept and join.
• If they do not, they choose Create an account, and land back on the invitation once the account exists.

Accepting adds your academy to their Alethris Hub, and staff go straight to the academy workspace. An invitation can be accepted once. Nothing declines it; one that is not accepted simply expires.

Invitations still waiting

The Invitations list on the Team page shows every invitation and its status: Waiting, Accepted, Expired or Withdrawn. It opens on the ones still waiting.

• Resend sends a fresh link to a waiting or expired invitation, with a new date under Expires. A resend is refused if another went to the same invitation less than a minute ago, and an expired invitation is checked again as a new one would be.
• Withdraw cancels a waiting invitation, so its link stops working.

A waiting invitation whose email never arrived says so under the address: "The invitation email to this address came back", or "Not sent: email to this address has come back before". Check the address, then withdraw the invitation and invite the right one.

The This team panel beside the lists counts active staff, suspended members and invitations waiting, and Staff places shows how many of the plan's places are taken, such as 4 of 5.

Staff places

Each plan allows a number of staff. An invitation to a staff role takes a place as soon as it is sent, so active staff and invitations still waiting together cannot pass the plan's limit; a suspended member holds no place. When every place is taken, Send invitation is refused with "The plan allows number staff, and every place is taken by active staff or invitations still waiting." Withdraw an invitation nobody needs or suspend someone to free a place, or move to a larger plan under Billing.

When an invitation cannot be sent

Send invitation is refused when the address is already in your academy:

• "This address already belongs to a member of the academy." They are on the team, or suspended.
• "An invitation to this address is already waiting." Use Resend instead of sending another.
• "This address belongs to a learner at the academy." Choose Give them a staff role under the message: someone who learns here joins the team on the membership they have, as Give someone who learns here a staff role explains.

When an invitation cannot be accepted

Each refusal tells the person invited what went wrong, and most need something from you.

• "You are signed in as someone else." The invitation was sent to a different address from the account they are signed in with. They sign out and sign back in as the invited address. If they want to use a different address, withdraw the invitation and send a new one to that address.
• "This invitation is no longer valid." It has expired, was withdrawn, or has already been used. Resend it from the Invitations list, or send a new one.
• "This academy cannot take another member of staff on its current plan." The plan's staff limit fell after the invitation was sent. The row in your Invitations list then says "Tried to join on date, but every staff place on the plan was taken." Free a place or move to a larger plan, and ask them to open their link again.
• "This academy cannot add anyone to its team until its billing is up to date." After a renewal payment has failed and its grace period has ended, nobody new joins until the plan is paid.

Someone who already learns at your academy can also work there: a learner who becomes a mentor, or an instructor who takes one of your programmes. They join the team on the membership they already have, so they are given a staff role rather than invited. Owners and administrators do this from the Team page under Academy settings.

An invitation to a learner's address is refused with "This address belongs to a learner at the academy. Give them a staff role from the team list instead of inviting them." The button Give them a staff role under the message opens the same dialog as the steps below, with the address already in its search.

Give a learner a staff role

1. Open Academy settings, then Team.
2. In the Members card, choose Give a learner a staff role.
3. In Find a learner by name or email…, type part of their name or email, and choose them from the list. Only learners who are not on the team are listed.
4. Under What they will do, tick every role they should hold. Instructor is ticked to start with.
5. Choose Give the roles.

The dialog closes with Staff roles given, and they appear in the Members list with the roles you chose. Their workspace opens with those roles the next time they load a page.

What stays the same

Their place as a learner is untouched. They keep learning on the programmes they are enrolled on, with their progress and work as it was, and the Learner role stays on their membership whatever roles you give or take away later.

If they later leave the team, choose Remove… on their row: only their staff roles end, and they keep their place as a learner.

When it is refused

• No one is listed. Everyone who learns here is on the team already, or nobody matches what you typed. Someone who is not a learner yet is invited with Invite someone instead.
• Every staff place is taken. Giving someone their first staff role takes a staff place, so it is refused with "The plan allows number staff, and every place is taken by active staff or invitations still waiting." Withdraw an invitation nobody needs or suspend someone to free a place, or move to a larger plan under Billing.
• Give a learner a staff role is missing. Only owners and administrators change roles.

When someone's work changes, change their roles. When they step away for a while, suspend them. When they leave for good, remove them. All three happen from the person's row in the Members list, on the Team page under Academy settings, and only owners and administrators can make them.

None of these deletes anything the person did. Sessions they ran, registers they took, decisions they made on submissions and announcements they posted all stay on record under their name. A change that takes away the role a place on a cohort's staff needs ends that place, and each dialog names the cohorts first. A seat on a self-paced programme's staff ends the same way, and the dialogs name those programmes too.

Find the member

The Members list shows everyone who holds a staff role, with their roles, status and the date they joined. Use Find a member… to search by name or email, and the Role and Status filters to narrow the list. The list opens on active members; choose Suspended or Any under Status to see the others.

Change someone's roles

To change what a member of staff can do:

1. On their row, choose Change roles….
2. Tick every role they should hold, and untick any they should not.
3. Choose Save roles.

The dialog is headed "Change what name can do". The change applies the next time they load a page, so someone in the middle of a task keeps the page they have open until they move on. If a role you untick is the one their place on a cohort's staff needs, the dialog lists those cohorts under "Saving takes them off the staff of:"; giving the role back later does not restore the places. Their seats on self-paced programmes that need the role end too, listed under "Saving takes them off the staff of these self-paced programmes:", and a programme whose last seat ends goes back to every instructor, mentor and assessor.

Some roles cannot be changed here, and appear locked, ticked when held:

• Owner changes only through a transfer of ownership.
• Learner comes with an enrolment and stays whatever you change on this page.
• Administrator, on your own row, cannot be unticked: "You cannot take away your own Administrator role." Another administrator or the owner can.
• Finance administrator, unless you are the owner or a finance administrator: "Only the Owner or a Finance administrator can give or take away this role."

A member must keep at least one role. To take away all of someone's access, suspend or remove them instead.

Suspend someone

Suspending stops someone's access straight away without ending their membership. Use it for leave, an investigation, or anything you expect to reverse.

1. On their row, choose Suspend….
2. Read the dialog — "They lose access straight away. Nothing they did is deleted, and you can reactivate them later." — and the cohorts and self-paced programmes it lists, whose staff they leave for good. Then choose Suspend.

Their status changes to Suspended, and they hold no staff place while they are suspended. To restore their access with the same roles, choose Reactivate… on their row, then Reactivate. Reactivating takes a staff place again, so it is refused when every place is taken, and it does not give back the cohort or programme places that ended: add them again from the Staff section of each cohort's or programme's page.

Remove someone

Removing ends a person's membership of your academy.

1. On their row, choose Remove….
2. Read the dialog — "Remove name from the team?" — and the cohorts and self-paced programmes it lists, then choose Remove from the team.

They disappear from the Members list. If they return later, invite them again; a removed member can accept a new invitation like anyone else.

Someone who also learns at your academy keeps their place as a learner: removing them ends only their staff roles, and the dialog says so. If they had been suspended, their learning opens again.

What you cannot change

Some rows offer fewer actions, and some changes are refused:

• Your own row has no Suspend… or Remove…, and nobody can suspend or remove themselves. To leave an academy yourself, use your membership page in the Alethris Hub, under My academies.
• The owner cannot be suspended or removed while they are the academy's only active owner. The refusal reads "The academy must always have an active owner. Hand ownership to someone else first."
• The owner role cannot be ticked or unticked. The refusal reads "The owner role moves only when the owner hands it on with Make owner."
• Reactivating, or giving someone their first staff role, is refused with "The plan allows number staff, and every place is taken by active staff or invitations still waiting." when no place is left. Withdraw a waiting invitation or suspend someone, or move to a larger plan.

After a change

Each change closes its dialog and confirms in a message: Roles saved, Member suspended, Member reactivated or Removed from the team. Someone whose roles were narrowed finds the pages they no longer reach missing from the menu the next time a page loads, and a suspended or removed member can no longer open the academy workspace at all.

Every academy has exactly one owner, and transferring ownership is the only way that changes. The owner chooses another active member of staff, confirms with their password, and the other person becomes the owner at once. Only the current owner can do it.

What moves with ownership

The owner is the one person who can transfer ownership and close the academy, and the owner shares billing, the settlement account and AI credit purchases only with finance administrators. All of that moves to the new owner. The academy itself does not change: its programmes, cohorts, learners, payments and records stay exactly as they were.

Before you start

The new owner must already be an active member of your academy. If they are not on the team yet, invite them with any role first, wait for them to accept, and then make them owner. An invitation can never offer the owner role itself.

Transfer ownership

1. Open Academy settings, then Team.
2. On the new owner's row, choose Make owner….
3. Read the dialog, headed "Make name the owner?". It says what the new owner takes over and what you keep.
4. Enter Your password.
5. Choose Transfer ownership.

Make owner… appears only to the owner, and only on the rows of other members who are active.

What happens next

The confirmation reads "Ownership transferred" and "You are no longer the owner of this academy." Your own access changes immediately:

• If you held no other staff role, or were already an administrator, you stay on as an administrator.
• If you also held other staff roles, such as Instructor, you keep those roles and nothing more.

Either way, you cannot undo the transfer yourself: whether ownership comes back is the new owner's decision. The new owner's other roles stay as they were, and so does anyone's Learner role.

Why a transfer may be needed

You cannot close your Alethris account while you own an academy, because an academy cannot be left without an owner. Transfer ownership first, or close the academy. The same rule protects the owner's membership: the academy's only active owner cannot be suspended or removed from the Team page, and cannot leave the academy from the Hub.

When it does not work

• Nobody shows Make owner…. You are not the owner, or the person you want is suspended or not yet a member. Ask the owner, reactivate the member, or invite them first.
• "Enter your password to confirm this change." The password confirmation has run out. Enter your password again and choose Transfer ownership.
• "… Alethris account is closing, suspended or deleted, so ownership cannot pass to them." That person has asked to close their account, or it was suspended. Choose another member.
• The owner can no longer sign in. Ownership cannot be transferred by anyone else in the academy. Raise a support case from Support cases in the academy workspace.

The academy workspace is built around each person's roles. A page your roles do not reach is left out of the menu, an action you cannot take is either absent or explained, and a handful of changes that are hard to undo ask you to confirm your password first. None of these is a fault. Each one tells you what is missing and who can help.

A page missing from the menu

The menu in the academy workspace lists only the pages your roles open. A finance administrator does not see Programmes or Cohorts; an assessor does not see Announcements or Payments & earnings. The pages exist, and the people whose roles reach them see them as usual.

If you expected a page and it is not there:

1. Check your roles. Your name and roles appear at the top of the profile menu in the corner of the workspace.
2. If your roles were changed recently, reload the page. A change of roles applies the next time a page loads.
3. If the roles are wrong, ask an owner or administrator to change them on the Team page, under Academy settings.

A page that opens with a note

If you follow a link or an address to a page your roles do not reach, the page opens with a note saying so rather than an error. The note names what is missing, for example "Your role cannot search", "Programmes are not part of your role", "Applications are not part of your role" or "This register is not part of your role". A part of a page works the same way: a learner's record says "Competency evidence is not part of your role" to those who cannot read it. Nothing has gone wrong with your account; the page is simply not part of your work at this academy.

Someone who holds no staff role at all, such as a learner who opens the workspace address, sees "This area is for academy staff" with Back to Alethris Hub. The note explains that their account does not hold a staff role at this academy, and that an academy administrator can add them.

An action that is refused

Some actions appear only to the people who may take them, and some explain their refusal on the spot. A few that staff meet often:

• Approving or rejecting work needs the Assessor role: "Approving or rejecting work needs the Assessor role. You can still ask the learner for changes."
• Approving or rejecting a cohort's work also needs a place on that cohort as its assessor. An owner or administrator can add you to the cohort's staff.
• The settlement account is set up by the owner or a finance administrator. Other staff see "An Owner sets this up."
• Risk rules are changed by owners and administrators: "Only an Owner or Admin can change risk rules."

Where a refusal suggests something you can still do, such as asking a learner for changes, that option stays open to you.

When Alethris asks for your password

Changes that move money, change who controls the academy, or cannot easily be reversed ask you to enter Your password before they go through, with the note "You confirm your identity for this change." They include:

• transferring ownership and closing the academy
• issuing, replacing or revoking a credential
• recording a refund and confirming that it was sent
• confirming a bank transfer, and reversing one already confirmed
• setting up or changing the settlement account
• changing the plan, buying AI credits or video delivery hours, and cancelling the subscription
• changing AI settings and assistant tasks, and publishing an assistant profile or a programme's AI policy
• publishing risk rules
• correcting a decision already made on a submission

Once you have confirmed, the same browser tab does not ask again for about five minutes, so a run of related changes needs your password once. After that, the dialog asks again, and a change sent after the confirmation ran out is refused with "Enter your password to confirm this change." Enter your password and try once more.

When the password is refused

The password is the one you use to sign in to Alethris, at any academy. If it is refused, check it and try again. After several wrong attempts Alethris asks you to wait before trying again. If you have forgotten it, sign out and use the forgotten-password link on the sign-in page; changing your password signs you out of Alethris everywhere.