The Study Guide

As a learner, the Study Guide is the assistant you can ask about your programme, when your academy offers one. It answers from your own programmes at this academy: their lessons, your assignments, what you have due, your progress and your assessors' feedback. Your academy decides whether to offer it, which of its abilities to switch on, and what to call it, so it may appear under a name of the academy's own.

Using the Study Guide costs you nothing. Its answers come out of your academy's AI allowance.

Where to find it

The Study Guide appears in three places in your learning workspace, all of them only where your academy offers it:

• Study Guide in the menu opens its own page, with your past conversations beside it.
• A round button with a sparkle, at the bottom right of every page but the Study Guide's own, opens it as a side panel beside the page you are reading.
• An Ask card, named after the Study Guide, sits beside your Home page, each lesson, each assignment and your feedback, with questions ready to ask about that page.

Its six abilities

The Study Guide can do six things. Your academy switches each one on or off, and a button appears only when its ability is on.

1. Answer questions about your programme. Type anything into the box, which reads "Ask about your programme…". Quiz me on it on a lesson asks for practice questions, one at a time.
2. Explain a lesson another way. Explain this lesson in simpler terms, on a lesson, is for when you are stuck.
3. Summarise for revision. Summarise the key points, on a lesson, gives the lesson's main points.
4. Plan your week. Plan my week, on your Home page, suggests what to work on, in what order, and what is due.
5. Clarify an assignment, without doing it. What exactly am I being asked to hand in? and What does the rubric look for?, on an assignment, and What is my assessor asking me to change?, on your feedback, explain what the work asks for.
6. Explain code. Explain the code in this lesson explains the code in a lesson line by line. It appears only on lessons that contain code.

On the Study Guide page and in the panel, a new conversation opens with your academy's greeting and four questions to start from: "What should I focus on in this module?", "Explain the last lesson in simpler terms.", "Give me practice questions on what I have covered." and "What do I have due this week?".

Ask a question

1. Choose Study Guide in the menu, or the round button at the bottom right of the page you are on.
2. Type your question in the box, or choose one of the suggested questions.
3. Send it with the arrow beside the box.

The answer arrives as it is written, with "Reading your programme…" while it starts. An answer lists the sources it cites, so you can check it against your lessons. You can ask a follow-up in the same conversation: the Study Guide reads the conversation so far. Choose New conversation to start on a different subject.

What it does not do

The Study Guide reads and explains; it changes nothing. It cannot hand in your work, mark a lesson complete, change a deadline or affect your results, and it does not read the work you hand in. Its answers are written by AI and can be wrong, as the note under the box says, so check anything that matters against your lessons or ask your academy.

The Study Guide is not Alethris Help. Alethris Help answers questions about using Alethris itself, from these Guides, and is under Help in the same menu. The Study Guide answers questions about what you are learning.

As a learner, you can check where a Study Guide answer comes from. The Study Guide answers only from your own programmes at this academy, and nothing outside them: it does not search the web, and it never reads another learner's work or another academy's material. Under its name on the Study Guide page, a line says so, as "Answers from programme, and nothing outside it." The small information mark beside its name, labelled "What name does", opens the same description in full.

What it can read

The Study Guide can look at these, for each of your programmes at this academy:

• Your lessons and assignment briefs — the material you can open now. A lesson that is still locked to you, and an assignment that has not opened, are never read.
• What you have due — assignments you still have to hand in or redo, with their deadlines and whether they are late, and your upcoming live sessions.
• Your progress — the lessons you have left, what still stands between you and completing the programme, and your attendance.
• Your assessors' feedback — the decisions on your assessed work, what each assessor wrote overall and against each rubric criterion, and how many attempts you have left.
• An assignment's details — what it asks you to hand in, and its rubric's criteria and levels.

It answers about the programme you have open, and can draw on your other programmes at the same academy when a question needs them, except one where your academy has switched the Study Guide off. Help with another programme's work follows that programme's own setting where it allows less. It does not read the work you hand in. If you want its view of something you wrote, paste the part you mean into your question.

The sources under each answer

An answer lists the sources it cites. Choose the line that counts them, such as 3 sources, to see them. An answer that cites nothing lists no sources. Each source shows its kind and its title, such as "Lesson · Variables and types", and the same marker, such as S1, appears in the answer beside the sentence it supports.

A source opens its page in a new tab, so your conversation stays where it was:

A source drawn with a dashed border has no page of its own to open.

What it looked up

While an answer is being written, the Study Guide lists what it is looking at, such as "Looked at what you have due", "Searched your lessons", "Looked at your progress" or "Looked at feedback on 2 pieces of your work". Once the answer arrives, the list folds under a line such as 2 lookups, which you can open again while the page is open.

How far to trust an answer

An answer with sources tells you where to check it. The note under the box says the answers are "Written by AI and can be wrong." Open the sources for anything that matters, such as a deadline or what an assignment asks for, and rely on the page itself: your assignment's page and your schedule are the record, not the answer.

If an answer names no source, or a source does not say what the answer claims, ask again more precisely, or ask about a particular lesson from that lesson's page. The lesson Ask from a lesson or an assignment explains how.

What it never sees

The Study Guide never sees other learners' work, results or conversations, your payments, or anything your academy keeps for its staff, such as private notes on your work. It cannot read another academy where you also study: each academy's Study Guide answers only from its own programmes.

As a learner, you can ask the Study Guide about the page you are reading without leaving it. On a lesson, an assignment or your feedback, the Study Guide opens as a side panel focused on that page, so its answers are about that lesson or assignment. These controls appear only where your academy offers the Study Guide.

Ask with a ready-made question

Beside a lesson, an assignment, your feedback and your Home page is a card headed Ask followed by the Study Guide's name. On a narrower screen it sits below the page. Each button on it asks one question:

• On a lesson: Explain this lesson in simpler terms, Summarise the key points, Quiz me on it, and, where the lesson contains code, Explain the code in this lesson.
• On an assignment: What exactly am I being asked to hand in? and What does the rubric look for?
• On your feedback, until a final decision: What is my assessor asking me to change? and What does the rubric look for?
• On your Home page: Plan my week.

Choosing a button opens the side panel and asks the question at once. The link under the buttons, such as Or ask followed by the Study Guide's name and anything about it, opens the panel focused on the page with nothing asked yet, so you can type your own question.

The side panel

The side panel opens beside the page on a computer, over the right of the screen on a tablet, and across the whole screen on a phone. The page underneath keeps its place. On a wide screen you can drag the panel's edge to make it wider or narrower.

To open it without a ready-made question, choose the round button with a sparkle at the bottom right of the page. Along the top of the panel are three controls:

• Start a new conversation, the pencil, sets the current conversation aside and starts afresh.
• Open the Study Guide page, the expand arrows, opens the same conversation full width, with your past conversations beside it. It stays about the same lesson or assignment.
• Close the Study Guide, the cross, closes the panel. On a phone or tablet, Escape closes it too.

The panel keeps your conversation as you move from page to page. A ready-made question asked while the panel is closed starts a new conversation about that page, and so does opening the panel after six hours without use. Continue your last conversation brings back the one that was set aside.

Focus on a lesson or an assignment

When the panel is about a page, an About chip above the question box names the lesson or assignment, and the box reads "Ask about title…". The Study Guide then answers about that lesson or assignment first. When you move to another lesson, the focus moves with you.

To ask about the whole programme instead, remove the focus with the cross on the chip, labelled "Stop focusing on title". The box then reads "Ask about your programme…".

A lesson that is still locked to you cannot be a focus: the Study Guide does not read material you cannot open yet.

Focus on a formal assessment

An assignment marked Formal assessment changes what the Study Guide will do while it is in focus. Whatever your academy allows elsewhere, it then only clarifies what the work asks for. The questions on an assignment's page always work this way. The lesson The Study Guide and assessed work explains the rule.

When the card or the button is missing

The card and the round button appear only where your academy offers the Study Guide in your programme, and a button on the card appears only when its ability is switched on. If nothing appears, see When the Study Guide is unavailable.

As a learner, you may notice that the Study Guide will explain some things fully and only hint at others. That is your academy's choice. Each academy decides how much help the Study Guide may give with work that is assessed, and each programme can set its own rule. The Study Guide follows the rule for the programme you are asking from, and for work in another of your programmes, that programme's rule where it allows less.

The four settings

Your academy sets a default for every programme, and a programme can choose its own setting instead. There are four:

• Explanations allowed. The Study Guide may explain concepts, give examples and explain how to approach assessed work.
• Guided hints only. It helps with hints and questions that lead you towards an answer, and never gives you a finished one.
• Clarification only. It only clarifies what the work asks for and the ideas behind it. It does not solve the assessed task.
• Off in this programme. The Study Guide is not offered in the programme at all. It disappears from the menu, and its page says "Your academy has switched name off for this programme." The Study Guide in your other programmes does not read or explain it either.

Your learning workspace does not show which setting your programme uses. You notice it in the answers. If you need to know, ask your academy.

The formal-assessment rule

Two kinds of question are always answered under Clarification only, whatever your academy or programme allows:

• Questions with a formal assessment in focus. An assignment's type shows above its title. When it reads Formal assessment and the Study Guide is focused on it, the Study Guide only clarifies what the assessment asks for.
• The ready-made questions about an assignment. The buttons on an assignment's page, What exactly am I being asked to hand in? and What does the rubric look for?, and What is my assessor asking me to change? on your feedback, always clarify and never do the work.

With a formal assessment in focus, the Study Guide explains the task and leaves the work to you. The rule holds for as long as the assessment is the focus of your question, including when you choose Open the Study Guide page from the side panel: the page keeps the same focus.

What the Study Guide never does with your work

Whatever the setting, the Study Guide does not read the work you hand in, and it cannot hand work in, change a draft or affect your results. It does not mark anything and decides nothing about your work: your assessor does. It answers only from your own programmes at this academy.

Your conversations are private to you. Your academy's staff, including your assessors, cannot read them. The lesson Your Study Guide conversations explains who can see what.

Using it well on assessed work

The setting decides what the Study Guide will do. What counts as your own work in an assessment is your academy's rule, so read what your academy says about it before you ask for help with assessed work. Good uses wherever the Study Guide is offered:

1. Ask what the brief means before you start: What exactly am I being asked to hand in?
2. Ask what each rubric criterion looks for: What does the rubric look for?
3. Ask for practice on the lesson behind the assignment, with Quiz me on it on that lesson.
4. After feedback, ask what your assessor is asking you to change.

Answers are written by AI and can be wrong. Where an answer and the assignment's page disagree, the assignment's page and your academy are right.

When an answer seems to hold back

If the Study Guide answers with hints or questions where you hoped for an explanation, it is following the setting for your programme, the formal-assessment rule, or the way your academy has asked it to teach. Rephrasing the question does not change the setting. Read the lessons it cites, or ask your academy's staff for help.

As a learner, you may find the Study Guide missing from your menu, a button missing from a lesson, or a question refused. The message you see says which kind of cause it is, though some messages cover more than one. Nearly all of them are your academy's choices, and none affects your lessons, assignments or results: the Study Guide is an extra, and everything else works without it.

Not offered at all

The Study Guide item, the round button and the Ask cards appear only where your academy has switched on an assistant for learners, published it, and left it on for your programme. If they are missing, the Study Guide is not offered to you. Opening its page then says one of:

• "Name is not switched on for this academy." Your academy does not offer a learner assistant.
• "Your academy has switched name off for this programme." Your academy offers it, but not on this programme. It may be available on your other programmes at the same academy, but there it does not read or explain this one.

Both are followed by "Your lessons, assignments and results are unaffected." Only your academy can change either; ask them if you expected it.

One ability switched off

Your academy can switch off any of the Study Guide's six abilities on its own. A button for an ability that is off simply does not appear, so a lesson with no Summarise the key points, for example, means summaries are off. When open questions are off, the Study Guide page says "Name is not taking open questions in this academy." and the question box is not offered there. The buttons on lessons, assignments and feedback for abilities that are on still work, in the side panel.

If a question reaches an ability that is off, the answer is refused with "Name cannot answer that kind of question in this academy." or "Name is not available for that question in this academy."

Your daily questions

Your academy can limit how many questions each learner may ask in a day. Where it does, the note under the question box counts down, as "8 questions left today". The count covers every question you ask the Study Guide at this academy, on any programme, including one whose answer failed part way.

When you reach the limit, the box closes with "You have used today's questions; more tomorrow." A button pressed after that says "You have used today's questions for name. It answers again tomorrow; the lesson material is here in the meantime." The count starts again at midnight UTC, which is 1:00 am in Nigeria.

Other limits and the academy's credits

Two more refusals are about limits and credits rather than settings:

• "You have reached the limit for now. Try again a little later." A limit on use has been reached: one of the daily limits your academy can set, for the whole academy, your programme, one ability or each learner, or the limit on how many questions one person can send in an hour. A learner's daily limit can count the AI credits your questions use as well as the questions. Daily limits start again at midnight UTC.
• "The academy's AI allowance is used up for now. Name returns when it is topped up." Your academy's AI credits have run out. It returns once the academy buys more.

You cannot do anything about either except wait or tell your academy. Neither costs you anything.

A question that did not go through

Some refusals are not about settings at all:

• "Your question could not be sent. Nothing was lost — try again." The question did not reach the academy, usually because the connection dropped. Send it again.
• "The answer could not be completed. Ask again in a moment." The answer started and failed part way. Ask the question again.
• "This question was not answered. Ask it again if you still need it." This appears under a question in your conversation that never received an answer.
• "Study Guide could not be reached just now. Refresh to try again." The page could not find out whether the Study Guide is available. Refresh the page.

When your access changes

The Study Guide is part of your learning workspace, so it goes when your access does. If your access to a programme is suspended or ends, the whole workspace for that programme closes, the Study Guide with it. It stays available after you finish a programme, for as long as your access lasts.

What to do

1. Read the message: it says what kind of cause it is.
2. For a missing Study Guide, a switched-off ability or the academy's limits, ask your academy. They decide all three.
3. For your own daily questions, wait until the count starts again.
4. For a question that did not go through, check your connection and send it again.

As a learner, every question you ask the Study Guide belongs to a conversation, and every conversation is yours alone. Nobody at your academy can read it: not your instructors, not your assessors, not the academy's owner. Your academy sees only how much its assistants are used overall, never what you asked.

Find your conversations

The Study Guide page in your learning workspace lists your 20 most recently used conversations under Your conversations, the latest first. Each is named after its first question and shows how long ago it was last used.

• Choose a conversation to open it and carry on where you left off.
• Choose New conversation to start another one.
• In the side panel, Open the Study Guide page opens the conversation you are in at full width, with the list beside it.

Each programme keeps its own conversations. A conversation started on one programme is listed on that programme's Study Guide page, not on another's.

Delete a conversation

To delete a conversation, choose the bin beside it in Your conversations. It is deleted at once, without a question first, and its messages are removed. If it was the conversation on screen, the page returns to a new conversation.

How long conversations are kept

Your academy decides how long Study Guide conversations are kept, counted from each conversation's last message. A conversation you keep using stays; one you leave alone is cleared once that time has passed since your last message. When your academy changes the time, it applies to the conversations you already have as well. The note under Your conversations says "Yours alone — deleted automatically after the last message ages out."

Once a conversation has started, the note under the question box gives its time, as "Private to you, cleared after 30 days or whenever you delete the conversation." Before your first question in a new conversation, the note says 30 days whatever your academy chose. An academy can choose 7, 14, 30, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days. It can also choose to keep nothing, and the note then reads "Private to you, and cleared once it is answered."

When a conversation is cleared, its questions and answers are removed. The conversation can stay in Your conversations, empty and named New conversation, and the bin does not remove it. If you want to keep an answer, copy it somewhere of your own before then.

What the note under the box tells you

The note under the question box says three things about every conversation:

• "Written by AI and can be wrong." — the answers are produced by an AI model, so check what matters.
• How long the conversation is kept, as above.
• Where your academy limits daily questions, how many you have left today, as "8 questions left today".

What stays on your device

Conversations are never kept on your device for offline use, unlike the lessons you keep. They open only with a connection, and signing out leaves nothing of them behind on the device.

Your conversations and your academy

Your conversations sit with the academy where you study. While your access to a programme lasts, you can open its conversations; when your access is suspended or ends, the workspace for that programme closes, and its Study Guide with it.