What Alethris is

Alethris is the platform academies use to run their programmes, and the place people learn at those academies. An academy publishes its programmes on its own website, admits learners, teaches them, assesses their work and issues credentials that anyone can check. A learner applies or enrols, studies, hands in work, and keeps what they earn. Everyone signs in with one Alethris account, and that account works at every academy they belong to.

Academies

An academy is an organisation that teaches through Alethris. Each academy has its own address on the web, and three things live there:

• Its public website, where visitors read about its programmes, apply and enrol.
• The learner workspace, where its learners study, hand in work and follow their progress.
• The academy workspace, where its staff build programmes, run cohorts, assess work and manage the academy.

The people who run an academy hold staff roles: Owner, Administrator, Finance administrator, Instructor, Mentor and Assessor. One person can hold several roles, so a small academy can be run by very few people.

Learners

A learner is anyone who has a place on one of an academy's programmes, also called courses. As a learner you study the programme's lessons, attend its sessions if it runs as a cohort (a class that moves through the programme together), hand in assignments, and read the feedback your assessors give. When you meet the programme's completion requirements, the academy can issue you a credential, which is Alethris's word for a certificate that an employer can verify.

A person can learn at several academies at once, and can be a learner at one academy while working as staff at another.

One account for everything

Your Alethris account is yours: a name, an email address and a password. An academy does not create it and cannot take it away. When you join a second academy, you use the same account; when you leave an academy, the account stays. As the account menu puts it, "This account is yours, not an academy's. Leaving an academy never removes the credentials you earned there."

Each academy sees only what happens at that academy. It sees your name and email address, and your learning or your work there, but never what you do at another academy, and never your password or your sessions.

The Alethris Hub

The Alethris Hub is your own side of Alethris. It gathers what belongs to you from every academy: the academies you belong to, your learning, your payments, your credentials and your Skills Passport, and the notifications every academy sends you. It also holds the Guides, Support and your account settings. Academies are where the teaching and the work happen; the Hub is where your own record sits together.

What this means for you

One account works the same way for everyone, whatever they do on Alethris:

• If you are a learner, you need one account for every academy you study with. Your receipts and credentials stay in your Hub even after you leave an academy.
• If you run an academy, your staff and your learners all bring their own accounts. You invite staff and admit learners; you never create logins for them.
• If you do both, the same account opens your academy's workspace and your own learning, and your Hub lists both.

Where to ask

Alethris Help, the assistant in the Hub and in each academy's workspaces, answers questions about using Alethris from these Guides. It cannot see any academy's records, so a question about your fee, your mark or your place goes to the academy itself.

Everything you do on Alethris happens in one of two kinds of place. The Alethris Hub is yours: it lives at app.alethris.com and gathers your record from every academy you belong to. An academy is the academy's: it lives at its own address, and that is where its teaching, its learners' work and its staff's work happen. One account opens both, and you never need a second login.

The places and what each holds

Each place has its own address and its own job.

An academy's address is either a name under alethris.com that it chose when it was created, or a domain of its own that it has connected. Either way, its website, its learner workspace and its academy workspace all sit at that one address.

The Hub

The Hub's menu lists Overview, My academies, Notifications, Guides, Support and Account for everyone. Four more rows, My learning, Credentials, Passport and Payments, appear once you learn somewhere: when you hold the Learner role at any academy, hold an offer or a place waiting for payment, hold a credential, or were a learner at an academy that has since closed. Someone who has only ever worked as staff does not see them, because nothing would ever fill them.

Nothing in the Hub belongs to an academy. Your receipts, your credentials and your account stay there even after you leave the academy they came from.

An academy

An academy's address is where you do the work. As a learner, you open the learner workspace to study one enrolment at a time. As a member of staff, you open the academy workspace, where the menu shows only the pages your roles reach. Visitors who have not signed in see only the academy's public website.

Moving between them

You move between the Hub and an academy without signing in again.

• From the Hub, Open beside an academy under My academies opens that academy in a new tab.
• From an academy, the account menu in the learner workspace and in the academy workspace has a link to Alethris Hub.
• On an academy's website, the link at the top reads Sign in until you are signed in, then Open the console for staff, My learning for a learner, or Alethris Hub for anyone else.

Signing in at an academy's address takes you to the Alethris sign-in page, which names the academy you are going back to. The academy never sees your password. If you are already signed in to Alethris in that browser, you return to the academy straight away.

What each academy can see

An academy sees your name and email address from your Alethris account. As a learner, it also sees your work, submissions, assessments, attendance and payments at that academy. As staff, it sees everything you administer there. It never sees anything you do at another academy, and never your password, your sessions or your account settings. Your membership page for each academy, under My academies in the Hub, lists exactly what that academy can see.

Notifications follow the same rule. The Hub's inbox holds notices from every academy and from Alethris itself; the inbox inside an academy shows only that academy's.

When an academy publishes a programme, Alethris fixes what was published as an edition, and every learner is taught from an edition that does not change under them. Some learners study it together in a cohort, which runs on dates the academy sets. Others study it at their own pace, with no cohort at all. Three words carry this: programme, edition and cohort.

Programme

A programme is what most people call a course: what an academy teaches, how it is delivered, what it costs, and what a learner will be able to do at the end. Its content is a set of modules and lessons, the assignments learners hand in, and the outcomes the academy promises. Its settings say how people join, what the fee and refund window are, what counts as finished, and whether finishing earns a credential.

An academy describes each programme with a format, such as Course, Bootcamp, Workshop or Masterclass, and a delivery of Online, In person or Blended. These describe the programme on its public page.

Edition

An edition is a published version of a programme. The academy's staff work on a draft, and publishing the draft makes a new edition, numbered in order: the first is the live version, then Edition 2 and so on. To change what a programme teaches, staff choose Make changes, which copies what learners see into a draft, and publish it as the next edition.

This matters to learners. People already learning keep the version they started with, and a cohort stays on the edition it opened with, so nobody is assessed against material they were never taught. A learner who began on Edition 2 finishes on Edition 2, whatever the academy publishes afterwards.

The one exception is wording. When an academy corrects a typo or a wrong sentence in the live version, with Correct wording, the fix reaches everyone on that edition at once, including people already learning. Only words change this way: pictures, videos, prices, lessons and assessment stay as they were until a new edition.

Cohort

A cohort is one intake of a programme, which many people would call a class. The academy workspace describes it as "its dates, places, price, staff and sessions". A cohort opens on the programme's live edition and keeps it. It can have:

• dates on which enrolment opens and closes, and on which the cohort starts and ends, read in its own timezone
• a number of places
• its own price per learner, where it differs from the programme's
• staff assigned to it: administrators, instructors, mentors and assessors
• sessions, with registers that record each learner's attendance

A cohort also decides when its lessons open: As soon as a learner joins, or When the cohort starts, in which case learners see the outline, the schedule and the group straight away and the lessons themselves on the start date.

Self-paced study

A programme is either cohort-based or self-paced. In the academy workspace's words: "Cohort: learners move together through scheduled sessions. Self-paced: each learner starts alone and attendance does not apply." The academy's public pages show the same choice as Cohort-paced or Self-paced.

A self-paced learner joins the programme itself rather than a cohort, and studies the edition that was live on the day they joined. There are no sessions to attend and no cohort to wait for.

How this shapes finishing

The difference shows at the end. A self-paced learner finishes as soon as they meet the programme's completion requirements. A learner in a cohort also waits for the cohort itself to run to completion: until the academy completes the cohort, nobody on it has finished.

What this means for you

Editions and cohorts matter differently to each reader:

• If you are a learner, your edition is fixed when you start, and your cohort's dates are the ones that count for sessions and deadlines.
• If you run an academy, publish a new edition whenever the programme changes. Cohorts already running keep their edition, and new cohorts open on the new one.

Every place on a programme begins in one of three ways: a person applies and is offered a place, a person enrols directly, or the academy gives someone a place itself. Each place is also funded in one of three ways: the learner pays, a sponsor pays, or the fee is settled with the academy outside Alethris. A place, which many people would call an enrolment or a registration, becomes active only once it is taken up and, where the learner pays, paid for.

Applying

Applying is for programmes where the academy chooses who joins. The academy sets this with the programme's How people join setting, choosing Apply first, and its public pages show By application beside "Way in". In the academy workspace's words, "People apply, staff accept or decline each application, and accepted people pay to start."

As an applicant, you answer the academy's own questions, and your answers are saved as you type. Once you send the application, its page tells you where it stands: "Your application has been sent", "Your application is being reviewed", "You are on the waiting list", "You have been offered a place", or "Not offered a place this time". You can also withdraw it.

The offer

An offer is the academy's yes to an application, and it is answered in your Alethris Hub. Each offer shows its price and the date it expires. Accepting an offer reserves the place; as the offer page puts it, "Nothing is charged until you complete payment." Declining tells the academy, and a declined offer cannot be reopened, though you can always apply again later. An offer that is not answered in time expires.

Enrolling directly

Enrolling directly is for programmes anyone can join without a decision: "Direct enrolment lets a learner enrol without a decision." The public pages show Direct enrolment beside "Way in". You choose a cohort, or join a self-paced programme on its own, pay the fee if there is one, and the place is yours. A cohort with no places left refuses direct enrolment with "The cohort is full".

A place from the academy

An academy can also give someone a place without an application. Its staff choose either someone who is already a member of the academy, whose place is created at once, or someone by email. Someone invited by email receives a link to a page headed "Academy name has a place for you", and takes the place with Take my place, signing in or creating an account first. Until they do, nothing is charged and no place is held for them.

Who pays for a place

Each place has one of three kinds of funding.

• Self-funded. The learner pays the fee on Alethris. Online payments go to the academy through Paystack. A programme with no fee needs no payment at all.
• Sponsored. "A sponsor pays for someone's place, and the learner is not charged." A sponsor is an organisation, such as an employer, that the academy records. The money is settled between the sponsor and the academy outside Alethris.
• Manual. "Manual means the fee is settled outside Alethris." The academy arranges payment, or waives it, directly with the learner.

When a place becomes yours

A place starts as soon as nothing stands in its way. A free, sponsored or manual place is set up straight away when it is accepted or given. A place with a fee to pay is held while you pay: the Hub shows "your place is held until" a date, and nothing is charged until you complete payment. Once the place starts, you become a member of the academy, it appears under My academies in your Hub, and its learner workspace opens to you.

What this means for you

Joining reads differently from each side:

• If you are a learner, watch for offers and payment dates in the Hub: both have deadlines, and both are listed under Needs you on the Hub's Overview.
• If you run an academy, choose application or direct enrolment for each programme, and use sponsored or manual funding for places that are not paid for on Alethris.

On Alethris, a learner's skills are shown by work that a person has judged. A learner hands in a submission for an assignment; an assessor judges it against the assignment's rubric and records a decision; and when that decision is an approval against a competency rubric, Alethris records evidence of each skill the rubric covers. Three things are kept apart: the work, the judgement, and what the judgement proves.

Assignments and submissions

An assignment is a piece of work a programme asks for, with a brief that says what to produce. It belongs to the programme's edition, and an assignment can be required for finishing the programme or optional. Some assignments are group work, handed in by a group together.

What a learner hands in is a submission. Depending on the assignment, it can hold a Written answer, a File upload, a GitHub link, a Figma link, a Deployed link or another link. Each hand-in is an attempt, and an assignment can allow more than one attempt.

Rubrics

A rubric is the standard work is judged against: a set of criteria, each with levels that describe weak work through to strong work. An academy keeps its rubrics in one library, so the same standard can serve several assignments. There are two kinds:

• A score rubric sets a maximum score, and each level carries a percentage.
• A competency rubric maps every criterion to a competency. In the academy workspace's words, it "is the only kind that puts a competency on a learner's credential and Skills Passport".

Competencies

A competency is a skill an academy names and tracks, with a code and a name, grouped into the academy's own frameworks. Four levels describe how far a learner has reached it: Introduced, Developing, Competent and Advanced. When a rubric criterion is mapped to a competency, it also says the level a learner is expected to reach.

How an assessor judges work

An assessor reviews a submission against its rubric, gives feedback, and records one of three decisions:

• Approved. The work meets the standard.
• Changes requested. The learner revises the work and hands in a new attempt.
• Rejected. The work is not approved. The learner sees it as Not approved, with the assessor's reasons.

Approving or rejecting work needs the Assessor role, and for a cohort's work a place on that cohort's staff as its assessor. Self-paced work, from a learner in no cohort, needs the Assessor role alone, or a place on the programme's staff as its assessor once the academy seats anyone there. Anyone who reviews work can ask for changes. As a learner, you read the result under From your assessor, with your rubric scores.

What an approved judgement proves

An approval against a competency rubric becomes evidence. For each competency its criteria cover, Alethris records the level the assessor judged, the level expected, the assignment, the method of assessment, the assessor's name and the date. The method is one of Evidence review, Live observation, Oral interview or Practical demonstration.

That evidence is what a competency on a credential or a Skills Passport points to: specific work, judged against a stated standard, by a named person. As a learner, you can follow it in your programme's outcomes, where each competency reads "Verified level · expected level" once it is evidenced, or "Not yet evidenced · expected level" until then.

When a decision is corrected

A decision can be corrected after it is made, by someone allowed to approve or reject that work, who confirms their password. Evidence from the earlier decision is not deleted: it is kept and marked as superseded, so the history stays readable.

Where assistants fit

An academy can give its assessors an assistant that drafts a level and a comment for each rubric criterion. It works from the assignment's brief and rubric without reading the learner's work, and, in the product's words, "The assessor checks them against the work and decides the grade." The decision is always the assessor's own.

A learner leaves a programme with up to three things: a completed enrolment, a credential, and the record on their Skills Passport. Alethris completes the enrolment by itself once every requirement is met; nobody presses a button to do it. If the programme offers a credential, an owner or administrator issues it by hand. The learner then decides what their Skills Passport shows, and to whom.

Completion

Completion is decided by the programme's own requirements, set by the academy under "What counts as finished":

• Lessons completed: the share of required lessons a learner must finish. Optional lessons never count.
• Minimum attendance: the share of sessions a learner must attend. It applies to cohort programmes only.
• Assignments completed: the share of required assignments a learner must finish, which means handed in, or approved where the assignment is assessed.

A learner on a cohort also needs the cohort to have run to completion. Throughout, the learner must still be a member of the academy, with access that is not suspended, on an enrolment that is active, at an academy that is running as usual, not read-only or suspended. Once every requirement holds, the enrolment completes, and its record shows the date.

When a completion no longer stands

A completion is not permanent if the record behind it changes. If one of the programme's requirements stops holding, for example because an assessment decision is corrected, the completion is set aside and the enrolment returns to being in progress. Nothing is erased: the record shows a completion that happened, and that it no longer stands.

Credentials

A credential is Alethris's name for a certificate an employer can check. A programme either issues one on completion or does not, and one that does certifies one of two things:

• Assessed skills: "Earned through assessed work: each competency was judged against the academy's standard." It is earned only when every competency the programme's outcomes promise has been approved in a required assignment, and it lists each one and how it was judged.
• Completion only: "Records that the programme's completion requirements were met. It does not certify assessed skills."

Completing makes a learner eligible; it does not issue anything. As the academy workspace says, "A credential is issued by hand, never automatically, and cannot be changed once issued." An owner or administrator issues it, confirms their password, and checks the name that will appear on it.

Each credential has its own code and verification page, and a certificate the learner can download. It either never expires or expires a set number of days after the day it is issued. An academy can later replace a credential issued with a mistake, or revoke one. Anyone who checks a revoked credential sees that it was revoked and when, but never why; a replaced one points to the credential that replaced it.

The Skills Passport

The Skills Passport is the learner's own record across every academy, kept in the Hub under Passport. It draws on three kinds of item: Credentials, Competencies verified by assessment, and Projects, which are approved projects and capstones. For each item, the learner chooses Shown, Link only or Hidden, and the passport as a whole is either Public, live at its own address for anyone who has it, or Private, which means "Only you. Employers see nothing — not even that it exists." Share links let the learner show the passport to particular people, even while it is private, and each link expires when the learner chooses or never.

Who controls what

Control over what a learner leaves with is split between the academy and the learner:

• The academy sets the requirements, assesses the work, issues credentials, and can replace or revoke them.
• The learner decides what their Skills Passport shows and to whom. Hiding an item hides it; it does not change the credential or the evidence behind it.
• Nobody can edit a credential once it is issued, and nobody can mark an enrolment complete by hand.

Leaving an academy changes none of this. Credentials earned there stay valid, stay verifiable and stay on the learner's Passport.

Alethris records decisions; it does not take them. A person decides who is admitted, a person with the Assessor role decides whether work is approved, and a person issues each credential. No one, not even an academy's owner, can mark an enrolment complete by hand. Some money never passes through Alethris at all, and the assistants draft and explain without deciding anything. Each of these can look like a missing feature until you know it is how the product works.

Admissions

Admissions are decided by people. For a programme that takes applications, in the academy workspace's words, "Application required means a named staff member reviews each application and records the decision." Nothing on Alethris accepts or turns down an applicant automatically.

Assessment

Assessment is human. Approving or rejecting a learner's work is recorded by a person who holds the Assessor role, and the evidence it creates names that person. An academy can give its assessors an assistant that drafts a level and a comment for each criterion of the rubric, but it drafts from the assignment's brief and rubric without reading the learner's work. Its card in the academy workspace says "You check every line; the decision stays yours."

Completion

Completion has no override. Alethris completes an enrolment when every requirement the programme sets is met, and there is no button that completes it otherwise: not for a learner, an instructor, an administrator or the owner. The actions staff have on an enrolment are to suspend or restore access, to activate a place without waiting for payment, to retry its activation, or to cancel it. None of them completes it.

When a learner has not completed, the thing to change is the record behind a requirement: an attendance record put right, work handed in or assessed, or a corrected decision. Staff see each requirement on the learner's record as Met, Not met or Pending.

Credentials

Credentials are issued by hand. Meeting the requirements makes a learner eligible, and then, as the academy workspace says, "A credential is issued by hand, never automatically, and cannot be changed once issued." The owner or an administrator issues it, confirms their password, and checks the learner's name against the academy's records before it goes on the certificate.

Money outside Alethris

Some fees are settled outside Alethris on purpose. When a sponsor, such as an employer, pays for a learner's place, the money is settled outside Alethris, and in the Sponsors page's words, "When the sponsor pays, mark the places it covered as settled on its page." A place with manual funding is paid, or waived, directly between the learner and the academy. An academy can also record a refund it made outside Alethris, by bank transfer or in cash.

Payments a learner makes online are different: in the Hub's words, "Online payments go through Paystack straight to the academy. Alethris never holds your money."

Assistants

The assistants draft and explain; people decide. The Study Guide, the learner's assistant, explains lessons and "Clarifies what an assignment asks for, without doing it." The staff assistant drafts announcements, and "Nothing is sent until a person posts it." A check-in it proposes for a learner "is started only when a staff member applies it", and a programme it drafts is not applied without review. Alethris Help answers questions about using Alethris from the Guides alone, and cannot see any academy's records.

What this means for you

These decisions shape what each reader can expect:

• If you are a learner, a mark, a credential or an admission decision always comes from a person at the academy, so the academy is the place to ask about one.
• If you run an academy, plan for these steps: someone with the Assessor role must judge work, someone must issue credentials, and sponsor money must be followed up outside Alethris.