Homework help

Overview

Your teacher sets homework from the chapters you're studying. You answer it on the platform, and anything that can be marked straight away is marked the moment you hand in. When you're stuck on a question, the helper opens beside it and takes you one step at a time: first what the question is asking, then a hint, then the idea from your chapter, then a worked example of a different question. You stop as soon as you can carry on by yourself.

The helper is there to get you moving, not to do the homework for you. It won't tell you the answer or whether your answer is right, and using it never costs you marks.

Finding your homework

• Open Homework under Practice in your sidebar. What's due comes first, soonest at the top.
• Or tap the notification you get when homework is set. It opens that homework directly.
• Homework also appears in My Courses → All Assignments, and in the deadline reminder about two hours before it's due.

Answering and handing in

• Your answers save as you go. You can close the page and come back to where you were.
• Written answers can be typed, or photographed from your notebook. On a laptop you can scan a QR code with your phone to take the photos.
• Handing in is final. You get a warning first if anything is blank. After that you can't change your answers.
• After the due time you can still hand in, marked late, unless your teacher closes the homework at the deadline.

When you're stuck

Press Stuck? Get help on the question. The helper opens beside it (from the bottom of the screen on a phone). Its steps open in order, so you only take as much as you need:

1. Nudge: what the question is really asking, and which idea it tests.
2. Hint: your teacher's or the book's hint where the question has one, otherwise a pointer to the first step.
3. Concept: the idea as your chapter explains it, with a link to read the chapter.
4. Worked example: a different question that works the same way. Try it first, then press Show the worked solution to see it solved, and use the same method on your homework.

Check my working

On multiple-choice and number questions, the helper's Check my working tab reads your steps. Type them, or add up to three photos of your rough work. It points to the first step that goes wrong and what to look at again. It never says whether your final answer is right: that's for your teacher. You get two checks per question, so check once you have a full attempt.

Plan and review a written answer

Short and long answer questions have two more buttons under your answer:

• Plan my answer gives you the points a full-marks answer covers, as questions for you to answer in your own words, in a sensible order.
• Review my draft reads what you've written so far (your photos too) and tells you what it already covers, what it still needs, and the one change to make next. It never writes any of your answer for you. You get three reviews per question.

Asking about a question

The Ask tab is a short conversation about the question: a word you don't know, what a part of it means, or the step you're on. Asking for the answer, or whether an option is right, gets a polite no and an offer of the next step instead. You can ask up to twelve questions on each homework question.

After the answers are shown

Your teacher chooses when answers are shown: as soon as you hand in, after the due time, or when they return your work. Until then, help pauses once you've handed in. When the answers are out you see every question marked, the right answer and the worked solution or model answer.

• Explain my mistake appears on every question you didn't get full marks for. It explains what you probably thought, where it went wrong, and how to spot it next time. You can ask follow-up questions.
• Wrong answers on questions that mark themselves (multiple choice, true or false, numbers, blanks) go into your Error Book to revise later.
• Your teacher may send you a short fix-up homework: fresh questions on exactly what you missed. Answers show as soon as you hand it in.

When help is limited or off

Your teacher decides how much help each homework has. The helper's header says which it is.

Explain my mistake works after the answers are shown whatever the setting.

Projects and essays: the assignment helper

Projects, essays and assignments you hand in as files have a helper of their own. Open the assignment from My Courses → All Assignments, the Submit work card on your dashboard, or its notification. The Assignment helper sits above your answer box and works in five steps:

1. Understand: everything your teacher asked for as a checklist you tick off, what exactly to hand in, the length if one is set, and anything worth asking your teacher.
2. Plan: press Make my plan for milestones from today to the due date. Keep Remind me when each step is due ticked to get a notification at each one.
3. Get started: what to do first, the words to understand, the questions your work should answer, and chapters from the library to read.
4. Review: feedback on your draft, typed in the answer box or as up to four photos of your pages, against your teacher's requirements. Four reviews per assignment. See Feedback on your writing.
5. Submit: a last look before you hand in: requirements not yet ticked, the length, your files, and whether your teacher can read your photos.

When you press Submit, anything worth a second look is listed first. Go back and fix it hands in nothing; Submit anyway hands in as it is. A file that can't be handed in (the wrong type, over 10 MB, or more than ten files) has to be fixed first. You can hand in again to replace your work until your teacher marks it. If your teacher changes the due date or the instructions before you've handed in, you get a notification; read the task again, because your checklist follows the new instructions.

Homework and Aiden

If you paste one of your homework questions into Aiden, the AI tutor, before its answers are shown, Aiden recognises it (for questions of a line or more) and sends you to that question's helper with a link instead of working it. If you've already handed it in, or your teacher has switched help off, Aiden tells you that instead. Once the answers are out, Aiden can help with it like any other question.

What your teacher sees

• Which help you used on each question: the steps, a check, a review, a question. Teachers use this to see what the class found hard and what to teach again.
• Not what you typed to the helper, your working, or what it said back.
• On an assignment, which helper steps you used, never your drafts.

On an assignment, photos you add in the Review step or for a photo check are looked at once to answer you and are not stored. Photos of your working for Check my working are uploaded like any photo you send from your phone, and photos you hand in are kept as your answer.

Limits

Where your school asks for a parent's consent before students under 18 use AI help, and it hasn't been given yet, you still get the nudge, hint, concept, worked example and a plan, because those are written about the question, not about you. Checking your working, reviews, Ask and follow-up questions start once a parent allows AI help. See Data protection.

Questions

Does using the helper lower my marks? No. Your marks come only from your answers.

Why won't it tell me if my answer is right? Because then the homework would be marking itself before you hand it in, and your teacher couldn't see what you really understood. Once you hand in and the answers are shown, you find out, and Explain my mistake takes you through anything you got wrong.

The worked example looks almost the same as my question. Can I copy it? It's a different question on purpose, with different numbers or a different case. Use its method on your question; copying its answer won't be right.

The helper says it can't help just now. Check your internet connection and press Try again. If the AI is busy, the hint and worked example still work.

Can I use it after the due date? Yes, if your teacher still accepts late work and you haven't handed in.