We'd like to use analytics cookies to count visits and see where people click, so we can make AltEd better. Nothing you read or type is recorded. Privacy policy
Set a piece of work for a learner, then follow it from set, through in progress and completed, to reviewed.
What it does
An assignment is one piece of work for one learner. Providers and admins set assignments; guardians follow them and move them along as their child works. Every assignment carries a status, so at a glance you can see what's outstanding, what's underway and what's been marked.
An assignment can optionally be linked to a lesson from a course, which keeps a record of what the work was teaching, not just that it happened. You can also set work straight from a lesson: in Courses and lessons, a lesson's Set as work for a learner opens the same form beside the course with the lesson already chosen.
Where to find it
Ready to follow along in the app?
No password, no card — a magic link and you're in.
Everyone sees this screen; what you can do on it depends on your role.
Step by step
Set an assignment (providers and admins)
Go to Assignments (/dashboard/assignments).
Select New assignment. The form opens in a pane on the right, so the list of work stays in view.
Complete the form:
Learner — choose a learner. ("Choose a learner".)
Title — what the work is.
Instructions (optional) — "What should the learner do?" Written like a note, with headings, lists, bold and links; the learner and their family see it as you wrote it, and so does the list here.
Due date (optional).
Course (optional) — pick one to filter the lesson list. Leave it as No course to set stand-alone work.
Lesson (optional) — becomes selectable once a course is chosen; until then it reads "Pick a course first". Choose No lesson to skip.
Select Set assignment.
Draft practice questions with AI
When AI is available, a new assignment offers Draft practice questions above the buttons.
Type the Title (for example "Fractions, decimals and percentages"), link a Lesson, or both — the questions come from the lesson's content and topics when there is one.
Select Draft practice questions, then choose Level (optional), Difficulty (Easier, About right or Harder) and how many Questions (3 to 10).
Select Draft questions (about 2 AI credits). The questions fill Instructions, numbered, and worked answers appear in Answers — only you see these.
Check both — change any question or answer — choose the Learner, and Set assignment.
You can change or remove the answers later from Edit assignment.
If the questions don't all fit in Instructions, the last ones are left out along with their answers, so the numbers always match. Nothing about the learner is sent to AI.
Answers — only you see these is written in the same editor as everything else, so a worked answer can carry a list, a table or bold — and it is shown back to you that way.
The answers stay with the work for you: when you open Mark work, Your answers is there to check against, and Draft the marking uses them. The learner, their family and anyone else who can see the work never see them.
Track progress (guardians)
Open Assignments and find the piece of work.
Use Update status to move it between:
Assigned — set, not started.
In progress — being worked on.
Completed — your learner has finished it.
The change saves immediately.
Guardians can move work forward and back (for example from Completed to In progress if more is needed). Once a provider marks something Reviewed, it locks — the review is the last word.
Assignments, with each one's status and any feedback beneath it
Review finished work (providers and admins)
Look for assignments showing Completed.
Use Update status to set Reviewed once you've looked at it.
Use Edit assignment to change the title, instructions or due date at any point — and, if you set the work, its Answers — only you see these (empty the box to remove them) — and Delete assignment to remove it (you'll be asked to confirm).
Mark work, with AI drafting the feedback
Whoever set the work marks it: open its ⋯ menu and select Mark work, fill in Score and Out of, add Feedback (optional), and Save mark.
With AI on, Draft the marking sits in the same dialog:
Set Out of first if you'd like a suggested score.
Add what you noticed in the box (e.g. method right on 1–4, sign error in 5), Add a photo of the work (choose it, drag it onto the box, or paste it), or both.
Select Draft feedback (about 2 AI credits). The Feedback box fills with a few sentences for the learner, and — with an Out of — Score gets a suggestion within it, in half marks. Why that score explains it to you; the family never sees it.
Change anything, then Save mark. Nothing is saved or marked until you do.
It judges the work against the instructions and, when the work is linked to a lesson that follows a specification, that lesson's topics — never the child. A tutor can use it only if the family has turned on Let your learners' tutors use AI too and is still connected; a family marking their own set work needs Let AltEd draft from your records. See AI drafting.
Catch up after a week that didn't go to plan
Home education rarely runs to a bell, and a bad week shouldn't cost you a term's plan.
When anything is overdue, a Catch up action appears beside New assignment, showing how many pieces are late.
Choose either:
Move overdue work to a date — everything late lands on that day; or
Push everything back by a number of days — the whole outstanding plan shifts.
Confirm.
Only unfinished work moves. Anything already Completed or Reviewed keeps its original date, so the record of what actually happened when stays truthful.
To move a single piece, open its … menu and choose Move to….
Editing in the list (providers and admins)
For a one-field change there is no need to open the form. In the list, click the value under Assignment (the title) or Due and it turns into a box you can type in — a date picker for the due date. Press Enter to save, or Escape to put the old value back; a cleared due date leaves the work undated. Status has always been changed from the list, under Change status. Anything with more than one field — the instructions, the linked lesson — is still done from the row's ⋯ menu → Edit assignment.
Adding from the list (providers and admins)
At the foot of the list is an add row with three boxes: Title, Learner and Due date. A title and a learner are all you need — press Enter (or select Add) and the assignment is set, and the cursor is back in the first box ready for the next one. Instructions and a lesson are added afterwards from the row's Edit assignment. The row only appears when you have learners to set work for.
Filter the list
Use the learner filter above the list to focus on one learner; All learners shows everything you can see.
What each screen shows
The Assignments screen lists work with its title, the learner it belongs to, the linked lesson (where there is one), the due date, and a colour-coded status badge — Assigned, In progress, Completed or Reviewed.
Providers and admins see the strapline "Set work for learners and review what comes back." and the New assignment action. Guardians see "Track what each learner is working on." and can change status only.
With nothing set yet you'll see the No assignments yet empty state.
Who sees what: a provider sees the assignments they set, a guardian sees assignments for their own learners, and an admin sees all of them.
Tips and good to know
Linking a lesson turns a list of tasks into a record of learning — worth the extra click when the work comes from a course you've written.
Due dates are optional on purpose. Home education rarely runs to a bell, so use them where a deadline genuinely helps.
Reviewed is deliberately one-way for guardians. If something needs reopening, ask the provider who set it (or an admin) to move it back.
Deleting an assignment is permanent and only the person who set it — or an admin — can do it.
When work is marked, the family is told once. Marking it again with the same result sends nothing; a changed mark updates the same notification ("name's mark has changed") instead of adding another, and opens the list on that learner's work.
How far back the list goes depends on your plan: on Free, finished work older than a year isn't listed, and a note above the list says how much; Family and Provider list all of it. Work still owed is always shown, however old. An old link (from a notification, say) to a piece of finished work past that window says so rather than opening it. Nothing is deleted: Family shows all of it, and your account's data export always includes everything. Your learners' own pages, and the portfolio, follow the same window.
Troubleshooting
Problem
What to try
There's no Draft practice questions button
AI isn't set up on this AltEd, or you're editing existing work — it's offered when setting new work.
Draft questions is greyed out
Type a Title or link a Lesson first.
I can't see the answers when marking
Only the person who set the work sees them, and only if answers were kept when it was set.
I can't change a status any more
It's been marked Reviewed. Ask the provider who set the work to reopen it.
There's no New assignment button
Only providers and admins set work. Guardians track it. See Settings if you need to switch role.
The Lesson list says "Pick a course first"
Choose something under Course (optional) — lessons are filtered to their course.
Overdue work didn't move
Only work that is still Assigned or In progress moves. Completed and Reviewed work deliberately keeps its date.
No Draft the marking in the Mark dialog
This AltEd instance has no AI configured. If it's there but refuses, the family hasn't switched on the AI setting it needs — the message says which.
"AI can read JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP photos…"
Take the photo again as a JPEG, or add notes instead.
A learner I expect isn't in the list
Providers only see learners of families they're connected to. Ask the family to connect with you — see Connections.
Resources
Resources (/dashboard/resources) is the shared library of links, worksheets and materials. Providers and admins share them with Share a resource; everyone can browse them and open a link from the row's ⋯ menu → Open link.
Editing in the list
If you share resources, click the value under Resource (the title), Type or Link to change it in place: the type opens a list to pick from, the others turn into a box to type in. Enter saves, Escape cancels. You can only change resources you shared yourself (admins can change any); trying to edit someone else's tells you so and leaves it alone. The description is edited from the row's Edit resource. Because the link cell is now an editor, people who share resources open a link from Open link in the row's menu rather than by clicking the cell — families still see the link itself.
Adding from the list
The add row at the foot of the list takes a Title, a Link and a Type. Press Enter (or select Add) to share it straight away; add a description afterwards from Edit resource.