Learner Guide

This guide is designed to be your friendly companion, helping you navigate the platform, understand its features, and make the most of your learning experience.

Here, you can achieve:

• A systematic understanding of complex topics
• Hands-on experience by solving real-world problems
• Verifiable badges to showcase your skills
• Official certificates to formally recognize your expertise

Exploring the Content Catalog 🔗

Your journey begins at the Academy’s main catalog page, where you can discover all available learning content.

Navigating the Catalog 🔗

First you will see a collection of content cards. Each card gives you a quick overview of learning content, including the type, its title, the number of courses it contains, and its difficulty level.

Use the filters on the left - Level, Content Type, and, when browsing the full Layer5 Academy, Organization - to narrow the catalog to what you are looking for.

Understanding Content Types 🔗

To help you choose the right content for your goals, we offer three distinct types. You can use the Content Type filter on the left to narrow your search.

1. Learning Path: Choose this when you want to systematically learn a new subject from start to finish. It’s a comprehensive curriculum designed to build your knowledge from the ground up.

2. Certification: Choose this when you already have the knowledge and want to formally prove your skills. It focuses on assessment and evaluation through exams.

3. Challenge: Choose this when you want a hands-on, practical task to solve a specific problem, often in a competitive scenario.

Viewing All Content of One Type 🔗

The Content Type filter is also how you browse one type exhaustively rather than searching for a particular title:

• Set it to Learning Path to list every learning path available to you.
• Set it to Challenge to list every challenge.
• Set it to Certification to list every certification.

Combine it with Level to narrow further - for example every beginner learning path - and, on the main Layer5 Academy catalog, with Organization to see one organization’s content only. Clearing the filters returns the full catalog.

Starting Your Learning Journey 🔗

Once you’ve found a content that interests you, it’s time to begin.

Enrolling in a learning path 🔗

The content detail page gives you a full overview of what you’ll learn. To start, simply click the “Enroll Now” button.

Why enroll?

Enrolling is a key step because it allows the Academy to track your progress. Once enrolled, the system records the item you are on, the items you have completed, your quiz grades, and your time spent, so you resume where you left off. Every piece of content you have enrolled in appears in My Academy. Browsing the catalog needs no account. Enrolling does.

If the content’s organization attached an invitation to it, enrolling also accepts that invitation and adds you to the team the invitation grants. Your registration then moves through Registered, In Progress, Completed, Failed, and Withdrawn. Completed means you passed the final test. Withdrawn means you or an instructor withdrew the registration.

The Learning Interface 🔗

After enrolling, you’ll be taken to the main learning interface. This is where you’ll spend most of your time.

We’ve designed it to be simple and intuitive. Think of it in three parts:

1. Your Learning Map (Left Sidebar): This is the complete outline of your course. It shows where you are currently positioned.

2. Your Study Area (Center Panel): This is where the core content—text, images, and videos—is displayed.

3. Discover More (Right Sidebar): Here, you can find tags and categories across all the content, helping you discover other relevant content in the Academy. You can click to see all related content.

Testing Your Knowledge 🔗

Assessments are an integral part of the learning process, designed to reinforce your knowledge.

How to Take a Quiz 🔗

You can open any course from the outline at any time. A test marked final is what completes the content. Other tests are practice: passing them is not required to finish. A test can also require specific items first. If a prerequisite is missing from your completed items, the test does not start and reports Prerequisites not completed.

Some assessments may be marked as Optional. You can take these for extra practice, but you are not required to pass them to advance.

Every time you start a test, you begin a new attempt. If the test sets maxAttempts, you cannot start another attempt past that limit, and the Academy reports Maximum attempts reached for this test. A test with no maximum allows unlimited attempts. Starting an attempt counts whether or not you submit it. Tests can draw from a question bank larger than one sitting. Each attempt serves the next set of questions, wrapping back to the start, so a retake usually shows different questions.

If the test sets a time limit, the attempt expires that many minutes after it starts. A submission after expiry is rejected with Test submission has expired. Each attempt is submitted once. A second submission of the same attempt is rejected. Unanswered questions score zero. Your percentage is your score divided by the test’s total marks, and you pass when that percentage meets or exceeds the pass percentage. Scoring happens on the server when you submit.

Answering Questions and Scoring 🔗

When you encounter an assessment, you’ll see a clean interface with questions and answer options.

Answering: Select your answer(s) by clicking the corresponding radio button (for single-choice) or checkbox (for multiple-choice). For short-answer questions, type your response directly into the text field.

Scoring Rules:

• Single-Answer: You receive full marks only when you select exactly one option and it is the correct one.

• Multiple-Answer: Scoring is strict. You must select all correct options and none of the incorrect options to earn marks. There is no partial credit.

• Short-Answer: Your answer must match the expected answer exactly, ignoring letter case and leading or trailing spaces. A blank answer is wrong. There is no case-sensitive mode.

Submitting: Once you’ve answered all questions, click the “Submit” button at the end of the quiz. Your results, including your score and pass/fail status, will be displayed immediately.

If you fail: You can retake the assessment. The system will highlight the successful parts, allowing you to precisely identify where you need improvement.

If you pass: Congratulations! You’ve successfully completed the assessment and can proceed to the next section.

Your Achievements 🔗

Completing content in the Academy earns you valuable credentials that you can share with your professional network.

Earning Badges and Certificates 🔗

Badges: You earn a digital badge for successfully completing all the required components of a Learning Path, Challenge, or Certification. Badges are how the Academy marks the milestones you reach: each one is tied to a specific piece of content, is awarded only once you have finished everything that content requires, and stays on your public profile afterward. They are free and serve as a great way to showcase your new skills.

Your enrollment status - Registered, In Progress, Completed, Failed or Withdrawn - tracks your progress toward that milestone in the meantime, and is what your instructors see in their console.

See a live example on a user’s profile

Certificates: If the certification defines a certificate, passing its final test issues one in your first and last name, with the issuing organization and the issue date, and emails it to you. Each certificate has a unique ID and a public verification page. Learning and exams are free. Issuance of the official certificate is an optional, paid feature. Certificates do not expire. A challenge does not issue this certificate. Its outcome is the badge.

Frequently Asked Questions 🔗

Expand a section below to learn more.

Withdrawing from content 🔗

You can withdraw your own registration at any time. Withdrawing sets its status to Withdrawn. Instructors who hold the View Academy Metrics permission in the content’s organization can also withdraw learners from that organization’s content.

Related Reading

• Academy
• Academy Instructor Console Guide
• Building Certifications
• Building Challenges
• Content Creator Guide
• Creating Content for the Academy