Switching between universes as a learner

An academy gives its learners a separate browsing universe, and they move between that universe and the account’s shared content from a single selector in the app. This article describes what that selector shows, what changes when a learner switches and what switching does not do. To understand what an academy partitions, see Understanding academies; to set one up, see Creating an academy.

Where the selector appears

The selector sits at the top of the learner app home page, in the place otherwise occupied by the account logo. It appears only for a learner who belongs to at least one academy through one of their groups. For every other learner, that spot keeps showing the account logo.

The list contains:

• Root account, first in the list: the account’s shared universe;
• each academy the learner belongs to, under the name of the department.

A learner only sees their own academies. An academy that none of their groups depends on never appears in their list, and a deactivated group no longer attaches its learners to anything. The list is the same on a smartphone and in a browser; only its presentation adapts to the screen.

An academy that contains no content yet still appears in the list. The selector depends on group membership, not on what has been published.

Switching to an academy

The learner selects the academy in the list. The app reloads its content: the tracks and capsules on display are now the academy’s, and the department’s logo appears next to the selector when one has been set for it.

The choice is kept immediately. After a page refresh or an app restart, the learner comes back to the universe they last chose.

Returning to the shared content

The learner selects Root account in the same list. This is the way back to the account’s shared content: while a learner is inside an academy, content that belongs to the root account is filtered out of their app.

What switching does not do

• It does not change accounts: same login, same session, no new sign-in.
• It does not merge universes: at any moment the learner sees the content of one universe only.
• It is not a permission: it changes what is displayed, not what the learner is entitled to see. Distribution to their groups still decides.

This selector belongs to the learner app.

🔧 Admin side. To work on an academy’s perimeter in the back office, use the content list filters: Department on the tracks list and Associated departments on the capsules list. The parent account appears there as Main account.

When content seems to have disappeared

The app remembers the last universe chosen, including after a restart. A learner who “can no longer find” a piece of content has often lost nothing: they are still in another universe. Before checking distribution, look at the selector at the top of the home page. For a selector that never appears, or an academy missing from the list, see Common problems.

Going further

• Understanding academies: what switching partitions, and what a regular department partitions instead
• Creating an academy: turning a department into an academy
• When not to create an academy: the cases where a regular department is enough
• Common problems: missing selector or academy missing from the list