Help

What plat.plus can do, explained briefly and sorted by topic.

Getting started

Join a course

To join, sign in. If you don't have an account yet, you'll create one along the way. Some courses confirm new participants first. You'll get an email once you're in.

My courses

You run every course you create. To join someone else's course, use Join with a code.

Install the app

As an app, plat.plus sends notifications to every device and opens from your home screen. Once signed in, you'll find Install the app in the menu at the top right.

On an iPhone, tap Share in Safari, then Add to Home Screen.

In a course

Course page

Lecturers design the course page freely. Files open beside it, and several stay open as tabs.

Above a custom block it says who built it. plat.plus never asks for a password or sign-in code inside a block.

Tasks

Until the deadline you can withdraw and hand in again. After it, only if the task accepts late hand-ins. Your submission is then marked late.

You see feedback once the lecturers release it.

Sessions

Subscribe in calendar brings dates and deadlines into your calendar app and keeps them current, cancellations too.

Titles and dates are always visible. Lecturers decide from when the content shows.

Meetings

Every course has a course meeting at a fixed link, right in the browser. For online dates, Join appears 15 minutes before the start.

For office hours you have a personal meeting room in the menu at the top right. Hold Space to talk briefly, even while muted.

Guests without an account just give a name. We record nothing and keep nothing, not even the chat.

Live room

Every course has a live room for questions in class. Everyone answers on their phone with the code or QR code, even without an account. Lecturers open it with Live at the top of the course.

You prepare a question series beforehand. Projector shows questions and results on the big screen. Opened on your phone, the same page is your remote. The space bar and a presenter clicker move on too.

For talks outside a course, you have a personal live room in the menu at the top right. Earlier questions keep their results, and only lecturers see them. We store answers without names.

Messages

For one minute a message can be taken back before the emails go out. In the course, only those it is for and the lecturers see it.

Designing the page

Editing the page

Drag blocks from Add block onto the page. Done saves it for everyone. A session's page works the same way.

Undo and redo also work with Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y.

Blocks

A click on a block shows its settings on the left, and Blocks goes back to the list. The menu on the handle has Move to … for long ways.

There are blocks for content (text, heading, image, video, link, literature, custom block), from the course (file, task, sessions) and for layout (columns, collapsible, divider).

Students don't see unfinished blocks yet. Removing a task or sessions block deletes neither the task nor the sessions.

Text, formulas and IPA

Text formats as you type: **bold** turns bold, *italic* italic, and - at the start of a line begins a list.

Formulas (LaTeX) go between dollar signs: $x^2$ within a sentence, $$\sum x_i$$ on a line of their own. Type or paste IPA characters directly.

Enter starts a new paragraph, Shift+Enter a new line. Insert table adds a table that you edit right in its grid.

Columns and collapsibles

Columns sit side by side when there is room, one below the other on a phone. Whether a collapsible is open or closed when the page opens, you choose in its settings.

Removing one keeps its content on the page unless you choose Remove with content.

Images, files and videos

Say what each image shows. That way it also reaches those who can't see it. A file can show its preview right on the page.

A video file plays right on the page. A YouTube video shows its title and still and opens on YouTube.

Literature

From the DOI, plat.plus fills in all details of the source. Export literature (BibTeX) in the course page's ⋯ menu downloads all sources.

Preview and versions

View as student shows the page without unfinished and hidden blocks. Every Done is kept as a version, including the page you replace by restoring.

Custom blocks

A custom block shows something interactive made from code, such as flashcards or a quiz. An AI of your choice writes the code from the prompt you copy. plat.plus itself sends nothing to any AI.

If the code has an error, Copy error takes it to the same chat. Students only see code that runs. plat.plus never asks for a password or sign-in code inside a block.

Your answers in a block stay when its code changes. Under My progress you download them or bring back earlier ones. Lecturers can reset and restore everyone's answers in the block's settings.

My blocks

Save to My blocks in the menu of a custom block keeps a copy in My blocks. From there, you insert it into any of your courses through the block list. Students' answers never come along.

Each copy stands on its own: change one, and the other copies and “My blocks” stay as they are. A block only gets a newer version when you choose Update from My blocks … in its menu.

Tasks and grading

Grading submissions

Feedback stays a draft until you release it, one at a time or with Release all graded.

You can grade:

with feedback only
passed or failed
points with a passing score
a grade 1.0 to 5.0 or law points 0 to 18, as set in Grade scale

All submissions (ZIP) downloads the submissions. Deleted tasks wait 30 days in the trash. Archive only hides them.

Grades and coursework requirement

A coursework requirement asks students to pass at least a number of the chosen tasks. A task counts once its feedback is released.

Teams

A team hands in once and gets one feedback. Students form teams themselves on the task. You can also assign teams yourself or copy them from another task with Same teams as ….

Once there are submissions, the team setting stays as it is.

Running a course

Participants

What lecturers may do in the course is set by their access. Students decide how they appear.

Export list gives a spreadsheet for Excel (CSV) with name, email, student number and the state of each task.

Access and rights

With editing rights someone can change everything in the course. Without them, grading, messages to everyone and meetings remain. Custom selection … turns single rights on and off.

You can only give rights you hold yourself, and only change the access of people who may not do more than you. At least one person always keeps editing rights. Only someone with all rights can delete the course.

Add with an address from outside the course gives you an invitation link to send yourself. It works once, for 14 days, only for that address. Open invitations are listed under Lecturers: Withdraw, Create new link.

Course settings

A new join code makes old links and QR codes stop working. Anyone already in the course stays. Show QR code also opens joining.

With Guests may read, the course page can be read without an account. Submissions, messages and participants stay hidden.

Hosting meetings

In a course meeting the lecturers are the hosts, in your personal meeting room you are. You make co-hosts in the meeting. You choose who gets in under Meeting settings.

Guests wait in the waiting room until a host lets them in. Whoever was removed can't come back until the meeting has ended. New link makes the old one stop working.

When you share your screen in Chrome or Edge, microphone, raised hands and chat stay in a small window on top of everything.

Files and modules

Files

Replace … swaps a file everywhere it is shown. Deleted files wait 30 days in the trash.

With Allow uploads … students can upload to a folder. They always see their own files. Whether they also see everyone else's, you choose there too.

Pads

A pad is a file several people write at the same time. New pad is in the Files tab, for students in folders they may upload to.

You choose who writes when you create it and in the pad's ⋯ menu. Everyone else reads along live.

My files

Here you see what you uploaded or created as a pad in which course. You organize and delete files in their course's Files tab.

Module

A module groups the courses of a degree module. Each course keeps its participants, page and tasks and can belong to several modules.

You invite other lecturers' courses. They are in once their lecturers agree. A message to all courses appears in every course of the module.

Your account

Profile

Your email address and student number are seen only by the lecturers of your courses. What other students see of you, you set under Privacy.

Notifications

For each kind of notice you choose email, a notification on your devices, or nothing. You turn notifications on per device.

Lecturers' messages and cancellations always arrive, by email if need be. Daily summary puts new tasks, feedback and join requests into one email each morning.

For a single course, the bell at the top of the course chooses Everything, Only messages from lecturers or Mute. A muted course sends only lecturers' messages, once a day.

Privacy

For your name, profile photo and “About me” you choose one by one what other students see. Lecturers always see everything.

Calendar subscriptions are secret addresses you revoke here. Usage statistics only count which features are used, and you can turn them off.

Sign-in and security

A code by email always works. It's quicker with your fingerprint, face or device PIN (passkey).

With two-step verification, plat.plus also asks for a code from an app (authenticator), but not with passkeys. Keep your backup codes somewhere safe.

Under Active devices you sign out unknown or old devices. After 60 days without use that happens by itself.

Interaction

Questions you turned off with Don't ask again can be turned back on here. Explain terms turns the dotted terms off on this device.

A tip opens by itself and explains a page or something new the first time you need it. After that, it never comes back on any device. Show tips turns them off.

Appearance

Light or dark. Automatic follows the setting of your phone or computer.

Language

The language of the interface. Course content stays in the language it was written in.

AI assistants

Connecting an assistant

Your own assistant, such as Claude, ChatGPT or Perplexity, can read plat.plus with your rights. In its settings, add the address https://plat.plus/mcp as a connector.

In Perplexity, choose “Streamable HTTP” as the transport. Apps on your computer, such as Claude Desktop or Claude Code, connect with the same address.

The assistant then sends you to sign in to plat.plus. There you see what it can read and confirm with Connect.

What an assistant reads

It reads your courses with their tasks and deadlines, course pages, sessions, files and messages, plus your submissions and feedback. In courses you teach, also all submissions and the members.

An assistant only reads. It can't hand in, write, change or delete anything.

It sees other people under a code such as “Student K7” instead of their name. What a text says can still give away who is meant.

Disconnecting an assistant

Under Account → Assistants you see each connected assistant and when it last read something. Disconnect ends its access at once.

What an assistant reads goes to its provider, which you choose yourself.

Explained in full in the privacy notice

Terms

Access: What a lecturer may do in one course: without or with editing rights, or a custom selection of rights.; More under “Access and rights”
Admission: How a course takes in new people: right away with the join code, or once lecturers approve them.; More under “Course settings”
Block: One building piece of the course page: a text, a file, a task, a heading and more. Removing a block doesn't delete what it shows, such as the task.; More under “Blocks”
Co-host: Someone a host gives host powers for the rest of one meeting.; More under “Hosting meetings”
Collapsible: A block whose content opens and closes. Lecturers decide whether it starts open.; More under “Columns and collapsibles”
Connected assistant: Your own AI assistant, such as Claude or ChatGPT, reading plat.plus with your rights. It can't change anything. You can disconnect it any time under Account → Assistants.; More under “Connecting an assistant”
Course: One class in plat.plus, such as a seminar or a lecture, with its participants, content and messages.; More under “My courses”
Course files: All files of a course in folders, searchable in one place. Each file lists where it is shown.; More under “Files”
Course kind: What a course is within a module: lecture, seminar, exercise class, tutorial, colloquium or other. The same course can count differently in two modules.; More under “Module”
Course meeting: A course's own meeting, always at the same link. Everyone in the course can use it at any time, even without a lecturer.; More under “Meetings”
Course page: The page a course consists of. Lecturers put it together freely from blocks.; More under “Course page”
Course pseudonym: A short code such as “Student K7” under which an assistant sees other people of a course instead of their names. It stays the same within the course. Whoever may see the person on plat.plus sees there who is behind it.; More under “What an assistant reads”
Coursework requirement: A rule over several tasks, such as “at least 5 of 12 sheets passed”. A task counts once its feedback is released.; More under “Grades and coursework requirement”
Custom block: A block with something interactive made from code, usually written by an AI of your choice. Above it, it says who built it. plat.plus never asks for a password or sign-in code inside it.; More under “Custom blocks”
Demo course: A public example course with invented people that you can view as a student or a lecturer without an account. It starts fresh every night.; More under “My courses”
Draft: Feedback that hasn't been released yet. Only lecturers see it until they release it.; More under “Grading submissions”
Editing rights: The access with every right: change everything in a course, participants and settings included, and delete the course. Every course keeps at least one person with editing rights.; More under “Access and rights”
Feedback: A lecturer's response to a submission, with text and a grade. Students see it once it is released.; More under “Grading submissions”
File: A document in a course, uploaded or written together as a pad. It belongs to exactly one course and shows wherever it is placed, without copies.; More under “Files”
Folder: A group of files in a course. A folder can also let students upload.; More under “Files”
Grade scale: What “grade” means in a course’s tasks: grade 1.0 to 5.0 or law points 0 to 18. It is set for the whole course, and single tasks can choose another.; More under “Grading submissions”
Grading: How a task is judged: not at all, passed or failed, points with a passing score, or a German grade from 1.0 to 5.0.; More under “Grading submissions”
Guest: Someone not in the course who reads along through a link when the course allows it, or joins a meeting as far as the host lets them.; More under “Course settings”
Host: Who leads a meeting: the lecturers in a course meeting, the owner in a personal meeting room. Hosts let people in, mute and remove them.; More under “Hosting meetings”
Join code: A short code for joining a course, also as a link and a QR code. A new code makes old links and QR codes stop working.; More under “Course settings”
Join link: The link that carries a course's current join code.; More under “Course settings”
Joining: Whether a course currently takes in new people. Showing the QR code opens joining.; More under “Course settings”
Lecturer: Someone who runs a course: creates it, fills it, writes to its participants and gives feedback. Whoever creates a course is its lecturer.; More under “Participants”
Live room: A course's place for questions in class, always at the same link and code. Anyone with the code answers on their phone, even without an account.; More under “Live room”
Meeting: A video conference right in the browser, with sound, video, screen sharing and chat. Nothing is kept, unless a lecturer records a course meeting.; More under “Meetings”
Meeting participant: Everyone currently in a meeting, from the course or as a guest. Whoever leaves is no longer listed.; More under “Meetings”
Message: A message from lecturers to the whole course or part of it. It appears in the course and arrives by email and as a notification.; More under “Messages”
Module: Groups the courses of a degree module, with a shared page and messages to all of them. Each course keeps its own participants, page and tasks.; More under “Module”
Module invitation: A module owner's request to add someone else's course to a module. The course is in once its lecturers accept in the course settings.; More under “Module”
Module owner: Someone who runs a module: edits it, takes in or invites courses and writes to all of them. A module can have several.; More under “Module”
My blocks: Your own collection of custom blocks, to insert them again in other courses. What goes in is a copy. Change one copy, and the others and your collection stay as they are.; More under “My blocks”
My files: Your overview of everything you uploaded in your courses and how much storage it takes.; More under “My files”
My progress: Your progress in a custom block, such as your answers. It stays when the code changes, and earlier ones can be brought back. Lecturers can reset it without reading it.; More under “Custom blocks”
Notifications: How you hear about things: by email, as a notification on your devices, both or not at all. You choose for each kind of notice.; More under “Notifications”
Notifications from a course: What reaches you from one course: as in your defaults, everything, only messages from lecturers, or nothing but a daily email with those messages. You choose it with the bell in the course.; More under “Notifications”
Pad: A file several people write at the same time. It is created instead of uploaded and sits in a folder like any file.; More under “Files”
Participant: Everyone in a course, as a lecturer or as a student.; More under “Participants”
Passkey: Signing in with your fingerprint, face or device PIN, without waiting for an email. Only a public key is stored.; More under “Sign-in and security”
Personal live room: Your own live room for questions outside a course, such as at a talk. You open it from the menu at the top right.; More under “Live room”
Personal meeting room: Your own meeting for things outside a course, such as office hours, always at the same link. It opens once you are there.; More under “Meetings”
Privacy settings: Your choice of what other students see of you: name, profile photo and “About me”, each on its own. Lecturers always see everything.; More under “Privacy”
Prompt: The text for an AI of your choice that “Copy prompt” copies in a custom block's code view: your wish, the rules and the current code. plat.plus itself never sends it anywhere.; More under “Custom blocks”
Question series: Questions a lecturer prepares and asks one at a time in class. Everyone answers on their phone, and the results show right away.; More under “Live room”
Quick question: A single question a lecturer asks in the live room without preparing it. Often it is on their slide, and they only choose the kind of answer.; More under “Live room”
Raise hand: Shows everyone in the meeting that you'd like to speak, until you or a host lower it.; More under “Meetings”
Reaction: A quick sign in a meeting, such as a thumbs-up or applause, that everyone sees briefly.; More under “Meetings”
Recording: A video from the course meeting with the screen, camera and voice of the lecturer who records it. Only members of the course can watch it, and only lecturers can download it.; More under “Meetings”
Removed from a meeting: Whoever a host sends out of a meeting can't come back until that meeting has ended.; More under “Hosting meetings”
Results: What a custom block sends to the lecturers, such as your answer. They see it without names, only from three people on, and only the day. With names only when the block says so above it.; More under “Custom blocks”
Right: One thing a lecturer may do in a course, such as grading hand-ins, releasing grades or managing participants.; More under “Access and rights”
Session: One part of a course, usually one meeting time: a title, date and place and, if wanted, its own page. Titles and dates are always visible. Lecturers release the content.; More under “Sessions”
Storage: How much you can upload in total. plat.plus shows it only once it is nearly full.; More under “My files”
Student: Someone who takes part in a course without running it.; More under “Participants”
Submission: What a student or a team hands in for a task: files or text. Until the deadline it can be withdrawn and replaced.; More under “Tasks”
Task: Something students hand in by a deadline, with instructions and a way it is graded.; More under “Tasks”
Team: Students who hand in one task together: one submission and one feedback for all. They form teams themselves, or lecturers do.; More under “Teams”
Tip: A short pointer that opens by itself and explains a page or something new in plat.plus, once, the first time you need it.; More under “Interaction”
Trash: Deleted tasks, files and Live Room questions wait here for 30 days before they are gone. Until then you can restore them.; More under “Files”
Two-step verification: Asks for a code from an app (authenticator) after the email code, but not with passkeys. Backup codes help when your phone is missing.; More under “Sign-in and security”
Version: A saved state of a page. Every “Done” creates one, and each can be restored.; More under “Preview and versions”
Waiting room: People wait here until a host lets them into the meeting or turns them away. Not the same as a course's waiting list.; More under “Hosting meetings”
Word cloud: A question everyone answers with a few words. The answers show as a cloud in which words grow larger the more often they come.; More under “Live room”

Still have a question? You'll find many answers here: Frequently asked questions