Help - Learning

School of Everything helps you:

* search for people who teach in your area
* contact these people securely via the private messaging system and learn new stuff
* bookmark teachers so you can find them again quickly
* get inspiration for subjects you might want to learn
* share the subjects you want to learn and get notifications when new users sign up who teach this
* find new people near you who are teaching and learning the same things

For more information on what the site can do, take the tour.

From conducting or chemistry to meditation or the musical saw, you can sign up to teach or learn anything on School of Everything (as long as it's legal). Explore the subjects on offer and be inspired.

By creating an account on the site, you're automatically given an empty learning profile. Edit it to add a photo, more information and other things about yourself as a learner. You can also add subjects you want to learn using the "subjects I'm learning" box at the bottom of your profile.

Your learning profile is a place for you to record the things you want to learn and share them with your network. Add the subjects you want to learn by typing them into the 'subjects I'm learning' box on your profile, and we'll match you up with teachers and learners for that subject. Try to use short, obvious subject names like 'yoga', 'french literature', 'smiling' so you can be matched up to more people. You can also add things to this list from around the site using the 'learn this' buttons.

Once you've listed the subjects you want to learn, you will receive a notification when someone new registers on School of Everything to teach this subject, or an existing user updates their teaching profile. When you open your School of Everything account you can set these to update daily, weekly, monthly or never.

Read more about notifications in the Communicating section.

First, make sure you're logged in:

1) Click the Log in link.
2) Enter your username and password.
3) If you have forgotten your password click the request new password link on the login page. Enter your email or username and you will be sent a new password. Follow the instructions to validate your password, then return to step 2.

Once you have logged in, look at the links at the top of the page. You will see one that says Profile. Click on this, it will take you to your learning profile. Now you just need to edit it.

1) On the right of the page you will see a button that says 'Edit your profile'. Click on this.
2) This will take you to a form where you can edit your profile.
3) When you have finished editing, click 'Submit'. This will take you back to your profile.
4) If you wish to re-edit, you can click again on the 'Edit your profile' button and re-edit as above.

If you want to change your location or the name that displays on your profile, go to your profile, then click 'Edit' and change your details as you wish.

When you create your profile you will see a box titled 'Upload a photo'.
1) Click on the button titled 'Browse'. A navigator window will appear showing the files on your computer's hard drive.
2) Navigate through this to find the image file you wish to upload, and double-click it. The navigator window will disappear.
3) Return to the 'Edit' page, and click on the button titled 'Upload'. The image file will appear on your learner profile.

If you're still logged in, you can check the success of your image upload by going to your profile, which should then display the image.

If it still isn't showing, check that it is in the right format (JPG, PNG or GIF), small enough (max. 640x640 pixels) and no more than 1MB in size. To find the format and dimensions of your image, right-click on the image (or CTRL+click if you're using a Mac) and then select 'Properties' or 'Get Info' from the drop-down that appears to see this information about the file.

It's also worth checking that there are no unusual characters such as *, &, %, $ or @ in the filename, as this can interact negatively with browser software and prevent your image being displayed. To rename a file, right-click on it on your computer (or CTRL+Click on a Mac) and select Rename, then change the file name.

If the file is too large, you can use a programme such as Photoshop, MS Paint or Mac Preview to edit the size, quality and dimensions of the picture, or to change the format to one that the website will accept.

If you want to upload a picture at a later date, just edit your profile and scroll down until you see the 'upload a photo' box. Then follow the instructions above.

Yes, if you like. But if you just upload one photo to your learning profile it will automatically be used for your teaching profile too unless you upload another photo.

You have two names on School of Everything: your account username (such as 'jennym', and your actual first name and last name (eg. 'Jenny Morecombe').

You can't change your account username, but the name that appears at the top of your teaching and learning profiles is editable from your learning profile:

1) Sign in and go to your learning profile.
2) Click edit and at the top of the page you will see a box for first name and last name. The names you enter here will appear as your username.
3) Enter the appropriate names, click the submit button at the bottom of the page and your learning profile name will be updated.

There's a bit of bug here though - sorry. In order to make the new name show up on your teaching profile, you'll need to visit your teaching profile, then click on 'edit' and 'submit'. Your name will automatically be updated on your teaching profile to match your learning profile.

Your username also appears on your learning profile until the first time you edit it - then it will switch to first name/last name. (I'm afraid there's no good reason for this, it's just a quirk which we hope to fix one of these days.)

Search for the subject you want to learn by typing it into into the search box on the School of Everything site. For example if you search for 'yoga London', 'painting Sheffield' or similar you will be shown people teaching those subjects in those areas. You can then browse within these results.

At the moment, all the arrangements need to be made offline between you and the teacher. You can't book classes yet on School of Everything, that's something we're still working on. If you want to be taught by someone or attend their classes, simply message them from their teaching profile.

School of Everything is growing fast, but it's still early days. Don't give up! If you can't find a teacher in your area, add that subject to your learner profile and you'll receive notifications every time someone new creates a teaching profile for that subject. They'll also then be able to see that you want to learn this subject and may contact you.

Yes - for example, many courses offer tuition towards A levels or other qualifications. But we don't offer special School of Everything qualifications, or insist that people have or take any qualifications. It's up to you.

Yes - many people with teaching profiles on School of Everything have experience with and offer tailored services to people with learning difficulties. It's still best to ask them directly though and find out exactly what kinds of services they can provide to meet your needs.

People organise classes to their own standards and many use facilities adapted to those with physical disabilities. Contact the teacher or course organiser for more information.

Yes

Yes - many of those who teach offer tuition in your home, or over the internet.

From workshops, one-too-one sessions, regular classes, telephone sessions and even tuition by email, this depends entirely on the individual. get as much information as you want and then choose a class that meets your needs.

The prices for everything here are set by the individuals who are teaching and vary by subject and location. School of Everything doesn't get involved in price negotiations between users. Some teachers offer skills swapping or free services, whilst others are just trying to run a business - so read their profile carefully, and ask politely if you want to negotiate.

We don't pass judgement on whether people are qualified to teach their subjects. Some subjects have no formal exams or qualifications, so School of Everything doesn't restrict teaching profiles to those with qualifications and some may simply be experts from the 'university of life'.

We don't vet the people who sign up to teach with us, but we do encourage people to say lots about their experience and qualifications, so you can make an informed decision. We just want to provide you with as much information as possible to help you choose a teacher who can meet your needs. Use the same discretion as you would when answering an ad in a newspaper or a shop window.

We're currently testing a new 'Recommend This Teacher' function, so watch this space. We want to keep the feedback about teachers positive though: education is very subjective and one student's meat is another's poison.

We're also testing a function to report people who are lying or being abusive though, so for more information on how we deal with disputes, check out our community guidelines.