Using the site

Payment and buying files

Downloading and using files

Contributing and Uploading

Feel free to contact us by phone and email for further support.

Using the site

How do I find the right resource?
Firstly, you need to find a relevant topic by browsing or searching within our entire list. You then get a list of what files are available. You then have three options:

  1. Preview the file by clicking the green Preview button.  This will bring up a series of watermarked images which you can view.  You will not be able to see any animations in these previews, and only the first 9 pages of a file are viewable.
  2. If the resource is on trial, or has smaller files available for free, it will have a Free button to click on (blue or green buttons always mean the download is free), although you will need to sign up before you can access them.
  3. Buy full access to the file by clicking ‘Buy’ and filling in your credit card details.  If you are already a subscriber, click ‘Download’ and you will use up part of your allowance for that quarterly period.

Why do I need to register my information?
To check who is downloading these files, and to allow the contributors to be reimbursed for paid-for files, we ask you to give submit limited personal information (about your school and what you teach). We will not pass this on to anyone without your express permission – see our privacy policy for more.
In exchange you get three benefits.

  1. We can store all downloaded files on the site – under My Downloads – so you can access the files from anywhere with an internet connection.
  2. Your new home page gives you personalised recommendations for the subject or age groups that you teach

Is there free stuff on the site I can download now?
We’d love to make everything for free but all the hard-working contributors that put effort into their resources expect some reward, and that reward comes from your subscriptions. There are a few free downloads available – whenever you see a blue or green button – but the only free files are ones that are not proven yet, or are not long enough to be chargeable.

The best material is all paid-for.

What is the difference between resources and files?

On Teachable.net you search by ‘resource’, which all have a description and tags about what kind of situations the resource is designed for. Each resource will be aimed at a certain ability level of a certain topic. You can then preview the attached ‘files’ to that resource. A single resource might have more than one file – eg a Powerpoint presentation, an accompanying worksheet, and maybe some extended teacher notes. Users download each file separately, so you can opt to have all or just one associated file.

I can’t click on a link or read some of the pages
We regularly test for the links for availability, but if you come across a glitch please use our email us

If you can’t click on Sign In or the download icons, then it could be a problem with Javascript being disabled in your browser.

Advanced Users Only: In Internet Explorer, go to Tools…Internet Options. On the Security tab, click ‘the button (3/4 of the way down) saying ‘Custom Level…’. Scroll down this list until you get to Scripting … Active Scripting, and click the option marked ‘Enable’. Then click OK. There should be no security risks through selecting this – over 97% of Internet browsers have this enabled.

Buying Files and Payment

How much do files cost?
Simply: from 75p up to £9.50 (c. US$1.20 to $15).
We use a standard pricing system based on download credits: larger, more complex files cost a number of credits. Generally, one credit = one file. If you buy a single file, one download credit costs £1.95. As part of a subscription, the same file could cost just 75p. There are also ways to earn credits, which help our other members:

  • Contribute your own files and opt to be paid in credits
  • Enter our regular Competitions

How do I buy access?
You have two basic options

  1. Buy a one-off file.  This is convenient, but more expensive – partly because we have to pay a 25p card handling fee on each file.
  2. Subscribe to Teachable and get a regular allowance of downloads.  Every quarter you will be charged for a certain number of files and

Both options are handled via PayPal; you don’t need a PayPal account. Teachable.net does not store any confidential payment information itself – this is all dealt with by PayPal’s secure servers.

If you work at a UK school we can invoice the school directly, although it will still be quicker and easier to use PayPal.

Can you invoice my school?
We do special school packages for access to Teachable. If you can’t see those on our payment options page, then you need to go to the My Details page and tell us what school you work at. We can only accept invoices or purchase orders from your school if you purchase a school subscription. However, you could charge your credit card purchase back to the school for smaller amounts – or use a school debit card.

The best way to get your school to buy access is to ask your Subject Co-ordinator or Head of Department to contact Teachable and request a trial

What is the difference between a school and a personal account?
When you sign up to Teachable.net as an individual any files you buy can be used by you and your class, and any Contributor Rewards for your uploads are payable to you.

You can choose to add more colleagues to your account, and this will have the following effects:

1. All files you buy can be shared for free by everyone linked to that account.

2. You can add up to 10 users from within the same school

3. Contributor Rewards can no longer be paid to you individually, but can be paid to the primary account holder (the 1st person to sign up) at their school address.

My download had a fault – can I get my money back?
We offer a full money-back guarantee on files downloaded from Teachable. If you spot a problem or the you can’t get the file to work, we are happy to refund you so you can buy another. All we ask is that you try to be specific about what was wrong.

I lost / deleted a file from Teachable – can I download it again for free?
Most web browsers are set to save downloads on the Desktop or Documents folder, but if you clicked ‘Open’ rather than ‘Save’ in Internet Explorer it will save the file to a temporary folder.

If you can’t find it, don’t worry: Teachable stores your downloads on the website for up to 12 months. You can find it again by (a) going to ‘My Account’ and then ‘My Downloads’ or (b) by searching for the resource and clicking the green ‘Download’ button next to the relevant file.

I can’t open PDF documents
You will need Adobe Acrobat viewer to view these PDF files. You can download a free copy at http://get.adobe.com/reader/

I can’t open Microsoft Word, Powerpoint or Excel files
You need Microsoft Office to open and edit these files. If you don’t have Microsoft Office you can download Open Office for free to edit these same files

If you can open Microsoft Office documents but the file looks corrupted, it’s possible you are using an earlier version of Office to the one in which the files were created.  See below.

My school blocks YouTube. How can I use the videos?
We understand quite a lot of schools ban YouTube for teachers and pupils alike. The best way around this is to download the video as a flash video at home, and save it onto a memory stick to use in school. Either:

(a) Download the latest version of RealPlayer and follow the helpful instructions here.

(b) Go to one of a number of online video download tools and paste in the YouTube URL. Try
http://www.techcrunch.com/get-youtube-movie/
http://keepvid.com/

The animations / buttons on my Powerpoint don’t work

The files on Teachable.net are designed for MS Office 2003.  These should display fine on Office 2007 (although the colour scheme may change), but not all the animations will work on Office 2000 or earlier.  You will need to upgrade to the latest version of MS Office or Open Office to get these features working.

Some Powerpoint slides also use ActiveX controls to display Flash and video files within the pages:  if you want these to work, you need to click ‘Allow’ when the file first opens.

What are the copyright restrictions on Teachable’s files?

All paid-for resources shared on this site will be subject to a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike license. That means once subscribers have paid for the resource they can share it among other teachers and pupils, as well as modifying it for their own class. (Well, they were going to do that anyway!) We interpret this license to mean that the resource can also be uploaded to the schools’ own Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), but not posted publicly to any website that would seek to earn revenue directly, or indirectly through links or advertising – ie non-commercial. The key condition is that every time the resource is copied (on paper or on a disc) it must be attributed to Teachable.net (and through the Teachable.net link to the contributor).

So you CAN:

  • Present this file to your class
  • Hold the file on any of your school or home computers
  • Use elements of the resource, providing you attribute it to Teachable.net
  • Print off copies for use in your school
  • Put the file on your school VLE

But you CAN’T:

  • Submit or post the file to any public website
  • Pass off any element of the resource as your own work
  • Share the resource for any purpose other than educational use

We have deliberately made the copyright licence as liberal as we can, so we would ask you to respect the boundaries of this use.

What happens to my file after I upload?

Everything contributed to Teachable goes through a quality control process, which generally involves one of our editors checking it for accuracy and content.

After this, it is up to you to control whether it gets published on our system. See this update for more.

If you have any other problems or questions that are not answered here, please contact us.