How things work guides
A how things work guide answers the question a link cannot: not "does the printer exist", which nobody doubts, but "what do I actually do". Tap the card here, top up there, this is what it costs, this is who to ask when it eats your money.
They live under Student resources → How things work in the console.
What a guide is made of
Every guide is a name, a sentence or two saying what it is, a numbered sequence, and four facts students ask for by name.
- Write the sequence, not a paragraph
Steps are numbered on the student's screen in exactly the order you set here. A paragraph loses the order, and the order is the thing they were missing. Twelve steps is the cap. If it takes more, it usually wants to be two guides.
- Fill in the four facts
Where, When, What it costs, and Who can use it. Leave a field blank and it renders as nothing at all rather than "not specified", which reads as an answer and is not one.
- Add the keywords
The words a student would type. This is what lets Ask Anything reach the guide, so a guide with no keywords is only findable by browsing.
- Publish, or schedule it
Same lifecycle as everything else you author: draft, scheduled, live. Drafts are invisible to students, including to a student who searches for them.
The three ways a student reaches one
- They browse. Guides sit at the top of the student resources page, grouped by category, above the links.
- They ask. When a student asks Ask Anything something no written answer covers, First Six falls back to the guides before saying it has nothing. So "where do I print" lands on your printing guide without anyone writing that answer twice.
- They search. Guides appear in student search, labelled How it works, and the result opens the guide itself rather than dropping them on the page.
Browsing works without them. Asking and searching do not. Put in the words a student would actually type, including the wrong ones: "photocopy" and "scan" belong on the printing guide even if neither word is in your own copy.
Campuses
Leave a guide on every campus unless it genuinely exists at one. Students at other campuses still see a single-campus guide, labelled with the campus it is at, because knowing the laser cutter is at the other campus is itself the answer. Guides for the student's own campus, and guides that apply everywhere, sort first.
What to write first
The ones every first-year asks about, roughly in this order:
- Printing and copying. The single most-asked facility question there is.
- Bookable study rooms. How to book, how long for, what happens if you are late.
- Anything with an induction. Maker spaces, labs, studios, gyms. The induction is the step people miss, so it belongs in the sequence and in "who can use it".
- Quiet and prayer spaces, and accessibility. Rarely signposted well, and the students who need them are the least likely to ask a stranger.
Common questions
How is this different from a resource link?
A link points at a page that assumes you already know. A guide carries the sequence. If the university's own page genuinely explains it step by step, link to it from the guide rather than retyping it.
Do guides get targeted by audience or by week?
No, deliberately. A printer does not become relevant in week 3 and the rules do not change by degree. Campus is the only thing that varies, and that is carried.
A student asked something and got a guide instead of an answer. Why?
Because no published Ask Anything answer matched their words, and a guide did. Written answers always win; the guide is the fallback that runs before First Six says it has nothing.
Can I delete a guide?
Yes, from its editor. Students stop finding it on resources, by asking, and by searching. Set it to draft instead if you only want it out of sight while you rewrite.
Related
The fastest answer is usually one question away.