1 Where to find Alaia tasks NEW
Alaia tasks is a section of its own in the menu + Add tools → Browse → Alaia tasks. You can pin it to the top bar like the other tools (see Add tools and your own tools).
- The section has five tabs: My tasks · Create & edit · Task bank · Results · Styles. The buttons ⬇ Import task and ✨ New task at the top work on every tab.
- The tasks are stored in Alaia on the school server. A task added to a course appears to students in the topic’s ✨ Alaia tasks card.
- The tasks are practice: a student can try again as many times as they like. Results are always saved and visible to you.
2 My tasks
The My tasks tab holds all the tasks you have made, imported or copied from the bank. Each card has a thumbnail of the task, its mode (🏅 Scored or 🔁 Practice), an 💡 Alaia badge if Alaia help is on, and the courses and topics where the task is used (Not on a course if none). The bottom row shows how many students have done it, the number of scored items and points, and the version.
- Search and the filters All courses (or one course / Not on a course) and Scored and practice.
- Card buttons: ✎ Edit (opens the Create & edit tab), 📊 Results, ＋ To course (section 7), 🏛️ Share (to the task bank, section 8) and 🗑 (delete). Clicking the thumbnail opens the task for editing.
- A task that is used in courses cannot be deleted: remove it from the course topics first. The student results of a deleted task are kept in Alaia.
3 A new task with Alaia
Press ✨ New task and tell Alaia in the chat what kind of task you want: subject and topic, what the student does (drags, adjusts, draws, solves a puzzle…), how many items are scored and what it should look like. Press Send (or Ctrl + Enter).
Alaia writes the whole task itself – the texts, the look, the behaviour and the answer key. It usually takes 25–60 seconds; below the chat you can see what Alaia is doing. The finished task opens in the preview and is saved to your tasks.
- Follow-up requests – ask for changes in the same chat, e.g. “add a third level”. Quick buttons: Make it harder, Make it easier, Add one item, Add plausible distractors, Larger font and More varied structures. Every change Alaia makes is a new version (📄 version 2 …). Alaia always gets the current version of the task, so the changes you have made by hand are kept.
- Style – the selection below the chat (🎨) tells Alaia the colours, fonts and mood (section 10).
- Preview – this is how the student sees the task. You can do the task yourself: the preview result appears in the bar (Preview result: 3/3), but preview attempts are not shown in the results. 🖥 / ▭ switches between desktop and tablet width.
4 Editing a task without code
Above the preview there are four modes: 👁 Preview, ✎ Edit texts, 🎯 Answers & points and ‹/› Code.
✎ Edit texts
You edit the texts directly inside the task: the editable texts are marked with a dashed line. Click a text and type. The number of changes is shown in the bar; finally press Save changes. If you switch modes without saving, the app asks whether to discard the changes.
🎯 Answers & points
The answer key as a table: Item (name in results), Type, Correct answer, Tolerance (for number answers) and Points, with the total at the bottom. The item name is shown on the Results tab. The key stays on the server – students never see it. Save a change with Save; scoring updates immediately.
- In text answers | separates accepted alternatives; in multiple choice and order answers use a comma.
- If you change a value that also appears in the task text (e.g. a given start value), ask Alaia to update both.
‹/› Code
The source code of the task (HTML and answer key). Edit code opens it for editing, and Save runs the same quality check as for tasks made by Alaia. Most changes are easier in the chat or in text editing.
5 Task settings
The task settings are on the right side of the editor:
- Name – the name of the task in your tasks, in the course and in the results.
- Default mode – 🏅 Scored (points are shown to the student) or 🔁 Practice (no points for the student, right/wrong feedback). In both, results are saved and visible to you.
- 💡 Alaia help for students – the student can ask Alaia for a hint inside the task. Alaia does not give the answer, and you see all hints in the results.
- Correct answers in feedback – Never, After every attempt or When correct or after 3 attempts.
- Quality check – the status of the key (number of items and points) and any notes.
- Used in courses – the courses and topics where the task is used, its mode, 📌 Required and deadline. ＋ Add to course (section 7).
- 💾 Save settings saves the name, mode, Alaia help, answer display and style. 🏛️ Share to task bank (section 8).
6 Importing a task from another AI
⬇ Import task imports a task you have made with another AI. Symma gives you a ready prompt that tells the other AI what the task must be like to work in Symma.
- Describe the task – write the subject, course, topic, what the student does, how many items are scored and the look. The description is inserted into the prompt. Press 📋 Copy prompt and paste it into the other AI.
- Paste the AI answer – paste the whole HTML or the whole answer; the code block is picked automatically.
- Check – Symma checks the task right away: answer key, result submission (Symma.submit), external addresses and blocked features. Press Import and open. The import runs the same quality check as for tasks made by Alaia, and the task opens on the Create & edit tab.
The prompt is in the same language as the app’s user interface. You can edit an imported task like any other: in text mode, in the answer table or by asking Alaia to fix it. The Titration lab in the task bank is an example of a task made this way.
7 Adding a task to a course topic
A task is added to a course topic. You can do it from two places: the Alaia tasks section or the Topics tab of the course editor.
From the section: ＋ To course / Add to course
Choose the course and the topic and the settings on this course: Mode on this course, 📌 Required, 💡 Alaia help for students, Correct answers in feedback, Deadline (optional) and 🔒 Lock after deadline. Press Add to topic.
From the course editor: the topic’s ✨ Alaia tasks tile
On the Topics tab of the course editor, each topic has an ✨ Alaia tasks tile among its task cards (see The topic’s task cards). The tile summary shows the number of tasks and required tasks (e.g. 1 task · 1 📌). Clicking the tile opens the panel:
- Mode – Scored or Practice on this course.
- 📌 Required – a required task appears in the student’s study calendar and counts towards course progress (Alaia tasks x/y). An optional task appears in neither, but its results are still saved.
- 💡 Alaia help and Answers – as in the task settings, but only on this course.
- Deadline (optional) and 🔒 Lock after deadline – as for the other task types. A locked task no longer accepts new attempts. You can also set and move the deadline in the course’s deadline calendar.
- ✎ Edit opens the task editor on top of the course editor, 📊 Results the results on this course, ↑ moves the row up and 🗑 Remove from topic removes the task from the topic (the task and its results are kept).
＋ Add from my tasks or the bank opens a selection. Pick one or more tasks and press Add selected. A task picked from the bank is first copied to your tasks.
✨ Create a new one with Alaia for this topic opens the same editor on top of the course editor. When the task is ready, press ✓ Use in this topic and it is added to the topic as required. ← Back to the course editor closes the editor.
8 The task bank and sharing
The Task bank tab holds tasks shared by teachers. Your copy is fully editable, and student results never go to the bank.
- The card shows the subject and course, the task type, the author (and school, if the author has chosen to show it), the number of uses (📚) and the number of scored items.
- Search (topic, word, course) and the All subjects filter.
- 👁 Preview opens the task to try out. ⧉ Copy to mine (in the preview Copy to mine and edit) makes a copy and opens it in the editor.
🏛️ Share to task bank
Share your own task with other teachers with the card’s Share button or the editor’s Share to task bank button.
- Name in bank, Subject and course (e.g. MA + MAA6), Description for other teachers and Task type (Simulation, Game, Ordering, Classification, Drawing, Logic puzzle, Story, Other).
- Visibility – All Symma schools or Own school only.
- Author in bank – My name (prefilled, editable) or Nickname. Show school adds the school name after the author.
- The bank gets a copy of the task and its answer key. Student results and names never move.
9 Results
On the Results tab you see how the students have done. Choose the task and the course at the top. Results are always saved, also in practice mode and for optional tasks.
- Key figures – done, average (best attempt; in practice mode Correct on average as a percentage), full marks, attempts / student and Alaia hints.
- Student table – the best result of each item as a dot (green right, yellow partly, red wrong), points, attempts, hints (💡) and the latest attempt.
- The Summary names the hardest item. ✨ Make extra practice on the hardest item opens the task in the editor with a ready request to Alaia.
- By item – the success rate of each item (the item name comes from the answer table).
- Click a student to see each of their attempts (points, version, answers ✓/✗) and the hints they asked Alaia for.
- ⬇ CSV exports the table to a file, ✎ Open task opens the task in the editor.
10 Styles
A style tells Alaia the task’s colours, fonts, component shapes and mood. Pick the style below the chat when you create a task, or press Use in a new task on the style card.
- Symma (default) follows the course page theme (Light, Soft, Petrol, Night) the student has chosen.
- The other styles give the task a look of its own, e.g. Newspaper 1960 for history and social studies, Space for maths and physics.
11 What the student sees
On the topic page the student sees an ✨ Alaia tasks card with the topic’s tasks, their status, deadline and best result. A task opens in a view of its own, which also shows the student’s own attempts and Alaia’s hints. Required tasks appear in the study calendar and in progress (Alaia tasks x/y).
You can check the view with Preview as student (see Managing courses). In the preview you can do the task, but the attempts are not shown in the results.
