FAQ for learners

I can’t login

I don’t see my courses

  • The courses your enrolled in show up at two places:
    • at your dashboard on www.swissmooc.ch/dashboard/
    • on a specific institutional platform (e.g. ffhs-mooc.ch or courseware.epfl.ch) you can see only courses of that institution under "My courses"
  • If courses are missing from your dashboard:
    • Check if the course is still running, go to the course and check your status there. It may be that this course is not available through the dashboard because it is not advertised in our SMS catalogue. It will show up on "My courses" on the institution’s platform.
    • When a course is archived, learners that were enrolled keep access to the archived content. However, on rare occasions the instructors decide to "unenrol" learners after the course run is over.
  • If courses are missing from your "My courses" overview
    • Check if you are on the correct course platform: many institutions have a dedicated course platform
    • When a course is archived, learners that were enrolled keep access to the archived content. However, on rare occasions the instructors decide to "unenrol" learners after the course run is over.

I don’t see my progress in the course

  • Check if you are logged in under the correct account and on the correct course
  • On the progress page you only see progress on the graded activities
  • If you have worked on quizzes and saved your input but not submitted the input, it doesn’t show up on your progress. You have to submit your answers/work

Where is my certificate?

  • Once you have reached a certain level and the instructor has developed the course certificate, you will be able to download the certificate
  • If it is not available yet, it could be that you are in an instructor paced course and the certificate will be available at the end of the session
  • Or your accumulated total grade is not sufficient to pass the course.
  • Or you have to go through an ID verification process first, check with your instructor.
  • If there is no certificate option in this course, this feature does not display.

Do I get credits (ECTS) for these courses?

That depends on the specific course. The SMS Association doesn’t accredit any courses, but individual institutions such as ETHZ or ZHAW may do so. Check with your course instructors.

Can I enrol for a Bachelor or Master program?

Not through the SMS course platform. If you’d like to enrol in an accredited program at one of our member institutions please contact those institutions directly.

Where can I get help?

  • If your need help with specific aspects of the course, like deadlines, intepretation of questions, grades, etc. you need to contact the course team. Usually you can find information on how to contact them in the introduction or practical information part of the course.
  • If you need help with your eduID, you can contact Switch
  • If you encounter server issues, you can contact our helpdesk at courseware@epfl.ch