Partner Guide — for Driving Schools

Last updated: May 12, 2026

A non-technical guide for the partner dashboard. No coding needed.

The partner dashboard is free for driving schools — there's no subscription, no per-student fee. You only need it for one job: pause ELI5 for your students during their official theory exams, so the exam stays fair.

Your students still pay for their own ELI5 credits in the normal way (at sr.microq.org). The dashboard never touches their billing.

1. The one rule that makes everything work

The whole system links partners and students by email address.

• You add a student to the dashboard with their email.
• The student must register their ELI5 account (at sr.microq.org) with the exact same email.

If the emails don't match, ELI5 won't know they're your student — exam blocks you set will have no effect on them. Best practice: tell students up front to use their school email for both.

There's nothing for students to install or paste in the extension. The block is enforced on our servers, automatically.

2. What you can do

• Add a student to your school — recording their email under your partner code.
• Set an exam window for a student — saving “from 09:00 to 11:00 on Tuesday” against their record.
• Pause ELI5 for that student during the exam — the student's ELI5 stops working automatically inside that window. The block is enforced on our servers, not in the browser, so a student can't bypass it.
• See who's active vs. blocked — coloured status pills on the students table.
• Share your school's partner code — one-click copy in the top bar (informational — students don't need to enter it anywhere).

3. Getting access

Driving schools are onboarded by us, not self-serve. To get an account:

1. Email [email protected] with your school name and the email address of the person who'll manage the dashboard.
2. We add you to the approved list.
3. You'll receive a confirmation email with the dashboard URL (e.g. https://partners.microq.org).

Until your email is on the approved list, the dashboard will let you sign in but show errors on every action — that's the safety net that keeps strangers out.

4. Signing in

There are no passwords.

1. Open the dashboard URL.
2. Type your school email.
3. Click Send magic link.
4. Check your inbox, click the link inside.
5. You're in.

The link expires in 24 hours. After signing in you'll stay signed in for 30 days unless you click Sign out.

5. The dashboard layout

After signing in you land on /dashboard. From left to right, top to bottom:

• Top bar — the ELI5 Partners logo, your school name, your partner code (a small button on the right — click to copy it), and Sign out.
• Three big numbers:
  • Students — total registered under your code.
  • Active exam blocks — how many of your students are currently in a paused window.
  • Credits purchased — total credits your students have bought through ELI5. (Informational only — you do not pay for it.)
• Students card with a table: Name, Email, Registered, Credits, Exam date, Status, and a Set exam date button per row. The header has an + Add student button.

Click any student's name to open their detail page.

6. Adding a student

1. Click + Add student (top-right of the Students card).
2. Type their full name and the email they'll use for their ELI5 account.
3. Click Add student.

A green “Student added.” toast appears at the bottom of the screen and the new row shows up immediately.

Reminder — the email must match. See “The one rule” above.

7. Setting an exam block

There are two ways:

Quick — from the table

1. Find the row, click Set exam date.
2. Pick the start date/time and end date/time.
3. Click Save.

A “Exam block saved.” toast confirms it.

Detailed — from the student page

1. Click the student's name in the table.
2. You'll see their full details (registration date, last activity, credits, current block).
3. Use the Exam block form to set or replace the window.
4. Click Save exam block.

What the student sees

• Before the window: ELI5 works normally.
• During the window: ELI5 refuses to answer with a friendly message — “Exam mode active — your driving school has paused ELI5 until [end time].” The student can't work around this by editing their extension settings; there are no extension settings for the block.
• After the window: ELI5 starts working again automatically. There is no need to “unblock” anyone.

8. Reading the status pills

In the Status column of the students table:

• Active (green) — student has credits and no current block; ELI5 is fully usable.
• Scheduled (grey) — an exam block exists but it's in the past or the future. ELI5 still works for them right now.
• Blocked (red) — an exam window is active right now. ELI5 is paused.
• No credits (amber) — the student has run out of ELI5 credits and needs to top up at sr.microq.org.

9. Sharing your partner code

The partner code button is in the top bar, next to Sign out. Click it — it copies to your clipboard with a “✓ copied” confirmation.

You can include this code in your school's onboarding email to students for reference, but students don't need to enter it anywhere. It's just an identifier so you and we can refer to your school in conversation. The exam-block enforcement uses email, not this code.

10. Replacing or cancelling an exam block

To change a window: open the student's detail page (or use the Set exam date button), set new dates, click Save. The old window is replaced.

To cancel an upcoming window: set the start time to a moment already in the past and the end time to one second after. Save. The student's status returns to Active immediately. (We're considering a one-click “Clear block” button — let us know if you'd like that prioritised.)

11. Common questions

Do I pay for the dashboard?
No. Partner accounts are free. Students pay for their own ELI5 credits.

Can I see what a student is studying?
No. The dashboard never sees the questions or explanations — it only knows the student's email, registration date, last-activity timestamp, and exam blocks you set.

Can I add credits for my students from the dashboard?
Not yet. For now students top up themselves at sr.microq.org. If this is something you'd use, email us — we're considering it.

A student says ELI5 isn't blocked even though I set a window — why?
The most likely cause is an email mismatch. Check that the email in the dashboard's Students table matches the email the student used to register their ELI5 account at sr.microq.org. If it doesn't, edit the student's row (or remove and re-add with the correct email) and the block will take effect within ~30 seconds.

Can students bypass the block?
No. The block is enforced on our API servers. There is nothing in the extension for the student to disable.

Can I block a student outside an exam — for example, for cheating?
Yes — set a block with a far-future end date. The student will see the “Exam mode active” message until you change it.

What happens at midnight in different time zones?
The dashboard uses your computer's local time when you pick dates and shows times back to each viewer in their own local time (we store everything in UTC internally). As long as your computer's clock is right, what you set is what happens.

12. Support

• Email: [email protected]
• Bug or feature request: same address — describe what you tried and what you expected.