TinyX for coaches and educators: share your resources, not your inbox

Your new cohort starts on Monday. You have 12 worksheets, three recorded sessions, a reading list and a welcome pack, and 30 students who all need the same things.

So you start attaching. Two students say the email bounced because the attachments were too big. One can't find the week two worksheet. Another forwards the whole pack to a friend who never paid. By Wednesday you are managing files instead of teaching.

There is a simpler way to share resources with students: one link per cohort, with a password, that stops working when the course ends.

Share resources with students on one link

The problem with email attachments isn't any single message. It is that every student ends up with a slightly different set of files, and you can't take any of them back.

A single link for the cohort fixes most of that. Everyone opens the same place, and nobody needs to dig through old emails for week two.

One link per cohort is the habit that does most of the work. It keeps groups apart, gives you a clear end date, and stops last term's students opening this term's material.

Putting a whole course in one folder link

With TinyX you put the course files in a folder and share it as one link. Add a password and send it in your welcome email, or better, by a separate message.

A folder link takes a password, an expiry date and a cap on how many times the page can be opened. Only page opens count toward that cap. Students can download the folder as one zip, as long as each file is 100 MB or less and none are end-to-end encrypted.

If you would rather send a single page of links, a short link can point to a reading list or a course page, and you can change where it points at any time, on every plan. How to password-protect a link or file covers the basics.

Closing access when the course ends

Set the expiry date for the day after your course finishes. After that, the link shows a "Link Unavailable" page, and files shared on file links stay in your library until you delete them.

That is useful if your materials are what you sell. A student who wants the worksheets again can buy the next course or ask you for a fresh link. It also means you aren't hosting old material for people you no longer teach.

If you change the password mid-course, for example because someone posted it in a public group, it takes effect straight away. Send the new one to the students who should still have access.

Getting assignments back without the inbox

The other half of teaching is collecting work: essays, recordings, portfolios, homework photos.

TinyX upload links let students send files straight to you through a link, with no account. You can set an expiry date for the submission deadline and a cap on the number of uploads. Upload links come with Pro and Max. If you use a webhook, note that it receives every event on the link, page opens as well as uploads, so filter for uploads in the tool that receives it.

Asking students the right questions before week one

Most courses start with a short questionnaire: goals, experience level, time zone, access needs. TinyX questionnaires let you write the form in markdown and share it as a link. Students answer without signing up, and you export responses to CSV.

Free includes 10 questionnaires, and Pro and Max have no limit. Answers aren't end-to-end encrypted and stay, with the student's IP address and location, until you delete them, so keep the questions to what you need. We compared this approach with form builders in a Typeform alternative for people who mostly need an intake form.

Which plan suits a course

The Free plan includes 100 links a month, 500 MB per file and 10 GB of storage, with passwords, expiry and questionnaires. Every file and folder link counts toward the 100. Questionnaires no longer use up that allowance. Pro, at $9 a month, raises that to 1,000 links, 1 GB per file and 100 GB. Current numbers are on the pricing page.

Recorded sessions are the usual size problem. A long video can easily pass 500 MB, so if you host recordings yourself, check file sizes before you pick a plan, or link to them on a video platform instead.

Where to start

Put your next cohort's files in one folder link with a password and an expiry date on the Free plan. Send the link in the welcome email and the password by text, and see how many "where's the worksheet?" emails you get in week two.