# Welcome to Paatya

> What Paatya is, and the few words you need to know.

Source: https://paatya.net/docs/get-started/welcome

Paatya gives your institute its own online academy. You build courses, add your students, put them on the courses they have joined, and watch their progress. This guide is written for **academy admins**: the people who run the academy.

> **Tip:** New to Paatya? Go straight to the [Quick start](https://paatya.net/docs/get-started/quick-start). It takes you from sign-up to your first enrolled student in about half an hour.

## What you can do as an admin

- **Set up your academy**: your name, logo and colours, and a public website with your courses, your trainers and your policies.
- **Build courses**: sections and topics, each with a video, a quiz, and notes to download.
- **Add students**: each student gets an email and chooses their own password.
- **Enroll students**: put each student on the courses they have joined.
- **Follow progress**: see who is learning, who has finished, and where students get stuck.
- **Manage usage and billing**: add balance and see what your academy uses.

## How Paatya works

Every academy has its own web address, such as `yourname.paatya.net`. Your students sign in there, and they only ever see your academy.

1. You create your academy at [paatya.net/signup](https://paatya.net/signup).
2. You build a course and publish it.
3. You add a student and enroll them on the course.
4. The student gets an email, sets a password and starts learning.
5. You follow their progress from your dashboard.

**You decide who is in your academy and what they can study.** To begin with, you collect your course fees however you do today and enroll the students who have paid. If you prefer, you can [sell courses online](https://paatya.net/docs/course-payments/set-up-payouts): students pay through Razorpay, are enrolled straight away, and your share goes to your bank account.

If you want, you can also [let students sign up](https://paatya.net/docs/students/self-registration) themselves and try your [free courses](https://paatya.net/docs/courses/free-courses) before they pay. Both are off until you set them up.

## The words you'll see

| Word | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **Academy** | Your institute on Paatya, with its own web address, courses and students. |
| **Admin** | Someone who runs the academy. You can invite more than one. |
| **Course** | A programme you teach, such as "Python Programming for Beginners". |
| **Section** | A chapter of a course, such as "Week 1". |
| **Topic** | One lesson inside a section. A topic can have a video, a quiz, documents and links. |
| **Student** | A learner in your academy. |
| **Enrollment** | A student's place on a course. A student can only open the courses they are enrolled on. |
| **Balance** | Prepaid credit. Your academy's usage is taken from it. |

## Where to go next

- [Quick start](https://paatya.net/docs/get-started/quick-start): the whole journey in ten steps.
- [Create your academy](https://paatya.net/docs/get-started/create-your-academy): sign up and confirm your email.