Frequently Asked Questions
How to use our program platforms, FAQs, Merit America contacts, and tutorials to help you get started!
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Assignments are due every Monday @ 6 pm your time →
Merit America Program weeks: our program weeks start on Mondays, aligning to dates on the calendar (ie. Week 1, 9/19 - 9/25)
Coursera Courses: these are the 5 distinct courses you will take to earn the full Google IT Support Certificate by the end of Week 11
Coursera Course weeks (1-6 in each course): each of the 5 courses contains 6 weeks of material (think of these as chapters). You will complete multiple Coursera weeks per Merit America program week. e,g, Complete Weeks 1-3 of Course 1: Technical Fundamentals
Note: Merit America staff operate on a 4-day work week (Monday-Thursday), which means we are offline from Slack and emails Friday-Sunday with the exception of our Tech Trainers (see links on the right).
In the event of an emergency, please email me and indicate that in the subject line so I can prioritize supporting you as necessary.
Technical Troubleshooting
Technical Troubleshooting
As an aspiring IT professional, you can put your troubleshooting skills to the test by using the resources available here before asking for help! We recommend following these steps (and allowing time to receive an answer in between each step) if you need technical support related to Coursera, Qwiklabs, or technical material:
Review Slack, and Stonly, to see if the question has been asked/answered + research on your own (Google is your friend!)
Go to #it22-09-tech-collab Slack channel to ask peers for help or sign up for 1:1 help from a Tech Trainer (please share screenshots when possible to show error messages)
Contact the respective platform's help desk (Coursera, Qwiklabs, etc.)
Reach out to Merit America's Tech Support (all our Tech Trainers are alumni!) for help in one of the ways on the right...
Drop in anytime on Thursdays from 7-8 am PST or 3-4 pm PST and stay for as little or long as you want using the link above. Ask questions and receive support related to Coursera, Qwiklabs & technical material. Learn from the Tech Trainers and/or offer to help your peers (a great way to flex those troubleshooting skills)!
QwikLabs & Coursera technical material (appointments available on Fridays)
Learner Portal, Coursera, or Slack questions
If you have any remaining questions please reach out and remember to include screenshots. Thank you for your patience as you wait for a response.
It is your responsibility to complete the Learner Portal requirements each week. Your technical, professional, and administrative assignments will always be due on Monday @ 6 pm (your time zone) of the following week. Always follow the Learner Portal weeks/timeline rather than Coursera's timeline.
Your Learner Portal track is IT22-09. You'll see checkboxes next to assignments that require submission, here's what they mean:
✔️ completed ( ☐ means it was manually entered by staff)
❌ absent
☐ incomplete or not yet checked off by staff
[Staff Check] assignments will be manually checked off by Merit America staff following Monday deadlines, so if you already submitted the assignment, please be patient for that to update.
You will complete your technical coursework in Coursera (think of their "weeks" as "chapters") and then submitting the screenshots or URLs in the Learner Portal during the appropriate "week" of the program. You are NOT following the Coursera timeline.
At some points you may need to contact Coursera if:
you're having trouble verifying your ID
your name is spelled wrong on your Coursera certificate (you may also need to request a name change)
clearing your cache & cookies doesn't help with incorrect/missing Accomplishments or course progress
Coursera is not owned by Merit America. The fastest way to reach Coursera's helpdesk is to click the live chat icon in the bottom right when you're logged in.
Download the Slack app and turn on notifications so you don't miss any important announcements during the program.
You may find the following functions in Slack useful for staying organized and communicating with others:
Slack channels you'll be added to:
#it22-09-squad-c is for communication specific to Squad C with Meghan only (including announcements, reminders, etc.)
#it22-09-tech-collab is to discuss technical topics with your peers, ask questions regarding assignments, etc. (monitored by Tech Support)
#it22-09-all-learners is for communication with learners across all squads in the IT22-03 cohort (e.g. event announcements)
#it22-09-groupfun is for team-building, camaraderie, and all things fun (monitored by Events team)
Try searching here first to see if your question has been answered before asking in Slack or contacting Tech Support using the information below.
Merit America's knowledge base contains information about:
Getting started with the Learner Portal, Slack, and Coursera
Tech support fundamentals + notes for each course in Coursera, including links to supplemental tools like flashcards (under "Additional Resources")
Who do I contact at Merit America?
Who do I contact at Merit America?
We have a whole team of staff at Merit America working hard to ensure you have a great experience. Have a question but not sure who to contact? See below to ensure you contact the right team for a timely response. I recommend adding these emails to your contacts in case you need to reach out and/or so you don't miss important emails/invites regarding the program!
You will be receiving weekly emails from our Operations Team notifying you if you're "on track" or "falling behind" on assignments as well as phase progression updates every 4 weeks. Make sure you add this email as a contact so these updates aren't filtered to your spam folder.
You'll be receiving Google calendar invites from this email, please click "yes" if you know you'll be attending! Some events may be optional or required, and usually these will be recorded unless otherwise noted.
See our Frequently Asked Questions about the Success Sharing Agreement here first. Still have questions? Contact our payments team if you have any remaining questions.
Are you an Amazon Career Choice learner? Email this account with any questions you have about your voucher.
Tutorials
Tutorials
Hover your cursor on the top right side of any videos/documents and click "pop out" to view the tutorial in full screen.
To ensure you don't miss any important emails from Merit America, please follow these steps in Gmail:
To ensure you don't miss any important emails from Merit America, please follow these steps in Gmail:
Go to Settings > Filters and Blocked Addresses > Create New Filter
Follow the screenshots below (from left to right) to Create Filter.
01-merit-america-portal-overview.movHow to Upload a File & Submit an Assignment.mov
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