This article outlines a high level overview of the Experiences process to help you understand the workflow in Handshake from a birds-eye-view. We also recommend checking out these key resources to set you up for success:
- Experiences Training via Handshake Academy (you'll need to be logged in to Handshake to access this!)
- Experiences: Using Handshake to Manage a High Impact Educational Practice (recorded webinar from 2020)
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Experiences 2019 Product Workshop and Training (webinar recording) (Spring 2019)
- Related article on updates from Spring 2019: Experiences Updates (May 2019)
- Experiences 2019 webinar deck (PDF attachment at the end of the article)
Configuration
1. Survey(s). Career Services (CS) staff build custom surveys that will be used to integrate in the different Experience templates.
A few surveys that you might want to consider building (per template, if necessary):
- Student request custom questions - Unique questions that your program requires, or wants to expose to approvers (stakeholders) on an Experience.
- Approver custom questions - A survey that approvers take when reviewing the Experience details. Each approver could have their own survey (or none at all), if necessary.
- Evaluation custom questions - Questions used for program assessment goals- You can send a separate evaluation survey to students and approvers. You can also determine which approvers receive evaluation requests
Check out the standard questions included in our feature in Experiences Standard Questions.
To learn more about creating surveys, explore our documentation in Assessment & Reporting > Survey Management section.
2. Template(s). CS staff create a new Experience template in the Experiences Preferences (School Settings) - adding those custom surveys. Refer to Creating an Experiences Template for more information.
Daily Management
3. Student Submission. Student receives a job offer (through Handshake or otherwise) and wants to use the internship for their program requirements.
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This article outlines how a student can submit an Experience: Request an Experience (as a Student).
- Find out how to help students if they encounter submission errors: Troubleshooting: "There Were Some Errors During Submission"
- This article outlines how CS can also submit an Experience on behalf of a student: Creating an Experience (on behalf of a student).
4. Approval Kickoff. A pending count will display in the left navigation bar over Experiences to notify the CS staff that a student has submitted an experience. At this point the CS staff can review and kick off the approval process: Start and Manage Approvals.
There can be a variety of hiccups following this step, so it’s important CS are as informed as possible on how to manually manage a lot of the tasks in this process.
- Things to note when Managing Experiences that “Need Review”
- Troubleshooting: Experience Approvals Running Out of Order
5. Approval. Approvers (aka Reviewers) receive an email notification that includes a link. They can “approve” and will answer any custom survey questions on this form. Review the process from their perspective in Approve an Experience: Reviewer Perspective.
Note: Approvers do not need a Handshake account - they will operate solely through these email links.
- Learn more about missing emails in Troubleshooting: Approver Not Receiving Email.
6. Internship. The student's internship or co-op opportunity begins! From here, fast forward to when CS need to send program assessments.
7. Evaluation. CS staff review the Experiences and request evaluations any time an assessment is required. Some schools will have both midterm and final evaluations.
Learn more about Managing Experience Evaluations and Viewing Experience Evaluations.
Evaluations are requested via email as well, and sometimes those emails may be missing. Learn more about supporting your Reviewers (Approvers) and students:
- Troubleshooting: Approvers Missing Experience Evaluation Requests
- Troubleshooting: Students Missing Experience Evaluation Requests
8. Report. Once evaluations are gathered, CS staff can then report on data tracked! Learn more about Experience Reporting.