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Staff: Manage Active Placements

Learn how manage active placements in WBL programs by tracking form completion, timesheets, and evaluations.

Written by Dana Bryson
Updated yesterday

Overview

Once program placements are published or approved, placement and/or program managers are responsible for managing active placements to ensure all program requirements are completed.

The process for managing active placements is the same for both staff-managed and student-sourced programs. This includes tracking form completion across all responsible parties (candidates, guardians, sponsors, and staff), monitoring experience hours and timesheet entries, reviewing evaluations (competencies), and communicating as needed to ensure all requirements are completed.

Managing active placements provides visibility into student progress, helps ensure the timely completion of requirements, and supports successful outcomes across WBL programs.

Access Program

To get started, you will first need to access your program(s).

  1. Click Engage in the side navigation bar then select Program Management

  2. Locate your program and click Manage

By default, you will land on the program’s Overview tab, which provides a high-level snapshot of placement activity across your program.

From this view, you can monitor form and evaluation completion progress and review experience tracking totals (hours and entries).

You can also navigate directly to more detailed views by clicking into specific components. For example:

  1. Click a form to open the Form Analytics page

  2. Click a competency or evaluation to open the Form Progress page

  3. Click an experience tracking type to open the Experience Tracking page

Each of these pages can also be accessed from the Placement Progress tab, where you can track and manage progress across all placements.

Track Placement Progress

The Placement Progress page provides a high-level overview of program and placement progress through visual dashboards and detailed analytics.

Click the Placement Progress tab at the top of the program dashboard.

Within this tab, you can switch between three pages:

  • Form Progress to track form completion across all responsible parties

  • Experience Tracking to monitor experience hours and timesheet activity

  • Form Analytics to review overall completion trends across placements

Use this view to quickly identify which placements are on track and where action may be needed.

Form Progress

The Form Progress page provides a centralized, interactive view of form completion across all placements in your program.

This page includes all configured forms and evaluations and uses a color-coded grid (heatmap) to display the status of each requirement for every placement. This allows you to quickly identify missing, incomplete, or completed items. Click Page guide to learn more about how this page works.

*Note: Only placements that have been published to at least the candidate will appear on this page.

Understand the Form Progress Grid

  • Each row represents a placement

  • Each column represents a required form

  • Each cell shows the completion status for that form and responsible party

Use this grid to scan across placements and quickly identify where action is needed.

Responsible Party Key

Each form is assigned to a responsible party, indicated by an icon:

Candidate

Guardian

Sponsor

Program Manager

These icons appear above each column and can be used to filter columns by form status.

Color Key

Form status is indicated by color:

  • Red: Not complete

  • Green: Complete

  • Yellow: AI-assisted response (partially prefilled using the Form Completion Agent)

  • Light gray with diagonal line: Marked as not needed

  • Dark gray (sponsor only): Placement not published to sponsor

Form Sequences

Some forms may be part of a sequential workflow, indicated by arrows between responsible party icons.

  • Arrows show the order in which each party must complete the form

  • The next step in the sequence will not be available until the previous step is completed

Use this indicator to understand:

  • Why a form may not yet be available

  • Which party is responsible for the next step

Filter and Identify Placements

  1. Hover over the responsible party icons above each column to filter placements by form status for a specific responsible party. Statuses may include:

    • Blocked (part of a form sequence)

    • Complete

    • Incomplete

    • Inactive

    • Overdue

    • Skipped (forms marked as not needed)

    This is useful for quickly isolating which placements need action for a specific form or role

  2. Click the Filters button to refine the list of placements using additional criteria, including:

    • Schools

    • Stage

    • Opportunity

    • Grades

    • Tags

    • Placement Manager

    • Staff rosters

    Use these filters to narrow down placements based on program structure, student groups, or staff assignments.

Take Action from the Grid

The Form Progress grid is interactive and allows you to take action directly from each cell. Available actions vary depending on whether the item is a form or an evaluation/competency.

  1. Actions for Forms

    Incomplete Forms

    • Complete the form on behalf (if enabled)

    • Send a reminder email (only available if an email address is on file for that user)

    • Mark the form as not needed

    Complete Forms

    • View who completed the form and the completion date

    • Click Edit form to open the form on the student’s Placement Details page

  2. Actions for Evaluations

    Evaluations are tracked in the same grid as forms but follow a slightly different workflow. Select a cell to take action on an evaluation:

    • Complete the evaluation on behalf (if enabled)

    • Send a reminder email (only available if an email address is on file for that user)

    When completed, you can:

    • View who completed the evaluation and the completion date

    • Click View form to open the evaluation on the student’s Placement Details page, from which the evaluation can be edited if needed.

    *Note: Evaluations cannot be marked as not needed.

Access Individual Placement Page

Click the pop-out icon next to a placement to open the individual student's placement page in a new tab.

Experience Tracking

The Experience Tracking page provides a centralized view of all logged experience entries and hours across placements. Use this page to monitor participation, track total hours, and identify entries that may require follow-up.

Depending on how experience tracking is configured for your program, students may be asked to log hours using one or both of the following entry types:

  • Total hour entries — Students enter the total number of hours worked for a specific date or date range.

  • Timesheet entries — Students log start and end times for each work session. Total hours are calculated based on the recorded time.

Click Page guide to view an overview of how experience tracking data is displayed, including how hours and entries are grouped by status. The tools and workflows available on this page will vary depending on the configured entry type.

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Key Terminology

The following terms are used throughout this section. Reviewing them before getting started will help you navigate the experience tracking workflows more confidently.

Total hour entry — A record of hours worked submitted by a student for a specific date or date range. The student enters the total number of hours and minutes worked rather than individual start and end times.

Entry — A submitted timesheet that has been sent for review. Entries appear in the Entries tab and go through the configured verification and/or approval workflow.

Timesheet — The record against which hours are logged for a specific time period. Each time period has its own timesheet that students complete and submit.

Timeframe — The configured cycle length that determines how often timesheets are submitted. Timeframes are set by the Program Manager and can be weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.

Time period — A single repetition of the timeframe. For example, if the timeframe is weekly, each individual week is its own time period with its own timesheet.

Time log — A single day's logged hours within a timesheet. Students record a start and end time for each day they work within a time period.

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Navigate the Experience Tracking Page

Before reviewing or taking action, use the following tools to navigate and understand the page:

  1. Experience type dropdown: Switch between different experience tracking types configured for the program. Each selection updates the data shown.

  2. Filters and date range: Use filters to narrow results by attributes like school, grade, tags, or placement manager. Use the date filter to view entries within a specific time range.

  3. Summary bar: Displays a breakdown of entries by status (e.g., needs verification, needs approval, declined, completed) to identify where attention is needed quickly.

  4. View in Experience Tracking: Click here to be taken to the Experience Tracking page and gain access to additional features such as Timesheet heatmaps.

  5. Placements with no entries: Click this button to view placements with no logged experience. This opens a filtered list in the placements tab, where additional action can be taken, such as bulk emailing or logging entries on behalf of students

  6. Table view: Each row represents a placement and shows hours or entries by status, along with total progress. Use this to compare activity across placements.

Access & Managed Student Entries

To review or take action on an individual student's experience tracking entries:

  1. Locate the student in the table and click their row.

  2. If the student has more than one placement in the program, select the placement you want to view from the placement selector.

  3. On the Experience Tracking tab, locate the experience type you want to review and click into it to view the student's entry or timesheet list.

    Expand each section below to learn how to view and manage entries for each entry type:

Review & Manage Total Hour Entries

Total hour entries are logged by students as a date or date range with a total number of hours and minutes worked. Depending on your program's configuration, entries may require supervisor verification, staff approval, or both before they are counted as completed.

Entry statuses include:

  • Needs Supervisor Verification — The entry has been submitted and is awaiting verification from the placement supervisor.

  • Needs Staff Approval — The entry has been verified by the supervisor (or bypassed by staff) and is awaiting staff approval.

  • Completed — The entry has been fully approved, and hours are counted toward the student's total.

  • Declined — The entry was declined, and hours are not counted.

*Note: Not all programs are configured to require both supervisor verification and staff approval, or either.

Take Action on an Entry

  1. Locate the entry in the list and click to expand it.

  2. Review the entry details, including the entry date, hours logged, and responses to any questions students are required to answer.

  3. Take one of the following actions:

    • Click Approve to approve the entry.

    • Click Decline to decline the entry and provide a reason for declining

    • Click Share verification link to send the supervisor a direct link to verify the entry if they have not yet done so.

*Note: Staff can approve an entry before a supervisor has verified it. Doing so verifies the entry on the supervisor's behalf and will be logged as "Staff Approved (without supervisor verification)." Whether supervisor verification and/or staff approval are required depends on your program's experience tracking configuration.

Undo an Approved or Decline Entry

If an entry was approved or declined in error, click Undo the action directly from the expanded entry detail view. The entry will return to a pending status based on where it was in the workflow:

  • If approved before supervisor verification → returns to Needs Supervisor Verification

  • If approved after supervisor verification → returns to Needs Staff Approval

Edit an Entry on Behalf of a Student

After locating the entry in the list, click to expand it, then

  1. Click the pencil (edit) icon.

  2. Update any of the following fields as needed:

    • Entry name

    • Date (single date or date range)

    • Hours and minutes

    • Student questions

  3. Click Save.

*Note: Experience type and supervisor email cannot be edited, as these are established through the placement.

Add an Entry on Behalf of a Student

  1. From the entry list, click + Add entry.

  2. Complete the entry fields:

    • Entry name

    • Date (single date or date range)

    • Hours and minutes

    • Student questions (optional for staff to complete)

  3. Click Save.

    *Note: Entries added by staff bypass supervisor verification. The organization and supervisor will be automatically populated from the student's placement.

Review & Manage Timesheet Entries

Timesheet entries are used when students are required to clock in and out to record a start and end time for each day they work. Total hours are calculated automatically based on the recorded time logs. At the end of each time period, students submit their timesheet, which then goes through the configured verification and/or approval workflow.

When viewing a timesheet-based experience type from a student's placement, you will see two tabs: Timesheets and Entries. Each serves a different purpose.

Timesheets Tab

The Timesheets tab is the default view. It shows all time periods for the placement and allows staff to view individual time logs, edit time logs, and submit timesheets on behalf of students.

Time periods are listed on the left, each showing its date range, total hours logged, and one of the following statuses:

  • Unsubmitted — time logs have been recorded for that period, but the timesheet has not been submitted.

  • Submitted — The timesheet has been submitted for that period.

  • Skipped — No time logs were recorded for any day within this time period.

  • Approved — The timesheet has been approved (if approval is configured).

Select a time period from the left panel to view its time logs on the right.

To edit individual day entries on behalf of a student:

  1. Select the time period from the left panel.

  2. Click the time log you want to update.

  3. Make the necessary changes.

  4. Click Save.

*Note: Staff cannot clock in on behalf of a student in real time, but can manually add a start and end time for a specific day if the information is available.

To submit a timesheet on behalf of a student:

  1. Select the unsubmitted or skipped time period from the left panel.

  2. Review and add or update any time logs as needed.

  3. Click Submit.

Entries Tab

The Entries tab displays each submitted timesheet as a list, organized by date. This is where staff can review submitted timesheets and take approval actions. The layout and workflow are similar to total hour entries.

To review and take action on a submitted timesheet:

  1. Locate the entry in the list and click to expand it.

  2. Review the entry details, including the date range, supervisor information, student question responses, and audit trail.

  3. Take one of the following actions:

    1. Click the Pencil Icon to edit the student's submission.

    2. Click Approve to approve the timesheet or Decline to decline the timesheet.

    3. Click Share verification link to send the supervisor a direct link to verify the timesheet if they have not yet done so.

    4. Click View Timesheet to open the timesheet detail and review or edit individual time logs.

*Note: Staff can approve a timesheet before a supervisor has verified it. Doing so verifies the timesheet on the supervisor's behalf and will be logged as "Staff Approved (without supervisor verification)."

To undo an approval:

Locate the approved entry in the list, click to expand it, and click Undo.

The entry will return to a pending status based on where it was in the workflow:

  • If approved before supervisor verification → returns to Needs Supervisor Verification

  • If approved after supervisor verification → returns to Needs Staff Approval

*Note: Bulk timesheet logging is not available for timesheet entry types. Timesheets must be managed at the individual placement level.

⭐️ Best Practice

For programs using timesheet tracking, use View in Experience Tracking to access a more complete view of student activity. This opens the Experience Tracking module in a new tab and includes:

  • Heatmap view — A visual grid showing each student's logged activity day by day across the program period. Hover over any day to see clock-in time and hours logged.

  • Geolocation tracking — A location icon appears on each day entry where geolocation was recorded. A red arrow indicates a potential discrepancy in location. Click View geolocation to investigate further.

Learn more 👉 Experience Tracking Management

Form Analytics

The Form Analytics page provides a summary of all configured forms and their completion status across placements.

*Note: This page includes forms only. Evaluations are not displayed here.

Use this page to quickly review completion rates and access submitted form responses.

Review Form Details and Completion Progress

Each form is displayed as a tile showing:

  • Form Name & Responsible Party

  • Form window (start and due dates, if configured)

  • Auto-reminder schedule (for forms with static due dates)

  • Total number of completed submissions

  • Total number of incomplete or missing submissions

Use this view to quickly identify:

  • Forms with low completion rates

  • Forms that may require follow-up

  • Overall progress across all required forms

View Placements by Form Completion Status

The completion counts are interactive. Click the hyperlinked completed and incomplete counts to view a filtered list within the placements tab.

From here you can use the email function to bulk email sponsors, guardians, and candidates who have not yet completed forms.

View Form Responses

Click View responses to access submitted form data across the program via the Form Responses page.

To learn more about how to view form responses, visit our View Form Responses article.

Manage Placements

The Placements tab is the central hub for managing all active placements in your program. From here you can monitor placement status at a glance, communicate with candidates, sponsors, and guardians, take bulk actions across multiple placements, and drill into individual placements to review forms, track experience hours, manage evaluations, and more.

This section covers how to navigate the Placements dashboard, take bulk actions across multiple placements, and manage individual placements.

Placements Dashboard

The Placements dashboard provides a list view of all placements in your program, including their current stage and publication status. Use this view to monitor progress across placements, locate specific students, and communicate with placement parties.

Navigate and Filter the Dashboard

Use the following tools to navigate and locate placements:

  1. Search: Use the search bar to find a specific placement by candidate name.

  2. Filters: Click Filters to narrow the list by Schools, Status, Stage, Opportunity, Tags, Grades, or Staff rosters.

Customize Your Dashboard

You can customize the columns displayed in your Placements dashboard to surface the information most relevant to your workflow.

  1. Click the gear icon at the top right of the dashboard.

  2. Check the box next to any column you want to display. Available columns include Opportunity, Candidate, Sponsor, Stage, Created, School, Class year, and Grade.

  3. Use the six-dot icon to drag and reorder columns.

  4. Click Update columns to save your changes.

*Note: Column customizations apply to your view only and will not affect other users.

Send Email Communication

You can send emails to candidates, sponsors, and guardians directly from the Placements dashboard.

  1. Select one or more placements using the checkboxes.

  2. Click the email icon at the top of the dashboard.

  3. Click Compose email.

  4. Select the recipients — Candidates, Sponsors, and/or Guardians and compose your message.

  5. Click Send email.

*Note: Emails sent from the Placements dashboard are logged in the Comments & Activity tab of each placement. Program Managers can always view the full email content from there. Candidates, sponsors, and guardians can view email content only if they were a recipient, but all parties can see that an email was sent.

Bulk Actions

Bulk actions allow you to take administrative actions across multiple placements at once, directly from the Placements tab. Select the placements you want to act on, then click the Actions button to see the available options.

Publish to Candidates & Sponsors

Use this action to publish placements to candidates or sponsors directly from the Placements dashboard. This is useful when a placement was not previously published to one or both parties, or when access needs to be restored after unpublishing.

To publish placements:

  1. From the Placements dashboard, select the checkbox next to each placement you want to publish.

  2. Click the Actions button

  3. Select Publish to candidates or Publish to sponsors

  4. Review or customize the notification email, then click Publish.

    *Note: Fields shown in brackets (for example, {Candidate Name}, {Opportunity Name}) will be automatically replaced with the corresponding placement details for each recipient. Candidates and sponsors must be published separately.

Bulk Experience Tracker Logging

Use bulk experience tracker logging to log experience entries for multiple students at once. This is useful when you need to record hours for a group of students without requiring them to submit entries individually.

*Note: Bulk experience tracker logging is only available for total hour entry types. Timesheet experience types cannot be logged in bulk and must be managed at the individual placement level.

To log entries in bulk:

  1. From the Placements dashboard, select the checkbox next to each placement you want to include.

  2. Click the Actions button

  3. Then, select Bulk experience tracker logging.

  4. Click Log experience.

  5. After selecting the experience type, complete the entry details and click Save. For guidance on completing the entry fields, refer to the Experience Tracking section above.

Move to Stage

Use Move to Stage to update the stage of multiple placements at once. Stages are for organizational, tracking, and reporting purposes only and do not affect what candidates or sponsors can access in their placements.

*Note: The Program Manager configures stage names, descriptions, and order, and these will vary by program.

To move placements to a stage:

  1. From the Placements dashboard, select the checkbox next to each placement you want to update.

  2. Click the Actions button and select Move to stage.

  3. Select the stage you want to move the placements to.

  4. Confirm your selection.

Manage Individual Placements

To open an individual placement, click any placement row from the Placements dashboard. The placement is identified at the top of the page by the candidate's name and opportunity, along with the current stage and a delete button.

Each placement page is organized into five tabs:

  • Overview

  • Placement Info

  • Experience Tracking (if configured)

  • Comments & Activity

  • Competencies Evaluation (if configured)

These tabs provide you with a complete view of everything related to that placement in one place.

Overview Tab

The Overview tab is the command center for an individual placement. It provides a snapshot of the placement's publication status, form and evaluation completion, and experience tracking totals — all in one view.

  1. Publish & Unpublish

    The Publish placement section at the top of the Program workflow shows the publication status for both the candidate and sponsor. From here, you can publish to a party that has not yet been notified, or unpublish to remove their access to the placement.

    • If a placement has not yet been published to a party, click Notify candidate and publish or Notify sponsor and publish to publish and send a notification email.

    • If a placement has already been published, click Unpublish for candidate or Unpublish for sponsor to remove their access.

    *Note: Unpublishing a placement removes the candidate's or sponsor's access to the placement but does not delete any associated data, forms, or progress. All records remain intact, and access can be restored by republishing.

2. Evaluation

If competencies or evaluations are configured for the program, they will appear in the Program workflow section below the forms. Use the Overview tab to monitor completion status at a glance. To complete or review evaluations, navigate to the Evaluation tab.

3. Forms

All forms configured for the program are listed in the Program workflow section, each showing the responsible party, current status, due date, and an action button. Available actions depend on the responsible party and configuration:

  • Start form — appears when the Program Manager is the responsible party, and the form has not yet been started.

  • Complete instead — appears when another party (candidate, guardian, or sponsor) is the responsible party and program managers are permitted to complete the form on their behalf.

    *Note: The ability to complete forms on behalf of other parties depends on how the program is configured. If this option is not available, staff can send a reminder email to the responsible party instead.

4. Experience Tracking

The right side of the Overview tab displays a summary of experience tracking totals for each configured experience type, including total hours logged and the number of entries. Click any experience type to be taken directly to the Experience Tracking tab for that placement.

Placement Info

The Placement Info tab displays all details related to the candidate, their application, the sponsor, and the opportunity for this placement.

The tab is divided into four sections:

  1. Candidate — Displays the candidate's profile information including name, grade, and school.

  2. Application — Displays the candidate's responses to the program application questions.

  3. Sponsor — Displays the sponsor's contact information and organization details.

  4. Opportunity — Displays the opportunity details including name, description, number of positions, location, and any custom application responses. Click the pencil icon to edit opportunity details directly from this view.

  5. Recommendation Letters — Displays any recommendation letters requested or submitted for this placement, if configured.

Click the pencil icon next to Application, Sponsor, and Opportunity to make any necessary changes.

*Note: Edits made to sponsor or opportunity details from this tab will apply to this placement only. For guidance on managing sponsors and opportunities at the program level, refer to the Staff: Manage Your Staff-Managed Program article.

Experience Tracking

The Experience Tracking tab provides the same experience tracking view and functionality documented in the Experience Tracking section above, accessed at the individual placement level rather than across all placements.

From this tab, you can view all configured experience types for this placement, review entry and timesheet activity, and take action on entries, including approving, declining, editing, and adding entries on behalf of the student.

For full guidance on navigating and managing experience tracking entries, refer to the Experience Tracking section above.

Comments & Activity

The Comments & Activity tab provides a complete audit trail of all activity that has taken place on a placement, as well as a space for all parties to communicate through comments.

Activity Feed

The activity feed logs all placement actions automatically, including when a placement was created, when the stage was changed, when the placement was published or unpublished, and when emails were sent. Each entry shows who took the action, their role, and when it occurred.

Use the Filter by dropdown to narrow the feed by:

  • Comments & activity — shows all comments and activity entries combined

  • Comments only — shows only comments left by any party

  • Activity only — shows only system-logged actions

Email Logging

When an email is sent to any party on a placement, it is automatically logged in the activity feed. Program Managers can always click View email to read the full email content. Candidates, sponsors, and guardians can view the email content only if they were a recipient, but all parties can see that an email was sent regardless.

Comments

Any party with access to the placement can leave a comment using the Add comment field at the bottom of the tab.

*Note: Comments are visible to program managers, the candidate (when published), the guardian(s) (when published), and the sponsor (when published).

Evaluations

The Evaluation tab is only visible for placements where competencies or evaluations have been configured as part of the program. If evaluations are not configured, this tab will not appear.

The tab displays all configured competencies in a side-by-side grid showing:

  • Student Self-Evaluation — the candidate's responses to each competency, including who is responsible for completing it and the due date.

  • Employer Evaluation — the sponsor's responses to each competency, including who is responsible for completing it and the due date.

Staff can complete evaluations on behalf of either party by clicking Complete on behalf at the top of the relevant column.

*Note: Evaluations can only be accessed and completed from this tab. They are not available from the Form Progress page. If an evaluation has already been completed, staff can open it from this tab to review or edit responses if needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can students log experiences from their phones?

Yes! It's fully responsive. It’s recommend that students access the tracker on their phone while still at their worksite (or community service site, etc.) at the end of their shift. If possible, they can even have their supervisor verify their entry immediately.

A student has logged their internship hours, but the hours seem to be missing. Where can I locate them?

To ensure program fidelity, internship hours must be submitted through the Program Timesheet section. This provides the relevant context for the overall student experience. If hours are missing, they were likely submitted incorrectly and should be resubmitted in the correct section.

Follow these steps to locate the hours:

  1. Check the Experience Tracking module. If the hours appear under the general experience type but not in the program, the student likely logged them outside the program. In this case, they should delete the incorrect entry and resubmit their hours through the Timesheet section of the program.

    • To prevent this issue, consider restricting students to submitting hours only within the Timesheet section of the program.

  2. Review the student’s Casefile. This provides a comprehensive account of all hours submitted across various experience types, making it easier to determine if any hours were mistakenly categorized.

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