Creating an experience

A step by step guide to create an experience as an educator.

Barkha Patel avatar
Written by Barkha Patel
Updated over a week ago

Creating an experience will enable an educator to match with projects and ultimately have their learners work on those projects.

Creating an experience

The following steps will guide you through the process of creating an experience:

  1. Click "My experiences" tab in the main navigation.

  2. Click "Create Experience".

  3. Choose to create an experience from scratch or duplicate an experience that you have created in the past.

    You will be directed to a step-by-step process where you will fill in all the relevant details and publish your experience. After each step, simply click "Save & Continue"

You can save your work here at any time as a draft and revisit it later.

Details

Fill in the main details for your experience.

  • Name - give your experience a title that will resonate with employers. Names should be concise, reference the categories the experience most relates to, and give context to the skills or focus of your learners.

  • Learner capabilities - provide a short description of what your learners are capable of and how companies can benefit.

  • Project examples - provide examples of the type of projects learners are capable of working on.

  • Project deliverables - describe the format of deliverables given to employers and what the expected outcomes will be. What will employers receive at the end of the project?

  • Optional details - add video or images on your experience that showcase your learners' capabilities.

Tags

Add meta tagging data for your experience that makes it easier to find.

  • Main category - add a main category that best describes the subject area of your experience.

  • Sub-categories - add other categories related to the subject areas of the experience.

  • Learner skills - list any notable skills that students will demonstrate or work on while completing projects.

  • Department - select a department if your experience belongs to a specific department at your institution.

Learners

Explain a bit about your learns and what they are capable of.

  • Program - select the type of program the experience is held under. E.g. undergraduate, certificate, diploma program, bootcamp, etc.

  • Number of learners - enter the number of learners participating

  • Academic program - select if the experience is a part of an academic program, if so, enter the following information about your program.

    • Program code

    • Program name

    • Student year

  • Learner teams - will learners be working individually or in teams?

    • Team size - enter the team size if learners are working in teams

    • Experience administrators assign projects to learners

    • Learners will self-assign

    • Learners apply to projects and the employer will accept or decline their applications

  • Project hours - approximately how many hours will each learner spend on their project?

Timeline

Set up key dates regarding the experience.

  • Close date - the date the experience automatically closes and no longer accepts match requests from projects. Your experience will no longer appear in the marketplace after this date. You can edit this date at any time.

    • All teams under the experience have the same dates, set by the educator

    • Each matched project has unique dates, set by the employer

    • Each team has unique dates, set by the team

Company

Fill in details about the types of companies and projects best suited for the experience.

  • Open marketplace - select if you want your experience posted to the open marketplace.

  • Projects wanted - number of projects you want to match with.

  • Company location - preferred location of companies you match with if any.

  • Company industries - industries best suited for this experience.

  • Company type - desired company type for this experience (startup, non-profit, etc.)

  • Compensation details - expected compensation companies should offer to learners (hourly wage, flat fee, or academic credit only)

  • Matchmaking custom questions - add questions that companies will be required to answer when submitting a project to this experience.

Preview

Review the experience details. If you are happy with everything, click "Publish" and the experience will be live and ready to match with projects.

Best practices

An experience defines the parameters of an experiential learning activity. Keep in mind the following best practices to ensure the experience finds a good match:

  • Remember the audience - The experience on Riipen describes to employers what learners learners are capable of, what you are hoping they get out of it, and what types of projects are best suited. Avoid using jargon or language that is geared towards academics or students.

  • Focus on the benefits for employers - State clearly why companies could benefit from participating. Employers sign up for different reasons: to recruit learners, to create positive brand awareness, to gain insights about business challenges, etc.. An experience should relay how this opportunity helps them meet those goals.

  • Include clear expectations for the employer or company - If the experience need companies to be able to provide certain types of internal data, to make a specific time commitment, or to fit certain parameters (size, type, etc.), make sure to include this information in the custom match request questions. This will help the experience review match request from appropriate projects.

  • Give specific project examples - Companies provide better projects if they are given concrete examples. Avoid being too general, providing detailed examples will give companies a better idea of learner capabilities, and attract higher quality projects.

  • Be open to working with different types of companies - If ideal projects are very narrowly defined, experiences may have trouble finding a match. Riipen recommends being open to companies of different sizes and types, and providing 3-5 different project examples that fit the experience subject area. Ultimately, it is important that the experience meets the learning outcomes for the learners, but this should be balanced with the need to attract projects from companies.

Additional Resources

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