Experiences are how educators bring real-world projects to their learners on Riipen. When you host an experience, you define the type of work your learners will do, the kinds of companies you want to work with, and the structure of the engagement. Once your experience is live, it can be matched with employer projects and learners can begin working.
Getting started looks slightly different depending on how your portal is configured — some educators will submit an experience proposal first, while others can create an experience directly.
Describe your learners and goals upfront so Riipen can match you with the right projects
Get a head start with an AI-generated draft based on your course or program summary
Track your proposal status and pick up where you left off once it's approved
General
How experience creation works
There are two paths to creating an experience, depending on your portal:
Proposal required (most users): If your portal requires proposals, you will see a "Propose experience" button when you navigate to My Experiences. You submit a short form describing your learners and project needs, and the Riipen team reviews it. Once approved, a draft experience is created for you and you are invited to complete the full configuration.
Direct creation: If your portal has experience creation enabled, you will see a "Create experience" button instead. This takes you directly into the experience wizard to build your experience without a prior proposal.
If you have both the Experiences permission and the Experience proposals permission on your role, the "Create experience" button is shown.
Experience proposal fields
When submitting a proposal, you will be asked to complete three sections. All fields are required.
About the learners
What is the current year of study of your learners? — Select the year that best describes most of your learners: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year. If you select Other, a text field will appear for you to specify (e.g. Graduate student, Continuing education, 5th year).
How many learners are expected to be part of this experience? — An approximate headcount helps the Riipen team understand the scale of your experience.
Is it important to learning outcomes that learners directly manage communication with employers? — This helps determine how hands-on the employer engagement should be. Select Yes, No, or Unsure.
About the projects
Select a main category that best relates to your experience — Choose the category that most closely describes the type of work learners will do (e.g. Marketing, Software Development). This is used to match your experience with relevant projects.
Provide a brief description of the types of employer-provided projects you'd like learners to work on — Describe the scope and nature of projects in plain language. Employers will ultimately read this, so write for a general audience rather than an academic one.
How many weeks (approximately) will learners work on their projects? — Enter the expected project duration. This does not lock in your timeline — it is used to assess fit during the review.
When are learners required to start working on their projects? — Enter the expected start date for learner work.
Commitments for quality
Content standards agreement — You must agree to Riipen's Content Standards and Quality guidelines and confirm that you will provide platform access to learners on or before the scheduled start date.
Proposal states
After submitting, your proposal will move through the following states:
Pending — Your proposal has been submitted and is awaiting review by the Riipen team.
Accepted — Your proposal has been approved. A draft experience has been created and you will be invited to complete it.
Declined — Your proposal was not approved. The Riipen team may reach out with feedback.
Cancelled — You or the Riipen team cancelled the proposal before a decision was made.
What's in the experience draft
Once a proposal is accepted (or if you create directly), you will configure the full experience. Key components include:
Details — Your experience name and description, covering your goals and the types of projects you are looking for.
Tags and metadata — Categories, skills learners will develop, and other searchable attributes.
Learners — A description of your learners, their program, skill levels, and more.
Companies — The types of companies you are looking to work with.
See experience configuration for a full guide to completing your draft.
Generated experiences
When completing your draft, you can generate a full experience by entering a brief summary of your course or program. Examples:
An introductory course for cybersecurity learners.
A 3rd year course focused on marketing strategy skills such as consumer insights, brand management, and market analysis.
A co-curricular program for learners in humanities and social sciences to apply their transferable skills to a project provided by a non-profit or social enterprise.
Your summary is translated into a full experience draft, which you can then review and refine.
How to
Propose an experience
You must have the Experience Proposals permission on your portal role to see the "Propose experience" button. Contact your portal administrator if you do not see it.
Click "Propose experience" from your dashboard, or click "My experiences" in the main navigation menu and click "Propose experience" from there.
Complete all fields across the three sections of the form: About the learners, About the projects, and Commitments for quality.
Click "Submit." You will be taken to your proposal page where you can track its status.
You will be notified when your proposal is accepted or if the Riipen team has questions. If accepted, you will be invited to a draft experience to complete configuration.
View your experience proposals
Click "My experiences" in the main navigation menu.
Click the "Experience proposals" tab.
Your proposals are listed from newest to oldest. Click any row to open the proposal.
Cancel a proposal
Open the proposal you want to cancel.
Click "Cancel" in the page header.
Create an experience directly
If your portal has experience creation enabled, you will see "Create experience" instead of "Propose experience."
Click "My experiences" in the main navigation menu.
Click "Create experience."
Follow the steps in the experience wizard to complete your experience. See experience configuration for a full guide.
Best practices
Write for employers, not academics — Your experience description will be read by companies considering whether to participate. Avoid academic jargon and focus on what learners can deliver and what makes the engagement valuable for a business.
Focus on employer benefits — Employers participate for different reasons: recruiting, brand awareness, business insights. Make it clear what they stand to gain by working with your learners.
Set clear expectations upfront — If you need companies to share internal data, commit to specific meeting cadences, or fit certain parameters (size, industry), include that in your proposal description. It helps the Riipen team match you with the right projects.
Give specific project examples — Vague experience descriptions attract vague projects. Concrete examples of the types of work learners could do will attract better-fit employer projects.
Stay open to different company types — Experiences with very narrow criteria can struggle to find matches. Aim for 3–5 project examples across different company sizes or types, as long as they all meet your learning outcomes.
FAQs
Can I edit my proposal after submitting it?
Proposals cannot be edited after submission. If you need to make changes, you can cancel the proposal and submit a new one.
What happens after my proposal is accepted?
Once accepted, a draft experience is created based on your proposal and you will be invited to complete it. You can then configure all aspects of the experience before it goes live. See experience configuration to get started.
What if I don't see a "Propose experience" or "Create experience" button?
You may not have the required permission on your portal role. Contact your portal administrator to request access.