Milestones are objectives for learners that fall in between the start and end dates. Depending on the experience timeline settings, they may be set by the educator, employer, or the learners themselves.
Benefits of setting milestones:
Set incremental and standardized goals for your learners on their projects
Easily review learner work product per milestone
Keep all team members and educators aligned on progress and expectations
General
Definition
All milestones have a title, and a description, a due date, and can optionally have a supporting file attached to them such as an example of a finished submission, a template, or any other guiding document. Defined milestones will be visible to all learners on their appropriate teams along with all the included information of the milestone.
Visibility
Milestones can now be either employer-facing or internal:
Employer-facing: All employers can see the milestone and its completion status. Employers can provide feedback on deliverables. This is the default type for all existing milestones.
Internal: Visible only to learners and educators. Employers cannot see the milestone or its completion status. This type is useful for tracking team progress or objectives not relevant to the employer.
Submissions
When completing milestones, teams will have the ability to provide a written description as well as any number of files to support their submissions such as reports, presentations, or more. Only one member of the team completes the milestone for the team as a whole.
Submissions are visible to the team, the employer of the project, and to the experience administrators for review.
Scopes
Milestones can be created at these different levels:
Experience - milestones can be created for an experience when the experience is the dates controller. Any milestone created for an experience will be applied across all projects and teams within the experience.
Matched Project - milestones can be created for a matched project when the project is the dates controller. Any milestone created for a matched project will be applied across all teams for that particular project.
Team - milestones can always be created by a team and are only applicable to that specific team.
Example milestones
Here are a few example milestones to help you get started with creating milestones that are relevant to your learners:
Have a team meeting with all learner team members to delegate responsibilities
Submit an analysis stage report or presentation before starting the implementation phase of the project
Upload a draft version of the final report for review
Complete user research or stakeholder interviews and submit findings
Deliver a prototype or mockup for feedback before final development
Present a mid-project progress update to educators and the team
Submit a final report or presentation summarizing outcomes, insights, and recommendations
How to
Manage milestones for an experience
Milestones can only be created for an experience if the experience is the dates controller.
When creating an experience, milestones can be managed right from the "Timeline" step.
To manage a milestone outside of initially creating the experience:
Navigate to the experience
Click on the "Settings" tab
Click on the "Timeline" tab under the "Project Management" group
Create, edit, or delete any milestones as needed
Click "Submit" to save your work.
Milestones cannot be edited or deleted once a match is made to a project for the experience.
Manage milestones for a matched project
Milestones can only be created for a matched project if projects are the dates controller.
In some circumstances, experience will have each matched project set its own timelines with dates and milestones. In this case, dates are set during the match request process. When the educator requests a match with the project, they will input suggested dates and any milestones. The employer may edit these dates and milestones, or create their own. If the employer initiates the request, their request will include the start and end dates and proposed milestones. The educator may counter with their own proposed milestones.
Manage milestones for a team
Teams in the experience are able to create their own milestones specific to that team at all times. These are often beneficial to the team to help them keep track of any team specific outcomes they are looking to complete.
Team-created milestones can be internal (learners and educators only) or employer-facing. Internal milestones are not shown to the employer.