Getting started at a school

At a glance

1. Make a group per tutor group and upload your roll.
2. Add the staff who check hours.
3. Record volunteering that already happened, in one go.
4. Approve hours weekly and celebrate at 10.

Before you start

• An approved school account, and you are signed in as one of its admins.
• Your roll as a CSV, one file per tutor group, with the columns email and name.
• A decision: accounts for students (they log their own hours and see their own dashboard), or names only for attendance and reports.
• The colleagues who will check hours. Any admin of the account can approve.

Steps

1. Open the menu and, under Switch Account, choose your school. Then under People, choose Groups, press New Group, type the tutor group under Group Name, tick Public Group and press Create Group. Repeat for each tutor group. Why it counts: groups are how you find a form’s students, filter their hours and report by cohort later.
2. Under People, choose Members and press Upload users. Choose the CSV File for one tutor group, under Assign To choose Group, pick the tutor group under Select Group, and press Upload & Import. Repeat per tutor group. Why it counts: every student gets an account with a private profile, an email to set a password and a place in the right group, in one go.
3. Want names without logins? Press Upload roster instead. No accounts are created and no emails are sent. Students on the roster cannot log hours themselves, so you record for them in step 5.
4. On Organisation dashboard, under Organisation admins, press Manage. Add each colleague who will check hours under Add an organisation admin and press Add admin. Why it counts: any admin can approve hours and see the whole account, so add exactly the people you trust with it.
5. Record volunteering that already happened, the summer’s for instance. Under Content, choose Experience Log and press New experience log. Describe the activity, set the Date and the hours per student, then under Participants open the roster, tick everyone who took part, press Add selected and then Save experience log. Why it counts: one submit credits every student, and nothing is typed twice.
6. Each week, under People, choose Applications, then Experience Updates. Press Approve on each entry, or tick several and press Approve Selected. Why it counts: approved hours are the verified hours a certificate needs.
7. When a student reaches 10 hours they press Apply for V10. Approve it under Award Applications. For an assembly, open Awards and press Print to print every certificate you have issued. Why it counts: the celebration is what makes next term’s hours happen.

What happens next

Students sign in and see their Verified hours, their certificates and their badges. Certificates come at 10, 30, 50 and 100 hours. On your dashboard, Hours recorded opens the Experience submissions list, with filters by Group and Status, and Ask for a reflection on any entry.

Students you uploaded as accounts have private profiles. Students who sign up on their own have public ones.

Common problems

• A student cannot log hours. Either their membership is still waiting for approval under Applications, or they are on the roster without an account. Record their hours under Experience Log.
• A student is in the wrong tutor group. Open them from Members and tick the right group under Groups, or upload the right CSV again: people who already exist are added to its group.
• A colleague cannot see the school. They have to press Accept Invitation in the email first, then choose the school under Switch Account.
• Pending hours are piling up. Approve weekly. Tick a page of entries and press Approve Selected.

Still stuck

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