What's new in December 2025

New “All Teams (Learners only)” conversation type

• A new conversation type lets all learner teams in a match chat together without the employer, supporting peer collaboration across teams.
• Admins can enable this in Experience settings > Features > Conversations. Available conversation types now include:

• Team-only
• Team + Employer
• All teams + Employer
• All teams (Learners only) (new)

Defaults remain unchanged, and updates only apply to newly created matches. A new notice also reminds admins to enable no more than two conversation types at a time.

When enabled, a learner-only group chat is automatically created and kept in sync as teams and members are added, completed, cancelled, or removed. Educator access follows existing experience settings.

Improvements

• Team page guidance: A banner now appears on active, not-yet-started team pages to prompt kickoff, with copy that adapts based on assignment type, individual vs. team work, and the user viewing the page. It includes next steps for the viewer and is automatically removed once kickoff is created.
• Streamlined application flow: Application accepted success screens for learners and employers have been removed since new addition of team page banner provides additional guidance.
• Learner milestone notifications: Learners now receive an email when a new milestone is created for their team, with due date details, a direct link to the milestone, and notification preferences available in User Settings.
• Navigation updates: “My Achievements” has been removed from employer and educator main navigation menus to focus on main content. Achievements will still be available to view on user profiles.
• Experience admin notes now included in closed-flag emails: Learners will now see experience admin notes directly in the Closed flag email, making it easier to understand context and actions without needing to view the flag in-platform.
• Marketplace filters: New minimum and maximum project hours filters have been added to both project and experience marketplaces.
• Main contact now included in match and request emails: Educators and employers now see the main contact for the project or experience in the created match and created match request emails, making it easier to know who to reach out to and reducing confusion when receiving multiple requests from the same portal or company.
• Deposit information added to cancelled application emails: Employers now see details about their deposit when a learner cancels an application or it expires for paid in-platform projects. If a deposit was collected, the email explains that the funds are no longer reserved and are available in the employer’s wallet to use toward other payments or to withdraw.

• Survey settings UI improvement: The Sentiment threshold field is now nested under Sentiment flags enabled, with updated text and a cleaner UI for easier readability.
• Conversation type settings UI improvement: Hint text has been moved to tooltips, the Team + Employer checkbox text has been updated, and subtext for Sentiment flags enabled has been clarified, all with a streamlined interface for better usability.
• Payments settings streamlined for experience admins: In the Experience Settings > Payments tab, the “Enable payments to be issued to learners for completing projects” option is now automatically set and uneditable when In-platform payments are selected. For manual payments, the setting is shown as a nested field, allowing admins to enable or disable it. This makes the payment setup clearer and prevents conflicting configurations.
• Table style and usability improvements. Tables across the platform now have a cleaner visual design with improved hover states, and clearer visual cues indicating rows are clickable.
• Marketplace visibility warning for projects. Projects that are open but not visible in any public or private marketplace now show a clear warning on the project page, with a direct link to marketplace settings.
• Stricter work log date validation. Learners can no longer submit work log entries dated before their team’s kickoff date. This helps ensure accurate tracking and supports program compliance.
• Improved “Find experiences” CTA behaviour for learners. The ‘Find experiences’ CTA is now shown more consistently on the My Experiences page, including when learners haven’t joined any experiences yet, making it easier to discover opportunities.
• Clearer draft experience reminder email. The “Publish your draft experience” email has been updated with clearer language, reflecting that most experiences require review before publishing and guiding educators on next steps.
• Updated “Teams” to “Learners” in the employer view. Employers managing individual or team-based projects will now see clearer, more accurate terminology throughout the interface. In the user menu, My Teams is now My Learners, and other places where teams of 1 may exist now use Learners terminology.
• Automatic learner member request approval. Experience admins can now automatically approve learner member requests. In Experience settings > Members > Learners, enable “Accept member requests automatically” to approve all learner requests without manual action.
• Improved application emails. Employers now receive more detailed information about a learner’s work and education experience directly within the email, specifically when the team work type is set to Individual.
• Wizard ‘back’ button.The Back button in all wizards has been moved to the bottom left-hand side for consistent placement and improved usability.
• Learner certificates in teams tracker. A new certificate column is now visible in the Learner view of the Teams tracker if certificate awarding is enabled. The column with the certificate link is also included in CSV exports.
• Payment processing fee transparency. Tooltips and relevant text now display the actual processing fee wherever previously it only stated “plus applicable taxes and fees.”
• Company properties via Forest admin. Riipen Admins can now add key-value properties to companies via Forest Admin.
• Single project import wizard improvements

• Cleaner layout: simplified text and headers; added informational notice with help link.
• New contact input: select existing company members or add a new email.
• Silent import option: suppresses notifications during import.
• Automatic creation: missing companies, portal passes, users, memberships, projects, and matches are now created automatically.
• Capitalization preserved: company names now retain the user’s input instead of converting to lowercase.

• Team activity tracker usability improvements. The activity tracker now has a fixed height and scrolls independently from the page, with the top header row staying visible as you scroll. This makes it much easier to track progress and compare teams when working with long lists.
• Employer dashboard project & match layout refresh. The Employer dashboard has been redesigned with new nested project and match cards, replacing the “Latest experiences matched” and “My projects” tables. Employers now see up to three recently updated projects with nested matched experiences for each, along with quick-access “Create project” and “View all projects” CTAs.
• Improved failed payment notifications. Employers and portals are now notified when a payment fails due to a missing or expired payment method, in addition to standard payment failures. New email messaging clearly explains whether the failure was caused by an expired card or no payment method on file, helping prevent silent payment issues.
• New experience availability notifications. Employers are now notified when new experiences become available within portals where they have previously matched, helping them discover new opportunities earlier.
• Invoice visibility by user type. Invoices now display only the items relevant to the viewer’s role. Learners, project/experience admins, and Riipen admins each see a tailored invoice view, reducing confusion.
• Invoice download from email. Invoice notification emails now include a “Download” button that generates a PDF in a new tab for easy saving and printing. The existing “View invoice” button remains unchanged for a full in-platform view of the invoice.
• Improved “Incomplete team” email notifications. Learners now receive different email versions depending on why their team was marked incomplete and who controls the dates. When teams control the dates and a team is marked incomplete due to missed deadlines, the email now includes a CTA to request a date change, giving learners a clear next step to recover from missed deadlines.