Improvements

• Modified project wizard: The project wizard now requires only Details and Company info at minimum; all other steps can be skipped unless the employer chooses further customization.
• Automatic portal access for new companies on certain portals: On portals where applications auto-accept and no portal access screening questions exist, any newly created company now automatically receives portal access without redirecting to a success screen.
• Portal pass terminology update: “Portal pass” has been updated to “Portal access” throughout the platform and help content for clearer, more user-friendly language.
• Observer permissions: Observers can now comment on team milestones and submissions, allowing them to guide teams through projects.
• Survey dates adjust with experience changes: When experience start or end dates are modified, survey instances tied to that experience will automatically adjust to align with the new dates. Completed surveys remain marked as complete, while incomplete surveys update to reflect the new dates.
• Team page ‘Overdue’ section: The “Overdue” section has been removed from team page tasks. All tasks marked as upcoming or overdue, will now appear under a single “To do” section for a cleaner, simpler view.
• Imported match requests create membership and company affiliation automatically: Match requests created via bulk match request import now automatically create the company and memberships required for the request.
• Expanded recommendations email logic. Employers now receive recurring recommendation emails for open projects created in the last 30 days (previously limited to 1–5 days), improving match visibility.
• Onboarding wizard field regrouping: The user onboarding wizard now features clearer grouping and improved labels: Profile fields reorganized for better flow; More descriptive question-style labels added; A tooltip added to the phone number field clarifying privacy.
• Custom learner instructions for date-setting: Experience administrators can now add custom text for learners on the “Set dates” step of the application wizard when teams control project dates and the assignment type is ‘By application’.
• Match request wizard: Updated “Getting Started” and "Select" steps - “Getting Started” step: has been redesigned to make it easier for users to select or create a project/experience.

• Updated tabs on experiences: The learner view of tabs on the experience page has been updated to show ‘My projects’ in lieu of a ‘Teams’ tab and now shows the count of all teams the learner belongs to.
• Updated match page tabs: The Match page now displays Teams and Applications as top-level tabs rather than sub-tabs. The tab counts previously shown on sub-tabs are now displayed on the top-level tabs for easier visibility. The Teams tab is now labeled “Learners” if the experience has a team size of 1.
• Set work log limits for experiences: Experience administrators can now set maximum hours per entry and maximum hours per day for learner work logs. These settings ensure that learners comply with the intended experience requirements.
• Set minimum teams per match: Experience administrators can now set a minimum and maximum number of teams per match in the Experience wizard under Project work organization. This appears as a nested fieldset below the Individual/Team selection. This ensures that employers align with the educator’s intended team structure while providing flexibility during matching.
• Improved expiry logic for auto-closing: Projects and experiences will no longer close due to expired requests they responded to, only requests they haven’t responded to.
• New tasks and events layout: Users now see an updated layout of tasks and events on the dashboard. The sections are visually separated from other content and take up less vertical space, making them easier to scan and interact with.
• Application closure display: Educators, employers, and admins now see how applications were last closed on a match. Closure reasons display directly beside the Applications closed status pill.
• Match requests page filter addition: When filtering match requests by the "Pending" state, a new "User pending" filter appears. This lets you view requests specifically awaiting action from the employer, the educator, or both parties.

New features & Improvements

• As an educator, I can now choose to generate my experience content with AI.
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• As a learner, you can now see and log work from the team page's details tab. If your team's experience has work logs enabled, you will see a list of your recent work logs in the sidebar.
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• As an educator, you can now identify your experience as a repeat. This helps our internal team track metrics more accurately and better understand educator engagement on the platform.
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• Milestone and submission emails to learners now clearly explain the importance of making submissions before deadlines. The emails include the message: “Failure to submit on Riipen by the due date may prevent you from continuing with the project.”

• As an employer I can flag a team or learner; as a learner I can flag an employer or all project admins. Flags are automatically reported to the experience administrator(s).
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• As the creator of an agreement, I can now choose to require either a digital signature or a manual one.
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• A survey creator can add restrictions on answers in surveys. A text answer can be required to contain or not contain certain text, have a minimum or maximum length, and follow a specific format. Number answers can be required to have a minimum or maximum value.
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• Employers can set a maximum number of requests or matches for their project, causing it to automatically close when that max is reached.
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• Copy changes in feedback wizard to clarify for employers that feedback is visible to learners only after they provide return feedback or 10 days elapse
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• As an educator, I should only be able to request to join an experience if I am a member of the experience's portal
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• As an employer, I should only be able to request to join a project if I am a member of the project's company
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• When creating a new import, a template link is now available from the import page.

• An educator can now choose to import invitations to an experience, instead of importing members directly.
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• Add match compatibility percentage pill to match created emails
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• Tasks and events view in user dashboard are condensed to two columns to save vertical space
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• Visual improvement to team page “benefits” component

New features & Improvements

• As an educator or employer, I can now cancel a match directly from the match page if no teams are assigned.
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• Experience page meta data sections have been updated for clarity to surface the most important properties of the experience to any viewer.

• As an experience administrator, I can no longer change the start date of my experience if it has already passed and teams have started projects. However, I can still update the start date if no teams have initiated projects.
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• As a portal admin, the Project Template form now includes additional fields to better align with the information employers need to provide.
  
• As a learner, I can now see the main project admin during the introduction step of the kickoff/application wizard.

• The project name now updates automatically on the Matches and Requests tabs if a project name has changed after match request updates.
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• As an experience admin, I can now see suggested sample questions in the matchmaking wizard. These sample questions help guide educators and encourage the use of optional questions in the experience wizard.
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• When I create a new project template as an experience admin, it now automatically links to the corresponding experience.
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• Survey reminder notifications are no longer sent for cancelled teams.
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• As an educator, you can now attach files to experience updates.

• The following details have been added to the survey export CSV file: project name, project ID, company name, company ID, experience name, and experience ID.

• As a learner, you now have easier access to the Agreement signing button on all devices, so you can complete the process without confusion or unnecessary scrolling.

• Employers can now see the status of their teams with their start and end dates on every project page. The information is displayed on the sidebar under "Your recent match" and "Teams."
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• As a portal administrator, you can now invite educators to a department and add them to multiple departments. Portal members can filter educators by department.
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• Portal administrators can now invite companies to a department. Portal members can filter companies by department.
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• As an employer, unresponsive matches are now automatically closed to applications.

• Learners and employers are now redirected to a new tab when clicking the "Share on LinkedIn" button.
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• Users now receive both an email and a platform task notification when they receive feedback from a user they haven’t yet provided feedback to.

• Experience administrators can now set instructions for payments.
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• The survey creation button text and confirmation messages have been updated for a clearer user experience: "Save & exit" now saves a draft of your survey; "Publish survey" confirms that your survey is published.

• Experience administrators can now set instructions for learner work logs in the following location: Experience > Settings > Features > Enabled work logs > Instructions for learner work logs text field.

• Experience administrators can now customize the text shown after final submission in the following location: Experience > Settings > Project Management: Participants > The final input.
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• As an educator, I now have the option to add learners via magic link

We are thrilled to announce that Riipen 2.0 is launching April 20, 2023, and we can't wait for you to experience it. After listening to your feedback and conducting dozens of user interviews, we have updated and improved the platform to better serve your needs.

Riipen 2.0 maintains the features that you love from the current platform within a new and more intuitive interface. We have reevaluated and enhanced every area of the platform and added new features based on your feedback to make your experience even better.

What to expect

During the launch on April 20 there will be minimal, scheduled downtime, and once it's completed, you will be able to access the platform at the same URL you always have. All of your existing data will be updated to the new format, ensuring that your access remains unchanged and all of your content and projects in progress are unaffected.

Post-launch, our top priority will be actively gathering feedback to make continuous ongoing improvements to Riipen 2.0. As you navigate the new site, automated tours and pointers will help all users find new features and identify how existing ones have changed.

What's new

Improved navigation and usability

The new left-hand sidebar provides quick access to your personal content, the marketplaces, and your portal or company. To help you find content faster, a global search feature is available in the top navigation.

To simplify the user interface, courses and internship programs are now merged into a single content type called experiences which has the features of both.

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Customization

It is now possible to customize your portal to align with your brand's look and feel. With Riipen 2.0, each portal has its own unique subdomain - eg. yourschoolname.riipen.com - allowing portal administrators to customize the primary logo, color usage, and terminology.

In Riipen 2.0, we've prioritized offering customization features throughout the platform. For instance, with the addition of custom roles for portal, company, project, and experience members, users can invite others with limited access to only the features they need.

We know that our customers value the ability to tailor their feedback surveys to include the questions that are most relevant for them, which is why we are excited to offer customized feedback surveys for employers upon completion of a project.

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Project management

In the last two years, we've made significant improvements to project management features in Riipen 1.0, including the ability for educators to add document templates to milestones and for learners to add their own milestones to teams.

In Riipen 2.0, we have taken these features a step further by adding some of the most frequently requested features from our learners and employers. For instance, we've integrated Zoom and Google Meet into the meeting invitations sent from messages, and now teams can set their own project dates when enabled by educators.

We're always looking for ways to enhance learner-employer collaboration, and we have exciting plans for further extensions to these features post-launch.

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Matchmaking

In Riipen 2.0, we have added features that were specifically requested by our customers to enhance the matchmaking process. Educators can now propose projects directly to companies for them to accept or decline, and in the match-making process, educators and employers can negotiate the project's content to ensure that it is tailored for each match.

Additionally, requests now require acceptance from both parties to ensure users can send requests with the security that they have the opportunity to confirm or withdraw their request later.

A new feature for both parties is the ability to extend the expiry date on a request if you need more time to evaluate it.

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Private marketplace and portal pass functionality

When invited by an educator, employers can sign up to thatschoolname.riipen.com instead of app.riipen.com, providing a platform experience that is tailored by the institution that invited them.

On the educator side, Riipen 2.0 offers improvements to the way portal passes are granted. Educators can now have employers answer screening questions during their portal intake process, ensuring they are the right fit for the portal. Additionally, educators can grant portal passes in bulk, saving them time.

For educators, a private marketplace featuring projects exclusively from their portal pass holders is now available in parallel to the open marketplace.

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Reports

We are excited to announce that reporting has been given a major upgrade in Riipen 2.0! We understand that our users require detailed and insightful reports to inform their decision-making, which is why we have powered our new reporting functionality with Metabase. This tool enables us to provide more comprehensive and detailed standard reports in each portal, and allows portal administrators to create custom reports that are unique to their needs. These custom reports can be saved in your portal and updated in real-time, providing the latest data insights.

An updated set of help articles launches on help.riipen.com on April 20 detailing all changes and how to navigate them.

You spoke, we listened.

Riipen, the leading work-based learning platform, is excited to announce the launch of Riipen 2.0 this Spring. Our enhanced platform is a direct result of extensive feedback from our community of users, beta testing, and exclusive access to a sandbox. With Riipen 2.0, you can experience key user-driven enhancements that promise to elevate your experience in the most impactful and efficient way.

Over the past five years, thousands of employers of all types and sizes have partnered with academic institutions and student talent through Riipen to accelerate the growth of their businesses. With Riipen 2.0, our employers will access innovative features providing higher flexibility, customization, branding, reporting, control over their processes, focused navigation of the platform, new integrations, and much more.

What does it mean for you?

New terminology

To start, we've listened to your feedback and made significant changes to our terminology:

• Courses & Internship Programs: To simplify the user interface, “Courses” and “Internship Programs” are now merged into a single entity type, "Experience" (note that this vocabulary can be customized by each school), which allows educators to pick and choose which aspects of each experience they want to include. For example, a curricular experience with fixed start and end dates can now have students directly applying to work with companies.
• Students: “Students” are now called “Learners” to better represent project collaborators on the platform, i.e., students and lifelong learners as one single entity.
• Schools: “Schools" are now called “Portals”.

New Platform Navigation Features

We have also enhanced the navigation features on the platform:

Dashboard:

• The dashboard will display up to 5 pending match requests to improve visibility and facilitate request review and approval, and all pending requests will be found in the "Request Center".
• The dashboard will also present up to 4 "upcoming dates" or milestones, such as the start of an experience, the end of an experience, a project milestone, etc.

Platform Navigation:

• Employers will now navigate the platform as a member of one company at a time (if they have multiple companies on Riipen) and will be able to easily switch workplaces (or companies) and navigate through the platform as a member of that workplace (or company) via the sidebar.

Scope Negotiation:

• To ensure that expectations between educators and employers are better aligned before students begin work, we introduced scope negotiation as part of the match request process. As such, an educator may propose changes to an employer project, at which time, the employer can choose to accept or decline these changes before accepting the match.

New Propose Project Functionality

Educators can now directly submit a project to any company in the Riipen ecosystem that they would like to work with. If the company in question approves the project, it will automatically be accepted and added to the educator's experience.

Improved Messaging Functionality

Users will be able to archive conversations and send meeting invitations with videoconference links using Google Meet and Zoom integration. General UI improvements have also been made to make messages easier to navigate and conversations smoother.

Enhanced Employer-Student Feedback

With Riipen 2.0, employers will answer custom questions determined by the educators to ensure their feedback is more relevant to students and better reflects the type of work completed. Feedback will only be shared with the other party after both parties reply to ensure unbiased feedback.

What's Next?

We're always looking to improve our platform, and Riipen 2.0 is just the beginning. Soon, employers will be able to subscribe to new content notifications and be notified each time a new experience is posted that matches their filter parameters, and educators will be able to send mass updates to all employers and/or learners on their experience, allowing them to share their updates more efficiently. Additionally, users will be able to delete sent messages, and employers can add custom agreements to their projects that students will digitally accept, such as non-disclosure agreements or other required policies for their business.

What to Expect?

On April 20, 2023, during the launch of Riipen 2.0, there will be minimal scheduled downtime. Once it's completed, you'll be able to access the platform at the same URL you always have, and all of your existing data will be updated to the new format, ensuring that your access remains unchanged and all of your content and projects in progress are unaffected.

Our top priority post-launch will be actively gathering feedback to make continuous, ongoing improvements to Riipen 2.0. Automated tours and pointers will help all users find new features and identify how existing ones have changed.

Conclusion

Riipen 2.0 brings innovative features that give our users higher flexibility, customization, branding, reporting, control over their processes, focused navigation of the platform, new integrations, and much more. Our new platform is designed to elevate your experience and ensure that our experiential learning platform remains the leading platform in the industry. We're excited to see the impact Riipen 2.0 will have on your business.

If you have questions about how Riipen 2.0 may impact your experience, you can reach out to our Customer Success team at success@riipen.com.

We are thrilled to announce that Riipen 2.0 is launching April 20, 2023, and we can't wait for you to experience it. After listening to your feedback and conducting dozens of user interviews, we have updated and improved the platform to better serve your needs.

Riipen 2.0 maintains the features that you love from the current platform within a new and more intuitive interface. We have reevaluated and enhanced every area of the platform and added new features based on your feedback to make your experience even better.

What to expect

During the launch on April 20 there will be minimal, scheduled downtime, and once it's completed, you will be able to access the platform at the same URL you always have. All of your existing data will be updated to the new format, ensuring that your access remains unchanged and all of your content and projects in progress are unaffected.

Post-launch, our top priority will be actively gathering feedback to make continuous ongoing improvements to Riipen 2.0. As you navigate the new site, automated tours and pointers will help all users find new features and identify how existing ones have changed.

What's new

Navigation

For learners, the interface is transformed with the goal of streamlining and simplifying your experience. As it does today, your dashboard will show you your teams and experiences (previously called courses and internships) that you are a member of.

In the main menu shown on the left above, you will see the most essential pages for your own content, and your portal. Your portal is typically your college or university.

Switch portals

If you're a member of multiple portals (eg. your college and Level UP) you can switch between them by clicking on your user avatar in the top-right of the screen and selecting "Switch workspace."

New features

As you explore, you'll see some improvements such as the ability to send meeting invitations linked to Google Meet or Zoom through messages. Your educator can now access new settings that they may enable for you, including the ability to have teams set their own project dates, and the ability to have employers answer custom feedback questions.

An updated set of help articles launches on help.riipen.com on April 20 detailing all changes and how to navigate them.