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.