Experience Matters! Departmental Administrator User's Guide

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What is Experience Matters?

Experience Matters (ExM) is a web-based collection of internship and co-op experiences completed by Grand Valley students. The purpose is to share the value of experiential education to students, employers, faculty, staff, parents and the community at large.

How can my department participate in Experience Matters?

To become an active department on the ExM website:

1. Appoint a departmental administrator who will manage your department’s ExM student submissions
2. Create an administrator account for your designated point person through the Career Services Office. E-mail the following information to Rachel Becklin becklira@gvsu.edu:
   • First and last name
   • E-mail address
   • LDAP (novell login container)
   • Major – this will be what students select on the submission form in order for the appropriate administrator to receive the submission
3. Communicate the opportunity to students. In order to receive quality responses for your department, we recommend requiring that submissions be made.

NOTE: If you do not want to appoint a departmental administrator, Career Services will review the submissions for approval. Your students can still post their experiences on the website.

What do I have to do if I am a departmental administrator?

The departmental administrator manages the approval process. In order for a student’s submission to appear on the ExM website, the departmental administrator and the employer must first approve the content. The approval process takes place through the administrative site, making the process structured and user friendly.

Three steps are involved in the approval process:

1.      The appropriate departmental administrator will receive an e-mail, based on the major the student selects when submitting their experience. The e-mail will notify the administrator that a student has submitted an experience. The administrator can log into the admin site through the ExM home page and reviews the student’s submission. If the student indicates their submission can appear on the web and the administrator approves of the content, an email should be sent to the employer for approval. There is an e-mail employer button that automatically sends an e-mail from the admin site with a pre-written letter asking for approval of the content.

2.      The employer replies to the e-mail indicating their approval or denial of the content for use on the public site.

3.      Based on the employer feedback, the administrator either submits or does not submit the experience for public viewing. *If you feel the student submitted an excellent experience, you have the option of "Spotlighting" the submission. This allows the submission to appear on the front of the Experience page. Simply click the "Spotlight" button when approving the experience.

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