Process Experience/Project
Throughout the students CAS programme they will have to engage in a variety of CAS experiences of which one has to be a project. Throughout most of the experiences/project they will have to use the CAS stages framework when appropriate. Some of their experience will have to take place outside of school in the engagement with the community. The majority of their CAS experiences/projects need to link with the selected UN sustainable development goal.
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Step 1: Coming up with a good idea
When your students has selected a goal for the CAS programme and they have thought of the aims to achieve that goal, it is time to start making ideas on what kind of experience/project they might want to do. In the beginning it might be difficult to make sure whether their ideas could actually count for CAS. Below you find two checklists; one for an experience and one for the project. With the idea of the student in mind try to go through the diagram, this is the quickest way to find out if their initial idea is suitable for CAS and otherwise what needs to be changed in order to make it into a good CAS experience/project! Students are encouraged to discuss their ideas with you in order to check if their ideas meet the requirements. Together you could take a look at these diagrams.
When your students has selected a goal for the CAS programme and they have thought of the aims to achieve that goal, it is time to start making ideas on what kind of experience/project they might want to do. In the beginning it might be difficult to make sure whether their ideas could actually count for CAS. Below you find two checklists; one for an experience and one for the project. With the idea of the student in mind try to go through the diagram, this is the quickest way to find out if their initial idea is suitable for CAS and otherwise what needs to be changed in order to make it into a good CAS experience/project! Students are encouraged to discuss their ideas with you in order to check if their ideas meet the requirements. Together you could take a look at these diagrams.
Experience
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Project
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Step 2: Finding a suitable supervisor for the experience
All experiences must have a supervisor and their details should be recorded in the proposal on Managebac. A supervisor must be an adult, who is not a family member or a close friend and should where possible, be an expert in the experience the student wants to do. Students should request permission of the supervisor before they can write the proposal. They need to explain them clearly what their plans are and what the role involves. They can use the supervisor letter and agreement form to inform them and to document their formal agreement to the role.
Students must make sure to ask their supervisors for both their email address and phone number as they will have to include this in their proposal.
In case you have any worries about the students progress you as the advisor can use the contact details to get in touch with the supervisor.
All experiences must have a supervisor and their details should be recorded in the proposal on Managebac. A supervisor must be an adult, who is not a family member or a close friend and should where possible, be an expert in the experience the student wants to do. Students should request permission of the supervisor before they can write the proposal. They need to explain them clearly what their plans are and what the role involves. They can use the supervisor letter and agreement form to inform them and to document their formal agreement to the role.
Students must make sure to ask their supervisors for both their email address and phone number as they will have to include this in their proposal.
In case you have any worries about the students progress you as the advisor can use the contact details to get in touch with the supervisor.
Step 3: Writing a proposal
Now the students has the idea in place and they have checked whether it fulfils the requirements it is time for the student to write the official proposal in the CAS portfolio on ManageBac. They should only write a proposal ones their ideas are complete and they exactly know what they are going to do.
As you can see in the image on the left there is a specific template students need to fill out. In the guidance document | writing a proposal you can find more specific guidance on what the students are expected to fill out in every section of the proposal. Ones the student have written the proposal they should notify you by leaving a message on the message board of that experience/project. It is the students responsibility to make sure you know when you can check their work. But of course it is your duty to ensure your students are working on something in case you don't hear anything from a student and you don't see any progress, get in touch with the student. Note that a student should not start with their experience/project until it has been approved you or the CAS coordinator. In order to complete the proposal students need a good understanding of the CAS strands, CAS stages framework and the Learning outcomes. You find more detailed information about this in the Advisor menu under the tab 'Understanding CAS', you could also take a short cut and use the buttons below! |
The CAS proposal that the students will need to fill out.
What a proposal looks like after students save it. This is what a good proposal needs to look like. You can go to this screen by clicking on the name of the experience in the worksheet.
This is the message board of this specific experience. This is the place where students can ask you questions, or update them of new changes. you can leave feedback!
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STEP 4 : Approving the Proposal
As an advisor you should be checking the proposals from your student on a regular basis, you need to indicate whether they are approved or not.
Students will know when their CAS proposal is approved if the indicator behind the title changes from 'to be determined' to 'approved' (see the indicator symbols below) It can also happen that their proposal gets rejected by you, this means that there is not sufficient information or the idea does not fulfil all requirements. If this is the case they will see the 'rejected' indicator. The student should be given the possibility to fix the proposal. You will leave them a comment on what needs to be improved in order to get the proposal approved. After they have made the changes the student again notifies you through the message board that they have updated the work according to the comments. As you have seen above the students do need to include some specific parts in their proposals. In order to get a quick overview of the required proposal elements take a look at the proposal checklist document, you can access this by clicking the button below. If you are unsure about how to use MB in order to approve a proposal, please see the Managebac tutorial on how to approve a proposal |
Step 5: Start the Experience/Project
Ones the students have received approval on the proposal it is time to for them start the experience/project. This means that they will start going through the CAS stages as they had them planned in the proposal. For an experience the student would have selected the CAS stages that are applicable to their plans (as sometimes they won't need to do investigation for instance) for the CAS project or more substantial CAS experiences they must use the CAS stages framework (all stages need to be used and included). If you are not quite sure yet on what the CAS stages framework is you can find a more detailed explanation and examples on the page 'CAS stages' in the advisor menu under 'Understanding CAS', or you can use the button below.
Throughout the experience/project the will need to upload reflection and evidence on a weekly basis, depending on the CAS stage they are working on. On the CAS stages framework page they will find links to templates that they can use to investigate, plan and reflect on their experience/project.
Keep in mind that these templates are not everything they might want to do, they are mainly used to get the students started and to give them an idea on what needs to be done. The students need to make a copy of the template document in order to be able to edit them. Students are advised to create a CAS folder on Google Drive account to store these documents for themselves, there is no need in sharing these with you (as they need to make sure these documents are uploaded on MB. Ones the students is done with a document they will convert it to a PDF and upload it as a 'file' in the ManageBac CAS portfolio.
During the experience the student will need to make sure to record evidence of what they are doing, evidence can be: photos, videos, screenshots, documents, emails, audio clips etc. Students should start and maintain a process log on Managebac in order to record and reflect on what they are doing, this is especially important for experiences with a longer duration and for the CAS project.
You as the advisor need to monitor the process of the student closely to make sure the students is working on CAS on a weekly basis. Pick one moment in the week on which you will go over the CAS portfolios of your students to do a check.
Keep in mind that these templates are not everything they might want to do, they are mainly used to get the students started and to give them an idea on what needs to be done. The students need to make a copy of the template document in order to be able to edit them. Students are advised to create a CAS folder on Google Drive account to store these documents for themselves, there is no need in sharing these with you (as they need to make sure these documents are uploaded on MB. Ones the students is done with a document they will convert it to a PDF and upload it as a 'file' in the ManageBac CAS portfolio.
During the experience the student will need to make sure to record evidence of what they are doing, evidence can be: photos, videos, screenshots, documents, emails, audio clips etc. Students should start and maintain a process log on Managebac in order to record and reflect on what they are doing, this is especially important for experiences with a longer duration and for the CAS project.
You as the advisor need to monitor the process of the student closely to make sure the students is working on CAS on a weekly basis. Pick one moment in the week on which you will go over the CAS portfolios of your students to do a check.
How to upload 'Reflections & Evidence' on ManageBac
Step 1
Students go to the CAS portfolio overview page, by going to 'IB manager' and selecting 'CAS'. In the portfolio they will see an overview of the experience/projects they have written proposals for.
They click on the title of the experience/project they want to upload reflections/evidence for.
Step 4:
Students can choose from different tabs, select the tab according to what kind of evidence/reflection they are planning to upload! Keep in mind that they can only upload in one tab at a time. The journal can be used to keep process logs or write reflections, the website tab can be used to include links to specific websites. On the video tab you can upload videos from your computer. When uploading Photos: Students should give each photo a caption, write in the caption the date they are uploading the photo and a short description of what we can see in the photo. When uploading files: Students need to make sure they have converted the files they upload to a PDF format. They will also see the learning outcomes they have selected for this experience popping up at the bottom. If the evidence or reflection that they are going to upload helps them to demonstrate the development in one or more of the learning outcomes the need to tick the boxes for those learning outcomes accordingly. If not, they don't tick any boxes. Last but not least, press 'Add New Entry' |
Step 6: CAS questions (Self-evaluation)
Now that the experience is done, students will have to evaluate their achievement/development of the learning outcomes and the goal they have stated in the proposal. They will do this by filling out the CAS Questions section in the portfolio. Make sure the students don't answer with just yes or no, we are looking for a substantial, in depth response to each question. This step needs to be completed within two weeks after they have ended the experience.
Where to find the CAS questions on Managebac
Now that the experience is done, students will have to evaluate their achievement/development of the learning outcomes and the goal they have stated in the proposal. They will do this by filling out the CAS Questions section in the portfolio. Make sure the students don't answer with just yes or no, we are looking for a substantial, in depth response to each question. This step needs to be completed within two weeks after they have ended the experience.
Where to find the CAS questions on Managebac
Step 7: Supervisor Review
The supervisor for this experience/project needs to complete a review for the student. This can be done digitally by pressing the button 'Request Supervisor Review', by pressing this button an automatic email will be send to their supervisor (on the email address they have provided in the proposal). Ones the supervisor completes the form that they receive by email it will appear on the page. Keep in mind that the email and the information will be in partly in English, some elements will be translated in Dutch. The supervisor will also receive an overview of the reflections & evidence.
If digitally is not possible we have a paper version as well, this should be signed by the supervisor and should be uploaded as evidence on the portfolio.
Keep in mind that we prefer student to do this digitally, but in case this is not possible please contact the CAS coordinator.
This step needs to be completed within two weeks after the student has ended the experience.
The supervisor for this experience/project needs to complete a review for the student. This can be done digitally by pressing the button 'Request Supervisor Review', by pressing this button an automatic email will be send to their supervisor (on the email address they have provided in the proposal). Ones the supervisor completes the form that they receive by email it will appear on the page. Keep in mind that the email and the information will be in partly in English, some elements will be translated in Dutch. The supervisor will also receive an overview of the reflections & evidence.
If digitally is not possible we have a paper version as well, this should be signed by the supervisor and should be uploaded as evidence on the portfolio.
Keep in mind that we prefer student to do this digitally, but in case this is not possible please contact the CAS coordinator.
This step needs to be completed within two weeks after the student has ended the experience.
Step 8: Advisor completion check
After the supervisor review is in, students should kindly request you to check their work for completion. They should request the completion check by leaving a message on the message board of the experience/project they want to have checked.
You can use the Guidance document 'experience/project completion checklist' to check the work.
It could happen that after you check the work you come to the conclusion that the work is not completed.
Leave the student a comment on their MB experience page explaining what is missing so that they can update the work accordingly. In this comment provide them with a deadline of when changes have to be made. After the student has included the missing parts they ask you again to check their work through the message board.
Please remind your student that they should have their experience completed within the 2 weeks after the action stage is completed.
After the supervisor review is in, students should kindly request you to check their work for completion. They should request the completion check by leaving a message on the message board of the experience/project they want to have checked.
You can use the Guidance document 'experience/project completion checklist' to check the work.
It could happen that after you check the work you come to the conclusion that the work is not completed.
Leave the student a comment on their MB experience page explaining what is missing so that they can update the work accordingly. In this comment provide them with a deadline of when changes have to be made. After the student has included the missing parts they ask you again to check their work through the message board.
Please remind your student that they should have their experience completed within the 2 weeks after the action stage is completed.