Process Experience/Project
Throughout your individual CAS programme you will engage in a variety of CAS experiences of which one has to be a project. Throughout most of your experiences/project you will have to use the CAS stages framework if appropriate. Some of your experience will have to take place outside of school in the engagement with the community.
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Step 1: Coming up with a good idea
When you have selected your goal for your CAS programme and you have thought of the aims to achieve your goal, it is time to start making ideas on what kind of experience/project you might want to do. In the beginning it might be difficult to make sure whether you ideas could actually count for CAS. Below you find two checklists; one for an experience and one for the project. Take you idea in mind and go through the diagram, this is the quickest way to find out if your initial idea is suitable for CAS and otherwise what needs to be changed in order to make it into a good CAS experience/project!
You can discuss your ideas with your CAS advisor as well to make sure that your idea fulfils all the requirements.
When you have selected your goal for your CAS programme and you have thought of the aims to achieve your goal, it is time to start making ideas on what kind of experience/project you might want to do. In the beginning it might be difficult to make sure whether you ideas could actually count for CAS. Below you find two checklists; one for an experience and one for the project. Take you idea in mind and go through the diagram, this is the quickest way to find out if your initial idea is suitable for CAS and otherwise what needs to be changed in order to make it into a good CAS experience/project!
You can discuss your ideas with your CAS advisor as well to make sure that your idea fulfils all the requirements.
Step 2: Finding a suitable supervisor for the experience
All experiences must have a supervisor and their details should be recorded in your 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 you choose. You should request permission of the supervisor before you can write your proposal. You need to explain them clearly what your plans are and what the role involves. You can use the supervisor letter and agreement form to inform them and to document their formal agreement to the role.
You must make sure to ask them for both their email address and phone number as you will have to include this in your proposal.
All experiences must have a supervisor and their details should be recorded in your 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 you choose. You should request permission of the supervisor before you can write your proposal. You need to explain them clearly what your plans are and what the role involves. You can use the supervisor letter and agreement form to inform them and to document their formal agreement to the role.
You must make sure to ask them for both their email address and phone number as you will have to include this in your proposal.
Step 3: Writing a proposal
Now you have your idea and you have checked whether it fulfils the requirements it is time to write an official proposal in your CAS portfolio on ManageBac. You only write your proposal ones your ideas are complete and you exactly know what you are going to do.
As you can see in the image on the left there is a specific template you need to fill out. In the guidance document | writing a proposal you can find more specific guidance on what you are expected to fill out in every section of the proposal. Ones you have written your proposal you should notify your advisor by leaving them a message on the message board of that experience/project. It is your responsibility to make sure your advisors knows they can check your work. Write them a kind comment asking them to check your proposal for approval. Note that you can't start with your experience/project till it has been approved by the advisor or the coordinator. You will know when it 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 your proposal get rejected, this means that there is not sufficient information or the idea does not fulfil all requirements. If this is the case you will see the 'rejected' indicator. This is not the end of the world, you can probably still fix this proposal. Your advisor will leave you a comment on what needs to be improved in order to get the proposal approved. After you have made the changes you again notify your advisor through the message board that your have updated the work according to the comments and if they can check it again. In order to complete the proposal you will need a good understanding of the CAS strands, CAS stages framework and the Learning outcomes. You find more detailed information about this in the student menu under the tab 'Understanding CAS', you could also take a short cut and use the buttons below! |
The CAS proposal you will need to fill out.
What a proposal looks like after you 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 you can ask you advisor questions, or update them of new changes. Your advisor can leave feedback as well.
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STEP 4 : Upload the supervisor agreement form
After you have written your proposal you should upload the signed supervisor agreement form. You will do this in the reflection & evidence section of your experience.
Step 5: Start the Experience/Project
Ones you have received approval on your proposal it is time to start the experience/project. This means that you will start going through the CAS stages as you had them planned in the proposal. For an experience you would have selected the CAS stages that are applicable to your plans (as sometimes you won't need to do investigation for instance) for the CAS project or more substantial CAS experiences you must use the CAS stages framework. 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 student menu under 'Understanding CAS', or you can use the button below.
Throughout your experience/project you will need to upload reflection and evidence on a weekly basis, depending on the CAS stage you are working on. On the CAS stages framework page you will find links to templates that you can use to investigate, plan and reflect on your experience/project.
Keep in mind that these templates are not everything you might want to do, they are mainly use to get you started and to give you an idea on what needs to be done. You will make a copy of the template document in order to be able to edit them. It might be smart to create a CAS folder on your Google Drive account to store these documents for yourself. Ones you are done with a document you will convert it to a PDF and upload it as a 'file' in your ManageBac CAS portfolio.
During the experience you will need to make sure your record evidence of what you are doing, evidence can be: photos, videos, screenshots, documents, emails, audio clips etc. Begin and maintain a process log on Managebac in order to record and reflect on what you are doing, this is especially important for experiences with a longer duration and for the CAS project.
Keep in mind that these templates are not everything you might want to do, they are mainly use to get you started and to give you an idea on what needs to be done. You will make a copy of the template document in order to be able to edit them. It might be smart to create a CAS folder on your Google Drive account to store these documents for yourself. Ones you are done with a document you will convert it to a PDF and upload it as a 'file' in your ManageBac CAS portfolio.
During the experience you will need to make sure your record evidence of what you are doing, evidence can be: photos, videos, screenshots, documents, emails, audio clips etc. Begin and maintain a process log on Managebac in order to record and reflect on what you are doing, this is especially important for experiences with a longer duration and for the CAS project.
How to upload 'Reflections & Evidence' on ManageBac
Step 1
Go to your CAS portfolio overview page, by going to 'IB manager' and selecting 'CAS'. In your portfolio you will see an overview of the experience/projects you have written proposals for.
Click on the title of the experience/project you want to upload reflections/evidence for.
Step 4:
You can choose from different tabs, select the tab according to what kind of evidence/reflection you are planning to upload! Keep in mind that you 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: Give each photo a caption, write in the caption the date you are uploading the photo and a short description of what we can see in the photo. When uploading files: Make sure you have converted the files you upload to a PDF format. You will also the the learning outcomes you have selected for this experience popping up at the bottom. If the evidence or reflection that you are going to upload helps you to demonstrate your development in one or more of the learning outcomes please tick the boxes for those learning outcomes accordingly. If not, don't tick any boxes. Last but not least, press 'Add New Entry' |
Step 6: CAS questions (Self-evaluation)
Now that your experience is done, you will have to evaluate your achievement/development of the learning outcomes and the goal you have stated in your proposal. You will do this by filling out the CAS Questions section in your portfolio. Make sure you 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 you have ended your experience.
Where to find the CAS questions on Managebac
Now that your experience is done, you will have to evaluate your achievement/development of the learning outcomes and the goal you have stated in your proposal. You will do this by filling out the CAS Questions section in your portfolio. Make sure you 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 you have ended your experience.
Where to find the CAS questions on Managebac
Step 7: Supervisor Review
Your supervisor for this experience/project needs to complete a review for you. This can be done digitally by pressing the button 'Request Supervisor Review', by pressing this button an automatic email will be send to your supervisor (on the email address you have provided in your proposal). Ones your supervisor completes the form that they receive by email it will appear on your page. Keep in mind that the email and the information will be in party in English, some elements will be translated in Dutch. You supervisor will also receive an overview of your 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 your portfolio.
Keep in mind that we prefer you to do this digitally, but in case this is not possible please contact the CAS coordinator.
This step need to be completed within two weeks after you have ended your experience.
Your supervisor for this experience/project needs to complete a review for you. This can be done digitally by pressing the button 'Request Supervisor Review', by pressing this button an automatic email will be send to your supervisor (on the email address you have provided in your proposal). Ones your supervisor completes the form that they receive by email it will appear on your page. Keep in mind that the email and the information will be in party in English, some elements will be translated in Dutch. You supervisor will also receive an overview of your 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 your portfolio.
Keep in mind that we prefer you to do this digitally, but in case this is not possible please contact the CAS coordinator.
This step need to be completed within two weeks after you have ended your experience.
Step 8: Advisor completion check
After you have received your supervisor review, you will kindly request your advisor to check your work for completion. You request the completion check by leaving a message on the message board of the experience/project you want to have checked.
It could happen that your work is not completed, your advisor will leave you a comment explaining what is missing so that you can update your work accordingly. After you have included the missing parts you again request the advisor to check your work through the message board.
You must ensure that you have your experience completed within the 2 weeks after the action stage is completed.
After you have received your supervisor review, you will kindly request your advisor to check your work for completion. You request the completion check by leaving a message on the message board of the experience/project you want to have checked.
It could happen that your work is not completed, your advisor will leave you a comment explaining what is missing so that you can update your work accordingly. After you have included the missing parts you again request the advisor to check your work through the message board.
You must ensure that you have your experience completed within the 2 weeks after the action stage is completed.