Learn how East Carolina University’s College of Education Streamlined Placement Management with Sonia.

When it was time for ECU’s College of Education to migrate to a new student placement management software, the Office of Assessment, Data Management and Digital Learning selected Sonia.  

Digitizing the Placement Process to Streamline and Meet University Needs 

The team considered another software solution; however, they found that it wasn’t flexible enough for their needs. Sonia is highly customizable, and this was a key decision factor for the ECU team.  

Prior to Sonia, the placement team emailed each other various spreadsheets and scanned documents. “Everything was on paper; this was time consuming and hard to manage,” said Mary Worthington, Data Manager; Office of Assessment, Data Management and Digital Learning; College of Education. 

The built-in fields in Sonia help the team to collect information in one place, and they can easily add new fields any time as their needs change.  

 

>>Learn More about Sonia. Request a Demo

Navigating Uncertainty Made Easy 

Sonia was implemented at the start of 2020 and became a critical tool to help the team smoothly navigate the fast-moving and unpredictable changes that followed through 2020 and 2021. “It was just in time to help us manage through the pandemic, and it saved us tremendously,” said Mary.  

“Sonia meant that we experienced no break in service, no problems communicating updates and changes with schools, and constant - sometimes daily - communications with students.” 

“With all forms now done completely electronically, we could manage so smoothly and quickly. Sister institutes were struggling and wondering how we were doing this. We said, ‘we’re good, we’ve got Sonia!’” 

Additionally, Sonia’s reporting and tracking functionality helped with a smooth transition back to campus when the time came.  

Setting Up the System and Stakeholders for Ongoing Success 

The Sonia team worked closely with Mary, her Director, and ECU’s IT team to ensure staff, students, and sites were set up for success. “Everyone was great to work with,” said Mary.  

A daily import from the main university database ensures that data is always accurate. The bulk upload is Mary’s favorite feature, “In the old system, information and statistics for all public schools in the state had to be updated individually each year, which took a grad student six months. Now with Sonia, the full project is completed in 30 minutes!” 

Students were provided with instructions and found Sonia easy to use. Staff saw the benefit of everything they do being in the one place – happily waving goodbye to the challenging process of working across multiple spreadsheets. 

“Sonia works really, really well and the product expert team replies almost immediately to any questions. They also help me to think about our processes differently, which is really helpful in finding new, more efficient ways to record and collect accurate data.”  

Supporting Teacher Education Engagement and Licensure Requirements 

Prior to the Sonia implementation, clinical teachers were required to participate in training modules in a separate system to create a personal account, “it was a hassle and they hated it”. Now, with Sonia all communications and forms are sent electronically to their school email account. Clinical teachers no longer need to log in or remember passwords. “It’s just an email which is a big blessing. It’s one less thing for them to worry about, and the response rate for submitting forms has really increased.” This means that the ECU team saves time as there is less follow up required.  

Additionally, before Sonia, the team could only track edTPA scores as pass or did not pass. There was no way to store and search for date, score, or retake data – which all needed to be reported to various agencies. “It was not great information, and it took a really long time to upload each status individually.” With Sonia, the team can collect and store all information required and it’s done in 5-10 minutes. “Now the edTPA coordinator and licensure specialist always have what they need, and all of the information is recorded.”  

The ECU team continue to expand usage of Sonia as new opportunities arise. For example, Education Residency Candidates will soon be managed through Sonia, with a specific customizable layout. This means all the moving parts and spreadsheets are now in one place which makes people’s lives so much easier. When asked if she would recommend Sonia to other colleges, Mary said, “Just go to Sonia”.  

Manual Processes Were No Longer Viable

The Field Education team at Massachusetts-based William James College, a leader in experiential education, behavioral health, and psychology education, needed a solution to support streamlining management of their field placement programs.

With approximately 600 training sites, over 800 students, and a complex operating environment, the small field education team needed to replace a homegrown system that was difficult to use and required heavy additional manual processing.

Cheryl MacDonald, Assistant Director Field Education at William James College, explained that the team had been working with "an inefficient system that was costly and cumbersome to manage." In fact, a team of students had to be hired to work throughout the year to support the manual placement processes, which added more cost to the program.

Sonia Met the Team's Requirements and Came with Glowing Endorsements

Cheryl worked with the William James College IT team to determine the right solution.  During a project to replace a campus-wide ERP system, a review was undertaken to select an appropriate student placement management solution.

The team considered many software options but, apart from Sonia, no other software solutions met their requirements.

Sonia stood as the clear choice for the team because:

• Sonia is developed specifically for field placement use and does not require extensive retooling, customization and additional cost that comes with that;
• ​Sonia allows the team to work across multiple degree programs and training levels, ensuring training requirements and competencies are accurately managed based on specific licensing and accreditation regulations;
• Sonia is highly customizable, and can be configured to suit any department's unique placement needs;
• Sonia offers superior reporting capabilities.

The team also ran a thorough customer reference check process with current Sonia customers. They received overwhelmingly positive feedback about both the Sonia product and the US-based support team.

The ability to meet the William James team’s requirements, coupled with glowing customer reviews, made it an easy decision. “Sonia could do what we needed, without a doubt,” said Cheryl.

>>Learn More about Sonia. Request a Demo.

A Well-Designed Implementation Drove Success

William James College established a project committee to manage the implementation in partnership with QSR’s team of Sonia Experts and Support staff.

Sonia’s Student Importer was a critical feature during the implementation process, as it allowed William James’ staff to integrate Sonia with its campus management system so data could be updated seamlessly between the systems. “Sonia’s Student Importer offers huge benefits for schools with a large placement population,” said Abigail Manwell, QSR’s Sonia Product Expert for North America. “It ensures placement data is up to date and accurate, and our API allows us to work with virtually every campus management system on the market today.”

When the time was right, Cheryl launched a pilot program with students. This important step helped the team fine tune processes before launching more widely. Following the pilot, Sonia was very successfully launched with two degree programs, with a third to follow soon. The team customized Sonia to support each degree program's unique requirements.

Accolades and Happy Customers

Sites, students and the field education team are thrilled with the benefits of Sonia.

Sites are delighted. William James received feedback from sites saying they love the “nifty new system”, and it is so much easier for them to update their information. They can attach resources like videos and brochures to better market themselves to students, which they see as a tremendous benefit.

Students can now more easily complete site searches. "Sites can be identified very quickly based on a specific requirement, like client age, setting, and treatment modality. And updating information like email addresses is simple, no longer taking six steps!  You can just do it all in one place. It's remarkable," said Cheryl.

In addition to managing student placements, Cheryl uses Sonia for site development – nurturing partnerships with new and existing placement sites. Previously managed in Excel, agencies and next steps are now easily tracked in Sonia.

Not only is the field education team now more successful, but they are also acquiring marketable new skills and garnering kudos for delivering a solution with strong organizational efficiencies.

When asked if Cheryl would recommend Sonia to other field education offices, “Oh, a thousand percent! This is an amazing product.”

​About William James College
Founded in 1974, William James College is an independent, non-profit institution and a leader in educating the next generation of mental health professionals to support the growing and diverse needs of the mental health workforce. Integrating field work with academics, the College prepares students for careers as organizational leaders and behavioral health professionals who are committed to helping the underserved, multicultural populations, children and families, and veterans. William James College alumni can be found making an impact in a variety of settings, including schools, the courts, clinical care facilities, hospitals, the community and the workplace.

About Sonia

Sonia, developed by QSR International, is a student placement solution and central hub for program data management that supports improvements and efficiencies for work integrated learning programs.

• The use of spreadsheets for placement administration proved costly when a file corrupted and the data recovery process proved to be time-consuming and laborious.
• Sonia brought greater efficiencies and improved experiences to staff, students and site supervisors
• Sonia streamlined and automated many processes
• Support for off-campus activities, on-campus learning and integrations with payment and learning management systems
• Sonia manages inventory requirements and supports risk assessments

A relatively young public university located on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia, the University of the Sunshine Coast opened in 1996. Renowned for its research, the university places students in rotations, internships and other work integrated learning programs, with the nursing program as its largest cohort. Student placement operations for the university are managed by Sonya Smith, System Administrator, Student Services and Engagement.

Before using Sonia, Ms. Smith, an experienced education placements officer was feeling the stress of tight deadlines and varying requirements for teaching areas. The use of spreadsheets for placement administration proved costly when a file corrupted and the data recovery process proved to be time-consuming and laborious. This led to research into student placement software solutions, a vetting process, and ultimately the selection and implementation of Sonia.

University leaders were watching as Sonia was rolled out to various departments, and Ms. Smith worked with each school and discipline to tailor the product to their needs, bringing greater efficiencies and improved experiences to staff, students and site supervisors. Now an official record-keeping repository for 25 disciplines, the platform streamlines data and saves time.

Automation Supports Personalized Placements

Since implementing Sonia, Ms. Smith and her centralized team have turned a critical eye towards various processes that could be streamlined and automated. The implementation at the University of the Sunshine Coast has grown to support all off-campus activities, including field trips, study tours and placement courses. Sonia also supports on-campus learning by managing requirements for classes students take at the USC hospital. Integrations with payment systems and Blackboard (LMS) enable
better experiences for staff and students.

Sonia has proven itself to be a powerful tool with its electronic forms. Student placement workflows are no longer paper-based, and automated email reminders are a big time-saver for administrators and students. Students in the Nursing cohort are assessed via an electronic form in Sonia. Pass/fail grades are automatically sent to Blackboard, an improvement over the previous manual importing of grades into the LMS.

A Critical Communication Tool

The dashboard serves as a simple interface for managing critical communication and data needs for students participating in off-campus coursework, and the communication features proved critical when news broadcasts warned of a large cyclone headed for India. With students studying there, school officials moved quickly. By using Sonia, administrators were immediately able to identify those students studying in India and get news of the cyclone and safety procedures to them.
 

>> Learn how to streamline placement communications​

Student placement workflows are no longer paper-based, and automated email reminders are a big time-saver for administrators and students.

Sharing Best Practices

A leader in student placement operations, Ms. Smith traveled to Western Australia in 2018 to share her knowledge and best practices with peers at four universities. Sonya presented on USC’s model of providing university-wide placement support via a central team. She highlighted new product features and how they apply to various placement models. Representatives from local universities learned about time-saving features and functionalities that generally apply to any placement program.

Looking Ahead

Ms. Smith and her team continue to look at expanding the use of Sonia across the university for further improvements to processes and stakeholder experiences. She is currently looking into integrations with other key components of the campus technology ecosystem.