All About Checks

Introduction

This article introduces the structure and use of Checks. Checks are tasks that must be completed by either students or supervisors, usually before beginning a placement.

We will look at the following types of Checks:

• Student Checks: Checks that must be completed before completing another task or before beginning placement
• Placement Checks: Checks assigned on students once they have been allocated to a site, essentially saying, “Now that you have been allocated, you must do this”
• Supervisor Checks: Checks that must be completed by supervisors
• Site requirements: Where to indicate Checks required by sites

Anatomy of a Student Check

Below is an example of a Student Check, which is the most common type of Check, from a student’s view in Sonia Online. Let’s break down the fields here; each one will be discussed more thoroughly further in the guide.

• The green “Pre-field” bar is a Check Category
• The red * indicates that this is a mandatory Check
• The ! in a circle indicates that it has not yet been completed/passed
• “Malpractice Liability Insurance” is the name of the Check
• “Not Complete” indicates the Check’s status; it has not been submitted for approval by the institution
• The Value, in this case, is the expiration date. In order to be passed/valid, this date must be in the future
• Reference is a free-text field and can indicate any helpful information about this Check
• Date Completed is the date that the Check was completed
• Review Date is the date the student can begin to update the Check, if needed
• Documents is where the student can browse their device for proof of the Check
• The Save button allows the student to save their information; Submit “sends” the Check to Check Manager for review/approval

Creating Checks

To create a Check, open School Options, and select Checks from the menu at the left.
Click the green + at the right to create a new Check.
To edit a Check, select one from the list, and click the edit pencil at the right.

As a side note, if you need to re-order the Checks, you can select a Check, and click the up or down arrow at the right. This affects the order in which the Checks are displayed in Sonia Online.

Details tab

Begin by entering the Name and Type of the Check.

Check Types

• Yes/No: Yes means the Check is passed (i.e., has been done) or that the student meets a qualification; No means it has not been passed or the student does not meet a qualification
  • Example: “Attended Orientation”. Yes – the student attended; No – the student did not attend
  • Example: A site requires a student to be over age 21. You might have a Check named “Over age 21”. If the student says No, they will not be eligible for that site.
• Date: This is the EXPIRATION date of a check
  • Examples: licenses, certifications, insurance, background/police checks
• Text: The Value field is free-text, and as long as it contains content, it is passed
  • Example: “Passport Number”

 

Identifying Student/Supervisor Check vs Placement Check

Tick “one value per student/supervisor if this check is for the student or the supervisor.
“One value per placement” will create a placement check. More on that later.

Descriptions tab

The boxes on this page allow you to give “help tips” to the user in Sonia Online.
The Check description displays below the name of the Check. See the screenshot of the red check above.
The Reference, Document, and Completed descriptions display as an icon – an i with a circle around it.

Settings tab

Complete the STUDENT column if the Check is a Student Check.
Complete the SUPERVISOR column if it is a Supervisor Check.

Explanation of the above options/fields:

Field	Description
Active	The Check is active for the role indicated
Is Mandatory	The Check is mandatory for the role indicated
Review Visible	Allows the student to see the Review Date
Review Date (not in Settings above)	This is the date that the validity of the Check should be reviewed and is set on an individual student’s Check by the Placement Officer.
Lock until review	The student cannot edit this Check until the Review Date
Validate on review	If enabled, the review date will become the expiry date of the Check, which can add an expiry for yes/no or text checks. In the case of date Checks, the Check will expire, depending on which date comes first, the value or the review date
Managed	This Check will be managed in the Check Manager
Hide unless in placement group	The only students who can see this Check are students who are in the placement group that requires this Check. When the Check is added to the placement group, it is automatically mandatory for those students.
Days pending expiry	Only applied to Managed Checks with a ‘Date’ Value type. Shows as a warning to students when “today’s” date is [the indicated number of] days from the Value of the Check. For example, if the Date Value on a Check is October 31, and the “Days Pending Expiry” is 30, on October 1, the Student will see that their Check is yellow with a status of “Pending Expiry”, and they are able to edit it. Unlike “lock until review”, in this method the check will not expire until the actual expiry date.
Days automatic review	Rather than set a specific Review Date on individual students, the Review Date can be [this number of] days before the expiry (Value).
Cleared value setting	The Value field must be a Date and will change to EITHER “[number of] days + Completed Date”  OR  a specific date

 

Permissions tab

Indicate which Check fields are visible to the user.
The options are read/write, read-only, write-once. If no option is chosen, the user will not see the field in Sonia Online. Write-once means that the field cannot be edited once submitted.

Value	The Check “response” – Yes/No, text, or expiry date.  It is this that is evaluated to see if the student has passed the Check.
Reference	This can be a description or anything that pertains to the Check. For example, if the Check was “Owns a passport”, this could be the passport number.
Date Completed	This is the date on which the Check was accomplished. For example, it might be the date of an immunisation or the date the police clearance was achieved.
Document	Supporting documents can be attached to the Check.

Categories tab

Checks can be grouped together based on Check Category.
The Category List must first be created in School Options > Lists > Check Category. Click the green + to create a new one or the edit pencil to edit an existing category.
The color selected is the color of the Check Category “bar” in Sonia Online. See the first screenshot above.

Once a Check Category list has been defined, click Add/Update, and then click Apply to save the change in School Options.
Back in the Check, on the Categories tab, select the Category from the dropdown at the top, and click the green + to assign it to this Check.

When all of the Check details have been defined, click Update at the bottom right. Then, click Apply in School Options.
To remove a Check Category from a Check, select the category, and click the red minus at the right. Click the Update button and then Apply on School Options.

Making Checks mandatory on an individual student

If an individual student must complete a Check that is not mandatory for other students, go to the student’s profile, click the Check Requirements button and then the green +, select the Check, click OK, and then save the profile.
There is currently not a way to do this in bulk.

Placement Checks

Placement Checks are assigned on students once they are allocated, and the Check has to do with that placement.
There are usually two scenarios for placement Checks:

1. A site requires the student do this Check once the student is allocated to that placement
   • For example, once a student is allocated to this site, she needs to do a background check
   • Explained under “Site Check Requirements” below
2. OR, all students in a placement group must do this Check once they are allocated
   • For example, once students in this placement group are allocated to any site, they need to complete an orientation
   • Explained next

Creating a placement Check

The only difference between creating a student/supervisor Check and a placement Check is selecting “one value per placement” and “active for student” on the Details tab. The other tabs remain the same.

Adding placement Checks to the placement group

To add a Placement Check in a placement group, click the Settings cog icon, and choose Check Requirements.

Click the green + at the bottom right to add a Placement Check and assign its permissions (screenshot below).

Now, once a student is allocated, this Placement Check will display as mandatory on his/her Checks page in Sonia Online. Note that it includes the context of their placement.
 

Site Check Requirements

Sites sometimes have Checks that they require of students before they can begin their placement.

• If the Site requires a specific Check of all interns, add the Check on the Site level
  • For example, students must be over 21
• If the Site sometimes requires the Check, maybe for a specific level of student, you can add the Check on the Placement Request level
  • For example, a professional license is required for Level 3 students.

Both options are explained in more detail below.

Adding a Check requirement to a site

Take this step if the site has a requirement in order to even be considered (e.g., age).
Open the Site profile, and click the Check Requirements button.
Click the green + to display the list of Checks (added in School Options) to put on the Site.

Adding a Check requirement to a placement request

Mandatory Check

A mandatory Check on a placement request means that the student needs to meet this Check in order to be allocated to a placement on this placement request.
The difference between adding the Check here vs adding it on the site profile is that the site might not require this Check for some placements.

Placement Check

Add a placement Check on the placement request if the student needs to complete this Check after being allocated to the Site.
To add the Check:

• Open the placement group > Placement Request page
• Double-click on the placement request
• Click the Check Requirements button
• Click the green + at the bottom in the “placement checks” section
• Select the placement Check; edit as needed
• Click OK
• Save the placement request

When the student sees this Check

If you have the setting highlighted below ticked in School Options > Online, the student will see the Site’s Mandatory Checks on the Preferencing page (screenshot on next page).

On the Preferencing page below, notice that the student is warned about not passing required Checks. In this case, when he goes to his Checks page, he will see the “COVID-19 vaccine” Check and can respond to that one if All About Kids is a site of interest. The “placement check” is an FYI at this point – he doesn’t have an allocation, so he can’t complete it yet. This is letting him know that if he does preference this site and is eventually allocated, he will need to do this Check.

TIP: If the student does not have to have met the Site-level Check (“COVID 19 Vaccine”) in order to preference the Site, you can allow the student to go ahead and preference it by turning on the Key Event indicated below on the placement group Details page.
If this event is not active, the student will not be able to preference the Site if s/he has not already met the Check.
 

How to view Checks in the Sonia Client

Viewing a student’s Checks on their profile

To view a student’s Checks, open a student’s profile, and navigate to the Checks page. Notice the placement Checks are at the bottom of the page.
In the Sonia Client, ALL Student Checks are listed on the student’s profile, regardless of the student’s visibility of the Check in Sonia Online.
Any field on any Check can be edited here.

Viewing students’ Checks through the placement group

Open the placement group, and navigate to the Checks page to view Check information on all of the students in this placement group.
Notice that you can click on the Student tab for Student Checks and the Placements tab for Placement checks.
Click the black + to the left of the student’s name to expand to see their Checks.
At the far right of the Check’s row is an icon with a clock. This is a Log of actions taken on this Check for this student.

Summary of Scenarios

Below are just a few examples to give you a better picture of what type of Check to use and where to put it.

Scenario	Type of Check	Make mandatory in School Options?	Where to add it	Comments
All students must complete Check before being placed anywhere	Student	Yes	Nowhere; all students will see it on their profile
Only students in a particular placement group need to see/ complete this Check	Student	No; tick “Hide unless in placement group” on Permissions tab when creating the Check	Placement group > Settings > Check Requirements > Mandatory Checks	Check becomes mandatory for students in this placement group
Students must complete this Check after being placed/allocated ANYWHERE	Placement	No	Placement group > Settings > Check Requirements > Placement Checks	Student will see this mandatory Check after allocation
Site requires this Check be completed before ANY student can be placed/allocated there	Student	No	Site profile > Check Requirements > Mandatory Check	Student will see this Check as non-mandatory on his profile but will not be able to preference or be allocated to the site until the Check is met (can be overridden).
Site requires this Check be completed before CERTAIN students can be placed/allocated there	Student	No	Site profile > Placement Requests > select placement group > open placement request > Check Requirements > Mandatory Checks	This Check is necessary for students who need to be allocated to this placement request but not for students interested in a different placement request (whether in the same placement group or a different one). Only students needing this placement request will see this Check.
Site requires this Check be completed after CERTAIN students placed/allocated there	Placement	No	Site profile > Placement Requests > select placement group > open placement request > Check Requirements > Placement Checks	Students needing to be allocated to this placement request must do this Check after being allocated to this site.

Checks wizard

You may have a scenario in which you need to update students’ Checks in bulk. To do this, go to the Students module > Search tab > enter your search criteria (e.g., placement group code) > click the Search button at the right > click the Checks button on the ribbon.
A dialog box will open. Choose the Check to update, and click Next.

Enter the details to update, and click Next.
NOTE: This will update this Check for ALL of the students in your search results.

   

Form Check Requirements

You can prevent a form respondent from completing a form by adding a Check requirement, essentially saying “You must complete this Check before you can complete this form”.

FAQ

Q: Student completed a placement Check for a site and then was unallocated and allocated to a different site. What happens to the Check she completed?
A: The Check is removed from Sonia Online for the student. It is also removed from her profile in the Sonia client.

Q: Can I copy the placement request Checks and site placement Checks?
A: If you copy the placement group (not just the placement requests), you can choose to copy the Checks on the placement request, including placement Checks.