Experiential Learning Cloud: Placement Groups

This article will explain each of the characteristics of a placement group in more depth so that you can decide how best to structure placement groups for your program's placement process(es).

Jul 16, 2026
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Overview

All site placement processes must have at least one Placement Group. Placement groups serve the following purposes:

Defining a placement application period and the students who will be able to apply during that period
Assigning placement dates en masse to all members of a placement group
Designating site openings for a specified placement group for easier, more intuitive openings tracking
Linking placement approval information to a specified placement group for improved placement process oversight
Generating placement recommendations for all members of a placement group
Linking site placement information to a specified placement group

How Do Placement Groups Work?

Placement groups are created and managed within a Site Placement Process. Any user with the Program Administrative Function Plus + role can create or edit a placement group. Placement Groups cannot be deleted once they are in use.

To create a placement group:

Go to the Program Setup | Admin environment, then to the Site Processes workspace.
Choose the placement process that the placement group should have access to.
Click the Placement Groups tab.
Click (+ Add) to create a new placement group.
Establish the following parameters for your placement group:
1. Name: This must be unique (cannot be used by another placement group on the same or any other placement process). It should also be descriptive, describing the placement level, term, and any other key information that describes the unique placement experience that students from this placement group are applying for. Students and Placement Approvers will see this name in their placement approval workspace, so it should be written in a way that is easily understood by them.
2. Classification: Select the classification (typically placement level) that is applicable to the placement group.
3. Access Dates: Establish the dates during which students from the placement group should be able to initiate their placement process.
4. Placement Dates (optional): Assign standard placement dates to all members of the placement group. These dates will be applied to all placements created for students within this placement group.
5. Limit to Groups: If your placement group should only include students from specified groups, such as classes or cohorts, choose those here.
  1. If no groups are added, the placement group is available to all students. Once a group is linked to a placement group users must be associated with the linked group to access the placement process.
  2. Users can add an existing group or create a new group within the workspace.

Linking a Placement Group From the Group Record

An optional Placement Group field is available on group records, allowing a direct link to be created from the Groups workspace in the Staff & Students environment.
When a placement group is selected on a group record, the user will be prompted to use the placement group's access dates as the group's start and stop dates.
A Manage link is available on both sides (from the placement group record and from the group record) to navigate between the two.

Placement Groups and Site Openings

By linking an Opening Period to a Placement Group, the openings in that period will only apply to students in the specified placement group. This means that:

the openings will only be considered available for students in the specified placement group
placements created within the placement group will only count down openings associated with that placement group.

This will allow programs to better manage multiple, potentially overlapping, application periods throughout the academic year, as two opening periods (e.g. Spring Placement Openings and Fall Placement Openings) will have their own distinct totals that only apply to the placement group their openings are applicable to.

Placement Groups and the Placement Approval Workspace

Historically, the placement approval workspace has reflected the application status of all students who have ever had access to the placement process, resulting in placement approvers seeing information that is no longer applicable in the placement approval grid. With placement groups, placement approvers will be able to filter the grid by selected placement groups to ensure that they can remain focused only on students currently going through the placement process.

The Site Placement Dashboard in the Placement Approval workspace can also be filtered by a specified placement group to see a summary of placement information across the placement group, including:

the number of students placed vs. openings available to the placement group
the process statuses for all members of the placement group
the task statuses for all members of the placement group (disaggregated by Pre-Application, Site Step, and Supervisor Step)

Placement Groups and Placement Recommendations

Well-managed placement groups are perhaps most critical to the Placement Recommendations feature. This feature allows placement approvers to generate recommended placement matches for all members of a placement group.

The matching tool will look for students to match based on the following criteria:

They are included in the selected Placement Group
They do not already have a tentative or approved placement within this Placement Group
They have completed all required Pre-Application tasks within the placement process

NOTE: This feature is only available in placement processes that utilize the "Assigned" site capabilities.

Placement Groups and Site Placement Information

When a student is placed via the Site Placement Process, their placement records (site association and supervision rule) will be tied to their placement group. At this time, this allows users to filter the Placement Information table in the Site Placements workspace and the User - Site Associations table in the Mass Updates workspace by Placement Group(s).

Best Practices

It is best practice to limit your Placement Group by Groups so that the placement process is only open to students currently going through the placement application process. This will give your placement team improved oversight of the placement process.
Linking Opening Periods to Placement Groups is recommended for an optimal Openings Management experience.
Limiting Placement Groups by Groups will enable an improved, more targeted oversight of the placement approval grid.

Troubleshooting

If a student cannot access a placement process, check whether the group limitations on active Placement Groups apply to them.
If a student cannot continue applying to their placement after the end date, verify which steps were initiated prior to the end date.

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