How to Build and Edit Time Tracks in Experiential Learning Cloud (In-Depth)

 

Overview

Time tracks are a dynamic tool for collecting students' time spent and activities performed while in their field experiences. In this article learn about building tracks, editing track activities, and editing and repairing tracks after they are in use.

Note: This feature is available to users with the Program Setup role. 

How To Build a New Track:

1. Start in the Program Setup | Customization environment.
2. Next, go to the Track Builder workspace.
3. To build a new time track, click on the Add (+) button in the upper right hand corner of the table. A new time track record will appear.
   
4. Complete the following information about the track's Details:
   1. Name: Give your track a name. We recommend including your school or program name and the name of the field experience or class associated with the track.
      1. Example: ABC University - Practicum Time Track, or ABC Teaching Pathways - Student Teaching Time Track
   2. Qualification: This will either be Graduation, if the student is entering hours on the track to complete requirements for graduation or a specific qualification, if the student is entering hours on the track to complete post-graduation hours for licensure.
   3. Track Builder Description: You can include a description of the track. This field is optional.
   4. Governing Authority: This will either be University, for tracks with the Graduation qualification, or State, for tracks with a specific qualification for state licensure.
   5. Authority Reference URL: You can include a URL to the institution, association, or organization that is selected in the Governing Authority field.
   6. Report Tags: This allows a track to be synced with a specific report. This is necessary for the 508, 511, 528, 530, BCBA, and APPIC reports. If a track is not connected to a report via report tags, then users won’t be able to display hours from the track on those reports.  
   7. Allow Tags: You can allow students to add tags, pre-determined by your team, to their time track entries. The default is disabled, but you can change this to required or optional.
   8. Record Activity Occurrences: Check this box if you would like to allow students to track the number of occurrences of an activity. Learn more here.
5. Next, click on the Activities tab
   
6. To add activities to the time track, click on (+) Add button.
   
   

7. Repeat steps 6-8 for each activity you want to add to your new time track.

8. Once you've created the activities for your track you can drag and drop them to create a hierarchy that relates to program or licensure requirements.
   
   

Editing Track Activities

When you add a new activity to your track you have a few different options how how you can edit the activity. These include Details, Requirements, Track Mapping, Flavors, Experiences, and Tags.

Activity Details

1. When adding a new activity you will want to enter the following information:
   1. Details:
      1. Name: Enter a name for the activity being tracked (In most instances, the first activity will be “Total Hours”)
      2. Description: You can include a description for the student if you want to provide more detail about the activity. This is an optional field.
   2. Behavior:
      1. Parent heading: Selecting this box specifies the activity as a "Parent", setting the hierarchal relationship between two or more activities. Hours tracked in activities listed below this parent will flow into this activity. 
         1. For example: You may have an activity called "Direct Hours" and within direct hours you have students track hours such as Individual, Couple, and Family Counseling. Students will be tracking hours in the individual, couple, and family categories and all hours they track will accumulate in the Direct Hours "parent" activity.
            
            
      2. Multiplier value: Including a multiplier value on an activity will multiply the hours entered for that activity by the number included here. 
      3. Start date: This should be used when editing a live track. Enter a start date for the new activity to be available for students.
      4. End date: This should be used when editing a live track. Enter an end date for the old activity you no longer want available for students.
   3. Features:
      1. Allow notes: Allowing notes gives students the ability to add additional notes to a time entry for an individual activity. The default option is disabled, but this can be changed to required or optional.
      2. Allow assessments: Allowing assessments gives students the ability to add specific assessments completed to a time entry for an individual activity. This is most commonly used with APPIC programs.
   4. Reports:
      1. Report tags: This allows a track to be synced with a specific report. This is necessary for the 508, 511, 528, 530, BCBA, and APPIC reports. If a track is not connected to a report via report tags, then users won’t be able to display hours from the track on those reports. 
      2. Type for 5XX reports: This is the ability to differentiate between direct, indirect, and supervision activity types. If this is done, then the 514 report will show a breakdown of hours by these types, regardless of the parent/child hierarchy.  
      3. Include on 5XX reports: If this is selected, then the activity will show up in its own column in the 524 and 526 spreadsheet output reports.  
2. Once you've entered activity details, select the dropdown and move on to adding requirements, track mapping, flavors, experiences, and tags.
   

Requirements

When building a time track, you have options to add requirements. These could be the program or state's requirements like Minimum Total Hours or Minimum Hours Per Month of a specific activity. When you include Requirements on individual activities or the overall track, they will appear on the Track Progress Widget or on the month or track view of the student's view of their time track if the requirement has a specific time period associated to it.

NOTE: We recommend adding at least one requirement to at least one activity on your track, as the track progress widget will appear broken if no requirements are added to a time track.

1. To add requirements, click on the activity you would like to add a requirement to.
2. Then select Requirement from the activity's dropdown menu.
   
3. Give the requirement a Name.
4. You can also update the optional field for Track progress description. This will display with the requirement in the track progress widget.
5. Finally, enter the number of hours required in the corresponding field. The most commonly used requirements are Min total hours and Min/Max hours per week.
6. Overall track requirements can also be created in the Requirements tab. Individual activity requirements will also be displayed in this tab.
   
7. The Update Progress tab allows you to update and refresh the track progress of a single track user or all track users. Use this when track requirements have been changed or a track user experiences an error.
   

Track Mapping

When building time tracks you also have the option to map an activity from one track to an activity on another track. This is typically done when student's hours count toward multiple qualifications. When you set up track mapping, students can log time once and have it be counted on two different time tracks, allowing them to count their hours toward those two requirements without needing to enter the information twice.

1. To set up track mapping, first make sure both the track you are mapping FROM and the track you are map TO have been built.
2. Open the track you are mapping from and click on the specific activity you would like to map.
3. Then select Track Mapping from the activity's dropdown menu.
   
4. Select the track you are mapping TO in the Linked Track field.
5. Finally, select the specific activity you would like to map to in the To activity field

Track Mapping Best Practices

Do's

Don'ts

Limit the number of tracks that are mapped to each other. It’s ok to map Track A to Track B and Track B to Track C, but try to avoid mapping more than 3 tracks together (eg. Track C to Track D) Avoid mapping child activities to child required activities. This can prevent the student from editing the hours on the destination track and can also cause the mapped hours to be incorrect and require a child activity. Be sure to make a note in the Track builder description that the tracks have mapping set up so others know this before editing the track.

Don't map tracks to each other more than once. (eg. don’t map Track A to Track B and then map Track B to Track A) Don't make edits to the track if it is mapped. Moving activities on either the source track or the destination track can cause hours to be orphaned or mapped incorrectly. Don't map a parent activity and its child activities to the same track. This will cause the hours logged under the activities to be duplicated.

 

Time Flavors

Flavors are additional characteristics related to a time entry. Flavors consist of a list of options within a given category. Flavors are commonly used for time entry characteristics such as modality, setting, or grade level. You will build flavors in a separate workspace, the steps indicated below are specifically for linking a new activity to a flavor that has already been built. Learn more about building flavors here.  

1. To add flavors, click on the activity you would like to add a flavor option to.
2. Then select Flavors from the activity's dropdown menu.
3. Choose from the list of flavors you previously built to use with your time tracks.

 

Experiences

Experiences allow students to tie a group of attributes to each time entry. Experiences are commonly used to track client demographic data for individual and groups of clients. You will build experiences in a separate workspace, the steps indicated below are specifically for linking a new activity to an experience that has already been built. Learn more about building experiences here.   

1. To add experiences, click on the activity you would like to add an experience option to.
2. Then select Experiences from the activity's dropdown menu.
3. Choose from the list of experiences you previously built to use with your time tracks. 

 

Tags

Tags allow students to track additional characteristics about a time entry for more nuanced time tracking. Pull reports on tags at the individual or program level to see percentages of tagged hours logged. You will build tags in a separate workspace, the steps indicated below are specifically for linking a tag to a new activity. Learn more about creating tags here.

NOTE: Linking an activity to a tag simply makes it available to students to choose when logging that activity. The tag will not automatically be associated with all timesheets logged for that activity. 

 

1. To add tags, click on the activity you would like to add a tag option to.
2. Then select Tags from the activity's dropdown menu.
3. Choose from the list of tags you previously built to use with your time tracks.

Editing Time Tracks After Students Have Started Using Them

Sometimes you may need to make adjustments after a track has been in use. What can you edit after student’s have started using a time track?

Time Track edits you CAN make	Time Track edits you CANNOT make
Adding activity descriptions Changing the name of an activity Adding a NEW child activity Changing or editing requirements	Adding a NEW parent activity over an existing activity Deleting a parent activity Moving a child activity from one parent to another NOTE: Doing any of the actions listed above will break your time track!

How to Edit Track Activity Start and End Dates

When editing tracks, individual activities can be given start and end dates to activate/inactivate an activity so a track does not have to be rebuilt if a child activity needs to be moved to a different parent activity.

1. Start in the Program Setup | Customization environment and go to the Track Builder workspace.
2. Locate the track you would like to edit.
3. Click on the Activities tab, add a new activity, and move it under the correct parent activity.
4. Then select the activity you are replacing and go to the activity Details.
5. Enter an end date for the activity that will be obsolete. You can also update the name, such as adding "Old" at the beginning or end, to easily see it is an old activity that students no longer use to track time.

NOTE: Having a start date set on the NEW activity will prevent it from appearing for students who started the track before that date. So if you want students to move from the old activity to the new one, the new one should NOT have a start date.

If a student has added a track with an active date before the edited activity’s end date:

If a student adds the track with an active date after the edited activity’s end date:

The student will see the old activity and be able to edit time logged under the activity UP TO the activity end date. The student will NOT be able to add new time to the old activity for a date that falls AFTER the activity end date. The student will still see any requirements tied to the activity in their track progress widget. The student will still see the old activity and hours logged under the activity on all relevant reports.

The student will NOT see the inactive activity listed. The student will NOT see any requirements tied to the inactive activity. The student will NOT see the activity on reports.

Repairing Timesheets

In the case that timesheets were broken by edits made to a track and you cannot undo the change, or the broken timesheets were made in between changing and reverting the track, you will have to manually fix tracks one by one following these steps:

1. Instruct students to log in and go to their Timesheets workspace.

2. Have the student find and open the affected timesheet, it is best to do this in Agenda view.

3. Click on the activities field of the time entry, find the specific activity that was selected, then uncheck and re-check it.
   

4. The activity tree will be rebuilt. Commit the change to save the now-correct activities for this timesheet.