Sonia Online Guide for Supervisors

Introduction

NOTE: This guide uses default Sonia terminology, which the University may have changed, depending on their business practices and preferences. For example, Sonia uses the word ‘Supervisor’ for what some universities call ‘Practicum Faculty’, ‘Advisor’, ‘Liaison’, or ‘Faculty Sponsor’.

This guide covers parts of Sonia that the University may not have enabled and would therefore be unavailable to you.

Starting Sonia

To access Sonia, you will need a web (internet) browser (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Safari) and internet access. 

Signing In – Sonia Authentication

The University has created an account for you and will e-mail you a link to Sonia Online to create a password.  

Once you have set your password, click Continue to be directed to the home page to log in.

Ensure the ‘Role’ is set to ‘Supervisor’. Use the username provided in the e-mail from the University and the password you just created, and click ‘Sign In’.

 

Note that if you forget your password, you can click “Forgot your password?” and follow the prompts to have a reset password link e-mailed to you. If you continue to have login trouble, contact your University contact.

 

 

Signing In – Single Sign-on (SSO)

The University has created an account for you and will e-mail you a link to Sonia Online.

Choose your role as Supervisor (aliased to Advisor in the screenshot below), and click the University Sign In button.

 

Once logged in, you should see a screen similar to the one below. The university may have customized this page with text and/or a logo.

1. If you see three horizontal lines next to your name, this means that your screen is not wide enough to accommodate all of the tabs. Be sure to click this to see additional menu items.
2. You can sign out of Sonia by clicking the log-out icon (the rectangle with the right arrow) on the right side of the screen
3. The cog is your Settings where you can do the following, depending on the permissions enabled by the University (screenshot below):

• Select a culture in which to view Sonia Online (This changes the language as well as other cultural differences; however, the forms will remain in English.)
• Opt to take advantage of the accessibility features if you use a screen reader. To do this, click the “enhanced accessibility” box.
• Change/upload a picture of yourself
• Change your password, if using Sonia authentication
• If the University has enabled the option for you to download the Sonia for Supervisors mobile app, follow the instructions here for how to get it on your mobile device. Currently only available on iOS and not Android.

Students Tab

This screen shows a list of students you are currently supervising.

1. The list of students displayed on this page are ones who have an active placement on or after the date in this field. To see students whose placements included a date before [today], change the date in this field.
2. Click View to see details about the student.
3. Check the box next to a student’s, Supervisor’s, or Mentor’s name on this page to e-mail them.
   • If e-mailing several people at one time, only the recipient’s name will appear in their TO field in their e-mail; i.e., no one knows who else is getting the e-mail.
4. Approve timesheets. Instructions below.

Bulk Approving Timesheets

You can bulk, or individually, approve Timesheets by clicking the blue Timesheets button at the top right of the Students page.

To approve in bulk, select the timesheet entries by clicking the box on the left, and respond with the appropriate status at the bottom right.

To approve individually, select the appropriate status at the end of the row.

Placements Tab

This is a listing of placement groups to which your interns belong. The University has created these placement groups to keep students together who have something in common, such as academic level, interest, placement term, etc.

In the screenshot below, this Supervisor can see that she has one student allocated to a particular Site and the dates of the placement.

Depending on the University’s settings on the placement group, you may see a Timesheets buttons on placement groups. This usually means that the University Placement Office has set you to view and/or approve interns’ timesheets. The Timesheets button here is to view/approve an individual student’s timesheet entries and see totals of hours completed.

This tab also includes a calendar, with key dates listed below.

On the right side, above the calendar is a drop-down list of reports that the University has made available.

Forms Tab

1. If a form is assigned only to you, the name of the form will show on a blue horizontal bar in the ‘Mine’ section. Click the red ‘Edit’ button at the right end of the blue bar to complete the form.
2. If you are a “respondent” on a placement-related form, these forms will be in the ‘Students’ section below the ‘Mine’ section. Click the white paper icon at the right end of the row to complete the form.

If a form has been Saved but not Submitted, simply click the paper icon again to continue.  Upon clicking ‘Submit’ on the form, it will take a few seconds for the form to save and refresh.

Before closing the form, confirm the Submit was processed by scrolling down to where you hit Submit to see “Form actioned by [your name] on [date] at [time]” in green text.  If a required field was not answered, it will be indicated in yellow text below the ‘Save Draft’ button.

NOTE: You will see two buttons at the bottom of each form:

“Save Draft” means you can save your work and come back to edit this form.

“Submit” is the button to the right of “Save Draft”. Click this when you have completed the form.

 

My Details Tab

The My Details screen is used to display additional information about you. Any information already on this page is what the University has on file for you; the University Placement Office may ask you to edit this information and/or fill in some of the blanks. 

Checks Tab

If the University Placement Office requires any documents or activities for you to complete (e.g., updated CV/resume), they will be listed on your Checks Tab.

History Tab

This page lists the placements you have supervised in the past.  Placements will only appear in your History once the University Placement Office has marked the placement as completed.

 

Documents Tab

Supervisors can store personal documents on this tab, such as resume/CV or articles you have written. The University Placement Office will have access to these documents, and you can note whether or not students and sites can view them.

You can also add links to this page, which the University Placement Office will have access to, as well. This might be professional networking sites and/or sites where you have articles published or sites you would like to reference in the future. Again, you can note whether or not students and sites can view these links.

Sites Tab

The Sites tab lists active partners with the University. You can filter these sites using the filter in the blue vertical bar on the left.

 

Site Submission Tab

If you would like to submit a Site to the University Placement Office for review for potential future placements, click the green ‘Submit a new site’ button in the Site Submission tab. The status of your submission will be tracked here.

Calendar Tab

This calendar is maintained by the University Placement Office to mark important dates.  Events pertaining to you can be exported to your Outlook calendar and edited.