SpidersEngage Faculty Guide

If your class is indicated as a Community-Based Learning (CBL) class in Banner, then it will sync to SpidersEngage. The CCE team provides the registrar with this CBL information, so your first step is to send your class information to the CCE at bjezouit@richmond.edu.

Yes - if your course is marked in Banner as a "community-based learning course", then SpidersEngage will automatically sync with Banner. SpidersEngage will have class data and your current roster. If your course is not marked in BannerWeb as community-based learning, reach out to the CCE team - we can help with that!

SpidersEngage is not meant as a replacement for Blackboard - it functions best as a platform to work alongside Blackboard.

On SpidersEngage, you can post documents, syllabi, or readings. However, it functions differently from Blackboard - for example, you can’t organize documents into folders. It does not have a grade book or track attendance.

SpidersEngage has a “wall” that admins can choose to display for their group, and there are also options to approve posts and enable discussion threads to which students may subscribe. Please note that the Wall conversations are visible to community partner organizations, so we encourage managing class discussions outside of SpidersEngage.

There is the ability to link to SpidersEngage from Blackboard, but have not used this feature.

Class members and administrators of parent groups can view the class page.

Students (or other users) may search by community partner or volunteer opportunity ("event") using the Get Involved portal in SpidersEngage.

There is the option to search for any opportunity posted on GivePulse.com, or to limit the search to only those community organizations who are already affiliated with UR. Organizations typically "affiliate" with UR in order to post volunteer opportunities, and those opportunities are visible to everyone in the UR network on SpidersEngage.

In cases where the faculty member wants to work with an organization that is not currently affiliated with UR, there are several ways we can set things up in SpidersEngage, depending on the needs of the organization and the faculty member.

You can also use a feature called “promoted opportunities” for your class. When volunteer opportunities are promoted to your class, your students will see those opportunities as a match on their class page.

Example 1: You are teaching a class called Regarding Disability, and you’ve already identified the nonprofit, Virginia Home, as a partner for your class. Virginia Home has a SpidersEngage account, and they post several volunteer opportunities on SpidersEngage throughout the semester. You can navigate to the Virginia Home’s page, find the opportunity that works for your class, and then promote that opportunity so that it shows up on your class page for Regarding Disability. You can then instruct your students to sign into SpidersEngage, where your course will automatically show up on their class list. Then, students can browse and sign up for volunteer opportunities at Virginia Home directly through your class page on SpidersEngage.

Example 2: You are teaching a class called Spanish in the Community. You’d like your students to complete volunteer hours connected to the Spanish speaking in the Richmond community, but you would like for them to be able to choose from a variety of different partners. You can browse the list of community partners on SpidersEngage and “promote” the organizations that have Spanish language-related volunteer opportunities (such as Communities in Schools Richmond, the World Pediatric Project, Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Sacred Heart Center, Higher Achievement, and the Legal Aid Justice Center).

The CCE can help you with this process, and with identifying potential partners for your class.

If an opportunity is posted on SpidersEngage, then the community organization has decided that this is an opportunity open to all students - including students who will be volunteering within a class setting. Please note that the organization has no way of knowing whether a student is volunteering because of a particular class or as an individual sign-up.

Faculty may also identify specific opportunities for their class by "promoting" those opportunities to the class page. This doesn’t guarantee volunteer spots for your students, but it does add the opportunity to your student’s view of the class page.

Yes, SpidersEngage has the functionality to track volunteer hours, and allows you to verify your student’s volunteer hours. Typically, the volunteer coordinator at the community partner organization will verify hours, but this is not always the case. If you need to verify or track hours for your students, please reach out to the CCE.

Yes - students can use the UR Volunteer Trip Planner form. The trip planner is an online Google form that is owned by UR Transportation Services. After students submit the form, transportation will help students find the best option (which may be using local transport, the GRTC/Pulse, the Spider Shuttle, or other options).

We will implement changes for fall 2019 that will help users identify which organizations are on a service shuttle route.

Yes - when a student signs up for the first time for an opportunity (event) at an organization, they will receive instructions about orientation. Please keep in mind that if you have multiple students going to the same organization, it may be easier on the students and the organization to arrange an orientation on campus where the organization can speak to all of the students at once instead of doing an orientation for each student.

Community partners use this platform to advertise their volunteer opportunities. They may also use the system to approve student registrations after pre-requisites are met and to verify student participation (if necessary). In many cases, they will already be doing this, but if not, the CCE will assist in onboarding them.

Faculty may receive emails from students in their class because they are set up as administrators of the class.

Notification settings can be controlled on your SpidersEngage account profile.