Product Coffee Break webinar - October 2021

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For the third edition of our Product Coffee Break live webinar, held on October 20, we invited educators to join us to learn more about recent product updates, upcoming releases, and the latest Riipen news - including the celebration of an important milestone. We also had a fascinating discussion with Kris Hodgson-Bright, Digital Communications and Media instructor at Lethbridge College, who spoke about his experience using Riipen and the wonderful collaborative work his learners have done over the past few semesters. If you were unable to join us, here is a recap and highlights of the session.

Here's a look at the most notable improvements made to the platform over the last quarter:

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Post-publication content recommendations

In July, we added a step post-publication to show users recommended content related to their recently published course, internship program, or project. This improvement makes it easier for users to find content related to their needs; when they need it. This change was also intended to increase the number of requests sent proactively by our users. We have seen an increase of 15% in requests sent by employers within the first hour after the publication of their projects.‍

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Custom questions feature

Since August, educators can now set custom questions that employers must answer in order to apply to their course or internship program. This will not only increase the quality of the projects submitted, but also make the selection of employers more efficient and allow programs with specific requirements to recruit projects better suited to their needs. Employers will also be required to confirm their commitment to the program requirements prior to submitting their project. Since release, we saw a slight improvement in the acceptance rate of applications with no discernible decrease in the submission rate of applications.

Google single sign on

Another significant improvement was made to the signup process by allowing users to create an account using their Google email credentials. Existing users can now also link their Riipen accounts to their Gmail. This will reduce the time needed to register. This improvement also makes it easier for returning users to access their Riipen accounts.

Performance improvements

On Oct 6, changes were implemented to drastically improve the speed and efficiency of our platform. Now, 96% of all data loading requests complete in under 100ms during peak activity hours on the platform. Our previous benchmark was +/-80%, and our pages would sometimes load slowly depending on the amount and complexity of the data request. With thousands of requests processed each minute, this 16% improvement impacts a huge number of users. Just to put 100ms into perspective, a blink is about 300ms! 

#Riipen100K celebration!

This October, we reached a significant milestone - 100,000 learner experiences delivered! We saw an explosive growth in organizations recognizing and investing in the benefits of virtual experiential learning projects and our open marketplace. Over the past year, our yearly growth in learner experiences almost doubled from 25,000 in 2020 to 47,000 in 2021! 

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Learn more about this incredible milestone and its significance here.

While there is still a lot of work left for us to do, we wanted to invite you to celebrate with us. Check out our #Riipen100K hashtag on LinkedIn and Twitter to see what people are saying! 

With this accomplishment, we are now working towards our next milestone of 1 million learner experiences by 2025. We look forward to celebrating with you again!

Riipen white paper

As we all know, work-based learning helps learners develop career-relevant skills and apply their education in real work settings before they graduate. However, opportunities are still limited, especially in underserved communities. Check out our latest white paper “Economic Opportunity for All” to explore how online work-based learning marketplaces help expand equity and career readiness at scale.

What’s to come at Riipen

As we strive to provide a positive experience for all of our users, here is a sneak peek at some of the improvements that will be made to the platform over the next few months: 

• Search Page Reconfiguration + Subcategories - Allow users to tag more granular subcategories.
• School Pass Improvements - Allow admins and educators to customize school pass invitations and to better track status of invitations.
• Team Creation - Allow educators to create all their learner teams at once, rather than repeating the process for each team.
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Thank you to everyone who joined us! If you weren’t able to attend, we look forward to seeing you at our next Product Coffee Break. Stay tuned for the invite!

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