Overview
This guide outlines the recommended steps for preparing Craft for a new academic year or program cycle with minimal changes needed. It walks Sponsor Admins through setting up organizations and users, configuring programs and rubrics, assigning learners and evaluators, and finalizing tags, cohorts, and invitations. Completing these steps in order helps ensure your program is accurately configured and that users have a smooth, well-organized experience when they first log in.
1. Create New Organizations
At the beginning of a new year, you may be working with new employer partners or education providers. Before creating users, you must first create any new organizations, as all users in Craft are associated with an organization.
Note: Each organization you work with only needs to be added to Craft once. We recommend reviewing your existing organizations on the Organizations page before creating new ones to avoid duplicates.
Creating organizations first ensures that:
- Users are assigned correctly at creation
- Permissions and assignments function as expected
- Organization admins can be added and managed properly
How to create an organization
Step 1: Navigate to Organizations in the main navigation.
Step 2: Select Sponsor an Organization.
Step 3: Enter the organization name.
Step 4: Choose whether the organization is an Education Provider or an Employer.
Step 5 (Optional): Add an organization admin now, or assign one later.
Relevant Help Center Articles:
2. Create New Users
Once organizations have been created, you can begin adding users to Craft. Because users must be assigned to an organization at creation, this step should always follow organization setup.
At this stage, you are only creating user accounts - not inviting them yet.
We strongly recommend waiting to send invitations until:
- Your program is fully configured
- Users have been assigned to programs and evaluators
- Tags and cohorts have been finalized
This helps ensure users have the correct experience as soon as they log in.
If you need to add a large number of users, please contact your Customer Success Manager, who can assist with bulk uploads.
Relevant Help Center Articles:
3. Create or Update Your Program
Before assigning or inviting users, your program must be fully set up for the new year.
When to create a new program
Creating a new program may be more appropriate if:
- Competencies or learning outcomes have changed significantly
- Activities or requirements have been redesigned
- The program structure is meaningfully different from previous year
- You would like to implement a new feature such as Time Tracking, Skills Observation Tracking, or Absence Tracking
Relevant Help Center Articles:
- Create Program Content
- Manage Program Content
- Admin: Configuring Time Tracking
- Admin: Configuring Skills Observation Tracking
- Admin: Absence Tracking
4. Set Activity Requirements and Rubrics
After your program structure is in place, review all activity requirements and rubrics to ensure they reflect expectations for the new year.
If your rubric has changed:
- Create a new rubric in Craft, as you will not be able to extensively edit a published rubric
- Confirm the new rubric is attached to the correct activities
- Review target ratings and required evidence
You may also want to:
- Add or update activity resources
- Use batch configuration tools to apply changes in bulk across activities
Taking time to review these settings helps avoid confusion for learners and evaluators later.
Relevant Help Center Articles:
- Setting Activity Requirements
- Admin: How to Set Up Rubrics
- Admin: Add a Resource to an Activity
- Admin: Batch Configure
- Target Ratings
5. Assign Users
Once your program is finalized, you can begin assigning users.
At this stage:
- Learners will be assigned to their program
- Evaluators will be assigned to the learners they will assess
Completing assignments before inviting users ensures that:
- Learners immediately see the correct program upon login
- Evaluators are properly connected to their learners
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6. Review Your RAP
Before moving forward, review your RAP in Craft's OJL Tracker.
Confirm that:
- Competencies are still accurate align with your program
- Any updates from the new year have been reflected
- New learners have been assigned to your RAP, if appropriate.
This review helps ensure consistency between your program goals and what learners and evaluators see in Craft. Please see the video below for instructions on how to assign learners to you RAP.
Relevant Help Center Articles:
- Sponsor Admin: Setting Up a Registered Apprenticeship Program
- Sponsor Admin: Understanding and Utilizing Competency Tagging in RAPs
7. Refresh Tags and Create New Cohorts
For a new semester or program cycle, you will likely need to create new tags and cohorts.
Tags can be used to:
- Support reporting and filtering
- Identify specific groups of users
If you use cohorts, create new cohorts for the upcoming term and assign users accordingly. This allows program Facilitators to better monitor learner progress.
Relevant Help Center Articles:
8. Invite Users
Once all setup steps are complete - including program configuration, user assignments, tags, and cohorts - you can invite users to Craft.
Inviting users at the end of the setup process ensures they:
- Have immediate access to the correct program
- See accurate assignments and expectations
- Experience a smooth onboarding into Craft
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Who do I loop in if I need help?
The sponsor admin can reach out directly to their Customer Success Manager.
For all end user issues (learners, evaluators, instructors), please loop in support@crafteducation.com. This will allow our support team to handle and track end users issues more accurately.