The four roles
Who does what, and who verifies what.
Every project involves up to four roles. Each has a distinct job, and two of them hold a verification signature.
The roles
- Student: does the work, and owns the record it produces.
- Professor (faculty): verifies the learning. Their signature is the academic authority.
- Sponsor (a business or nonprofit): verifies the outcome. Their signature says the work was real and useful.
- Administrator: sets up the institution and measures experiential learning. They observe and support; they do not run individual projects.
Why verification is typed
Faculty verify learning. Sponsors verify outcomes. The two are never substitutable, and neither one stands in for the other. A deliverable becomes verified evidence only when both signatures are in.
Tip
This is deliberate. If one signature could stamp both, the record would mean less. Two different people, verifying two different things, is exactly what makes the record trustworthy to an employer.
A fifth role, mentor, can be invited by a professor to give feedback on student work. Mentors never hold the faculty signature; they help, they do not verify.
Next: How a project becomes verified experience