FAQs
Q: What is the Spartan Experience Record?
A: The Spartan Experience Record (SER) is the MSU-verified document a student receives listing all their co-curricular experiences. These are requested through the Registrar’s Office. The SER is also MSU’s co-curricular platform that showcases student learning beyond coursework through experiences, including the collection of all experiences that have been added to the Record.
Q: What "counts" as a co-curricular experience?
A: We define co-curricular experiences as any intentional learning opportunities, sponsored by an MSU office, staff member, or faculty member, that bear no academic credit. Co-curricular experiences also must have an articulated student learning outcomes that are assessed.
Q: Can students place experiences in the platform?
A: Students cannot directly place experiences in the platform, as there is an approval process that must be followed for inclusion in the record in order to ensure clarity, accuracy, and integrity of the MSU-verified record. However, we do have a submission process that students can engage in. Visit the “Add an Experience as a Student” tab for more information. The completed submission must be either shared with our team or submitted to the platform by a faculty or staff member.
Alternatively, we highly encourage students to be a part of the faculty/staff submission process by contributing to the collaborative worksheet with experience facilitators.
Q: How do students request activities to be added to their record?
A: MSU Activity Owners (faculty and staff) add the opportunity to the My Spartan Story platform. Students participate in a co-curricular learning experience. Students are able to request a position to be added to their record beginning with the My Spartan Story Opportunities Catalog. When a student does so, the position will show as pending to a faculty or staff member Faculty and staff serving as validators then validate student participation at the completion of the learning experience. Once validated, the experience will populate on their Spartan Experience Record.
Q: What is the difference between a resumé and the Spartan Experience Record?
A: The Spartan Experience Record is a comprehensive dashboard and database of student co-curricular learning experiences. A resume is a curated, targeted document aimed at particular employers or schools. The Spartan Experience Record is meant to enhance a resume, or to be used to help students evaluate their experiences in order to build a stronger resume by highlighting the learning in these experiences.
Q: How do I assist students who have questions about the Spartan Experience Record?
A: Please direct them to ser.msu.edu and ask them to log in and explore their dashboard together. The ways students make sense of and narrate their in-course and out of class learning experiences is vital to their academic and career success. The Spartan Experience Record team is happy to work with students to help them make sense of their learning. Students are more than welcome to contact the team at mystory@msu.edu.
Q: What is the timeline for approval after I submit an experience?
A: After you submit an experience, the submission goes to our Advisory Committee, where two members review your submission and make any necessary critiques or comments. In general, we aim to move a submission through our approval process in about one month, but this can vary depending on the time the submission is received. If the Advisory Committee has questions or concerns about your submission, one of our staff members will reach out for clarity and revisions before the position is approved.
Q: What does "verified" mean?
A: Verified means a co-curricular experience has been approved to a student’s Spartan Experience Record. “Verified” means that the student(s) 1) successfully participated in the co-curricular experience and 2), achieved the learning outcomes established for the experience. An experience MUST be verified by an MSU faculty/staff member for it to display on their Spartan Experience Record.
Q: What is the difference between an experience provider and verifier?
A: The experience provider/owner is the faculty or staff member offering a co-curricular opportunity aligning with institutional learning outcomes who serves as the submitter of an experience to the SER platform. A Verifier is someone who can speak to the actual learning that occurred in students in the experience. This person can be the same for both roles (which is most common), or they can be two different people. For example, a graduate student could be the verifier if they are the advisor of a group that is going to meetings and evaluating student learning. The graduate student’s supervisor could be the experience provider, due to the fact that they are in a permanent position and can be contacted for information about the group.
Q: How do I add a large group of students to a position?
A: You can do this in the platform or send the Spartan Experience Record Team a file with the MSU NetIDs of the large group of students. Please reach out to us at mystory@msu.edu with any questions.
Q: How do I work on my submission without draft functionality?
A: We have created a Google Spreadsheet for you to work on your answers to all the questions before you submit. You can also share this file with peers or the students in the position you are submitting for. Here is the link to the spreadsheet (please make a copy for your specific submission).
Q: Where does the Spartan Experience Record fit within the institutional structure?
A: The Spartan Experience Record is a unit within the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education. Our office is located within the STEM Teaching and Learning Facility on the second floor, room 2108.