Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) is managed throughout the ManageBac+ platform, allowing CAS Coordinators and Advisors to approve experiences, track reflections and evidence, obtain supervisor reviews, and monitor student progress against the CAS Learning Outcomes.

This guide covers the full CAS management workflow, along with a case study comparing four different approaches schools can take when managing CAS experiences via Groups and Bulk Adding.

An overview video covering CAS management is also available: Managing CAS – Overview Video.

Step by Step Navigation

Approving CAS Experiences Via Reviews & Progress > CAS, SA or SL > Approvals

Approving a CAS experience in ManageBac+ does three things:

1. It confirms to the student that their experience is appropriate for CAS.
2. It is one of two steps required before students can request a supervisor review.
3. It removes the New Changes flag from the student roster, indicating that the experience has been reviewed.

1. Go to Reviews & Progress > CAS, SA or SL > Approvals to view a list of experiences pending approval.
2. Select the green icon next to an experience to approve it, or use Mark All Experiences Approved to bulk approve.
3. Select the red X to Reject an experience.

Note: rejecting an experience does not remove it automatically from the student's worksheet. The student is notified by email and can then edit or delete the experience as needed.

Approving CAS Experiences Via the Student CAS Worksheet

1. Open the student's CAS worksheet and locate the experience showing a To Be Determined status.
2. Click the status button for the experience to open the approval options.

3. Choose Approved from the dropdown menu. The student is notified that their experience has been approved and can proceed.

When a new experience is added, the To Be Determined status is applied automatically. When the CAS Advisor reviews it, they can Approve it, or Reject it with a note explaining what should be updated, such as the type, description, or date.

Completing CAS Questions & Reflections (Student View)

Students complete CAS questions and add reflections via the CAS Questions or Reflections & Evidence tabs within an experience on their worksheet.

CAS questions are added by a school admin and can be customised per year group. If no questions have been added, this tab will not be visible. See Customising CAS Settings for details.

Students click Add New Entry to add Reflections and Evidence, which can include files, photos, journal entries, embedded video links, or website links. Each reflection can be linked to one or more learning outcomes, and entries can be filtered by outcome on the right of the page. Starred reflections appear highlighted with a yellow background.

Obtaining Supervisor Reviews

Once an experience has been approved and all reflections and evidence have been added, students can click Request Supervisor Review. This sends an email to the experience supervisor containing a link to review the experience online, along with the reflections and evidence.

Note: the supervisor email is locked once a student clicks Request Supervisor Review.

If no supervisor email is listed, students can instead click CAS Completion Form to generate a PDF of the experience information, which can be printed and signed manually. The CAS Completion Form does not include reflections and evidence.

If a supervisor review needs to be reset, the CAS Coordinator or Advisor can click Supervisor Review to edit or remove it.

If the experience belongs to a CAS Project Group, the supervisor can instead submit their review directly via the Groups tab. See Creating CAS Project Groups for more information.

Recording CAS Interviews Via CAS > Student > Notes & Interviews

1. Select a student under CAS in the Year Group roster, then select Notes & Interviews in their CAS Worksheet.
2. Type a note for the interview, then select Record as Interview Note.
3. Enter an Interview Title, then click Comment to save the note.

Notes & Interview Settings

If a school does not want students to see interview notes added by teachers, an admin can go to Settings > Security & Permissions, untick Browse Interview Notes, and click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Locking Completed CAS Work

There are two types of locks available in CAS:

1. Marking an experience as Complete, which prevents the student from adding further to that experience.
2. Marking a student's CAS worksheet as complete, which gives the student read-only access to CAS as a whole.

1. Marking an Experience as Complete

Via CAS > Student > Select Experience, use the dropdown menu on the right to change the experience status between Approved and Complete. If an experience has been marked Complete and this was not done directly, it may have been set automatically by the experience supervisor when completing their review. This behaviour can be changed by an admin via Managing Permissions & Security.

2. Marking a CAS Worksheet as Complete

A student's read-only CAS access status can be checked via the CAS tile in the student's Year Group.

A Complete tag next to a student's name indicates their worksheet has been locked to prevent further additions or edits.

When a student has completed their entire CAS programme, the CAS Advisor marks it as Complete by ticking "Student has completed the CAS Programme" in the Progress section of the worksheet. Unticking this box unlocks the worksheet again. Marking the CAS programme as complete also automatically ticks all seven CAS Learning Outcomes as completed.

The CAS Outcomes Chart

The Progress section of a student's CAS worksheet shows how many times each learning outcome has been selected during the student's CAS programme.

This information is visible to students, supporting self-management as they add reflections and evidence linked to targeted learning outcomes.

• The numbers in the yellow bar show the total number of experiences (approved and pending) addressing that learning outcome.
• The numbers in the green bar show how many experiences addressing that learning outcome have been completed by the student, either through a reflection or a CAS question.
• The total number of reflections uploaded by the student appears in black at the bottom left.

The experience supervisor confirms, during the supervisor review, whether the student actually achieved the outcome. The student's CAS advisor then confirms whether the outcomes, and the student's overall CAS programme, have been completed. The flow of a Learning Outcome is as follows:

1. Planned: the student lists the Learning Outcomes they plan to address (yellow/orange bar).

2. Addressed: the student checks off which Learning Outcomes have been addressed (green bar).

3. Achieved: the supervisor checks off whether the Learning Outcomes have been achieved in the specific activity.

4. Completed: the CAS Advisor checks off whether the Learning Outcomes have been completed across the student's entire CAS programme.

Archiving Experiences in Bulk

Any admin can bulk archive a year group's previous CAS or SA experiences via Year Groups > Select Year Group > Edit Year Group Settings.

1. Select the date prior to which experiences should be archived.
2. Click Archive Experiences. All experiences with an end date before the selected date will be archived.

For example, choosing 3 May 2021 as the archive date will archive all experiences with an end date before 3 May. Once a date is chosen, the process must be confirmed. Archiving may take several minutes depending on the number of students in the year group.

Archived experiences remain available from the sidebar of the CAS worksheet under Archived Experiences. If experiences that should have been archived are still appearing, adjust their end dates so they fall before the archive date, then re-run the process.

Unarchiving Experiences in Bulk

Experiences archived by mistake can be unarchived in bulk via Year Group's Overview > Edit Year Group Settings, then clicking Unarchive Experiences.

Unarchiving Experiences Individually

An individual experience can also be unarchived by navigating to the student's CAS worksheet, clicking Archived Experiences, then selecting Unarchive Experience next to the experience title.

Adjusting CAS Learning Outcomes Per Year Group

Newly created year groups will not have any CAS Learning Outcomes listed.

Schools can add the default Learning Outcomes provided by the IBO, or create their own. Learning outcomes are configured and edited via the Edit Year Group Settings page of the year group.

Case Study: Four Approaches to Managing CAS via Groups & Bulk Adding

CAS is managed differently at each school — some give students free rein to choose their experiences, while others assign experiences directly. This case study outlines four recommended models for managing which CAS experiences students take part in through ManageBac+, to help CAS Coordinators determine the best fit for their school.

Model 1: Managed by the Student

Students are solely responsible for adding their own CAS experiences via Year Group Manager > CAS, clicking Add CAS Experience.

Students manually complete the form for their experience and click Add CAS Experience.

The CAS Advisor is notified by email when a new experience is added and can mark it as Approved to confirm it meets CAS requirements.

This model works best for schools whose students are largely undertaking independent CAS experiences and projects.

Model 2: Managed by Student & Advisor

Advisors add students to experience groups, and students then add the experience to their own worksheets. Any advisor can add a CAS project or experience via the Groups tab, clicking Add New Group.

The advisor adds students to the group via the group's Members tab, clicking Add Members.

Students can then select the group when adding a CAS experience from their worksheet, which auto-fills much of the required experience information. This model works best for schools whose students are doing a mixture of school-led and their own individual experiences.

Model 3: Managed by the Advisor

Advisors can control which experiences appear on student worksheets, so students never need to create their own experiences.

1. Click Groups > Add New Group.
2. Add students to the group via the Members tab > Add Members.
3. Mark all experiences as Approved via the group's Members tab.

These experiences automatically appear on each student's CAS worksheet as approved.

Students still add their own reflections but never need to choose which experiences to include. This model works best for schools whose students undertake prescribed CAS experiences led by the school.

Notes on Managing CAS via Groups

For experiences added via Model 2 or Model 3, CAS advisors can manage student CAS experiences entirely via the Groups tab, rather than through the Year Group Manager tab.

Note: if a school has ticked Lock Approved CAS/SA Activities via Settings > Security & Permissions, students will be prevented from editing their experience further once approved.

The group Reflections tab shows how many reflections each student has added. Clicking a student's name shows their reflections in detail.

Students can be reviewed in bulk via the group's Reviews page, where advisors can leave supervisor comments, mark applicable Learning Outcomes as met, and mark experiences as completed. Changes must be saved using Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Model 4: Guided by Bulk Adding Pre-Filled Experiences

Models 2 and 3 allow certain fields to be populated from Activity Groups onto a student's approved experiences. Bulk Creating Experiences goes further, populating all experience fields for a fully guided approach.

Navigate to Year Group > CAS, then click Bulk Create Experience on the right-hand side.

All regular experience fields can be populated as needed. At the bottom of the page, select individual students or all students, then click Add CAS Experience to pre-fill the experience on all selected worksheets.

This approach suits uniform experiences, or introducing students to CAS on ManageBac+ for the first time.

Warnings & Important Notes

• Rejecting an experience does not remove it automatically from the student's worksheet; the student must edit or delete it after being notified.
• The supervisor email is locked once a student clicks Request Supervisor Review, so it cannot be changed at that point.
• Marking an experience or worksheet as Complete will prevent further edits until it is unlocked.
• Archiving experiences may take several minutes depending on the number of students in the year group, and should not be interrupted.
• If Lock Approved CAS/SA Activities is enabled under Security & Permissions, students cannot edit an experience once it has been approved.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do I need to use the Approval status?

Marking a CAS experience as Approved helps both the CAS Advisor and the student keep track of which experiences have been discussed during the 18-month CAS period. This allows the CAS Advisor to work more effectively without having to remember every experience individually, and gives the student a clearer view of what they are proposing for their overall CAS programme.

In Summary

• CAS experiences must be approved before students can request a supervisor review, and approval can be managed individually or in bulk.
• Locking experiences and worksheets protects completed CAS work, while the Outcomes Chart tracks progress against Learning Outcomes at each stage.
• Schools can choose from four models — student-led, student and advisor, advisor-led, or bulk pre-filled — to manage CAS via Groups and Bulk Adding.

Whichever model is used, ManageBac+ gives CAS Coordinators and Advisors clear oversight of every student's CAS journey from approval through to completion.