Hour Tracking Explained

Hours tracking keeps an up-to-the-minute record of every student or project engagement. But it doesn't just measure time.

Hours tracking is more than an accurate, always-updating, fully-collaborative time clock tool.

It's also the place where students can journal about their volunteer experiences in a thoughtful, timely way. After all, we've learned that the volunteer experience is more meaningful to students if they're asked to note how their daily contributions have an impact on the organization's larger goals.

But, because it's so important, we made the administration of it is easy. It's intuitive. Self-running. And the individual results and group reports it generates are completely compatible with a school's transcript recording program.

Here's how our Hours Tracking feature works:

  • Students log hours and submit them for credit online at the organization where they've volunteered.
  • Work is verified by the community organization and then automatically sent to the appropriate faculty member for approval and accreditation.
  • The program generates e-mail alerts to faculty when approvals are needed.
  • Work is quickly accredited and added to the student's transcript-friendly record.
  • At any moment, faculty have complete and up-to-date reports of student activity - including hours entered, pending, verified (by organization), and credited (by faculty).
  • Reports can be generated by group/class, school, and school district
  • It's easy to administer, and broad in the ways it lets students monitor their own activities. Students are encouraged to include journal comments about their experience as it happens. This practice is proven to make whole volunteer experience more instructive and meaningful for everyone involved.
  • An instant resume can be created at any moment that includes the material logged in the Hours Tracking system.

Students Are Engaged With Their Efforts

SweatMonkey's hour tracking, verification, and crediting process keeps student aware of their contributions -- In small ways, and big.