What it does
Notes let staff record observations, advising conversations, and administrative context directly on a person, program, site, or the institution. Each note carries rich text, a required note type, and organizing metadata — category, priority, tags, visibility, and an optional date — and every note keeps a permanent change history.
Who it's for
Program administrators, coordinators, and program directors write notes on learners and program records; institution administrators work at institution scope; learners and other personal-portal users manage their own notes from My Portfolio and can see some notes written about them, depending on visibility.
How it works
Where notes live. Entity pages — a person's profile, a program detail page, a site detail page — have a Notes section listing notes attached to that record, with inline create and edit. The Notes workspace shows notes at your current scope (selected program, or institution when none is selected), with tabs for All Notes, My Notes, Shared with Me, and Pinned.
Note type. Every note starts with a Note type — a general note, or one your institution built for clinical observations or CCC reviews. The type caps which visibility levels are available; you can narrow visibility further, never widen it. Administrators manage note types on the institution's Note Types page (see the templates and bulk notes article).
Writing a note. The editor opens as a slide-over panel titled New Note (or Edit Note). Give it an optional title, choose the note type, and optionally pick a Content preset — a saved starting point that pre-fills content, category, priority, and visibility, all still editable. Write the body in rich text — headings, bold, italic, strikethrough, lists, quotes, and tables. The Table toolbar inserts a table, adds or removes rows and columns, toggles the header row, and deletes the table; hovering a table also surfaces "+" controls for inserting a row or column at that position. Below the content, set Visibility, Priority (Low, Normal, High, or Urgent), a free-text Category, an optional Date of Observation (the date the note is about, e.g. an advising meeting), and Tags.
Voice dictation. If your browser supports audio recording, the editor includes a dictation panel: record your note out loud, the platform transcribes and cleans up the wording with AI, and you choose the polished version or the raw transcript. Dictation can also suggest a title. Dictation records are kept permanently once a note is saved.
Editing and auto-save. Editing an existing note saves automatically as you type, with a status indicator showing saving, saved, or error. A new note saves explicitly via the New Note button; closing the panel with unsaved work asks you to confirm Discard changes?
Organizing. Pin important notes to sort them to the top of every list, and archive notes to move them out of default views without losing them. Lists support search across titles and content, plus filters for category, priority, visibility, author, and date range. Category suggestions come from categories already used at your institution.
History. Every change — edits, visibility changes, archiving, deletion — is recorded automatically in a change history you can open from the note, showing who made each change and when.
Printing and export. Print a single note through the browser's print dialog. Export the current notes list to CSV.
Before you start
You need access to the record — the same institution, and either program access or a program-admin role in a program the person belongs to.
At least one active note type must exist for your institution. If the note type picker is empty, ask an administrator to add one on the Note Types page.
A note type can require review before it counts as final; if so, it also blocks the Private visibility level for that note.
Do this
Open the person, program, or site record, then open its Notes section → you should see existing notes and a count badge next to the section title.
Select New Note → the note editor panel opens with a title field and the Note type picker.
Choose a Note type in the panel → you should see the Visibility options narrow to what that type allows.
If a starting point fits, pick one under Content preset → the panel fills in default content, category, priority, and visibility; edit any of them.
Write the note in the rich text panel, then set the Visibility, Priority, Category, Date of Observation, and Tags fields → confirm each shows the value you chose before saving.
Select the New Note button at the bottom of the panel → the panel closes and you should return to the Notes section with the new note in the list.
You're done when
✓ The note appears in the Notes section list on the record it was written about.
✓ Its visibility badge matches what you selected, capped by the note type you chose.
✓ Opening the note's history shows a Created entry with your name and the time.
Boundaries and limits
The Notes workspace is available in the administration and institution portals; personal-portal users work with their own notes from the Notes tab of My Portfolio.
Creating a note on a person requires administrative access to that person: same institution, and either being that person or holding a program-admin role in a program they belong to. You cannot write notes on records outside your institution.
A note cannot be saved without a note type; ask an administrator to add one if none exists yet.
Visibility choices are capped by the note's type — you can pick narrower, never wider.
CSV export contains metadata only (title, author, date, category, priority, visibility, tags); note content is excluded to keep sensitive text inside the platform's access controls.
Deleting a note is a soft delete: it disappears from all lists, but hard deletion is blocked at the database level to preserve the record and its audit trail.
Change history is immutable — entries are automatic and cannot be edited, removed, or restored to a prior version. Dictation records are likewise permanent once saved.
Voice dictation requires a browser with audio recording support and the AI transcription service; if AI cleanup is unavailable, the raw transcript is still usable.
Bulk export to PDF is not available; printing works one note at a time.
Common questions
Q: Who can see a note I write on a learner's profile? A: It depends on the visibility level you pick — Private notes are visible only to you. See the note visibility and sharing article, including how Team-visibility notes on a profile are visible to that person.
Q: Can I recover a deleted note? A: Not from the interface. Deletion is soft and the record is preserved for audit purposes, but there is no self-service restore.
Q: Do my edits overwrite the record of what the note used to say? A: The note shows the latest content; the change history records each change, who made it, and when, and cannot be altered.
Q: What is Date of Observation for? A: It records the date the note is about — such as an advising meeting — separately from the date the note was written.
Q: I can't save my note. What's missing? A: Check that you picked a Note type. It's required; ask an administrator to add one if your institution has none.
Q: Does the CSV export include what the notes say? A: No. Exports carry metadata only; note text stays in the platform where its visibility rules apply.
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