How Ball State University Manages Field Experiences at Scale

The Scale Behind Ball State University's Programs

Early in the conversation, the Ball State team offered a glimpse into the scope of their education programs. Ball State currently supports more than 5,300 candidates across 30 licensure areas, ranging from early childhood education to specialized programs such as theatre. Those programs span undergraduate, graduate, and post baccalaureate pathways, and each includes clinical or field experiences.

In a typical year, the 10-person team at Ball State coordinates over 2,000 field experience events and more than 400 student teachers in internships. As Executive Director John Dee explained during the webinar, that scale requires systems that make information easy to access and easy to trust.

Programs need to know where candidates are placed, how they are progressing, and whether licensure requirements are being met.

Strengthening Processes Through Accreditation

Accreditation played an important role in helping the Ball State team evaluate how their processes and systems worked.

Preparing for accreditation reviews requires reliable data and clear reporting. When information lives across multiple systems and spreadsheets, gathering that data can quickly become time consuming and difficult to verify.

For the Ball State team, the process highlighted the need for more consistent access to program data.

“We wanted the same results every single time,” John explained. “We needed programs that could really help us get robust data.”

The team also encountered limitations with legacy systems. Some reports required additional fees to generate, while other workflows could not be easily adjusted to match the needs of educator preparation programs.

As a result, staff often relied on manual workarounds just to manage routine tasks.

For a program operating at Ball State’s scale, that approach was no longer sustainable.

What Ball State Needed in a New System

When the team began evaluating alternatives, several priorities emerged.

They needed a system that could support the complexity of their programs while remaining intuitive for students, faculty, and staff.

Their focus included:

• A centralized platform for placements, hours tracking, and evaluations
• Flexible workflows that could adapt to educator preparation programs
• Reporting that supports accreditation and program oversight

Equally important was the partnership behind the technology. As John noted during the conversation, institutions need confidence that the system and the team supporting it will remain responsive and engaged.

What Changed After Implementation

During the implementation process of CORE, the goal was clear – it was not to rebuild their processes from scratch. Instead, the system was configured to support how their team already worked.

Associate Director Adam Worling described the implementation process as highly collaborative. During onboarding, the Ball State team met regularly with CORE specialists to tailor the platform to their workflows.

“We would tell them how we do something, and they would build it out,” Adam explained. “Sometimes they were building it right in front of us.”

That collaborative approach made the transition smoother and allowed the team to focus on replacing spreadsheets and redundant tracking processes.

The most noticeable improvement was centralization. Placements, applications, evaluations, and reporting now live within one system rather than across disconnected tools.

A Simpler Experience for Students

Previously, students applying for student teaching had to complete applications across multiple systems. If something needed to change, they often had to restart the process.

Now the application lives in one place.

Students submit their application within CORE and can update their submission if adjustments are needed. The team also introduced status tracking so candidates can see where their application sits in the approval process.

That visibility has significantly reduced confusion and routine status emails.

Placement coordinator Charlie Maiyang explained that this visibility has significantly reduced the number of routine status emails the team receives.

Less Manual Work for Staff

Centralizing the process also reduced the administrative burden for staff.

Instead of tracking placements across spreadsheets and folders, staff can access placement information and generate reports within one system.

Reports can be configured, saved, and run quickly when needed. If the institution needs to know where students are placed at a given moment, that information is readily available.

For teams coordinating thousands of placements each year, that level of visibility makes a significant difference.

Building the Foundation for Field Experience at Scale

Ball State University’s Teachers College offers a strong example of what efficient field experience management can look like when programs have the right systems in place.

By centralizing placements, applications, and reporting, their team created a foundation that supports thousands of candidates while maintaining the oversight required for accreditation and program improvement.

As expectations around outcomes, accountability, and accreditation continue to grow, that kind of operational clarity becomes increasingly important for educator preparation programs.

If your team is working through similar challenges, I would welcome the opportunity to continue the conversation! Request a consultation with CORE's Campus Partnership team here.