Field Directors

Hello fellow Field Directors, I hope you're hanging in there in this tumultuous time. I heard from one of our Sonia IT folks this week that Sonia "is phasing out" in the next year or so, and they are recommending that we look at ELC as an alternative. Has anyone else who is currently using Sonia heard this? I am also wondering what databases folks are liking these days...I know, a cyclical conversation. Our goal is cost effective (we do not require students to incur the cost) and accessible for a large program (1000+ students). Thanks in advance for any thoughts or ideas. This one was a bit of a surprise and not something we thought we were going to need to navigate this soon.

Katie 

Hi Katie, I have not heard that about Sonia. Interested if others have. We will have to look into these things. Thanks for the head's up.

Margie

Margie Quartley, 

Assistant Director of Practicum Education

University at Buffalo School of Social Work

(716) 645-1233

Good Morning!

I have been looking into Sonia, and Tevera, with Lumivero for the past year and a half.

I have also been research all possibilities that we might have within SMSU, and other platforms available.  

It was stated that Sonia and Tevera will be phasing out, and a new platform that combines the best of both will be implemented.

I have had several demos of the ELC, and shared it with our administration, and those who make the decisions with any platforms to be utilized at SMSU.  All administration who make I have shared this with, state they cannot make adjustments to anything we utilize currently that would work as well for our needs for field.

The platform by Lumivero is called the Experential Learning Cloud (ELC).  

My contact is Brie, Brianna Kaysen Mullin, bkaysenmullin@lumivero.com, she has been very helpful and quick to respond.  She has given several demos, for me, and for administration.

However, if everyone reaches out, it may take a little longer :)

I hope this is helpful, and does not cause alarm, but hope for a more streamlined platform for our use.

Joy for your day 

Nan

Hi all,

I have been in touch with our Sonia contacts and here is some more info about the transition:

From their Education Services Manager Abigail Binger: "As indicated in the resources shared, we are excited to present Experiential Learning Cloud (ELC), a modern cloud-based placement solution that brings together functionality from our two incredible placement solutions, Sonia and Tevera. We are encouraging existing Sonia users to consider when the timing is right to migrate to ELC. This is a decision you make for timing that will be least disruptive to your program."

I followed up asking two specific questions about timeline and received this response from Account Manager Josh Stein: 

• At this point, no. We don't have a specific "sunset" time for Sonia, If I had to guess, based on what I'm hearing from leadership, the timeframe would be 2-3 years from now. The goal being to get as many Sonia users switched to ELC as possible during that time. Again, that timeframe is an educated estimation. 

• I think this is totally reasonable. We understand that a change like this requires time, planning, and intentionality. You make a good point of launching ELC with a new academic year. We have a very intentional process of migrating/converting Sonia folks over to ELC. During that process (implementation and coaching) we have a migration tool that will bring much of your Sonia information over to ELC, e.g. site and site info, student, faculty, and supervisor info, etc. We will also rebuild your forms in the ELC format. Once we start the onboarding, the process of migrating from Sonia to ELC takes around 3 months. That timeframe includes teaching you how to learn ELC.

Lastly, sharing the resources that were shared with us for review: Here is the link to the https://lumivero.com/resources/webinars-events/innovation-insider-future-of-experiential-learning-for-sonia-customers/?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=elc-webinar-innovationinsider-soniamigration-us-emea-2025-12-16&utm_content=followup-attendees&mkt_tok=OTA4LVJCRS05MjMAAAGezDnpzgjykcHSA5gNAN6pkZT9SJYc3zhVgKpeZtVJJJbqEhrq07RVEIWl8MvfQzdzNsbrh7GAvlYsQQ3BRtCZU67DsaAqfo8nVf-yCcSk Click to follow link." data-outlook-id="04062c1a-28da-4ada-b695-a4badc3017e9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">webinar we hosted last month as well as our info article regarding several details about the transition from Sonia to ELC. 

Hope this helps other folks with their planning!
Best

KAT

Hi Katie, 

I use ELC for my program, and I really like it. Once I got the basics down, I have found it easy to navigate and the Customer Support has always been helpful for me. My Field supervisors love it because it is the easiest for them. The students are always a little overwhelmed at first, but they love it by the end of Field. However, the new pricing structure might pose a challenge for larger programs. Our program is new and quite small (15-20 students in Field has been our max so far), so we are hoping to be able to switch to the new subscription-based service in a way that does not put the cost on the students. My plan is to try out this new model for a few years, and then to reassess at our next renewal period.

Hope this is helpful, and please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about ELC!

Good morning all,

Thanks for all these comments on this thread! The information has been really helpful as our program is currently considering this transition from Sonia to ELC. For those that have transitioned from Sonia to ELC, was your program able to build out the student and supervisor evaluations the way you would like (or the way they were previously built in Sonia)? Also, how was your program able to retrieve evaluation data? Was that retrieved only through ELC or was evaluation information able to be brought back into relevant university/program systems outside of ELC? 

Be well,

Sara Chears-Martinez, LSW

Practicum Coordinator and Assistant Professor, Social Work

National Louis University

Hi colleagues! We are a program who has been using Sonia for the past 10 years and heard from Lumivero in November 2025 that they will be slowly migrating away from Sonia and onto the ELC platform. I believe that they are currently meeting with all current users of Sonia to discuss what a transition to ELC would look like. There isn't a firm date for them to discontinue use of Sonia, but it sounds like the goal is within the next couple of years. We are gathering more information about ELC, and so I'd love to hear how folks who use it like it (e.g. pros, cons, considerations). I so appreciate this group and the continued support of each other!

In community,

Amanda

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Jostalynn Parry
Millersville University of Pennsylvania
Millersville PA
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Jostalynn,

Thanks so much for sharing this helpful information. Do you have any information on the cost of the yearly fee they are charging students?

Susan McKee, LMSW

Marist University

Thank you so much for creating this post since this is the situation that we are also navigating!

We have had Sonia for about 4 years and are currently 1 year into a 5 year contract with them.  We were told that Sonia will no longer be supported (although I believe in theory you could keep using it) after December 2027.  When we met with Lumivero they said that Lumivero was planning to honor current contracts at the current price for Sonia (We are paying approximately 10,000/year for 300-400 students).  After the contract ends they reportedly plan to do price increases similar to what Sonia has done (around $1,000/year).  That being said, it seemed like the people we met with weren't super sure of how the financial aspect would play out so unless I get that info in writing, I'm not fully trusting it.  We also met with InPlace and Exxat Prism.  InPlace seemed ok, probably comparable to ELC.  Exxat Prism seemed really amazing with all sorts of features that would actually make field work easier and require less staff, in addition to tools that could be used by the department as whole.  However, Exxat quoted $5,000 per year plus $215/student.  (InPlace was cheaper than Exxat but more than Sonia) The significant price difference from Sonia is something that I doubt our department would be willing to take on.  It sounds like users adopting ELC for the first time who are not transitioning from Sonia will be paying significantly more than Sonia users.  If that is your situation, I would encourage you to take a look at other options first since the price difference may not be so substantial. Also, for those that aren't familiar, ELC is Tevera with a few additional features.  Most training materials for ELC still say Tevera.

If anyone else is using an option other than InPlace, Exxat, Sonia, ELC/Tevera that you like and is worth looking into, I would love to know.

Johanna Barkei

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