Using Appointments to Track Resource Reservations and Interactions

Some centers use appointments mode to track scheduled interactions or reserve campus resources rather than provide traditional tutoring or advising appointments.

Common examples include:

• Reserving a study room
• Booking a 3D printer
• Reserving multimedia equipment
• Scheduling time in a testing room
• Booking consultation spaces

Rather than connecting students with a provider for support, appointments are used to reserve a resource for a specific date and time while still taking advantage of Penji's scheduling, reminders, and reporting capabilities.

How do we use appointments to track resource reservations?

In this use case, appointments are repurposed to reserve a resource instead of meeting with a service provider.

For example:

1. A student books "3D Printer 1" for Tuesday from 2:00–5:00 PM.
2. The reservation appears in Penji like any other appointment.
3. Staff can view, manage, or approve the reservation.
4. After the reservation is completed, it appears in the Sessions tab for reporting.

Types of Appointment Setups

Resource-as-Provider

Each resource is created as its own provider.

Examples:

• Study Room A
• Study Room B
• 3D Printer 1
• Podcast Studio

Students simply choose which resource they'd like to reserve.

Best for: Resources with independent schedules.

Staff-managed Reservations

A staff member acts as the appointment provider while managing reservations for one or more resources.

For example:

• Library Front Desk
• Student Success Center
• Technology Help Desk

Staff review appointment requests and allocate the requested resource.

Best for: Centers that manually approve reservations.

Setting Up

1. Create a Community

Reach out to Penji Support to request a new Community dedicated to Resource Tracking and Reservations.

2. Configure Appointment Types

Create one or more appointment types based on how long students can reserve the resource.

Examples:

• 30-Minute Reservation
• 60-Minute Reservation
• 2-Hour Reservation

3. Configure Your Courses CSV

Create the services students will book.

Depending on your workflow, these might represent:

• A general reservation service (e.g., "Booth Reservation" or "Study Room Reservation"), or
• Individual resource categories (e.g., "3D Printer," "Podcast Studio," or "Equipment Checkout").

4. Configure Tutor Availability

In this workflow, tutors typically represent the reservable resources rather than people.

Examples include:

• Booth 1
• Booth 2
• Study Room A
• Study Room B
• 3D Printer 1
• Podcast Studio A

Configure each resource's availability based on when it can be reserved.

In the example above, the community chose to reserve rooms/booths. Therefore, "tutors" are named "Room N", and were given proxy emails. 

5. Configure Available Locations

Add the locations where the resource is available.