Admins: Appointments Flow

Appointments in Penji are scheduled by a Student with a Provider. Providers will input a calendar of availability over a 7-day period that is automatically copied over to the following seven days. Students can request times from this calendar and providers can accept or decline (you can also have sessions be auto-accepted, removing the ability to decline). 

Before you use appointments, please review the article Admins: Set-Up Appointments Mode

Appointment Process Summary

Students

Students can book sessions with the following flow: select a course, view all available provider times for that course, select a time, select a provider if multiple are available, select a location, input topic information, and confirm the session.

The student flow broken down is:

1. Select an appointment format (ex, 30-min 1:1 appointment)
2. Select a course/topic
3. Pick a time - times from all providers for the selected course are shown
   • Use the location or provider filter to narrow down the calendar of availability 
4. Pick a provider- multiple providers will be shown if available for that time and course. The student taps a provider profile and can review their bio before selecting.
   • This step is skipped if they filtered down to a specific provider in Step 3
5. Pick a location - the locations displayed depend on what location availability the provider has set for that given availability 
   • This step is skipped if they filtered down to a specific provider in Step 3
6. Topic - A question with a long-response text box, and a question with a selectable checklist. All of these elements can be edited in your admin panel.
7. Confirm, view session on home screen, and attend the session.
8. Provide feedback.

The appointment flow from the student perspective is explained here: Students: Appointments Introduction. 

Providers

1. Receive an appointment request, and confirm or decline (auto-confirm is also available)
   1. When an appointment is confirmed, this time slot will no longer appear for other students
2. Meet with the student
3. Log the session
   • Provider logs are customizable and include Student Attendance, Duration, and an Optional Comment (for admin eyes only)
     • More information on provider feedback can be found in Admins: Appointments Settings, under the header, "Provider Session Feedback (Penji Controlled)" and "Require Provider Feedback (Penji Controlled)".
   • We usually recommend that you require completion of these logs (they can't use the system until complete), resulting in 100% data submission

The appointment flow from the provider perspective is explained here: Providers: Appointment Training.

Session Details, Notifications, Calendar Invites

When a session is booked, the session is placed on the student Learn Screen and provider Teach Screen. From there, you can tap into the session to open Session Details. In session details, users can:

• Chat, including file sharing
• Cancel the session
• Review the Agenda Screen
• Open the call link (if a virtual location) or view the call location (if in-person)

Mobile-app Push Notifications and Email Notifications are sent to both provider and student throughout the process, including a 15-minute reminder before the session.

Confirmed appointments will send confirmation and calendar invites via email to all users in .ics format. Calendar invites will include the details below. Also, the same information will be included for "Admin-Scheduled Sessions" as described further down in this article. 

• The title of the calendar invite will read as, "[student first name] and [provider first name] - [community short name]".
• When the session is (date) and where (location)
• The event description will include
  • The course (topic) the student wants to work through
  • Student agenda responses

Admin Data and Feedback

When a session is requested by a student, it goes to your "Sessions" tab within your admin panel. This data can be viewed there or exported to a CSV. For more information on the sessions tab, review Admins: Data Collection - Sessions Tab.

Once the session is over, the student and provider will complete their "feedback log". Completing the feedback log will update the session data fields like: status, student attendance, submitted duration, feedback etc.

To note, feedback left by either student or provider can be found in the following places:

1. By clicking on an individual session row in Sessions
2. By clicking on the Feedback tab above the Sessions table
3. By exporting the Sessions CSV in the Manage tab above the Sessions table
4. By clicking on a student profile in the Students tab and viewing their history

Admin-Scheduled Sessions

Admins can create sessions for students and providers, or record one retroactively. This is done on the Sessions tab > Create Session.

There are three options listed in the create session flow, “Standard”, “Retroactive” and “Override”. 

In either flow, an admin can enter a user's email that is not a school email (ex: @gmail.edu). Users will receive a confirmation email that contains the session details and calendar invite. However, note that these non-school email users will not be able to access Penji through the mobile app or website. 

Standard

With standard, you can see what the student sees for availability and are able to see when providers for a specific topic are available. This flow takes into consideration lead times, community/provider unavailable times, calendar connections, booked appointments, and the weeks ahead limit.

During this flow, you’ll input a student’s name and the topic you want to book the appointment for and will only be shown providers available to teach that topic. Once you select a time, you will then choose a provider and a location based on the provider’s availability. If you filter to a provider or location in the availability screen, you do not have to do this step.

Once you have selected a time, provider, and location you can select an appointment format and fill out that format's agenda questions. Both the provider and student will receive an email notification that an appointment has been scheduled on their behalf. 

Retroactive

For data purposes, you are able to enter past sessions through the retroactive flow, to ensure all of your data is within Penji. Students and Providers will not get notified when past sessions are added through the retroactive flow. Please note that providers will not be promoted to enter any feedback on retroactive sessions. 

Override

While filling out the session override details, you can input whatever session attributes you want - student name, provider name, course, location, time, etc... but please note, this form overpowers all restrictions that our system would normally impose. You can "force" a session no matter the situation (the location is full or not open at that time, the provider already has a session at that time, the provider is unavailable at that time, etc.). So ensure that your selections work for all parties. 

Like with the standard flow, at the bottom of the form, you can select an appointment format and fill out that format's agenda questions. Both the provider and student will receive an email notification that an appointment has been scheduled on their behalf. 

Recording a Group Session

You can also create group sessions, even if your community only usually supports 1-on-1. Select Group for Kind and make the session with the first student; repeat this process with the same exact attributes (course, provider, location) for the second and more students, and these students/providers will see the session as a group in the platform. You must fill this out for everyone in the group.

Feedback

Retroactive Sessions: Adding a session retroactively is a tool for data collection for the admins to record event details. Right now, students and providers will not be prompted or given the option to leave feedback on retroactively added sessions. 

Future Sessions (Standard and Override): When the session is created from the admin panel, it operates the same as a session booked through web.penjiapp.com - providers and students will be asked to complete the feedback and providers will record session attendance. 

Student Emails

When an admin creates a future (Standard and Override) session, the student emails depend on if the location is online or physical.

• For online locations, the student will get two emails: (1) an email letting them know about the session, and (2) a calendar invite. The calendar invite and the initial email will have the same subject line, which includes the date and time of the session.
• For physical locations, the student will only get the calendar invite. 

Students will not be notified when an admin records a retroactive, past, session. However, if the no-show rules are set up, and an absence triggers a no-show email for your community, then the student will receive a no-show email. The no-show email the student receives depends on how many previous absences they have. More about the no-show emails can be found in Admins: Appointments Settings under the header, "Student session no-show rules (Admin Panel)". 

Initial Email (Online Only):

Calendar Invite:

Provider Emails

When an admin creates a future session, the provider will get two emails: (1) an email letting them know that they had been invited to teach, this email will contain the student's name and course in the subject, and (2) a calendar invite. These emails will be triggered for both online and physical locations.

If within your community providers have to confirm/accept appointments, and your community is not set to Auto-Accept, providers will not get the calendar invite until they have confirmed the pending session. 

Providers will not be notified when an admin records a retroactive, past, session. 

Invitation Email: 

Calendar Invite: 

Editing Session Details

Within your session detail, you have the ability to edit certain fields based on the session status. To edit a data field, select the session you would like to edit from the session tab > select edit > select the field you would like to edit. See the below list of available edits:

Change Location

• This is available for sessions with a status of pending, scheduled, completed, or canceled
• If you change the location for a weekly recurring session, all future locations will update to the new location 
• For group sessions, changing the location will change the location for all other group members 
• Providers & Students will not get notified when an admin changes the location of a session

Change Attendance

• This is available for sessions with a status of completed
• This will only affect the current session and will count toward the no-show policy
• Providers & Students will not get notified when an admin changes the student attendance

Reschedule (Date & Time)

• This allows you to change the date and time of scheduled sessions, you cannot reschedule a session with any other status
• Right now, you cannot reschedule weekly recurring sessions - this is on our Penji Roadmap, and we hope to release this feature soon
• For group sessions, rescheduling will reschedule the session for all other group members
• Providers & Students will get notified when the date, time, or both are changed by an admin through an updated calendar event. This applies to sessions that are In-Person or Online. See the below example:
  

Change Provider

• This is available for sessions with a status of scheduled or canceled
• If you change the provider for a weekly recurring session, only the session that you are updating  the provider for will change, not future occurrences 
• For group sessions, changing the provider will change the provider for all other group members 
• When you change the provider, the new provider will receive an email and calendar invite about the upcoming session. They will also be able to see the session details on their Penji Account and will receive the session reminder before the session
  • The original provider will be notified by a cancellation email, the calendar event will be removed from their calendar, and the session placeholder card will be removed from their teach screen 
  • Students will not get notified when an admin changes the provider of a session

Cancel Session

• This is available for sessions with a status of Pending, Scheduled, or Completed
• Providers and Students will be notified when an admin cancels a session for appointments in the future and with a past date.
• Students and Providers also have the option to cancel their sessions. See the following articles under the header "How to Cancel a Session" to see how to from the Student and Provider perspective. 

Skip One Session in a Weekly Series (Group & 1:1)

Within the session details of a session, you have the ability to add "Skip Dates" to a weekly series. This can be done for group appointments, 1:1 appointments, and Sections (admin-managed and provider-managed). 

When a session is skipped, that time is added back to the provider's availability, allowing other students to book the provider during the "skipped" session. 

Adding skip days from the Admin Panel 

1. From the Admin Panel, navigate to the Sessions tab
2. Select "Edit" for a row of the series you would like to skip. This does not have to be the exact session date you would like to skip, it just needs to be a part of the series. 
3. Click into the empty "Date" field and select the date from the calendar pop-up
4. Select "+ Add Date" and confirm the skip date

The student(s) and provider attached to the series will be notified that the session has been canceled (skipped) and removed from their calendars. 

Created Sessions vs. Planned Sessions

One subtlety of this feature: in a recurring series, only the next event is "created" (i.e., it exists in your data). A session is "created" once the provider has submitted the feedback log for this week's session. Other sessions in the future are "planned".

Created Sessions

If you skip a "created" session, the next event in a series, the status of that session will switch to "canceled" and the reason will be "skipped", as shown below. Automatically, the next event in the series will be created, and the status will be "scheduled". 

Shown above, a "created" session that was skipped, and automatically canceled

Shown above, a scheduled session that was automatically created because the previous session in the series was skipped

Planned Sessions

If you skip a later event in the series, that session will never be created (i.e., it won't show up in your data at all); the system will just create the next available session.

For example, consider the following: Today is 1/6/2023, and there is a weekly series that meets every Saturday (the next one would be on 1/7/2023). If you skip the session on 1/14/2023 today and 1/14/23 is a planned session, once the feedback for 1/7/2023 is submitted, the next created session would be on 1/21/2023. The 1/14/2023 session was skipped and thus was never created.