Students: Appointments Introduction

Introduction

Appointments are usually 1-on-1 interactions scheduled between yourself and a Provider (tutor, coach, etc). In Penji, we try to make scheduling and managing these appointments as efficient as possible.

This guide outlines the steps involved in booking and managing appointments within the Penji platform. We will cover:

1. Steps to book an appointment
2. Appointment Statuses
3. How to cancel a session
4. How to skip a session in a weekly series

Steps to Book an Appointment

1. Accessing Appointment Booking:

• Navigate to the Penji platform and locate the "Schedule an appointment" option on the home screen.

2. Select a Course:

• Choose the relevant course for which you require assistance. 

3. Pick a Time Slot:

• Browse available time slots offered by various providers for the selected course.

4. Filtering Options (if available):

• You can filter these times down by location, or provider if enabled, by using the filter on the top of the calendar view
• Please note that filter by provider is controlled by your admin and in some cases not enabled in a community. 

         

5. Pick a Provider:

• Review detailed profiles of available providers and select one that meets your requirements.
• Optional: Communicating with Providers
  You can chat with providers at this step if you want to ask them questions first.

6. Select a Location:

• Choose a suitable location for the appointment based on the provider's availability.
• The locations displayed depend on what the provider has set for your selected time slot. A different time/provider may have different location options available. Different communities also have different sets of locations.
• Agenda Screen: You will be asked to confirm whether you want your appointment to be in person or via Zoom.

7. Confirm Session Request:

• Review your appointment details and confirm your session request.

• The status of the session will either be Pending, Scheduled, or Declined. See the below section "Appointment Statuses" for an explanation of each status.

• Note that if the status is Pending, the tutor has the opportunity to either confirm or deny the appointment. 

• If the tutor's auto-accept is on, the appointment will be confirmed right away and you will receive the calendar invite.

• If the tutor's auto-accept is off, you will receive the calendar invite once the tutor confirms the appointment. 

8. Receiving Calendar Invite:

• Receive a calendar invite with the following details:

  • 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)

• Meet the tutor at the time and location listed in Session Details.

  • The Session Details will include

    • The course (topic) you want to work through

    • Your responses to the agenda questions

Appointment Statuses   

Pending

The "Pending" status indicates that you have requested an appointment with a provider, but they have not yet confirmed it. Your appointment is not officially scheduled until the provider accepts it. If the appointment remains pending close to the scheduled time, we suggest chatting with the provider through Penji or reaching out to your program coordinator. 

NOTE: Some centers have "auto confirm" set up, so the Pending stage is skipped in the appointment flow. With "auto-confirm," once a student requests an appointment with a provider, the appointment is automatically scheduled.

Scheduled (Confirmed)

Once the provider has confirmed the appointment, the Pending status will be removed and the details of the session (Date and Time) will be shown. Your appointment is now fully scheduled. 

You will receive two (2) emails once the provider accepts the appointment:

1. An email stating that the tutor has accepted the appointment
2. An email containing the appointment details and a calendar invite. 

Declined

Providers can decline appointments they are invited to teach in. Declined appointments will not affect your session usage limits. You are also not expected to join a declined appointment. While you won't receive an email notification for declined sessions, you can view them on your Penji Learn Screen.

When you click into a declined session, no session details will be shown. 

How to Cancel a Session

NOTE: Canceling a weekly appointment will cancel all future weekly appointments as well.

How to Cancel: 

1. Click the session you would like to cancel.

2. Select the three dots in the upper right-hand corner.

3. Select "Cancel Session".

   

4. Explain why you are canceling the session.

5. Once confirmed, you will receive a notification within the Penji platform indicating that your session has been canceled. Additionally, an email notification will be sent to you confirming the cancellation. The session details will also be removed from your calendar.

The image above is an example of a cancellation email. 

How to skip one session in a weekly series

***Note 1: A session can be skipped on the same day as the session, or in the future. 

***Note 2: A student can only skip a session for 1:1 appointments, NOT group appointments. If you will be absent from a group appointment, please contact your program coordinator.

Steps on how to skip one session in a weekly series:

1. Click the session you would like to skip for the week.

2. Select the three dots in the upper right-hand corner.

3. Select "Skip a Session".

You will now see a screen with all of the listed skip dates for this series. You will want to select "Add a new skip date"

4. Select the date, and confirm that you would like to skip this date.

***Note 3: You are only able to add skip dates one at a time.

  

If you decide to skip a session that has already been scheduled, you'll notice the session placeholder card on your Learn Screen. Then, you will receive a notification confirming the cancellation, and the session will be removed from your calendar.

Subsequently, a new session placeholder card will automatically appear on your Learn Screen for the next upcoming session date in the series. For instance, if you skip a session scheduled for January 6, 2023, a new session will be created for January 13, 2023.

However, if you intend to skip a session that is more than a week away and the session placeholder card is not visible on your Learn Screen, you will still receive a notification confirming the cancellation and removal of the session from your calendar. In this case, instead of being redirected to your Learn Screen, you'll be directed to the "Skip Session" page where the skip date will be listed alongside all other skip dates.

***Note 4: When a Provider skips a session, you will be notified through email, the calendar event will be removed, and the session placeholder card will be updated for the next upcoming session.