Providers: Appointment Training

Appointment Introduction

Appointments are scheduled interactions between yourself and a student. Some basics:

• Appointments are usually 1-on-1 interactions 
• Students or admins can create appointments (not Providers)
• You'll manage your availability within Penji. A walkthrough on how to create and edit hours can be found here: Providers: Setting Up & Editing Hours
• Appointments appear on your "Teach" screen; tap an appointment for more info
• You are responsible for logging sessions (student attendance, duration, comments)
• Information on the student flow for appointments can be found in the following article: Appointments Introduction

How an Appointment Works

Student Request Flow

Understanding how a student books an appointment is important. Here is a general description:

1. Students select the mode of support they desire (appointments, drop-in, groups) then their course;
2. Penji will then look up all certified providers for that course (ie. you), merge their availability into a single calendar, and allow students to choose a time. Students have the ability to filter the availability by location. 
3. With a time selected, students see the available providers at that time (could be multiple), view provider profiles, and pick one.
4. Students then choose a location; this list of options is affected by your choices when scheduling your availability at that time.
5. Students input a topic, then confirm their requests. 

More information can be found at Students: Appointments Introduction

Tutor Flow/Steps

You'll be notified of new requests via the mobile app and email. You will then need to:

1. Accept/Decline the session
   • Some centers have configured auto-accept, so requested sessions will show up as confirmed vs. pending. With auto-accept enabled, there is no extra work on the provider 
     • If auto-accept is on, the appointment is automatically confirmed and you will be sent the calendar invite right away. 
   • Pending sessions are shown above confirmed appointments, with an action required.
   • Click into the pending session and select "Accept This Request" or "Decline This Request". You have the ability to chat with the student within the session details.
2. Once the session is confirmed, chat with the student if you want to ask any pre-session questions.
   • The session will appear on your Teach screen, where you can view session details and access chat.
   • After you have confirmed the session you will receive a calendar invite.
3. Meet at the time/place shown in Session Details;
   • If a virtual session, the link is embedded in the session in Penji.  
4. Complete the session feedback/attendance log. This can be accessed from the sessions detail. See below "Logging the Session" for more information. 
   • Note: Marking students as Absent (Selecting "No one showed up") may incur suspensions for students, so make sure you really mean it!

Notifications are sent throughout this process via both push notification and email. We recommend all providers get the mobile app to stay on top of their interactions.

Logging the Session

After meeting with the student, you are required to log the session. There is a button on the Session Details page labeled Check-In students. Open that and complete the required info. This can be completed quickly, and in many programs is required in order to use Penji further, so get in the habit of doing it after appointments. In some cases, your admin will set it so that you will not be able to do anything else within the app/web browser until you have completed the required feedback log.

1. Access the Session Details page and select "Check-in Students"
2. Select who attended the session or "No one showed up" then select "End Session"
3. Add or subtract time, by clicking -10, -5, +5 or +10, to accurately record the duration of the session
4. Answer any feedback questions and click submit

How to Cancel a Session

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

How to Cancel: 

1. Click into 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. You will receive a Penji notification, "Your session has been cancelled" and email (shown below) once officially cancelled. The calendar invite will be removed. 

Shown above, an example of a cancellation email 

How to Skip One Session in a Weekly Series (1:1, Group)

NOTE 1: Providers can skip sessions the day they take place OR skip sessions taking place in the future. 

NOTE 2: Skipping a 1:1 appointment is the same process for the Provider and for the Student. Additionally, Providers have the option to skip group appointments. Skipping a group appointment will skip the session for all group members.

NOTE 3: When a session is skipped, that time is added back to your availability, allowing other students to book you during the "skipped" session. 

1. Click into the session you would like to skip for this week.
2. Select the three dots in the upper right-hand corner.
3. Select "Skip a Session". The image shown left is of a 1:1 appointment, and the image shown on the right is for a group appointment. 
   
        
4. 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", select the date, and confirm that you would like to skip this date. Note that you can only add skip dates one at a time.
      
   
   
5. If you are skipping a session that has already been created and see the session placeholder card on your Teach Screen, then you will be notified that the session has been canceled and removed from your calendar. On your Teach Screen, a new session placeholder card will appear for the next upcoming session date in the series. For example, skipping a 1/6/2023 session will create a new session for 1/13/23. 
   
   • If you are skipping a session that is more than a week out and the session placeholder card is not on your Teach Screen, you will be notified that the session has been canceled and removed from your calendar. Instead of being redirected to your Teach Screen, you will see the "Skip Session" page with the date listed as a current skip date. All skip dates you enter will be listed here. 
     

NOTE 3: When a student skips a session and you are the provider leading that session, you will be notified about the cancellation through email, the calendar event will be removed, and the session placeholder card will update for the next upcoming session.