Admins: Using Multiple Modes in Penji

Introduction

Penji has three modes of support: Appointments, Drop-In, and Sections (groups). Each of these three modes can coordinate in-person support, online support, or a hybrid of the two. This article will highlight a few Penji Use Cases, where a single provider works across the different modes. If you would like to discuss using the modes together further, please contact [e-mail] and we'll help out!

More information on using each mode can be found within:

• Admins: Appointments Flow
• Admins: Drop-In Flow
• Admins: Sections Flow - Admin Managed

Day-Time Drop-in, Off-Hour Appointments

This model leverages both drop-in and appointments. Drop-In acts as a good foundation for your center, providing tutor coverage on a drop-in basis during business hours (up to you, but let's call them 8-5). Providers will be paid for all of these hours and can depend on that weekly wage. You'd then layer in appointment availability in "off hours" (5pm+ and weekends), and most likely make these hours virtual-only (we support Zoom, MS Teams, Cisco WebEx, Google Meets, and GoBoard). You can "assign" these hours to providers or use "flexible" hours (described below).

With this model, students can browse drop-in schedules and attend your center in person during the day, or they can schedule appointments if they prefer evenings/weekends or online help. 

Using "Flexible" appointments with this mode

In this model, we recommend that you give providers flexibility in setting their own appointment schedules. Penji allows you to set a cap on the number of confirmed appointment hours per week a provider can work in Settings. So, in this model, you'd say (example):

"[Provider name], please input Tuesday and Thursday from 8 am-12 pm as drop-in hours in the Student Success Center. Beyond this, you can put in any appointment availability you'd like outside of the 8 am-5 pm M-F window. Students may make requests for support from you; accept and work those appointments, and we'll add any worked appointments to your payroll."

Penji is intuitive when it comes to managing appointments, so the directions above would be enough to make this work. We have large programs using the above flexible model effectively. You can see worked appointments in the Sessions tab in the admin panel to help you calculate payroll. 

Directions

1. Decide on the drop-in schedule for your center (Admins: Set-Up Drop-In Mode)
2. Schedule providers for their drop-in hours 
3. Once drop-in schedules are set, either
   • Tell providers to input their own off-hour appointment availability (Providers: Setting Up & Editing Hours), outside of M-F 8 am-5 pm, and set up a "Tutor Max Booked Hours" limit in your Settings (Admins: Appointments Settings.) This limit refers specifically to booked appointments and doesn't factor in drop-in hours.
   • Give providers assigned off-hour appointment availability (Admins: Set-Up Appointments Mode), which they'll be paid for whether they're booked or not. 
4. When running payroll, pay them for their drop-in shifts as well as any Sessions rows that are marked as "Completed". "Completed" status means the provider completed a log for the session; scrolling to the right reveals whether the student was marked as "Present" or "Absent".  You may decide to pay providers differently for Present vs. Absent status.

Drop-in and Appointments in Parallel

This model refers to supporting both appointments and drop-ins during normal business hours of a center. A provider in Penji can have overlapping availability scheduled for both modes. This means that students can book appointments during a provider's drop-in shift. The drop-in hours will be communicated as normal to students, but when an appointment is booked with that provider, that slice of time is removed from the drop-in schedule in real-time. See the above video for an example of overlapping hours, and how the system handles this.  

Programs usually set an appointment "lead time" in this model (eg. appts must be booked 24 hours or more in advance), which means that the drop-in schedule for the next 24 hours is reliable and won't change. To add or update your lead time, email [e-mail]. 

Directions:

1. Decide on the drop-in schedule for your center (Admins: Set-Up Drop-In Mode)
2. Schedule providers for their drop-in hours 
3. Decide which provider you want to also be available for appointments and schedule that provider with appointment hours that overlap their drop-in hours (Admins: Set-Up Appointments Mode)
   • You can schedule some hours with overlapping appointments and some not. For example, a given provider could be working an 8 am-11 am drop-in shift; you might want to only give them 8 am-10 am appointment availability, in order to guarantee that they will be fully focused on drop-in during the busy 10 am-11 am hour slot.

Drop-in and Sections in Parallel

This model refers to supporting drop-in hours if no students have registered for a provider's section. In this model, a provider will have available drop-in hours during the time of their scheduled sections. This means that students can find the provider for drop-in help if student invites are not used, and no students have registered for the section. The drop-in hours will be communicated as normal to students until a student registers or is invited. Then, that slice of time is removed from the drop-in schedule in real-time. More on using student invites below.

See the above video for an example of overlapping hours, and how the system handles this.  

Student Invites are Used

When student invites are used, it does not matter if the section is optional or required. The section-time will automatically be removed from the available drop-in hours. The system recognizes that students might show up to the section since they are invited, regardless if any have signed up. 

Student Invites are Not Used

For required sections, where student invites are not used, once the first student registers for the section the available drop-in time is removed. Since students are automatically enrolled in the following week's session, the drop-in time will not be shown to students until the section's end date.

For optional sections, where student invites are not used, the drop-in time will be available each week until a student signs up. As a reminder, when a section is required students will automatically be registered for the following week's session. In comparison, with optional sections, students must sign up each week. 

Directions:

1. Decide on the drop-in schedule for your center (Admins: Set-Up Drop-In Mode)
2. Schedule providers for their drop-in hours 
3. Decide which provider you want to also lead a section; upload the section.csv file with hours that overlap with their drop-in hours (Admins: Set-Up Sections (Groups) Mode)
   • You can schedule some hours with overlapping sections and some not. For example, a given provider could be working a 10 am-2 pm drop-in shift; you might want to only have them lead a CHEM101 section from 10 am-11 am, but then have them be available for chemistry Drop-In hours from 11 am-2 pm.