Provider-First Scheduling (Specialized One-on-One Support with Specific Providers)

Introduction

DISCLAIMER: The Peer Mentoring demo Community is used here as an example to demonstrate a scheduling system that prioritizes booking appointments based on individual providers' availability. This setup is not limited to peer mentoring programs; it is adaptable for any program, such as advising, coaching, or academic guidance, where students benefit from booking directly with specific mentors, advisors, or coaches.

Who is this Community for?

This Community setup is ideal for centers or programs that primarily offer specialized one-on-one support, such as advising, coaching, mentoring, or similar services. Instead of beginning the booking process by selecting a course or general topic, students start by choosing a specific provider's "service." A "service" refers to the provider’s role, such as peer mentoring, advising, or coaching.

For example, instead of selecting a course like "CHEM101" or a general topic like "Writing Help," a student would choose a provider-specific service such as "Peer Mentoring with [Provider's Name]." Each provider manages their own availability for their specific service, enabling students to see and book only the time slots for the provider they select.

Additionally, we recommend including a general option, such as "All Available [Type of Support]" or something similar, to fit your program's needs. All providers would be certified for this general option. This allows students who are unsure of whom to meet or are open to any provider to view the availability of all providers and select a time that works for them.

Video Walkthrough: Provider-first scheduling from Student Perspective

See the below video for an example of how students see available time slots for provider-specific services. 

Step-by-Step Student booking flow

1. Schedule a Meeting: Students arrive at their learn screen and will select an appointment format
2. Pick a Peer Mentor: Students select which Peer Mentor they would like help from, and the prompt is relabeled to, "Select your Peer Mentor"
3. Pick a Time:  The availability of one Peer Mentor is shown on a calendar view
4. Available Peer Mentors: Students will see one Peer Mentor listed with the prompt “Which Peer Mentor would you like?
   • Students will click on the Peer Mentor, see their bio, and select the Peer Mentor
5. Location: Students will see the available locations for their appointment with the prompt, "Where would you like to meet?"
6. Agenda: Students will fill out the agenda screen based on the questions you have added for each appointment flow on the admin panel

Important Notes:

1. What is usually called the "Courses" tab is listed as "Peer Mentors" in the Admin Panel shown in the video. As explained in the video, this is because the "Pick a Class" screen's usual copy would not make sense in this particular Community set-up.
2. The "Edit your Peer Mentors" button (typically shown as "Edit your classes" in traditional tutoring-based Communities) is a Penji-controlled setting. Please see this Help Center article on what it looks like when this setting is disabled: Admins: General Settings under "Disable "Edit your classes" button from students' "Pick a Class" screen (Penji Controlled)."
   • If you'd like to disable this button, please contact Penji Support at [e-mail]. 

Setting Up

Community Language

You will want to update the wording for "Providers" and "Class" within your Community.

• "Provider": This should be changed to what you call your providers within your Community: Peer Mentor, Advisor, Coach, etc.
• "Class": This can be updated to be the same as your name for providers (e.g., Advisors, Peer Mentors, Coaches, etc.), OR you can name "Class" after the service you'll be providing (e.g., Advising Services, Peer Mentoring Services, etc.). That way, the "Pick a Class" copy will change to something such as "Pick a Peer Mentor" or "Pick a Peer Mentoring Service" (or whatever provider/service you have for your Community).  In the below example from the student booking flow in our demo Community, "Class" has been updated to "Peer Mentor."
  
  Figure 1: "Class" has been changed to "Peer Mentor" wherever it was present on the "Pick a Class" screen. 

To update your Community's language, please email [e-mail]. If you navigate to the Admin Panel's left-hand menu, you will be able to see what the Classes (often named Courses) tab and Providers (often named Tutors) tab are currently labeled as. Below is an example of what our Peer Mentoring demo Community's Admin Panel looks like: 

• "Providers" has been updated to "Peer Mentors," represented by an icon of two people -- this is highlighted in green.
• Similarly, "Class" has been updated to "Peer Mentors," represented by an icon of a book -- this is highlighted in yellow.

Figure 2: Two "Peer Mentors" tabs are shown in the Peer Mentoring demo Community's Admin Panel. What is usually called the "Classes" or "Courses" tab is highlighted in yellow, whereas what is usually called the "Providers" or "Tutors" tab is highlighted in green. 

Courses CSV: Setting Up Provider Services as "Courses"

1. First, download the Courses CSV from the Courses* tab. 
   •  *NOTE: What will normally be your Courses tab will be called something different in this Community set-up, typically be what you call your providers in this community (e.g., Peer Mentors).
2. Next, you'll follow the steps to fill out your provider services as general topics. The process for inputting general topics can be found in the second bullet point of #4 in the Help Center article Admins: Courses (or Topics) Setup "Step by Step" section. 
   • For this Community set-up, you'll want to have a provider service "course" appropriately named for each provider. Each provider will be certified in their respective provider service "course." An example of a specific provider service in the Courses CSV is highlighted in green in Figure 1 below. 
   • We also recommend one generic provider service "course" that all providers will be certified in. This course will be for students who aren't sure who to meet or do not mind which provider they meet. An example of a generic provider service in the Courses CSV is highlighted in yellow in Figure 1 below. 
     
     Figure 1: Example of a Courses CSV with provider services as "courses." The generic provider service, "All available Peer Mentoring," is highlighted in yellow. A specific provider service, "Peer Mentoring with Talia K," is highlighted in green. Note that when inputting general topics, the Course Number column should be left blank. 
3. Once you've inputted all of the specific provider services and one generic provider service as "courses," save and upload your Courses CSV.
4. When you go to the Courses > Search tab, your provider services should all appear. See Figure 2 for an example of what that might look like. 
   
   Figure 2: Example of what uploaded provider service "courses" look like in our Peer Mentoring demo Community. In this Community, the Courses tab is called "Peer Mentors." 

Tutors CSV: Certifying Providers in their Services

1. First, download the Tutors CSV from the Tutors* > Manage tab and fill out the emails of your providers.
   • *NOTE: What will normally be your Tutors tab will be called something different in this Community set-up, typically the name of your providers (e.g., Peer Mentors). 
2. Next, certify your providers in their provider-specific service and the generic provider service. To certify providers, follow the steps outlined in this Help Center article: Admins: Providers Setup (Tutors, Advisors, Coaches, etc.) under "How to Certify Providers." See Figure 1 below for an example of how providers are certified. 
   
   Figure 1: Example Tutors CSV with providers certified in both their specific provider service and generic provider service "courses."
3. Once you've inputted all of the providers and their certified provider services, save and upload your Tutors CSV.
4. When you go to the Tutors > Eligibility tab, you'll see your newly uploaded list of certified providers. See Figure 2 below for an example of what that might look like. 
   
   Figure 2: Example Tutors > Eligibility tab with certified providers.

Course Enrollment CSV: "Assigning" Students to Specific Providers

This is an optional CSV to fill out for this Community set-up, but is particularly useful if students are assigned certain providers (e.g., assigning students to providers by last name, grade level, etc.). 

Note that if other communities are using a course-based Course Enrollment data integration from IT, this will not work with this Community set-up. A new Course Enrollment file would need to be generated using the assigned providers for courses. 

1. First, go to Courses > Manage to download the Course Enrollment CSV. 
2. Next, fill out the Course Enrollment CSV. To do this process, follow the steps in this Help Center article: Admins: Manual Upload for Course Enrollment under "Filling out the Course Enrollment CSV." See Figure 1 below for an example of how students are certified:
   
   Figure 1: Example of the Course Enrollment CSV. Note that each "course" has to be listed individually. 
3. Once finished filling it out, save and upload the Course Enrollment CSV. You'll now be able to see which provider services (i.e., which providers) students are assigned to in the Courses > Enrollment tab. See Figure 2 below for an example.
   
   Figure 2: Example of the Enrollment tab with two students and their assigned provider services (i.e., providers).

1.