In Yale Connect, Group Officers have the ability to create Connection Programs in their Group. Connection Programs allow users to search for and schedule meetings with their assigned mentors. This feature can be used for mentoring programs, advising meetings, and leadership programs.
The following guide provides information on what you will see in Yale Connect if a Group Officer has added you as a mentor to a Connection Program and how to manage your Scheduler, the calendar used by participants to book meetings with you.
Alert: If you have been added as a mentor to a Connection Program, before participants can book a meeting with you, you are required to configure your meeting location setting. Other settings, while recommended, are optional (such as connecting your Yale Connect Scheduler to your Yale calendar or making Zoom a meeting option), but setting your location is a must. Jump to the section, Managing Your Schduler, to learn how to set your meeting location, among other settings.
Accessing the Connection Program
To view the Connection Program for which you have been added as a mentor, select Connection Programs from the left menu of the Yale Connect home page.
Here, you will see all the Connection Programs for which you have been given access to view, their program descriptions, and the Groups and Admins that manage them. Select the name of the program to see additional details.
As a mentor, you will see your profile and your windows of availability. You can customize the days and times under My Availability, though it's recommended that you make these customizations from your scheduler (more information on how to schedule your availability in your program scheduler is available here).
Users that have been assigned to you to book meetings (program participants) will see a similar screen when they click on the name of the Connection Program; however, the days/times of availability are not editable. Instead, they will be encouraged to select Book to book a meeting with you, their assigned mentor.
Viewing Your Meetings
When participants assigned to you as their mentor book meetings, you can view those upcoming meetings by selecting My Meetings in the left menu of the Yale Connect home page. If your assigned participants have scheduled meetings with you, you will see a number in blue displaying how many meetings you have coming up. In the example below, two meetings have been scheduled with me.
By default, the page will display upcoming meetings that participants have scheduled with you, including the name of the participant and the date, time, and place of the meeting. If you have no upcoming meetings, the space will be blank. If you want to view meetings that have already taken place, you can use the dropdown filter at the top of the list to view all or past meetings.
Managing Your Scheduler
In Yale Connect, your Scheduler refers to the calendar that your assigned participants use to book meetings. When you have been added as a mentor to a Connection Program, the system automatically generates a Schedular unique to you for that program. The Scheduler is where you can:
- Connect your Yale calendar (steps shown here);
- Edit and manage your windows of availability (steps shown here);
- Select your meeting location options (*REQUIRED*), including Zoom for virtual meetings (steps shown here); and
- Edit other settings, which are discussed in greater detail below.
To navigate to your Scheduler, from the Yale Connect home page, select My Meetings in the left menu
Select Manage My Schedulers in the upper right corner.
Depending on how many Connection Programs for which you serve as a mentor, you may see more than one Scheduler (one for each program). In the example below, I have three Schedulers. For each Scheduler, you can view:
(1) The name of the Scheduler
(2) The duration of the meetings it schedules
(3) The direct URL to the Scheduler calendar (you may copy and share with your assigned participants if needed)
(4) Your windows of availability (steps on editing your availability shown here)
(5) A count of upcoming and past meetings
(6) The name of the Connection Program associated with the Scheduler
(7) A note in red text if the Scheduler is expired
Select Edit to the right of the Scheduler to edit its settings. This will open a settings window.
Note: When a Scheduler is first generated, some settings are set automatically by the system while others have been set by the program manager when they created the Connection Program. As a mentor, you have the ability to adjust these settings.
Alert: The only setting you MUST configure once you've been added as a mentor is the location setting. This setting enables participants assigned to you to select and confirm the location for where the meetings will take place. If you would like Zoom to be a virtual option, you must configure your video conferencing settings first (follow these steps).
Among the settings you can edit, be sure to check the start and end dates for the Scheduler. These fields determine when the Scheduler is active during which your assigned participants can book meetings with you.
Be sure to Save any settings you have changed and close out the settings window.
Adding Custom Questions
After configuring and closing out your settings, the three dot menu to the right of the Scheduler offers additional configuration options. One of these options is called Add Custom Questions, which allows you to configure questions that participants are asked upon booking a meeting.
Select Add Question.
Enter the question in the box, Meeting Question title. Then, select your Meeting Question Type from the drop down and select Submit.
In the example below, I have added a text entry question: What would you lke to discuss? You can choose to add additional questions or close out the custom question box.
