For account administrators
Do you have staff members who need to keep track of their own set of learners across all the training and learning Paths they're taking?
Now, with Mentor Groups, you can create groups of learners within your community and assign mentors who can track their progress, review their work, and provide one-on-one guidance across everything they're learning - even in courses they're not personally teaching! 👀
Create new Mentor Groups
As an Administrator, you can create a new Group in two places:
The "Manage" button on your Home > People screen.
Your School Dashboard > Community > Groups.
From Home > People
From your Home screen, switch to the People tab.
Select the "Manage" button in the upper right corner.
On the Community screen that pops up, select the Groups tab.
Select "New group" and choose a name for your group. Optionally adjust the other settings. When ready, click "Create." Now you're ready to add members.
From Community > Groups
Open your account-wide Community from the Admin Dashboard or from the main menu.
On the Community screen that pops up, select the Groups tab.
Select "New group" and choose a name for your group. Optionally adjust the other settings. When ready, click "Create." Now you're ready to add members.
Mentor Group roles
Each Group has three member roles:
Members are anyone who you'd like to coach, tutor, or personally guide across all the learning paths they take. They can accept invitations to join a group, but otherwise they won't see any indication that they belong to a particular group yet (more community engagement coming soon).
Mentors are responsible for guiding each member of the Mentor Group and giving them feedback on reviewable work. Mentors receive in-app and email notifications whenever a member submits a step that's marked for review, even if they aren't a teacher or moderator for the cohort. They can also opt into a weekly digest email.
Group Admins can invite Members, Mentors, and additional Group Admins to any Mentor Group they manage, edit their group settings, and create new nested groups. They won't be automatically notified to review assignments, but they can optionally review assignments and leave feedback if they wish, and can opt into the weekly digest email.
Add members to Mentor Groups
Once you've created your Group, find it on the Groups list and click Add Members.
To add staff and members...
Use the search bar to find existing users in your account and add them to the Group instantly. Search by name or email address and look up multiple people if you like.
Make sure you have the correct role selected and then click Add. Existing users will be added instantly. If someone doesn't have a membership in your account yet, they will be sent an invite and will be prompted to create their personal account.
You can add people in any role or change their role later.
Ways to use Mentor Groups
If you've never used a mentor model before, the possibilities can be overwhelming. Here are a few starter ideas:
Engage your team's experts: invite your team's leaders and experts to mentor team members as they learn new skills.
Offer 1:1 coaching: offer personal coaching and feedback (perhaps as a premium subscription option) in addition to or instead of teacher-led courses.
Create a competency-based education program: instead of a traditional course-based approach, design your paths to teach specific skills and knowledge expertise. Then use the mentor features to help each learner take a unique path through all the skills instead of moving along with a cohort or schedule.
Mentor Groups Pricing
Every plan includes at least one Mentor Group with all the features above. You can upgrade to create more Groups anytime.
Here are the details:
Trial account: 1 group
Starter: 1 group
Essentials: 5 groups
Complete: 20 groups
Enterprise: Unlimited groups
FAQs
Q. How do I edit and organize Groups?
A. Select the additional actions icon (...) to the right of your Group and select Manage group. You can...
Edit the name
Add an optional description
Nest this Group under another Group to clarify organizational relationships
Delete the Group
Expand and collapse Groups for more clarity.
Q. Can I change the order in which my Mentor Groups appear?
A. Mentor groups are ordered by the date they were created, starting with the most recent. There is not currently an option to change the Mentor Group order.
Q. How do I change someone's role after I've added them?
A. To edit the role of a Group Admin or Mentor, select the menu below their name and select the desired role. Confirm, and their role will be changed.
To edit the role of a member, select the additional actions icon (...) to the right of the member's name and select "Make mentor." After promoting to Mentor, you can additionally promote them to Group Admin.
Q. How to I remove staff and members?
A. To remove a member, select the additional actions icon (...) to the right of the member's name and select "Remove from group."
To remove a staff member, select the menu below their name and change their role to member. Then follow the instructions above to "Remove from group."
Q. Can I download more information on the Mentor Groups in my account?
Two downloadable CSV reports are available for Mentor Groups and these can be accessed only by account Administrators. To download a report, open your account-wide Community, open the additional actions icon in the upper right corner, and select a report to download.
Q. How does a mentor track progress and review work?
Once assigned to a Group, a Mentor's Home > People > Groups page provides access to any Group they are leading.
Here's an article from the Mentor's point of view, covering just what the Mentor can see and do.
Q. How does the weekly digest email work for Mentors?
A. We've created a new weekly email with everything you need to know to keep your Group on track week to week. By default, the digest will be turned on for each Group you're directly managing or mentoring.
💡Tip: you can turn the Mentor Digest off or on for any Group where you're a Mentor or Group Admin by using the Group Options menu.
The email digest includes:
Pending review: Every step that needs to be reviewed or graded along with how long it's been waiting. Use this to give timely feedback without letting anything slip through the cracks.
Progress last week: a snapshot of each group member's progress (or lack of progress) for every course path they've started. Use these snapshots to keep tabs on where learners are focused (or not focused), and intervene as necessary.
💡Tip: by hitting "reply all" on any digest email that you receive, you can send a private email to all the other mentors and/or group admins in your group when working with other mentors. Members will not be copied on the emails.
