Program Managers need to be prepared to provide a variety of support to mentees in the classroom. Often, this will go beyond match support and it will also include some light technical support. In NYC, we find that mentees are great at social media but they are less practiced with general computer use. 

The list below contains some issues that Program Managers should be prepared to help with while they are in the classroom with mentees.

General Computer Help

• How to log-in to the school computer. Do mentees need a username or password to log in to the school computer?
• How to use a Windows machine if mentees are used to Macs, or how to use a Mac if they are used to Windows.
• How to access the internet if mentees are unfamiliar with Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.
• How to go to a specific web page. Many mentees know how to use a search engine, but are not as familiar with the address bar of a browser.
• What to do if their computer freezes, or if their internet stops working. Sometimes mentees will say that the platform has stopped working, so PMs should be able to check to see if the problem is with the computer, or the internet connection. Going to cnn.com or another media-rich page is a good test to see if the internet connection is a problem.

Platform Help

• How to log-in to the platform. It can be helpful to have the platform address bookmarked by the IT professional at your partner school. Mentees may also forget their usernames/email addresses or passwords. It can be helpful for the PM to carry a list of all of the mentee usernames for the first few weeks of school.
• Vocabulary words like "RSVP": many mentees may not know what this means.
• Ensuring that they press "Finish" at the end of their Lesson. Some mentees might forget to scroll to the bottom and press Finish. While their Lesson work is automatically saved, they will not get participation credit for the lesson until they click  the Finish button.
• How to navigate back to previous lessons. Some mentees will want to see what their mentor wrote in a previous lesson and will need assistance navigating through Lessons. PMs can direct the mentees to look for the "New" icons in Lessons to see unread content from their mentors as well as click the units or lessons with the "Current Lesson" banner to get back to the current lesson.

If a Participant Cannot Log In to the Platform...

Is the participant using the right email address to log in? Check their profile to make sure! Follow these steps to get to a participant's profile:

• Log on to the platform with your admin account.
• Click on "User Management" on the admin menu page. 
• Type first or last name into search box. 
  • Note: if the user is not yet Ready to Be Matched (RTBM), you should change your "User Status" filters to "All."
• Click on the first or last name of the participant to bring up the User Profile.
• User Profile page: look in the upper left hand box for “Email” which is the username for the account. Double check that the participant is trying to log-in with the correct email address.

Is the participant using the right password? The PM can reset a password if it is forgotten. Follow these steps to reset a participant's password:

• From the User Profile page: look in the upper left hand box for “Reset Password” under the profile picture.
• Type in the new password two times and click “Reset”.
• When the password reset confirmation message appears, click the link “Back to previous page”

If a Participant is in the Wrong Partner Site...

The PM should change the participant's partner site:

• Log on to the platform with your admin account.
• Click on "User Management" on the admin menu page. 
• Type first or last name into search box. 
  • Note: if the user is not yet Ready to Be Matched (RTBM), you should change your "User Status" filters to "All."
• Click on the first or last name of the participant to bring up the User Profile.
• User Profile page: look in the upper left hand box, for “Partner Site".
• Click on the blue text under “Partner Site” to select a new option and click “ok”.
• Click “Refresh” to confirm the change has gone through.