Smart Documents in upcoach are a practical tool designed to enhance the coaching experience for both coaches and clients. Unique in their composition, these documents feature predefined, editable blocks with layouts crafted by the coach. Further enriched with change history snapshots and completion progress tracking, their design distinctly sets them apart from regular documents and forms, offering specific advantages in the coaching process.
In this article, we will delve into the specifics of how Smart Documents function within the upcoach platform. We'll explore the detailed features of Smart Documents, understand their operational mechanics, and examine how they integrate seamlessly with other aspects of upcoach. This guide is designed to provide a thorough understanding of Smart Documents, equipping coaches with the knowledge to utilize them effectively in their coaching interactions.
Unveiling the Benefits of Smart Documents in Coaching
Let's explore how Smart Documents uniquely enhance the coaching experience, offering distinct advantages for both coaches and clients.
For the Coach
Smart Documents in upcoach serve as an invaluable tool for gathering organized and structured client feedback. These documents provide a customizable template, enabling coaches to align the content with specific session goals, thereby ensuring consistent and focused information collection.
Structured Client Feedback: Smart Documents allow coaches to receive feedback in a structured format, making it easier to analyze and respond to client inputs.
Customizable Templates: Coaches can tailor the layout and content of Smart Documents to suit the specific goals and needs of each coaching program or session.
Efficiency in Tracking Progress: The structured nature of these documents simplifies the process of tracking client progress over time.
Consistency Across Sessions: Using Smart Documents helps maintain consistency in the information and feedback collected from different clients or across multiple sessions.
Time-Saving: By standardizing the format for information gathering, coaches can save time on preparing and reviewing client materials.
Enhanced Client Engagement: Coaches can design interactive and engaging documents that encourage deeper client involvement and reflection.
Easy Integration with Coaching Tools: Smart Documents can be seamlessly integrated with other upcoach features and tools, enhancing the overall coaching workflow.
For the Client
On the client side, Smart Documents function as interactive worksheets, guiding clients through their coaching journey. The structured layout provided by the coach assists in focusing client responses, fostering a clear and engaging framework for expressing thoughts and feedback.
Guided Interaction: The structured format of Smart Documents provides clients with clear guidance on how to interact and what information to provide.
Focused Reflection: The predefined blocks help clients focus their thoughts, facilitating more meaningful and focused reflections.
User-Friendly Interface: Smart Documents are designed to be easy to use, making it simpler for clients to engage with the coaching material.
Enhanced Learning Experience: The interactive nature of these documents helps reinforce learning and understanding of the coaching content.
Personalized Coaching Experience: Since coaches can customize Smart Documents, clients receive a more tailored and relevant coaching experience.
Progress Tracking: Clients can visually track their progress and development through the consistent use of Smart Documents in their coaching journey.
Empowerment in Coaching Process: By actively contributing through Smart Documents, clients become more involved in their personal growth and coaching process.
Example Use Cases
Discover the versatility of Smart Documents in upcoach through these practical use cases, showcasing how they can be seamlessly integrated into various coaching scenarios.
Onboarding Clients to Programs | Utilize Smart Documents for initial client onboarding, including questionnaires to understand client backgrounds and needs, along with getting started instructions to guide them through the program. |
Gathering Information as Forms and Questionnaires | Design Smart Documents as interactive forms or questionnaires to collect detailed information from clients, such as pre-session assessments or feedback on coaching sessions. |
Journaling for Personal Reflection | Encourage clients to use Smart Documents for journaling purposes, providing a structured format for regular personal reflection, self-assessment, and tracking emotional or professional growth over time. |
Goal Setting and Tracking | Coaches can create Smart Documents for clients to set and track their personal or professional goals, facilitating a clear roadmap for their development journey. |
Feedback and Reflection Exercises | These documents can be used for regular feedback sessions, where clients reflect on their progress, challenges faced, and insights gained, fostering deeper self-awareness. |
Session Preparation and Follow-up | Clients can utilize Smart Documents to prepare for upcoming coaching sessions or to summarize key takeaways and action plans post-session, enhancing the effectiveness of each meeting. |
Skill Development Activities | Coaches can design interactive worksheets within Smart Documents for specific skill-building activities, aligning them with the client's learning path and coaching objectives. |
Personalized Habit Tracking | Coaches can set up Smart Documents for clients to monitor and maintain personal habits linked to their coaching goals, promoting consistency and accountability. |
Resource and Information Sharing | These documents can be used to share important resources, readings, or exercises, with the ability to embed links and multimedia content directly into the document. |
Deep Dive
This deep dive will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of how these documents function and how they can be effectively utilized in your coaching practice.
Properties
A Smart Document listed in Smart Document Block
Name
The name given to each Smart Document, serving as an essential identifier for coaches and clients. When naming your Smart Document, choose a title that is concise yet descriptive, reflecting its purpose or the specific coaching session it pertains to. For instance, titles like "Goal Setting Session" or "Weekly Reflection - [Date]" can provide clear and immediate context for both coach and client.
Info
Provides essential context about the Smart Document, aiding in tracking its development and usage over time.
Creation Date: Indicates when the document was first created, helping in tracking the inception of coaching materials or client engagements.
Creator: Identifies who initially created the document, providing clarity on authorship and responsibility for content origination.
Last Updated: The Shows the most recent modification date, offering insights into the document's currency and the active engagement of users.
Progress
This property indicates the client's engagement with the Smart Document, measured as a percentage. Progress is determined by the percentage of response blocks filled out by the client relative to the total number of response blocks in the document.
This percentage-based tracking allows coaches to easily understand the extent of client interaction and completion, aiding in assessing participation levels and guiding subsequent coaching actions.
Assignee
The person (usually a client) to whom the document is currently assigned, indicating their responsibility for its completion or interaction.
History
A log that captures daily changes made to the document. Maintains the latest version for each day, allowing for review of the document’s evolution over time.
A Smart Document header in detail view
Templates
Smart Document Templates are powerful tools for creating structured exercises and documents that clients can interact with. By using templates, coaches can design documents with specific formats and content, suitable for various coaching scenarios. Once a template is created, it can be assigned to clients. This system ensures that every time a template is assigned, a new Smart Document is generated for the client, tailored to their individual coaching journey.
Creating and Assigning Templates: Coaches can create a range of templates to cater to different coaching needs. When these templates are assigned to clients, unique instances of Smart Documents are automatically created for each client, ensuring personalization and relevance.
Dynamic Document Generation: This approach allows for the creation of consistent yet customizable coaching materials, as every assigned template generates a new Smart Document, maintaining the original template's structure while allowing for individual client responses.
Handling Template Updates and Deletions
Updating Templates: When a template is updated, it automatically alters Smart Documents that were previously created from it. This ensures the integrity and consistency of client interactions and responses.
The content of the smart documents created from that template in all active documents, including those within courses will be updated,
Removing a content block may lead to the loss of data created by client,
The overall progress of the affected Smart Documents will be recalculated, potentially resulting in changes
Deleting Templates: Deleting a template does not remove Smart Documents that were created from it. Those documents remain intact and accessible, preserving the historical data and interactions. However, once a template is deleted, it can no longer be used to create new Smart Documents.
Template Creation Tools: The Building Blocks of Smart Documents
These tools are essential for coaches in upcoach to design customized Smart Document templates. They enable the creation of tailored, interactive documents that align perfectly with specific coaching needs and goals.
Layout & Design Blocks
Icon |
| Name | Description |
|
| Text | Add rich text content to your Smart Document, perfect for detailed descriptions, instructions, or reflective questions. |
| 
| Heading | Use H1 for main titles and H2 for subtitles, helping to structure your document clearly and making it easy to navigate. |
|
| Section | Create expandable/collapsible content areas within your Smart Document, ideal for organizing information efficiently and embedding directly into course lessons. |
| 
| Columns | Divide content into two or three distinct columns, useful for side-by-side comparisons or parallel content presentation. Note that column blocks cannot be nested within other column blocks. |
|
| Info | Provide key information or context in a highlighted manner, making important notes or guidelines stand out in your document. |
|
| Button | Insert clickable buttons for actions like linking to external resources, navigating within the document, or submitting responses, enhancing interactivity. |
Response Blocks
Icon | Name | Description |
| Text Field | A space for clients to enter text responses, suitable for open-ended questions or specific feedback. |
| List | Allows clients to add items to a list, perfect for enumerating thoughts, steps, or action items. |
| Checklist | Provides a checklist format for clients to mark off completed items or tasks, aiding in tracking progress and organization. |
| Multiple Choice | Offers a selection of predefined options for clients to choose from, facilitating straightforward choices or preferences. |
| Checkbox | Enables clients to select multiple options from a list, useful for gathering feedback on a range of topics. |
| Dropdown | Contains a dropdown menu for clients to select an option, ideal for conserving space while offering multiple choices. |
| Linear Scale | Allows clients to rate or evaluate something on a scale, providing a quantitative measure of opinions or experiences. |
| File Upload | Clients can upload files directly into the Smart Document. These files will be attached to the program associated with the document, ensuring all materials are centrally organized. |
| Date | Clients can select a specific date from a calendar, useful for setting deadlines, appointments, or marking significant events. |
| Time | Provides a tool for clients to input a specific time, beneficial for scheduling or time-based feedback. |
Media Blocks
Icon | Name | Description |
| Video | Embed videos directly into the Smart Document, ideal for providing visual instructions, demonstrations, or motivational content to enhance the coaching experience. |
| Image | Insert images to add a visual element to the document, useful for illustrating points, showcasing examples, or enhancing engagement through visual aids. |
| Audio | Allows for the embedding of audio files, perfect for including spoken instructions, guided meditations, or motivational messages as part of the coaching process. |
Program Smart Document Block
In upcoach, the Smart Document Program Block is specifically tailored to integrate Smart Documents within individual coaching programs. This design allows clients to access and interact with documents that are directly relevant to their specific program, aligning the Smart Documents closely with the program’s goals and objectives. For coaches, this block simplifies the management of these documents, providing a streamlined way to assign and oversee them within the context of each program.
Block Options
Template Availability Settings
List of Available Smart Document Templates: Create a curated selection of Smart Document Templates that are accessible within the specific program. Coaches and clients can utilize these templates to create new documents, ensuring that all interactions and activities are aligned with the program's focus and objectives.
Clients Can Create Documents: Allows coaches to control the level of autonomy clients have in creating new documents. By toggling this option, coaches can decide whether clients within the program are permitted to create new documents from the available templates. This flexibility ensures that the creation and use of Smart Documents can be tailored to suit the coaching style and the needs of the clients in the program.
Client Visibility Settings
Clients See Each Others' Smart Documents: Toggle this option to allow clients within the same program to view each other's smart documents. It fosters a sense of community and shared progress.
Clients See Coach’s Smart Documents: Enable this to let clients see smart documents assigned to their coach. This option can be used to provide transparency and model progression inside the smart documents.
Regardless of visibility settings, clients cannot create or edit smart documents for other clients, maintaining individual smart document privacy and responsibility.
Filtering Options
Filtering options in the Program Smart Documents Block work in combination, using an additive approach where all applied filters intersect (AND logic).
Assignee: Displays smart documents of a selected assignee. Visible to clients only if the “See Each Others’ Smart Documents” option is activated. Coaches have constant access to this filter.
Status: Allows filtering of smart documents based on whether they are 'Completed', 'Not Completed'.
Template: Displays smart documents created from a specific template. Users have the option to select "All" for a comprehensive view of all documents within the program.
Sort By: Various sorting options to organize Smart Documents efficiently. Users can choose to sort documents alphabetically ('A-Z', 'Z-A'), or by date ('Most Recent', 'Last Updated'), facilitating easier navigation and quicker access to the required documents.
Course Smart Document Block
The Smart Document Course Block in upcoach is a dynamic feature designed to integrate Smart Documents directly into course lessons. This integration is crucial for reinforcing the course content and providing an interactive learning experience.
Template Selection and Document Creation: In this block, coaches select a template for a particular lesson. When the lesson is released to clients, a new Smart Document is automatically created for each enrolled client, personalized to their learning journey.
Display Options for Created Smart Documents:
Link: This option displays a link to the Smart Document within the lesson. When clients click on this link, they are taken directly to the Smart Document editor page, where they can interact with and edit the document.
Embed: The embed option allows for a section of the selected Smart Document template to be embedded directly in the lesson. This setup enables clients to edit and fill in their Smart Documents without leaving the lesson environment, enhancing the seamless integration of learning and documentation.
Important Notes on Course-Created Smart Documents
Re-Creation Option: If a Smart Document created by a course is deleted, clients have the option to re-create it directly from the lesson. This feature ensures that essential learning materials are always accessible and recoverable.
Program Attachment: Smart Documents created through course lessons are linked to the program that the client is enrolled in. This connection ensures that the document is properly contextualized within the broader framework of the client's coaching program.
Versatile Interaction: These Smart Documents can be accessed and interacted with both within the course itself and in the smart documents block of the associated program. This dual accessibility provides flexibility for clients to manage their learning and documentation in a way that best suits their preferences and learning style.
Agenda Smart Document Block
The Agenda Smart Documents Block provides a unique and interactive place for managing smart documents within a specific agenda. This block is tailored to foster a collaborative environment, differing from the Program Smart Documents Block in several key aspects.
No Block Options: The Agenda Smart Documents Block is designed for simplicity and ease of use, omitting additional block options to streamline smart document viewing and management.
Universal Visibility of Smart Documents: All smart documents, regardless of the assignee, are visible to every participant within the agenda. This feature enhances transparency and collective awareness of all smart documents associated with the agenda.
Focused Client Interaction: A key difference in the Agenda Smart Documents Block is the restriction on document creation. Unlike in the Program Block, neither coaches nor clients have the capability to create new Smart Documents within the Agenda Block. This limitation is intentional to emphasize the use of Smart Documents for reviewing and reflecting on agenda items rather than for generating new content.
Collaborative Advantages
While the Smart Documents Block in Agendas has a different approach compared to the Program Block, it still offers distinct advantages in terms of collaboration and engagement:
Focused Review and Reflection: This block is tailored for in-depth review and reflection on Smart Documents related to the agenda. By centralizing relevant documents, it encourages thorough discussion and contemplation, aligning with the specific topics of the agenda session.
Increased Engagement: The restriction on creating new Smart Documents directs clients' and coaches' attention to engaging more deeply with the existing content. This focused interaction enhances the quality of participation and engagement in the agenda-driven discussions.
Streamlined Communication: Having a dedicated space for Smart Documents related to the agenda ensures that all relevant materials are easily accessible. This setup facilitates clear and efficient communication, as both coaches and clients can refer to the same documents during discussions, leading to more transparent and productive conversations.
The Agenda Smart Documents Block is an effective tool in scenarios where focused discussion, thorough analysis, and reflective thinking are essential. By guiding coaches and clients to interact with pre-existing Smart Documents, this block aids in creating a more structured and meaningful agenda session, enhancing the overall effectiveness of the coaching process.
Homepage Smart Document Block
The Homepage in upcoach offers a centralized interface for managing all your Smart Documents, enhancing accessibility and organization.
Centralized Management: Easily view and access all Smart Documents you've created or are assigned to, from a single, convenient location. This feature simplifies navigation and saves time, especially when handling multiple documents.
Quick Overview: Get an instant snapshot of the status of each document, including progress indicators and recent updates. This allows for efficient tracking and prioritization of coaching activities.
Streamlined Workflow: Directly interact with Smart Documents from the Homepage, making it easier to update, review, or reference documents during coaching sessions or planning.
Incorporating these functionalities, the Homepage becomes an invaluable tool for coaches and clients alike, streamlining document management and ensuring seamless integration of Smart Documents into the broader coaching framework.
Notifications
Effective communication in coaching is essential, and upcoach's notification system is designed to keep both coaches and clients informed about smart document-related updates.
Triggers
Smart Document Assignment to Client: When a coach assigns a smart document to a client, the client receives a notification, ensuring they are immediately aware of the new smart document.
Smart Document Completion by Client: Once a client completes a smart document, the coach who assigned the document is notified. This allows the coach to track progress and provide timely feedback or follow-up.
Customizing Notification Preferences
Organization Settings: Admins can set notification preferences for the whole organization in the admin area. This helps standardize how everyone receives smart document related notifications.
Individual Preferences: Each user, whether a coach or a client, can tailor their own notification settings from their profile. This ensures they receive updates in a way that suits their personal preferences.
The effectiveness of notifications depends on individual settings. Both coaches and clients have the ability to customize how they receive notifications, which can include email, in-app alerts, or other methods as supported by upcoach.
Encourage users to regularly review and adjust their notification settings to ensure they align with their preferred method of communication and frequency.
How-to Guides
Tips and Tricks
Template Variety | Develop a diverse range of templates to cater to various coaching needs and styles, enhancing the flexibility of your coaching approach. |
Utilize Progress Tracking | Regularly check the progress percentage to monitor client engagement and identify areas needing more attention or encouragement. |
Engage Through Embedding | Make use of the embed feature in course lessons to integrate Smart Documents directly, encouraging active client participation. |
Historical Insights | Regularly review the history log to understand document evolution and client interaction patterns over time. |
Client Feedback Loop | Encourage clients to provide feedback on the Smart Document's structure and content, enabling continuous improvement and customization. |
Regular Template Review | Periodically review and refine your templates based on client interactions and outcomes to ensure they remain effective. |
Optimize for Engagement | Design Smart Documents with engaging content and interactive elements to keep clients motivated and involved. |
Clear Completion Indicators | Use clear and concise language in your Smart Documents to indicate completion requirements, helping clients understand when a document is fully completed. |
Foster Reflective Practices | Utilize Smart Documents for reflective exercises, prompting clients to engage in deeper self-analysis and learning. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I update a template after assigning it?
Yes, you can update templates. Changes will reflect in all active documents created from that template, including those in courses, but be aware that removing content blocks may result in data loss.
What happens when I delete a template?
Deleting a template won't affect existing Smart Documents created from it. However, the template will no longer be available for creating new documents in the programs that it's made available.
How can clients access assigned smart documents?
Clients can access assigned Smart Documents through their Program or Course Blocks, and from their Homepage.
Can clients create their own smart documents?
This depends on your settings. If 'Clients Can Create Documents' is enabled in the Program Block, clients can create new documents from available templates.
Are smart document edits visible to both coaches and clients?
Yes, any changes made by clients or coaches are visible to both parties, fostering transparency and collaborative editing.
How is progress tracked in smart documents?
Progress is tracked as a percentage, based on the number of response blocks filled out by the client compared to the total number of response blocks.