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School-level feature — managed within your school portal at yourschool.deandesk.com.

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Video walkthrough

This walkthrough uses the real DeanDesk interface with the fictional Northstar Academy demo school and a calm, AI-generated English voice. Payments and outside services are not connected in the demo.
Screenshots use fictional Northstar demo data. A program is a school activity that lives outside your courses — a weekly halaqa, a lecture series, a youth club, a fundraiser dinner, a parent workshop. Each program has its own session schedule (one-off or recurring), an instructor, materials, and a social post feed. Members browse programs in the Events catalog and subscribe to the ones they want to follow; subscribed members see the program’s sessions on their calendar and get notified about new posts.
Three different things in DeanDesk involve the words “program” or “event” — don’t mix them up:
  • Programs / the Events catalog (this page) — subscribable activities with schedules and a post feed, browsed at the Events page in the main sidebar.
  • Academic calendar events — school-wide dates like holidays and exam periods, managed in Calendar Management. These are calendar entries only; there is nothing to subscribe to.
  • The Explore Programs page — the storefront where families browse and purchase products (tuition and program offerings). That page sells Products, not the programs described here — though the two can be connected, as described in Paid programs.

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Browsing the Events catalog

Members open the Events item in the main sidebar to reach the Events Catalog. Each program card shows its image, instructor, upcoming schedule (recurring sessions are labeled with their repeat pattern, e.g. “Weekly on Tuesday”), and tags. A search box filters by title, description, instructor, or tag. From a card, members can:
  • View Details — open the program’s detail page.
  • Subscribe / Unsubscribe — follow or unfollow the program in one click.
The Events catalog and Programs storefront have separate navigation switches. In Website & Comms → Website → App Menus, the main sidebar switch Events Catalog controls the Events catalog, and Programs controls the Programs storefront.

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The program detail page

The detail page opens with a hero image and the program’s status chips — Active or Inactive, the linked term if any, and Private Code if the program has an enrollment code — plus Subscribe/Unsubscribe buttons. Below that:
  • About — the program description and instructor profile.
  • Schedule — every session with its date or recurrence pattern, time (or All Day), location, and session notes.
  • Tags — the program’s tags.
  • Materials — text notes and downloadable files the instructor has added. The instructor and admins can add materials directly from this page (Add Material, with a Published switch to keep drafts hidden).
  • Program Feed — the program’s social feed, on the right side of the page.

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Subscriptions

Subscribing is free and instant — there is no approval step or capacity limit. Subscribing does three things:
  • The program’s sessions appear on the member’s Calendar (instructors see their own programs’ sessions too; admins see all program sessions).
  • The program appears in the My Events section of the member’s dashboard.
  • The member is notified when someone posts in the program’s feed.
Teachers who run a program and admins can also subscribe or unsubscribe other members.

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The program feed

Each program has its own post feed where the community around the program lives. Any active subscriber (plus the instructor and admins) can post.
  • Click Start a post… (or Media / Write Article) to open the composer. Posts have a title, content, and optional file attachments.
  • Members can like posts and add comments, including threaded replies.
  • The instructor and admins can pin posts to the top of the feed.
Every new post sends an in-app and push notification to the program’s subscribers and instructor. Pinned posts additionally go out by email, so use pinning for announcements everyone must see.

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Creating a program

Teachers and admins create programs. Click Create Event at the top of the Events Catalog to open the program form.
1

Add the basics

Enter a title and a description for the program as a whole.
2

Build the session schedule

Each program starts with one session; click Add another session for more. Per session you set:
3

Set the program options

The Settings panel on the right holds:
4

Save

Click Create Program. The program appears in the Events Catalog immediately (as long as it is active).
To change a program later, the instructor or an admin opens its detail page and clicks Edit.
Northstar demo: Create program

Northstar demo — Create program

Open full-size screenshot Programs themselves have no price — payment is handled by Products. Create a Program-type product, then use Manage Programs on the product to link it to one or more programs. When someone purchases the product (for example from the Explore Programs storefront), they are automatically subscribed to every linked program.

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Who is attending

Program-product checkout distinguishes the purchaser from each attendee. When buying spots for yourself or someone else, complete the requested attendee details for each spot. For family enrollment, choose the intended family member rather than assuming the paying parent is the participant.

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Program attendee management

Admins use Program attendees to review purchased program spots. Filter by program and attendee type, or search attendee, purchaser, program, or order. Rows show attendee details separately from purchaser details, and flag spots where attendee information is unavailable. Open an order for its payment and attendee details, or Export CSV for all rows matching the current filters.
The attendee list follows Program product purchases. A free subscription to an Events-catalog program and a paid product attendee record serve different purposes.
This is the bridge between the storefront and the Events catalog: the product handles pricing, checkout, and forms; the program provides the schedule, calendar entries, materials, and post feed the buyer gets access to.