Parents as Teachers: Designing a Secure, Scalable Digital Platform for Complex Content Delivery

Parents as Teachers (PAT) is a voluntary early childhood home visiting  program using research-based, evidence-informed curricula that helps families raise children who are healthy, safe, and learning. Parent Educators within affiliated organizations use these materials every day to educate themselves and support parenting conversations with families.

As PAT modernized how its robust curricula is delivered digitally, the organization needed a secure, flexible, browser-based digital platform capable of supporting complex access requirements, multiple curriculum structures, and personalized Parent Educator experiences, while remaining scalable for future growth.

• Secure Authentication
• Role-Based Access Control
• Multi-Curriculum Platform
• Personalized Educator Experience

PAT partnered with AGP to design and implement a platform that could meet these demands without adding administrative complexity.

The Situation

PAT’s platform needed to support real-world complexities driven by its multi-curriculum structure and diverse audience needs. Our solution needed to provide flexibility without overwhelming their Parent Educators or other users. The key challenges were:

• Secure authentication that integrates with an existing Aptify system
• Multiple user roles requiring different levels of access to the platform’s content
• Access permissions specific to pages, resources, and menus
• Support for multiple curricula, each with distinct branding and structure
• Personalization features for the Parent Educator that support efficiency and accessibility
• Availing manually translated content and incorporating industry terms into machine translated site language

The Work

Secure Single Sign-On Integration

AGP implemented Single Sign-On (SSO), integrating the curricula platform with PAT’s existing Aptify AMS to create a seamless, secure login experience that reused their already established roles as the backbone for permissions. Users will log in through a portal they are already familiar with (no new passwords to worry about) and gain immediate access to the new curriculum platform. 

Role-Based Access Across the Platform

AGP designed and implemented a role-based model that controls content visibility and access to content. Since the user’s identification and role is established during SSO, the solution adheres to permissions set by content administrators that govern pages, menus, curriculum sections, and curriculum resources. For example, if an affiliate subscriber can’t access a specific resource, it is not present in their view.

A Scalable Framework for Multiple Curricula

Each curriculum has its own hierarchy with specific areas and topics. AGP designed a platform that supports multiple curriculum programs within one system, while allowing each one to retain its own brand identity. This is all managed through a custom CMS admin experience. 

Each curriculum can have: 

• Its own branding with targeted color palettes and a secondary navigation banner
• Its own organizational hierarchy
• Custom navigation tailored to how that curriculum is used

The underlying design system and architecture remain consistent, ensuring scalability and long-term maintainability. There will be no rework required when another curriculum is added.

Personalization That Supports Parent Educators’ Daily Work

Parent Educators are responsible for planning family visits. They do this by determining the goals of the visit, educating themselves on relevant topics, and preparing an agenda for the visit including resources that are left with the family. AGP implemented personalization features designed to make this work easier for the Parent Educator.

• Bookmarks – Parent Educators can save and organize their favorite resources into their own set of bookmark collections, making planning faster. The bookmark solution was designed to support sharing personal bookmark collections with peers at a future date. 
• Language Preference – Parent Educators serve diverse families and come from diverse backgrounds themselves. Accessing educational resources in their preferred language allows them to engage with and retain information more effectively. Translation of the website’s UI and the content is automated by a custom AI tool built by AGP.