The instructor adds the activity to the course and creates appointment slots to which students can sign up. Instructors can add slots individually or in a block of slots for a specified period. You can create more than one slot for a single period, or set up appointments for groups, or set up appointments to repeat at regular intervals.
You can create multiple Scheduler activities within a single course. For example, you may set up one Scheduler activity for regular office hours appointments, and another for consultations on research projects, or for group projects.
Scheduler activities can be graded.
There are three steps involved in setting up a Scheduler activity:
1. Create a scheduler activity
- On the course home page, click Turn editing on
. In the relevant page section, click Add an activity or resource, and in the activity chooser select Scheduler.
- On the Adding a new Scheduler page, in the General section, enter a Name for the scheduler activity and some text in the Introduction field explaining how the scheduler activity will be used.
- Enter the Role name of the teacher with whom the students will meet (e.g. Tutor, Grading Tutor, Instructor, Mentor).
- Select the scheduling Mode.
- Select the Guard time - this refers to the time period where a student cannot book an appointment or drop an appointment.
For example, if set to 2 hours, then students will be unable to book a slot that starts in less than 2 hours time from now, and they will be unable to drop an appointment if it starts in less than 2 hours. - Enter the Default slot duration (length of appointment) in minutes.
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Select whether you and your students will be sent Notifications when appointments are applied for or cancelled. - In the Grade section, select whether students will receive a Grade for attendance/performance in the activity.
- If you do choose to grade, and this is a Scheduler activity in which several appointments with each student will be graded, select a Grading strategy, i.e. whether grades will be aggregated by the mean grade or the highest grade.
- Complete the remainder of the page. Is this a group activity?
- If no, continue to the next step.
- If yes, open the Common module settings section and select the appropriate Group mode and Grouping settings. In a Scheduler activity, Visible and Separate groups behave the same: either the teacher or any student in a group can schedule an appointment on behalf of the group. (If you want set up appointments for both groups and individuals, set up separate Scheduler activities for each.)
- Click Save and display to begin adding time slots.
2. Add time slots
Once you've created the Scheduler, you can begin adding timeslots which students will be able to sign up to from their My appointments page. You can add a single slot, or multiple sets of slots for a single activity - for example, you can add slots for both the Instructor and the Teaching Assistants or Grading Tutors. When booking appointments, students will be able to see which teacher or tutor is assigned to the slot they are signing up to. You can also create repeating blocks of time slots.
Add a single slot
- On the scheduler activity's home page, click Add a single slot.
- On the Add single slot page:
- Select the appointment Date and time.
- Enter the Duration of the appointment in minutes.
- Use care when deciding whether to Ignore scheduling conflicts.
- Select whether to Allow multiple students per slot, and whether you'll allow a specific or an Unlimited number of students to attend per slot.
- Enter a Location for the meeting.
- Select the appropriate person for the meeting (who the student is meeting with).
- Select the date from which to Display appointment to students, and Enable the date fields and enter a date on which to Email a reminder to them.
- Add any necessary Comments.
- If you want to pre-define who you are meeting, continue, otherwise click Save Changes. In the Appointment 1 section:
- Select the Student to be notified of the meeting.
- Select the Grade, if applicable, that will be awarded for attendance/performance at this meeting.
- Add any Notes for appointment that need to be taken into account.
- Click Add another student if you wish to include another student in this appointment (and complete the fields as for this step), or click Save changes.
Add multiple slots
- On the scheduler activity's home page, click Add slots.
- On the Add slots page:
- Select the appointment Date, e.g. the Monday of the week within which you want to schedule appointments.
- If necessary, select the date to which you want to Repeat Time Slot Until.
- Select the days to Add appointments on.
- At Start time, select the start time of the first appointment, and at End time the finishing time of the last appointment.
- At Divide into slots? select Yes.
- Enter the Duration of each appointment, in minutes.
- Enter the duration of the Break between slots, in minutes.
- At Force when overlap, consider the following: by default, if you have already created time slots, you will not be allowed to create new ones that overlap with existing ones. If you wish to override this, select Yes.
- Select whether to Allow multiple students per slot, and whether you'll allow a specific or an Unlimited number of students.
- Enter a Location for the meeting.
- Select the appropriate person for the meeting (who the student is meeting with).
- Select a period in which to Display appointment to students from, and another on which to Email a reminder to them.
- Click Save Changes.
3. Send invitations and reminders
You can send an invitation to students to schedule their appointment, and a reminder to do so, closer to the date.
Send an invitation to all unscheduled students
- On the course home page, click the link for the Scheduler activity.
- On the Scheduler activity's home page, scroll down to the Schedule by student section.
- Click the Send invitation link.
- The draft invitation message page displays. Select all the unscheduled students' email addresses displayed. Click Send.
Send a reminder to all unscheduled students
- On the course home page, click the link for the Scheduler activity.
- On the Scheduler activity's home page, scroll down to the Schedule by student section.
- Click the Send reminder link.
- The draft reminder message page displays. Select all relevant students' email addresses displayed. Click Send.
Schedule an appointment with an individual student
How to schedule an individual appointment within a created Scheduler activity
- On the course home page, click the link for the Scheduler activity.
- On the Scheduler activity's home page, scroll down to the Schedule by student section.
- For the appropriate student, in the action column, click Schedule in slot.
- On the Schedule appointment page, either:
- Select a time slot in the Choose existing drop-down, or
- Fill in the fields to Schedule in a new slot (see the "Add a single slot" instructions under Add time slots above.)
- In the Appointment 1 section:
- Select the Grade, if applicable, that will be awarded for attendance/performance at this meeting.
- Add any Notes for appointment that need to be taken into account.
- Click Add another student if you wish to include another student in this appointment, or click Save changes.