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Administrator Quickstart | Next: Setting Staff Assignments


Setting up Appointment Options

Go to Administration > Control Panel > Appointments then select the college or center scope where these options will apply.

This icon indicates a College-wide Setting only. This can only be set at the college level. All other options will be for the scope selected by the administrator.

Appointment options are broken into 3 groups of settings that can be changed from the defaults:

===== Status: =====

  • Disable appointments scheduling - If checked appointment scheduling will be disabled for the center or college, depending on the scope.
  • New appointment default screen. Specifies the default screen for scheduling appointments. Administrators with the right permissions will be able to pick an alternate method. Students will be offered only the selected option.
  • Use Visual Calendar by default. - Whether the appointment screens will use the visual calendar by default.

=====Instructors=====

  • Instructors - Set the option below based on your center's needs for Instructors to be reported on Appointments. Select from the following options:
    • Required
    • Optional
    • Do not show
  • Use registration information. Check to show only those instructors registered in the student's selected course.

=====Subject Areas=====

  • Subject Areas - Set the option based on your center's needs for Subjects to be reported on Appointments. Select from the following options:
    • Required
    • Optional
    • Do not show
  • Default - Use this option to select a default Subject Area (users can still change to other Subject Area as needed).
  • Use Student subject area Enrollment - This checkbox enables the use of enrollment information so only subjects or courses the students are registered to will appear.

=====Services=====

  • Services - Set the option based on your center's needs for Services to be included in Appointment details. Select from the following options:
    • Required
    • Optional
    • Do not show

===== Appointments Restrictions: ===== To set a range of times to schedule appointments.

  • Prevent users from handling appointments:
    • Prevent students from scheduling appointments - This option controls whether students can schedule appointments in the scoped center.
    • Prevent users from canceling appointments starting less than X minutes ahead - This option prevents students/tutors from canceling appointments after a specified number of minutes before the appointment start time.
    • Prevent students from canceling, restoring, and re-scheduling appointments - This disables the ability for students to make changes to their scheduled appointments at any time after the appointments are created.
  • Administrators:
    • Allow administrators to by-pass restrictions: - If checked, appointment administrators will be able to create appointments that break restrictions.
  • Tutors load balancing:
    • Hide tutors' names from students when they make appointments - This option hides the names of tutors when students schedule appointments.
    • Hide tutors' filter from the New Appointment by Tutor screen - Hide tutors' filter from the Appointments by Tutor screen.
  • Allow creating appointment:
    • No less than X days, X hours, and X minutes ahead - This setting defines how far in advance appointments must be booked in the scoped location.
    • No more than X days ahead - This setting defines how far out a user can set up an appointment.
    • In future terms - This allows appointments to be made in future semesters or terms.
    • If the student does not have one with the selected staff in the selected day - This setting determines whether an appointment can only be made with the same student and tutor once per day.
    • Starting every X minutes from [time] to [time] - This setting defines the hours that appointments can be made in the scoped location and the increments that they can start at. If the increment is set to 15 minutes, for example, appointments can be made on the hour, 15 minutes after the hour, 30 minutes after the hour, and 45 minutes after the hour each hour that is specified in the time range.
  • Maximum hours per week:
    • Staff: X hours - This is the maximum number of hours a staff member can be scheduled for appointments per week.
    • Students: X hours - This is the maximum number of hours a student can schedule appointments per week.
  • Maximum number per week:
    • Staff: X visits - This is the maximum number of appointments that can be scheduled with each staff member per week.
    • Students: X visits - This is the maximum number of appointments that can be scheduled with each student per week.
  • No-show restriction:
    • Prevent creation with a student with more than X not voided no-shows in X days - This setting determines when a student will be prevented from making further appointments due to excessive no-shows.
    • Count no-shows for the current term only - By enabling this setting No-shows will be considered for the current term only when scheduling appointments. Each new term will reset the number of no-shows on the student's record back to zero. If unchecked, the system will count the student's total number of non-voided no-shows.
  • Back-to-back restriction:
    • Prevent creation of back-to-back appointments with the same or an unspecified subject area until X minutes have passed - This setting determines how often students can make appointments for the same course or subject area in one day.
  • Duration restrictions (These settings will apply to all Services available for appointments in the scoped location, unless those Services have different specified duration restrictions. To configure individual Service duration restrictions, go to Administration > Center Management > Services):
    • The minimum appointment length is X minutes - This defines the shortest appointment time length an appointment can be made for a visit.
    • The maximum appointment length is X minutes - This defines the longest appointment time length an appointment can be made for a visit.
    • The default appointment length is X minutes - This defines the standard appointment time length an appointment can be made for a visit and will be set to this value when scheduling appointments by default.
    • Show valid durations - Enter valid durations (in minutes) or duration ranges separated by commas. For example: 15,30,45,60-120. If empty, the End Time field will be shown.
  • Count visit towards appointment if sign-in is:
    • Early by X minutes - This defines the start of the window that a student will be counted as showing up for the appointment when they sign-in at a Sign-in Station.
    • Late by X minutes - This defines the end of the window that a student will be counted as showing up for the appointment when they sign-in at a Sign-in Station.
    • And stays signed in for at least X minutes - This defines how long a student must stay signed in to be counted as showing up for the appointment when they sign-in at a Sign-in Station. This will prevent students from quickly signing in and out for an appointment and leaving the center.
If students should not be required to sign out at the end of appointments, then uncheck this option.
  • Group appointments:
    • Tutor can assist with different subject areas - Set if tutors at the college can help in different subject areas during the same time slot.
  • Allow only the following days: - Place a check next to whichever days appointments should be available.

===== Email and SMS (Text message) notifications: ===== Enables users to receive confirmations and reminders via emails and determines how soon before the appointment the reminder will be sent.

  • Email Notifications
    • Send reminder X hours before the appointments start
    • Send confirmation by email
  • SMS Notifications
    • Send reminder X hours before the appointments start
    • Send confirmation by SMS

===== Instructions when making appointments: =====

  • Default screen. Use this textbox to show instructions to the users when making appointments.
  • Force read instructions after center selection. Check to show the instructions in a popup when the center is selected.
  • New by Tutor screen. Use this textbox to show instructions to the users when making appointments using the “New by Tutor screen method”.
  • New by Date screen. Use this textbox to show instructions to the users when making appointments using the “New by Date screen method”.

Administrator Quickstart | Next: Setting Staff Assignments