Overview
This guide explains how to create and use the Scheduler activity.
Contents
- Video guide
- What is the Scheduler activity?
- Creating the Scheduler activity
- Configuring the scheduler activity
- Creating slots
- Conflicting Slot Errors in Scheduler
- Manually adding a student to a slot
- Further support
Video guide
This video will show you how to create "sign-ups" in Learning Space, using the Scheduler activity.
What is the Scheduler activity?
The scheduler activity provides a way to facilitate students being able to book an appointment for a chosen activity or event. Examples would include the ability for students to book a weekly tutorial slot, or for students to book onto a special guest speaker event related to a course or module. Schedules can be used for individuals or for groups, with this guide covering scheduling for individuals, which is the far more common use-case scenario.
Group Scheduler: There is a separate guide which covers the settings you need to choose if you wish to setup a schedule for group bookings using Learning Space Groups.
Creating the scheduler activity
Navigate to the module / course page that you want to add the Scheduler activity to and ensure that you have editing enabled by clicking the "Turn editing on" button.
Scroll down to the section on the page that you want to add the activity to and select 'Add an activity or resource' from the bottom right of that section.
From the pop-up window click on 'Scheduler'.
Configuring the scheduler
You will then be presented with several options. Firstly you will need to give your booking a name, which is how the booking will appear to students. In this example the name “Test Scheduler Booking” has been given.
The box below the name field is the introduction field, where you can put a description for the schedule. The text entered into this box is visible to students once they have clicked on the tutorial link. For example the description could contain more information about what you would like individuals to bring along to the session, or more information about the location of the tutorial.
Under the description field there are several other options. The first option allows you to override the term "Staff role" for all staff who are conducting the tutorials. This is not required and should be left blank.
The next field in the options area is Mode. The mode of a schedule relates to how many slots each student is able to book onto. There are two different parts to this setting, both of which need to be set. Firstly, you are asked to select the number of slots a student is able to book (choosing between 'Unlimited', or a defined number). Secondly you are asked to select the rule which this number applies to:
- ‘In this scheduler’ – the student is allowed to book the chosen number of slots in total for this schedule. For instance if you choose 3, each student can book a total of 3 slots in this schedule.
- ‘At a time’ – the student is allowed to book onto the selected number of slots at any one time. For instance if ‘2’ is selected, then the student is allowed to be booked onto a maximum of 2 slots within this schedule at any one time. Once their first slot has been attended / completed, they are able to book a further slot.
Choosing 'Unlimited' gives the most flexibility to your students.
The next setting, ‘Booking in groups’ should be left as ‘No’ unless you have specifically already created and populated Learning Space Groups using the dedicated groups functionality in Learning Space, and you wish to use this to allow group bookings. If you do wish to do this, you should read our separate guide explaining the settings needed to setup schedules for Learning Space Groups.
The only other options in this section which may need possible amendment are the Default slot duration option and the Notification option.
The Default slot duration is the amount of time in minutes that each slot lasts for. For example if you wanted each tutorial slot to last half an hour you would enter 30 in this box.
The Notification option allows you to enable or disable email notifications for students when making bookings. If set to "no", no message will be sent when adding, moving or removing an appointment.
Finally, there is an option to add a 'booking form'. This allows you to add an additional step which students are required to complete before their booking is confirmed. You can use these settings to specify that certain rules must be met (for example a file submission or some text uploaded) in order to finalise the booking. A good example of this might be where the student is required to upload a draft of the work which will be discussed during the meeting. Note that this feature is disabled by default. To enable it, set Yes in the Use booking form setting and adjust the remaining fields as required.
To save the options you have selected, click the Save and return to module button found at the bottom of the page. This will take you back to the course or module page, where you should now see the tutorial booking icon.
You have now created the tutorial booking. The next step is to create the appointment slots which are available for students to book. To do this you will need to click on the schedule you've just created, in this example the schedule is called Test Scheduler Booking.
Creating slots
Having clicked on the relevant scheduler activity, you will be taken to a screen where you are able to add time slots to your schedule / tutorial booking. To add a slot(s) click on the relevant Add slots button, which will then allow you to either add a single slot or repeated slots. The Add slots button appears on the right hand side of the page. For the purpose of this guide, Add repeated slots has been selected.
The first part of this section focuses on when you'd like the appointments created. In this example a booking will be created every Tuesday between 4th September and 20th September from 10:00 until 11:00.
The next section asks if you'd like the booking (which in our example is one hour long) broken into slots, and if so, how long you'd like the slots to be. In this instance the hour-long booking will be broken down into 15-minute slots with only one student allowed to book per slot. If you'd like multiple students to book into slots you would need to tick and amend the Maximum number of students per slot setting.
Finally you'll need to add a location for the booking, and assign a member of staff to attend. By default, slots will be displayed immediately and no email reminders will be sent to students who have booked. You can amend these settings if required, for example if you want students to receive reminders about their slot(s).
Clicking Save changes will create the slots within your scheduler booking.
For information on how students interact with a schedule, please refer to the student guide on using schedules.
Conflicting slot errors in Scheduler
When you create a slot in Learning Space, you may occasionally see an error messages such as 'The slot on <date and time> cannot be created due to conflicting slots'.
As a member of staff, you cannot be assigned to two overlapping scheduler slots. For example, if you are offering personal tutorials from 12pm-1pm, you cannot also be assigned to a workshop from 12pm-2pm in another scheduler activity, as these slots conflict with each other. These conflicts are not limited to the same course - you could conflict with another scheduler activity on any module/course/resource page in Learning Space that you're assigned to.
If such an error occurs, in order to add the slots successfully, you must either remove your slots in the other scheduler activity, or alternatively reschedule your new slots for a different time.
Manually adding a student to a slot
To add a student to a sign-up slot, first click on the scheduler activity so you can see all available slots.
Next, find the slot you want to add the student, and click on the settings or 'cog' icon which is to the right of the 'bin' icon.
Scroll to 'Appointment 1' and use the dropdown menu next to ‘student’ to select the student you want to attend. If you only wish to add this single student, click on ‘Save changes’. If you want to add another student to this slot you can do so by clicking 'Add another student'. Once you have added all the students required, click on 'Save Changes'.
You should see the student(s) which have been added.
Further Support
For further support on Learning Space, or to report any issues with this guide, please get in touch with the Digital Learning Team via dlsupport@falmouth.ac.uk. Alternatively, please refer to the numerous help guides found on our Knowledge Base.
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