The "Appointment Booking" tab enables you to utilize your web conferencing service for online private meetings.
The module can be used for office hours, tutoring, counselling and other private meeting options.
Appointment Booking manual
Menu:
1) Setting up the appointment slots
2) Reserving the appointment slots
2a. Students reserving on their own
2b. Teachers and admins reserving the slots for the students
2c. Invite guests to an appointment
2d. Reserving the appointment slots solely for guests who are not members of the course
4) Deleting blocks and cancelling appointments
5) Taking notes
1. Setting up the appointment slots
Teachers can set up their available time slots. Admins can set up time slots on behalf of the teachers.
Teachers click on "Offer Slots" (1) button to schedule their available slots.
The admins have an additional field of "Manage appointments for" (2), giving them a dropdown list to choose the teacher they wish to schedule on behalf of.
One can choose (1) the dates, the days, the length of the slots and the breaks between them.
One can also choose (2) if these slot will be available in this course only or for all courses of the teacher (classic for office hours).
Please note that when an admin schedules the slots on behalf of the teacher they will only be able to schedule for this course and not across all courses.
2.Reserving the appointment slots
2a. Students reserving on their own:
The permission for students to reserve their own appointments can be allowed or restricted on the admin panel of the MEETS platform.
The student chooses the teacher they wish to book with from the dropdown list.
They can also utilize an advanced search by choosing "Search for Slots" from the dropdown. One can filter the slots they are looking for based on the dates, days, times and the teachers.
To reserve the slot, one clicks on the preferred slot, enters the appointment topic and the purpose of the appointment, and clicks on "Reserve Appointment".
2b. Teachers and admins reserving the slots for the students:
The teachers have access to their slots only. Please see below on how to reserve a slot for a student.
The admins have a field called "manage appointments for", enabling them to select the teacher they wish to reserve appointments on behalf of.
They can also utilize an advanced search by choosing "Search for Slots" from the dropdown. One can filter the slots they are looking for based on the dates, days, times and the teachers. Only available slots will show up. Reserved slots will not show.
To reserve the slot, the teacher/admin clicks on the chosen slot, chooses the student to reserve for from the dropdown list, enters the topic and the summary of the purpose of the appointment, and clicks on "Reserve Appointment".
Please note, that for a student to appear in the drop down, they must enter the platform once. This will register them on the platform. They need not reserve a slot. Entering the platform is sufficient.
These sessions are available for the teacher and that student only. Other students will not be able to see this booked appointment. They will just see that this slot has been booked.
This is the teacher view:
This is the student view. The students can see the session scheduled for them (1) but not for others (2)
2c. Invite guests to an appointment
Teachers and course administrators can invite guests to an appointment. This can be used for adding users to an appointment over and above the member it was reserved for.
To do so, click on the slot (1) and then on "Invite Guests" (2)
2d. Reserving the appointment slots solely for guests who are not members of the course
An appointment can consist solely of guests. This allows making appointments with prospective students, parents, or anyone else who isn’t an official member of the course while keeping the meetings organized in the course’s appointment calendar, and allowing the administrator to see the teacher’s availability to book these appointments on their behalf.
In selecting the student to reserve for, choose "Guest invite link only". This will give them a meeting guest invite link they can send to the student.
Note re permissions for viewing recordings when inviting guests:
When inviting one to a meeting with the guest link in cases of both 5b and 5c, the teachers will have an option to offer access to an appointment’s information, optionally. Admins will only have the option to invite to the session without the option of including its recordings.
3. Restricting slots
The teacher or admin can restrict a slot. One has the option to enter a reason for restricting the slot, and if they wish for the reason to be visible to students. This can be useful if one scheduled a block of slots and wishes to cancel a slot. This can also be useful if one wants to set aside slots for potential meetings. They can restrict the slot, and then reopen it when they are ready to reserve it for the meeting.
Please note that if a slot has been reserved, one must first cancel the reservation, and only then can they restrict the slot.
One can reopen the slot by clicking on the slot and then on "Reopen for reservation"
4. Deleting blocks and cancelling appointments
You can delete the entire block of slots (1). When doing so, it will open a window asking if you wish to keep the slots that have been reserved already. If you would like to delete a single slot, choose the "Restrict" option as in section 7 above.
You can cancel a reserved slot by clicking on "Cancel Appointment" (2).
5. Taking notes
Teacher can take notes about meetings with the students, facilitating managing the meeting summary in an organized manner.
For more information please see documenting notes about students.
6) Session information
One can access all the appointment information, including recordings, meeting IDs, call-in phone numbers, and other access details.
Note re permissions: The teacher and student of that session can access the recording but the admins cannot.
Click on the name of the slot (1) and them on "More Details" (2).
----- Next Article: 3.2. Viewing Recorded Events -----