Page Comparison

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To see a visual presentation of the functionality described below, please view the slideshow herebelow that is appropriate for your role:

Advising Team:

To see the above presentation in full-screen mode, please click here: 

CDL Team:

To see the above presentation in full-screen mode, please click here: 

To view messages to email aliases:

1. Log in to Slate
2. Click the inbox icon Image Added > Inbox

*** Note: The Inbox screen has filters in a box on the right side. Inbox will remember your most recent filter and return to it - even after logging out ***

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There are four sections of filters , all of which work together:on the right side of inbox. The selected filters will be bolded. Unselected filters will be links that allow the user to apply them.

• Assignment
  
  • Your Assignments - Messages assigned to the current user to act upon.
  • Assigned - Messages that have been assigned to any user.
  • Unassigned - Messages that have not been assigned yet.
• Status
  • Open - Messages that have not been resolved yet.
  • Resolved - Messages that have been handled and the matter is resolved.
  • Junk - Spam emails received by an email alias.
  • Deleted - Deleted messages.
• Importance
  • Show All - All messages (starred or unstarred).
  • Show Starred - Messages marked with a star (important).
• Roles
  • Each Your Roles - Messages sent to any of the inboxes aliases to which the user has access.

Connect your Google (LionMail) Calendar to Active Scheduler:
By connecting your LionMail calendar to Active Scheduler, Active Scheduler will prevent students from scheduling appointments for times when you are busy. To connect your LionMail calendar to Active Scheduler:

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Go to your Lionmail Calendar

On the left panel, find your primary calendar for your account and click on the Options button, displayed as 3 vertical dots:

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Select "Settings and Sharing."

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Scroll down on the Calendar Settings page until you get to the header titled "Access permissions for events."

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Check the box that says "Make available to public."

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In the drop-down menu to the right of that checkbox, we recommend that you select “See only free/busy (hide details).” That way, someone with access to your calendar feed will never actually see what are you are doing - just that you are busy.

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1. For the folder, select "advisors."
2. For the URL, enter the .ics link you just copied.
3. Name the calendar "[Your name] Calendar."
4. Click the "Save" button.

***Note about Google Calendar: Google Calendar has an option for individuals to mark themselves "Out of Office." If a user gets invited to a meeting for a time when they are "out of office," the meeting invitation gets automatically declined. However,  the Out of Office feature does not show users as busy on external feeds. So if you are going to be out of office, you should mark yourself as Busy on your LionMail calendar.

Add Active Scheduler to Portal

The AIS team needs to add the advisor's active scheduler widget to the advisor scheduling portal. Once your LionMail calendar feed has been added and your two Active Schedulders have been created, please notify the AIS team.

Share your Active Scheduler Link

The link for students to schedule meetings with you is: https://advising.sps.columbia.edu/portal/advising_team?advisor_uni=abc123 (replace "abc123" with your UNI. You can share that link in your email signature and other locations for students to access.

Use Active Scheduler

Student Scheduling of Appointments Process

1. Students go to your scheduling page, select an available date and time and complete a form.
2. The student will see a confirmation screen. This confirmation screen will be sent to both the student and you as an email.
3. The confirmation email will contain a meeting invitation link. You should accept the meeting invitation to add it to your LionMail calendar. When you accept the invitation, the meeting title will contain your name. You may want to change that to the student's name. If the meeting is virtual, the email body will state whether it is by phone or video conference. You may want to put that information into the meeting notes as well.  ***Please note that while both you and the student will receive a meeting invitation link, those two links are not connected to each other or to your schedule in Slate. Changing or deleting your calendar event will not affect the student's or the Slate schedule. ***
4. 12 hours before the scheduled meeting time, the student will receive a reminder email containing a link to a form on which they can either confirm that they will be attending the meeting or indicate that they need to reschedule.
5. Each morning on which you have scheduled advising sessions, you should:
   1. Login to Slate.
   2. Click the calendar icon > Scheduler to see your scheduled appointments for the day.
   3. Check to see if any of the scheduled students have completed that form. To do that, go to: https://advising.sps.columbia.edu/manage/form/form?id=cf533be1-f291-46a2-9439-6395f0d57286
   4. If any students have indicated that they need to cancel their meeting, it will not be removed from your schedule or LionMail calendar. To do that, you can follow the "Cancel Meeting" instructions (below).

Scheduling a Meeting on the Backend

Sometimes, you will want to create an advising yourself within Slate (rather than with the Portal). The two main reasons are: 

1. Active Scheduler does not allow you to schedule meetings within 16 hours of the meeting time.
2. On the backend, you can create recurring meetings for students who meet with you weekly.

To schedule meetings on the backend:

1. Login to Slate.
2. Click the calendar icon > Scheduler
3. Click the "New Session" button.
   1. Title the meeting appropriately.
   2. For Template:
      1. If the meeting is in-person, select "Scheduled Advising Session In Person." 
      2. If the meeting is virtual, select "Scheduled Advising Session Virtual."
   3.  For Status, select "Confirmed/Active."
   4. If this is a recurrent meeting:
      1. Check the box to "Add multiple sessions."
      2. Under Date Range, enter the start and end date of the range.
      3. For Weekdays, enter the days of the week on which it will take place.
      4. For Time of day, enter the start time, (e.g. "4:00 PM").
      5. For Duration, enter the number of minutes (typically 30).
   5. If this is not a recurring meeting:
      1. Enter the date and start time, e.g. "4:00 PM").
      2. Enter the date and end time, e.g. "4:30 PM").
   6. For Time Zone, enter "(UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).
   7. If you have an option to enter a User, select yourself.
   8. If this is a web meeting,
      1. Click the Location Tab.
      2. For Online Session, select "Host session using Share video platform."
   9. click the "Save" button.
4. If you created a one-time meeting, you will be taken to the Meeting page. If you created a recurring meeting, you will be taken to the Schedule page. In that case, click one of the sessions.
5. On the Meeting page, click New Registration
   1. Enter the student's information.
   2. Click the "Submit" button.
6. A confirmation email will go to you and the student as if they had filled out the form to schedule the meeting.
7. If you created a recurring meeting, you will need to repeat steps 4-6 for each meeting.

Add a Second Advisor to a Meeting

1. Login to Slate.
2. Click the calendar icon > Scheduler to see the appointment.
3. Click on the appointment.
4. Click the "Edit" button.
5. Select the second advisor in the space for User 2.
6. Click the "Save" button.

Conducting/Entering Meetings

1. Login to Slate.
2. Click the calendar icon > Scheduler to see the appointment.
3. Click on the appointment.
4. Click on the student's name under "Registrants" to see details of the meeting.
5. If the meeting is by phone, call the student's phone number listed in the details. If it is a video conference, click the "Webinar" link. 
6. When the meeting is complete, return to the meeting details screen. Click "Launch Check In."
7. If the student attended the meeting, check the box next to their name. If not, leave it unchecked.
8. Click "Conclude Event." Click the "OK" button to confirm. The meeting will go on the student's timeline (or be entered as a "no-show").
9. Navigate to the student's record in Slate.
10. Click on the "Timeline" tab.
11. Click the "New Interaction" button.
12. Enter the details of the meeting, including your private notes.
13. Click the "Save" button.

Canceling Meetings

Students can indicate that they need to cancel a meeting one of two ways:

1. The calendar event that comes with the meeting confirmation email contains a link to cancel the meeting. If the student follows this method, they will be removed from the meeting in Slate. Both you, and the student will receive a cancellation email. But the meeting session will still in Slate and the meeting will be on your LionMail calendar. In this method, the student does not need to provide an explanation for the cancellation.
2. The student can complete the form indicating a need to cancel the meeting. They will need to provide a reason, but the meeting will not be cancelled in Slate or your LionMail calendar.

To fully cancel a meeting:

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  • One filter for each alias filter to which the user has access labeled "Inbox - (Alias Name)."

The filters all work in combination with one another. So checking "Assigned", "Resolved," "Show Starred," and "Inbox - SPS Advising" will only show messages that have been assigned to a staff member, have been resolved, were marked with a star and that had been sent to the SPS Advising alias.

Taking Bulk Actions

Inbox allows the user to apply the same action to multiple emails at the same time:

1. Hold down the "ctrl" key (Windows) or the "⌘" key (Mac) and click on the desired emails.
2. Click the icon with two gears: Image Added
3. Choose an Action:
   1. Assign - Associate the messages with a student's record, assign the message to a staff member, and/or move the message to a different alias.
   2. Open - Mark "resolved" messages as "open."
   3. Resolve - Mark "open" messages as "resolved."
   4. Delete - Delete messages.
   5. Restore - Undelete messages.
   6. Flag as Junk - Mark spam emails.
   7. Unflag as Junk - Unmark spam emails.
   8. Star - Mark emails as important.
   9. Unstar - Mark emails labeled important as unimportant.
   10. Update Field - (currently unused)
   11. Update Tag - Apply a tag to or remove a tag from messages. To create a new tag, select "Other" and enter the new tag name in the text box that appears.
4. Choose appropriate actions (where relevant).

Assigning Messages

Inbox enables teams to assign responsibility for handling certain messages to specific users. It also allows users to connect messages to students' records. Messages can be assigned by either clicking on the "Assign" button Image Addedwhile viewing a message or taking a bulk action as described above. When assigning a message, the user is presented with three fields in which actions can be taken:

1. Assigned Record - Lookup a student to associate the message to with their record. If a message is already associated with a student's record, and it should not be, make this field blank and click the "Save" button, and it will be disassociated.
2. Role - Change the email alias that the message is connected to (Use this when an email was sent to the incorrect alias).
3. User - Select the team member who should be responsible for handling the message. If a message should not actually be assigned to a particular user, select the blank option, and it click the "Save" button, and it will become unassigned.

Replying to Messages

Users can reply to messages either as the email alias or on their own behalf. By default, the reply will be from the alias. To change the sender, while viewing the message, click on the message header. In the window that pops up, The user can select their own email address. They can change the recipient's email address and add other recipients in the Cc and Bcc fields.

Snippets

Snippets can be created for text that is frequently used in messages. To create a Snippet:

1. Click the Inbox Icon Image Added > Snippets.
2. Click the "New Snippet" button.
3. Enter a name for the Snippet and enter the snippet text.
4. Click the "Save" button.

To insert a Snippet into a message.

1. Begin replying to an email.
2. When the cursor is in the appropriate location, click the Snippet in the "Snippet" window at the bottom of the page. 
3. The snippet will appear in the message at the desired location.

Sending Original Messages from Aliases

To email a student from an alias without replying to an email:

1. Navigate to the student's record.
2. Click their email address.
3. In the email message window that opens:
   1. select the appropriate alias as the sender of the email.
   2. Enter a subject line.
   3. Compose the body of the email. Inbox Snippets are available on the right side.
   4. Click the "Send" button.