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Task: New Advisor Actions (Slate+Advising)

Task: New Advisor Actions (Slate+Advising)

Owned by Bryon Vaughn
Last updated: Oct 17, 2023 by Adam Lenter

Overview

The purpose of this document is to provide the manual steps required within the Slate+Advising instance whenever a new advisor is added to the team. Over time, this list of tasks should decrease as more processes are automated.

Actions

Each of the sections below must be completed for each new advisor.

User Account / Permissions

  • Add the advisor as a new active user with login access:
    • Enter the advisor's first and last names and Columbia email address.
    • Enter their title from the Columbia directory.
    • Enter their UNI in the User ID field.
    • Check "Enable account for access."
  • Add the user to the following roles:
    • Advisor
    • Inbox - SPS Advising

Advising Staff Assignment

  • Access the Rules page: https://advising.sps.columbia.edu/manage/database/rules/
  • Click any one of the rules that begin with "Assign Advisor..."
  • In the Edit Rule page, click the Copy Rule button
  • Save the new rule using the following naming convention: "Assign Advisor - First Last"
  • Click the Edit button at the top right of the new Edit Rule page
    • Set the Status to Active and click the Save button
  • Double-click the "Advisor Name" in the Filters section of the Edit Rule page for the new rule
    • Change the "Advisor Name" value to the first and last name of the new advisor. This must exactly match the name that is assigned to students in SIS.
  • In the Action section, change the Prompt value to the name of the new advisor
  • Click the Save button to store the changes

Active Scheduler

  • Download the advisor's photo from the external facing advisor web site and add it to the static image folder in Slate
    • This is done in the Configuration / Files section under Database through the Slate web UI
    • The file name MUST be the advisor's UNI with a .jpg extension (e.g., ab1234.jpg)
  • Add the advisor's Google calendar to the configured Calendar Feeds
    • The advisor must make his/her google calendar available to the public (instructions here: .iCal Instructions)
    • Obtain the URL of the advisor's .iCal feed.
    • Click Scheduler > Manage calendar feeds.
    • Click the New Calendar Feed button.
      • Select the Advisors folder.
      • Select the advisor as the user.
      • Paste the URL into the URL input.
      • Set the name to "[Advisor's Name] Calendar."
  • Add two Active Scheduler components for the advisor
    • Click Scheduler > Active Scheduler.
    • Click the "New Schedule" button. 
    • One active schedule should be based on the advisor's in-person availability and have "(In Person)" in the title and one based on virtual and have "(Virtual)" in the tile, (e.g. "John Smith (In Person)" and "John Smith (Virtual)."
    • The date range in the active schedule should end as of 12/31 of the subsequent year. If we are in 2023, the end date should be 12/31/24. Those dates will need to be updated annually.
    • After entering the basic information of each active scheduler component, click "Edit Templates." The virtual component should be assigned the template "Scheduled Advising Session Virtual." The in-person component should be assigned the template "Scheduled Advising Session In Person."
    • Configure the time slots based on advisor's preferences (this can be changed later as needed)
  • Add two Active Scheduler widgets (one for virtual and one for in-person).
    • Click Database > Portals > Meet our Advising Team
    • Click into the view "advisor_scheduling."
    • Click on the "Meet with [New Advisor]  (Virtual)" widget.
    • Click the "Save As Copy" button.
    • Repeat the process for the ""Meet with [New Advisor]  (In-Person)" widget.
    • On the Details tab of the widget:
      • Replace "[Advisor's name]" with the advisor's first and last name for the name field.
      • Keep the status as Inactive
      • Replace the "[advisor UNI]" class name with the advisor's actual UNI.
        • The UNI is used to match the active scheduler widget to the appropriate advisor. 
        • Hidden is required to ensure the component is not displayed by default
        • Advisor is required because when we want to unhide all of the advisors' schedules (in the case where the user can choose between multiple advisors' schedules), we use the "advisor" class to select them all.
    • On the Selection tab:
      • Use the name from the Details tab as the page title.
      • Replace "[New Advisor]" in the page title field with the advisor's actual name.
      • Replace "[new_advisor]" in the Internal name field with the advisor's lowercase name (separated by underscores).
      • For the schedule choose the appropriate advisor active scheduler.
      • For the user, select the appropriate user. 
      • Set the duration to 30 minutes recurring every 30 minutes.
      • For registration deadline, enter 16 hours
    • On the Location tab:
      • For virtual calendar widgets, select "Host session using Share video platform" in the Online Session field.
      • For the in-person meetings set the Location Name to: Columbia University School of Professional Studies.
      • Set the Time Zone to Eastern.
      • For in-person schedules, set the address to: 203 Lewisohn Hall, 2970 Broadway, MC 4119, New York, NY 10027