Advisor Active Scheduler Instruction Manual

Active Scheduler allows Slate to automatically create appointment slots that students (and incoming students) can use to set up meetings with their advisors.

To see a visual presentation of the functionality described below, please view the slideshow here:

Set-Up

The system utilizes two different meeting templates (one for in-person and one for virtual meetings). Consequently, each advisor sets up two Active Schedulers (one for their virtual availability and one for their in-person).

To Set Active Scheduler Availability

Create/Update your Advising Schedule:

Log in to Slate
Click the calendar icon > Scheduler
In the top right corner, under the “Scheduler” heading, click “Active Scheduler.”
Click the "New Schedule" button.
1. Name the Schedule "[Your name]'s Active Scheduler (Virtual)" or "[Your name]'s Active Scheduler (In-person)." (You will create both an in-person and virtual Active Schedule.)
2. Enter a start and end date for the schedule.
3. For the folder, select "advising_schedules."
4. If you have an option to select a user, select yourself.
5. Click the "Save" button.
Find the schedule you just created and click into it.
Click "Edit Templates."
If creating a schedule for virtual sessions, select "Scheduled Advising Session Virtual." For in-person, select "Scheduled Advising Session In Person."
1. To add a day of the week, check the box next to the name of the day.
2. To add a time block, click the “Add time” button. Enter the start and end time of the block and click the checkmark button. *** Important: make sure to check the checkmark next to every time block in order to save it. ***
3. To remove a day of the week from your schedule, uncheck the box next to the name of the day.
4. To delete a time block, click the garbage can next to it.
5. To copy a daily schedule to one or more days, click the “Copy Day Schedule” button and check the box next to each of the days that should have the same schedule.
Repeat steps 4-7 for any additional schedules.

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:

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:
1. Select "Settings and Sharing."
2. Scroll down on the Calendar Settings page until you get to the header titled "Access permissions for events."
3. Check the box that says "Make available to public."
4. 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.
5. Scroll down on the Calendar Settings page until you get to the header titled "Integrate Calendar," you will see a gray box titled "Public address in iCal format." Copy the link ending in “.ics.”
Log in to Slate
Click the calendar icon > Scheduler
Click "Manage Calendar Feeds" in the right sidebar.
Click the "New Calendar Feed" button.
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

Students go to your scheduling page, select an available date and time and complete a form.
The student will see a confirmation screen. This confirmation screen will be sent to both the student and you as an email.
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. ***
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.
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:

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

To schedule meetings on the backend:

Login to Slate.
Click the calendar icon > Scheduler
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.
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.
On the Meeting page, click New Registration
1. Enter the student's information.
2. Click the "Submit" button.
A confirmation email will go to you and the student as if they had filled out the form to schedule the meeting.
If you created a recurring meeting, you will need to repeat steps 4-6 for each meeting.

Conducting/Entering Meetings

Login to Slate.
Click the calendar icon > Scheduler to see the appointment.
Click on the appointment.
Click on the student's name under "Registrants" to see details of the meeting.
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.
When the meeting is complete, return to the meeting details screen. Click "Launch Check In."
If the student attended the meeting, check the box next to their name. If not, leave it unchecked.
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").
Navigate to the student's record in Slate.
Click on the "Timeline" tab.
Click the "New Interaction" button.
Enter the details of the meeting, including your private notes.
Click the "Save" button.

Canceling Meetings

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

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.
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:

Login to Slate.
Click the calendar icon > Scheduler
Find the meeting on your calendar and click on it.
If the student has not cancelled the meeting through their calendar entry, they will be listed under Registrants. Click the student's name.
In the box that pops up, click the "Cancel Registration" button and click "OK" when asked to confirm your decision. This will remove the student from the meeting but not remove the meeting from your calendar.
Click the "Edit" button.
Change the status of the meeting from "Confirmed/Active" to "Cancelled."
Click the "Save" button.
Click the "Edit" button.
Click the "Delete" button. Click the "Ok" button to confirm, and enter the required text to reconfirm. The meeting will be removed from your Slate schedule but not from your LionMail calendar.
Click on the meeting in your LionMail calendar.
Click the garbage can icon.