Monitor progress guide

The Scheduler activity allows the scheduling of appointments with students and is used on many programmes to manage personal tutorial bookings. Lecturers specify time slots for meetings, students then choose one of the available slots on Moodle. Lecturers, in turn, can record the outcome of the meeting - and optionally a grade - within the Scheduler. Scheduler is often used in programme modules so that a Scheduler with appointment times can be set up for each Personal Tutor. This enables students to view which appointments are available to book to meet their Personal Tutor.

Group scheduling is supported: each time slot can accommodate several students, and optionally it is possible to schedule appointments for entire groups at the same time.

1. Turn Edit mode on.
2. Select the section you would like to add a Scheduler to and select Add an activity or resource.
3. Select Scheduler from the Activity list and select Add.
4. Give your Scheduler a Name. Choose something that will be easy for students to recognise.
5. Provide an Introduction to explain the purpose of the appointments.
6. Set your Options settings:
   • Role name of the teacher: the label for the role who scheduled appointments will be with. This is not necessarily a lecturer. For example it could be Personal tutor or Dissertation Supervisor.
   • Mode: you may choose here some variants in the way appointments can be taken:
     • "n appointments in this scheduler": The student can only book a fixed number of appointments in this activity. Even if the lecturer marks them as "seen", they will not be allowed to book further meetings. The only way to reset ability of a student to book is to delete the old "seen" records.
     • "n appointments at a time": The student can book a fixed number of appointments. Once the meeting is over and the lecturer has marked the student as "seen", the student can book further appointments. However the student is limited to n "open" (unseen) slots at any given time.
   • Booking in groups: If set to Yes, students can book a slot for all members in their group.
   • Setting a Guard time prevents students from changing their booking shortly before the appointment is due. If the Guard time is enabled and set to, for example, 2 hours, then students will be unable to book a slot that starts in less than 2 hours time from now, and they will be unable to drop an appointment if it is due to start within 2 hours.
   • Default slot duration: the default length (in minutes) for appointment slots that you set up. You are able to change this when you add slots to the scheduler in the next stage.
   • Notifications: when this option is enabled, lecturers and students will receive emails when appointments are applied for or cancelled.
   • Use notes for appointments: The default is to use Appointment notes that are visible to the lecturer and student. This setting can be changed to Confidential note that is visible to lecturers only, both Appointment and Confidential note, and None for no notes.
7. Grade settings are not normally required for a Scheduler activity, so keep these settings at default.
8. Booking form and student-supplied data:
   • If you require students to complete a booking form before they can make a new booking in the scheduler, set Use booking form to. The settings in the Booking form and student-supplied data section will be enabled and can be configured.
   • Enter Booking instructions for your students which will be shown to them as they book appointments. Include instructions on what students should enter in the data fields below.
   • Let students enter a message. The default setting is No. If you want students to enter a text message as directed in the booking instructions in the field above, select Yes optional for student for students to have the option to enter a message or Yes student must enter a message if students are required to enter a message.
   • Maximum number of uploaded files: Select the maximum number of a files a student can upload from the drop-down list. The default is 0. If file upload is mandatory, check the File upload required box.
   • Maximum file size: The maximum file size for student uploads.
   • Students can later return to edit their data, up until the Guard Time if enabled.
9. From Common Module settings: 
   • you can change Availability to Hide from students if you are not ready to make the Scheduler visible, otherwise leave as Show on module page. 
   • If the Scheduler is to be restricted to a collection of groups, it is necessary to create a grouping of those students. Where relevant, select the drop-down arrow next to Grouping and select the grouping who should have access to the Scheduler.
10. Select Save and display to add appointment slots.

Add slots

• When first added to a module, the Scheduler will not have any slots set up. From the Actions row, select Add slots to Add repeated slots or Add single slot.

Add single slots

Date and duration

1. Set the booking slot date, time and duration
2. If this appointments collides with some other slots, you'll be asked if this slot replaces all conflicting appointments. Note that the new slot parameters will override all previous settings.
3. If the Ignore scheduling conflicts box is ticked, then the slot will be moved to the requested date and time, even if other slots exist at the same time. This may lead to overlapping appointments for some teachers or students, and should therefore be used with care.
4. Maximum number of students: You can set a limit on the amount of students who can apply for a given slot.
5. Location: This setting allows you to specify the scheduled location of the meeting.
6. Teacher: Choose a lecturer for the appointment. The name of this setting may change depending on the name the Role name you provided when setting up the Scheduler activity.
7. Display appointment to students from: This is when the appointments will become visible to students
8. Email a reminder on: Select the Enable box to set a date for the system to email a reminder to student(s) about their appointment.
9. Comments: Add any pre-meeting notes can be added to comments section.

Add repeated slots

1. Date: Set the first date from when the booking slots will be available from.
2. Repeat time slot until: Select the Enable box to set the last date from when the booking slots will be available from.
3. Add appointments on: This allows you to limit your appointments to specific days of the week.
4. Time range: Specify the start and end time of your availability.
5. Divide into slots: This automatically breaks up your time period into slots the length of 'duration' (which you can change directly below). 
6. Duration: The default length (in minutes) for appointment slots.
7. Break between slots: Break between slots allows you to add a break between each of the slots.
8. Force when overlap: This control allows forcing the addition of slots when the session conflicts with other slots. 
   • If set to Yes, the overlapping existing slot will be deleted and a new slot created.
   • If set to No, the overlapping existing slot will be kept and a new slot will not be created.
9. Maximum number of students per slot: You can set a limit on the amount of students who can apply for a given slot.
10. Location: This setting allows you to specify the scheduled location of the meeting.
11. Teacher: Choose a lecturer for the appointment. The name of this setting may change depending on the name that you gave to Role name when setting up the Scheduler activity.
12. Display appointment to students from: This is when the appointments will become visible to students.
13. Email a reminder: You can set it so that students receive an email reminder about their appointment.
14. Select Save changes to create the slots.

1. Open the Scheduler activity.
2. In the Action column for each appointment, you have up to 4 ptions:
   • Delete option
   • Edit option
   • Switch slot to a group setting
   • Revoke appointment option (only available when a slot has been booked)

1. Open the Scheduler activity.
2. Select the All appointments tab.
3. Select the Delete slots button to open the menu. You have the following options available:
   • Delete selected slots: Select the slots you want to deleted then select Delete selected slots from the Delete slots drop-down menu.
   • Delete all slots: This will delete all slots in the Scheduler.
   • Delete unused slots: This will delete all unused slots in the Scheduler.
   • Delete my unused slots: This will delete all unused slots where you are the Lecturer.
   • Delete all my slots: This will delete all slots where you are the Lecturer.

1. Open the Scheduler.
2. Check the box alongside the student in the relevant appointment to mark them as seen. This will update once the Scheduler page is refreshed.

Schedule by Appointment

Once you have slots created you have the ability to assign student to slots.

1. Open the Scheduler activity.
2. Open the All appointments tab.
3. Select the edit cog icon in the Actions column alongside the appointment. This opens up the settings page for the appointment.
4. Scroll down the page to the Student field. Select the arrow alongside this field to open the list of students.
5. Select the relevant student from the list
6. Select Save changes.

Schedule by student

Open the Scheduler activity.

Schedule in slot

1. Open the All appointments tab.
2. Scroll past the slots to Schedule by student.
3. Select the Schedule icon next to the required student to open the action menu.
4. Select Schedule in slot.

Select slot

1. Select Choose from the Choose existing menu to open a list of available appointments.
2. Select the appointment that you want to schedule the student into.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Save changes.

If students have not yet booked an appointment on Scheduler you can send them a reminder by:

1. Select the link to Scheduler from the module homepage. Scroll past the available and booked slots.
2. Scroll down to see the number of students who need to make an appointment.
3. Select Send invitation or Send reminder to open the message panel on Moodle.
4. The list of students who have not yet set an appointment will appear under the Recipients section. You can uncheck boxes next to students to whom you do not want to send a reminder.
5. Change Send a copy to myself to No if you do not want a copy of the reminder.
6. You can edit the Subject line and message body to personalise them as required.
7. Select Send message at the bottom of the screen.