FAQ for Advising Calendars
Calendar Sync
How do I make my Google calendar sync?
From Calendar > Calendar View, look under My Calendars. The first calendar is always your Advising system appointments. The second calendar, named as your email, connects your Google Calendar (any institutional Outlook integration is handled by your IT group). If you see a red exclamation point (!), your Google Calendar is not syncing with Advising and must be re-enabled:
Share your Google Calendar with Advising.
Open your Google Calendar and open its Settings (gear icon).
Under Settings for my calendar, go to Share with specific people.
Select Add people and enter this email:
calendar@advisestream-211219.iam.gserviceaccount.comFor permissions, select See only free/busy (hide details).
Select Send.
Verify that your Google events appear as free/ busy on your Advising calendar.
To hide these events, clear the colored square next to the Google calendar name.
Calendar Visibility
Can advisors see other's calendars?
Yes, from Calendar > Calendar View > +Add a Calendar. Whether you can edit other calendars depends on your role and its permissions:
Directors and Admins can see and manage all other advisor calendars.
Advisor+ and Advisor accounts can see but cannot manage other advisor calendars.
Scheduling Manager permission (scheduling on behalf of other advisors) can be added individually.
Assistants are always limited to the calendars to which they have been granted access on the backend.
Can students see the advisor’s title or department in the appointment?
No, they cannot see any details about the advisor.
Which students can see my calendar?
What students see depends on your visibility setting and whether you have any students assigned to you:
Visibility setting | Caseload | Which students see your slots |
|---|---|---|
My students | None | None |
Assigned | Only your assigned students | |
All students | n/a | All students in your SSU |
Invisible to students | n/a | None |
If students have visibility into your calendar slots, then visibility depends on any group restrictions on your slots, set under Scheduling available to (which reserves them for any dynamic or static groups of students selected). For example, your seniors won’t see slots reserved for your group of first-year students.
Appointments
Can I block appointment slots for different locations?
Yes; after you set the Appointment Modality to In-Person, you can enter the Location you need for those slots. If you need to mix locations, create separate blocks of slots for each.
Can I combine 15- and 30-minute appointments in one block of slots?
Within a set of appointment slots, the appointment length must be consistent. Create as many new sets of slots as you need to get the mixture you want.
Can I have students self-check-in to appointments?
You can set up advising appointments to allow check-in on mobile or desktop a half hour before the appointment. This check-in sends an email to the advisor. Until kiosk functionality is available, you can set up a public computer in the waiting area, allowing students with an appointment to log into their advising calendar and check themselves in.
How do students know which type of advising they are scheduling?
Each SSU has its own setting for how the title of the appointment slots will appear. That way, if a student is looking at different advisors from different SSUs, they can see clear options on the calendar:
Academics: Schedule an Academic Advising Appointment
Counseling: Schedule a Counseling Appointment
Athletics: Schedule an Athletics Appointment
Can we require students to choose the appointment topic?
Yes; selecting the topic is already required, along with the appointment with, date, start, and end times.
Can I get a custom URL for students to book time with me?
No, this feature is not currently available.
Can we prevent double-booking a student?
There is a configuration option to limit a student to one appointment at a time, but be aware that it would prevent booking across SSUs, such as separate meetings for Academic Advising and Career Services. Instead, you can check the student summary for Next Appointment, to see if there’s another appointment, and with whom.
Who Can Schedule
Can inactive students book appointments?
Yes, as long as that student can still sign in at the institution. The benefit is that students can take a term off but still access advising services.
Can prospective students book appointments?
Not at this time, because advising appointments and events currently must be tied to valid students in the system.
Can groups book appointments?
No, but you can create private events to reserve time with specific groups of students.
Notifications
When does the Calendar send out emails, and what’s in them?
The email templates are configured during implementation, but these email triggers are standard:
To advisor and student |
|
To advisor |
|
To student |
|
Events
What does “Enable check-in” do?
Enable Attendance causes your event to appear in the list on the Calendar > Attendance tab. The Attendance tab lets you upload/download a list of invitees, message attendees, and upload attendee lists (skipping any non-students in the list). Enable RSVP records who plans to attend and lets you close events when the maximum registration is reached.
Choosing Enable RSVP or Enable check-in automatically turns on Enable Attendance.
Enable check-in automates attendance: it prompts your students select a Check-In button on their advising calendar, which sets their Attendance as Confirmed. (You can toggle any attendance confirmation that you know to be wrong.)
How do students check in for an event?
Students are prompted to check in for their events within Advising.
If check-in is enabled, a reminder banner will appear at the top of the screen the day of the event.
On the calendar, hovering over the event displays a check-in button, which appears within 30 minutes of the event starting (for example, at 8:30 before a 9:00 start).
After check-in, the banner with disappear.
Can I get a URL for students to RSVP for my event?
No, this feature is not currently available.
When I upload an attendance list, what header do I use?
If you are uploading a list of student IDs (one per line), you can include a header or not: it’s ignored. (If you are ever uploading records with several fields, the upload page will detail what columns and column headers to use in the CSV.)
Data
When will a Student profile show a new advisor?
In normal operations, a new advisor assignment will be visible on the student’s profile within a day. If it does not appear after 48 hours, contact Support for it to be checked out.