Timetable Interviews: Event set up - Details

Modified on Fri, 26 Sep at 5:06 AM

This document explains each field and option in the Details screen..

General details

If the Interview event has already been set up online prior to adding/removing teachers, students and classes to the .etz file, a 'yellow warning icon' will appear on the Events page to alert the Administrator to a change in data received from the ETZ file post a sync from the ETZ file to the Edval web server.

The Administrator will also receive an email of a change of data.

If the Administrator is confident that theses changes can be accepted, edit the Interview event, and select 'Yes, accept changes'.

Please make sure that you do not accept the changes if the Event status is Parents preference, Generate schedule and Open to book

Event Name

Enter a unique event name, at least 5 characters in length. This name will display when teachers and families log in, and will be referenced in communications to teachers and families.

Event Type

There are three options here.

Face-to-face: select this if parents will be meeting teachers in person. Face-to-face events will have a room field for teachers.
Online: select this if your Interviews event will be conducted online. Online events will have a Meeting ID/Link field instead of a room field for teachers. For more information on Online events, see this document: Online Events
Hybrid: select this to give parents the option to attend in person or online. Selecting this option will display an 'Attendance mode' option on this screen. Hybrid events will have both a room and a Meeting ID/Link field for teachers. For more information on Hybrid events, see this document: Hybrid Events

Slot duration (minutes)
This includes the time allowed for the interview AND the time for walking to the next interview. For schools that run 5 minute interviews, Timetable Interview recommends setting the Slot duration to 7 minutes to allow 5 minutes to talk and 2 minutes to walk.

Teacher unavailability

There are two options here:

Only Admin can enter unavailability:
Only Administrators can enter Teacher unavailability
Allow Teachers to enter unavailability:
Teachers may log in and enter a request for times that they are unable to attend the interviews. These requests must be approved by the Administrator before generating the schedule or allowing families to book.

Refer to Event > Teachers Unavailability documentation.

Parents may book

The Administrator sets which teachers the families may book to see.

Minimum parent availability

Sets the minimum range of time a family is available for interviews. This ensures that a family is available for a reasonable time range for best batch scheduling results.

Allow parents to request double length slots

This may be used where a student has the same teacher for more than one subject. Where the number of classes taken by the teacher is more than or equal to the number entered, a double length interview may be requested.

Event map

Upload a map indicating the rooms/areas of school in which the event will take place.

Event mode

Mode

It is important to understand the two modes available when setting up an event:

Mode: Timetabling (best results)

This is the more advanced option - first collecting family preferences (i.e. availability, teachers they want to see, etc.), and then generating a schedule that is efficient and fair to all.

Mode: Booking (manual scheduling)

For simple events that only require families to go online and instantly book their appointments.

Status

Each mode has a number of stages. The status indicates the stage which is currently running. The status options available depend on the selected event mode.

Revisit this screen during the Interviews process to update the status to proceed to the next stage.

Each of these statuses is explained in detail in their own article. See Interviews: Event status

When Booking Mode is selected, an additional option becomes available.

This option enables the Interviews Administrator to allow parents with only one teacher to book to select the teacher and therefore request other teachers, or to send the parents directly to the booking page.

Students / Classes / Houses

Students:
Select the year levels of students who will be included in the event. Hold down the Control button to select more than one year level at a time.

Boarder:

The Boarders option will only trigger in Timetable interview if you Add Y in the timetable file in Students>Student data>Boarder column (if you don't see the boarder column then click the 3 dots next to View and tick Boarder) and sync it to Edval web server.

This Boarder function only works when a Interview event is already created and then you use the Boarder option, that is why It is recommended that you create your Interview event with the All Students option tick and then you will will need to edit the interview event that you created and in Details>select Boarders only and then the options will work.

After you have done that three option will appear when the selected Yr level that have boarders.

All students:
Will show up all the Year students. Check the Students tab to see what students are shown.
Day students only:
Will show up all the students except for the Boarder students that are in the etz. Check the Students tab to see what students are shown.
Boarder only:
Will only show boarder students. Check the Students tab to see what students are shown.

Houses:
Select the houses of students only if you wish to set up an event by house groups. Leave blank if not applicable.

Classes:
Select the year levels of classes that will be included in the event (as they exist in the timetable file). This allows for classes that run in an alternate year level, but which contains the relevant students to be included in the event.
For example, if the event is set up for Year 9 students, but some Year 9 students are enrolled in a Year 10 class, then Year 10 classes can be included, and only those Year 10 classes which have Year 9 students enrolled in them will be included.

Rotations:
If the school runs multiple rotations, select the rotation of classes that should be included in the event.

Attendance mode:

This option appears when the event type is 'Hybrid'. The options for 'In person' and 'Online' are selected by default. Select 'Phone' if this is also an option for parents.

When an event has multiple sessions, a fourth option, 'Per session', will appear.

See below for further information on the 'Per session' attendance functionality.

Sessions

Date:
Click on the default date entry to set the session date (the default date is set to one month from when the event is created).
Events can either be single- or multi-date. Select ' +Add more sessions' to select further sessions.

Start:
Enter the start time of a session. The minutes entry may be edited. If the displayed options show '3.30' and '4.00', but you wish to start the event at '3.45', simply select '3.30', click on the minutes entry (30), backspace, and type in '45'.

End:
Enter the end time of a session.

+Add more sessions :
Select to create multiple sessions, entering the date, start time and end time for each additional session.

Status:
Each session can be set to 'Open' or 'View only'. Families cannot make or be assigned bookings in View only sessions.

Add break:
Choose this per session, entering the start and end time of the break. Click on the ' Add break' link to add up to five breaks as are required for the session. Teachers can later be assigned to particular break slots only.

Remove session or break: Delete individual sessions by clicking on the red cross against each session.

Attendance mode Per Session

This option appears when the event type is 'Hybrid' and more than one session is added to the event. This option allows you to specify the attendance type for individual sessions within an event.

Changing the Event Dates and Times

Alert

Dates and times for sessions within Interviews events can be changed at any time, however, care should be taken when changing event dates or times while the event is in progress.

Note the following:

The date and time of the session are within one field, so changing the date or the time has the same effect.
Changing the session date or time will affect teacher unavailability, parent availability and booked interviews because this data will be invalid for the new date or time.
When the dates or times of a session are changed while the event is in progress, a message will be generated regarding teacher unavailability:
Once the teacher unavailabilty is cancelled or updated, another message regarding the changes to interview times will appear as follows:

Selecting 'Proceed' will change the dates and all current interviews and availabilities will be affected. It is important to communicate this with staff and parents to ensure that everyone is aware of the changes to the schedule.

See next: Timetable Interviews Event set up - Rooms