Managing Appointment and Drop-in Availability

Owned by Spartan Connect, created
Last updated: Oct 14, 2022
7 min read

Getting Started

Start at your Spartan Connect Staff Home page

1. From your homepage, find the My Availability tab along the top of the page.

This guide chooses generic advising-related options for each dropdown. You should be choosing options that make sense for the type of availability you're trying to set up!

Setting up availability in Spartan Connect creates the base time for appointments or drop-ins. You can selectively modify availability by syncing your SJSU Google Calendar and blocking out time normally available for advising.

Creating New Availability

2. Select the Actions menu and choose the option to Add Time. If you have no rows of availability, this is the option you'll need to start with.

An overlay will open and prompt you to enter the availability details.

If you click outside of this overlay (in the greyed out area beyond the border of the overlay) it will close and you'll lose your work. Avoid clicking out of the overlay!

Days, Times, and Durations

3. Begin by choosing the days. Click on each day that will be used in this availability. Keep in mind that the time and duration will apply to every day selected.

4. Next choose the time range. Again, this time range will be applied across to days selected above.

5. Now choose the duration. The duration can be a specific term, a range of dates, or forever.

6. Select whether or not to include this availability in your Personal Availability Link. Read more about PALs if you’re unfamiliar with them.

Type, Location, and Services

7. Choose the type of availability you'll be offering (you can pick more than one). Your choices are:

  • Appointments allow students to schedule for a time slot within your availability.

  • Drop-ins makes you available for without needing an appointment.

  • Campaigns allows you to set aside this availability specifically for appointments made from campaigns.

8. Choose your applicable Meeting Types. Students will be able to choose from any of the selected types when scheduling.

9. Choose the Care Unit to define the functional area of your availability. Your choices may include Academic Advising, Career Counseling, Housing, Tutoring/Mentoring, SJSU Workshops & Events depending on your own functional role.

10. Choose the location where you'll be offering the availability.

11. Choose any services that you offer. You can pick more than one.

Special Instructions and Extras

Additional information can be displayed to the student when they're making their appointment or viewing drop-in times. This same information is sent to the student in the appointment confirmation and reminder emails.

12. In the URL/Phone Number field you can enter in the virtual meeting link or phone number for the appointment.

13. In the Special Instructions for Student box you can provide more details about the appointment and also include the meeting link. This box is typically used to remind students what to prepare for the appointment and provide additional department information or policies.

14. You also have the option to allow group appointments for this availability. This can be useful for group tutoring or other multi-student appointment services. By default, appointments are one-on-one as indicated by the 1.

15. When you’re done, click the Save button. If there there are any issues, the window will not close and an error will display at the top. Double check all required fields are filled out and try again.

 

Copying Existing Availability

Copying availability allows you to quickly duplicate existing rows to more efficiently program your availability.

16. From the Availability tab, select the row you'd like to copy. Only select one at a time.

17. Click on the Actions menu and select Copy Time. An overlay will open with the copied row and allow you to change the availability details.

18. In the new Copy and Add Availability overlay, edit the availability as desired and save. This will generate the new availability row in your list.

Editing Existing Availability

Availability rows can be edited and adjusted as needed.

19. From the Availability tab, select the Edit link on the row you'd like to edit and an overlay will open to allow you to change the availability details.

20. In the new Modify Availability overlay, edit the availability as desired and save. This will update the selected availability row in your list.

Deleting Existing Availability

When you no longer want to offer a particular availability you can delete the entire row.

21. From the Availability tab, select the row you'd like to delete. Only select one at a time.

 

22. Click on the Actions menu and select Delete Time and an overlay will open with the copied row and allow you to change the availability details.

An alert will pop up prompting you to confirm the delete action. Clicking on OK will delete the availability.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean when availability is listed as “Inactive” and is highlighted in red?

If the an entry is highlighted in red, that means the current date (today) is not within the date range of the availability. This can either be because the term selected has ended or the end date is in the past.

For example, if you set your availability duration for October 1st to October 15th, and the current date is October 16th, then the availability will show as inactive.

Do I need to modify my availability to account for calendar conflicts, such as meetings or time off?

Not necessarily! Setting up your SJSU Google Calendar to sync with Spartan Connect allows Spartan Connect to identify your blocked time and prevent students from scheduling appointments.

The blocked time events are not shown to students and there's no indicated reason as to why they are unable to schedule during that time, it just doesn't show as an available time slot for scheduling. Blocking time is most commonly used for meetings, vacations, holidays, or other time off.

Can students schedule appointments during Drop-in times?

No, not unless there is also availability set up for Appointments in addition to the Drop-ins. Students can, at most, view your available drop-in times at your specified locations. There's no way to "reserve" a drop-in timeslot.

Can I use a Google Calendar to set up time slots?

No, the availability you define within Spartan Connect represents your base availability. Any events created (and marked as "busy") within a synced calendar (e.g. Google Calendar) will block out your time. Those events on your calendar are only ever treated as time you are unavailable. A common issue is that advisors will put their advising time into their calendar as well as Spartan Connect and the result is they're completely blocked out for appointments. It's important to either mark those placeholders as "free" time in the event details or not have them in the calendar at all.

What are Meeting Types?

Meeting Types is a new functionality that allows staff to provide appointments with different modalities and allow students to choose a specific one for each meeting. Additional information about Meeting Types is available.

What is a Personal Availability Link?

Personal Availability Links (or PALs) assign staff a dedicated URL to provide to students that acts as a “shortcut” to their defined availability. For example, a major advisor may add their major advising appointment availability to their PAL and include the PAL in their email signature. PALs only act as a shortcut rather than an override. Again, with the same example, if the major advising service is only visible to students in the major then only those students will be able to see the availability, even with a PAL. Read more about PALs.