SARS Anywhere Administration Manual Section 4: Schedule Codes - 1

Transcription

1 SARS Anywhere Administration Manual Section 4: Schedule Codes - 1 SECTION 4 SCHEDULE CODES 4.0 Overview Schedule Codes symbolize the activity in which the advisor will be engaged during a specific date and time represented by a cell on THE GRID and MY GRID. The Schedule Codes screen is used to add, delete or change codes that represent various activities to be placed in advisors work schedules. It is also used to gain access to the Schedule Code Properties screen to establish the unique properties of Schedule Codes, including Allow Appointment, Maximum Students Allowed, Confirmation Options (Print, and Text Defaults), Default Attendance, Require Initials, Meeting Properties, Duration, Display Style, Prevent Master Schedule Overwrite, Clear Reasons and Groups. The following Schedule Codes are required. They are pre-set and will be displayed automatically, but the wording of the codes may be changed. A Default Master Schedule Code to be displayed in any appointment cell for which no other Schedule Code has been entered (the pre-set code is.). A code to represent a booked individual appointment for which attendance has not yet been marked (the pre-set code is BOOKED). A code to represent an individual appointment that was marked as attended (the pre-set code is SHOWED). A code to represent an individual appointment that was marked as not attended (the preset code is NO SHOW). The following Schedule Codes are optional. A code to represent when the office is closed so that holidays may be displayed on THE GRID is pre-set and will be displayed automatically, but the wording may be changed. The pre-set code is CLOSED. [If Cutoff Days has been established to require a replacement code] A code will need to be inserted in a cell for which an appointment is cancelled after the cutoff. An existing code DROPIN is available for selection. However, this code may be changed or a different code may be used. The following types of Schedule Codes that represent different types of activities are optional, but recommended: One or more codes to indicate that the cell is available for scheduling an individual appointment (e.g., ****). A code is REQUIRED if individual appointments will be scheduled. A code to represent drop-in visits (e.g., DROPIN). One or more codes to represent appointments that may be booked for multiple students (e.g., ORIENT). One or more codes to represent non-appointment allowable time slots (e.g., MTG, CLASS, CONF, LUNCH, MEDICAL, PREP, TRAVEL).

2 SARS Anywhere Administration Manual Section 4: Schedule Codes - 2 Note The words RESERV, COPYING, and MOVING may not be used as Schedule Codes. Here is an example of the Schedule Codes screen. Option Schedule Code Description Archived Add Save Cancel Delete Copy Properties Schedule Codes Description Use to symbolize the activity in which the advisor will be engaged during the specific date and time represented by the cell on THE GRID and MY GRID. Use to enter a more complete description of the Schedule Code. Use to hide an unneeded Schedule Code to reduce clutter. Use to enable the screen to add a new Schedule Code. Use to store entries made on the screen. Use to undo entries made prior to saving. Use to remove a selected unused Schedule Code. Use to duplicate one or more Schedule Codes from one Location to another Location for its use. Use to gain access to the Location Properties sub-screens that are used to specify the settings for various parameters unique to each Location.

3 SARS Anywhere Administration Manual Section 4: Schedule Codes - 3 Initial steps: 1. Click System Administration on the SARS Admin menu. 2. Click Location Maintenance and select the desired Location. 3. Click Properties to display the Location Properties screen. 4. Click the Schedule Codes tab. 4.1 Add a Schedule Code 1. First check to see whether Schedule Codes have been created for another Location. If so, they may be copied to this Location, eliminating the need for duplicate efforts. (See Copy a Schedule Code from another Location at Section 4.4 in this Section.) 2. From the Schedule Codes screen, click Add. 3. Click Schedule Code; then type in the code to be used in scheduling. The field will accept up to 20 characters (for example, CONF). The maximum number of characters is controlled by the Maximum Schedule Code Length selected on the GRID Settings tab (see Select the Maximum Schedule Code Length at Section 3.5). Tip A maximum of eight characters is the ideal code length for maximizing the number of columns that are visible on THE GRID without scrolling. 4. Click Schedule Code Description; then type in the description of the code to be used in scheduling. The field will accept up to 50 characters. 5. Click Save. 6. Repeat steps 2 5 to add other Schedule Codes. 7. Proceed to complete the screens by following the instructions in Sections 4.2 through at least Establish Schedule Code Properties The Schedule Code Properties screen is used to establish the unique properties of Schedule Codes, including Allow Appointment, Maximum Students Allowed, Confirmation Options (Print, and Text Defaults), Default Attendance, Require Initials, Meeting Properties, Duration, Display Style, Prevent Master Schedule Overwrite, Clear Reasons and Groups. Each Schedule Code for a Location must have properties assigned to it. In addition, if one or more Schedule Codes was copied to the Location from another Location, the properties for each of those codes may be individualized for the new Location.

4 SARS Anywhere Administration Manual Section 4: Schedule Codes - 4 Here is an example of the Schedule Code Properties screen. Option Allow Appointment Maximum Students Allowed Confirmation Options Schedule Code Properties Description Use to designate whether the Schedule Code will allow for an appointment to be placed in the cell where it resides. Use to establish the total number of students that may be scheduled for a specific type of appointment. Default Yes Use to establish that the field on the Student Appointment Screen will initially be displayed as checked. Yes must be selected for any appointmentallowable Schedule Code to have the system automatically send an confirmation to students when an appointment is committed, cancelled or moved without the scheduler having to take any other action. confirmations cannot be re-sent. No Use to establish that the field on the Student Appointment Screen will initially be displayed as unchecked. Print Default Yes Use to establish that the Print field on the Student Appointment Screen will initially be displayed as checked. No Use to establish that the Print field on the Student Appointment Screen will initially be displayed as unchecked.

5 SARS Anywhere Administration Manual Section 4: Schedule Codes - 5 Option Meeting Properties Schedule Code Properties Text Default [Available only if the college has a valid license for text messaging and also only with respect to appointmentallowable Schedule Codes] Description Yes Use to establish that the Text field on the Student Appointment screen will initially be displayed as checked. Yes must be selected for any appointmentallowable Schedule Code to have the system automatically send a text confirmation to students when an appointment is committed, cancelled or moved without the scheduler having to take any other action. Text confirmations cannot be re-sent. No Use to establish that the Text field on the Student Appointment Screen will initially be displayed as unchecked. Default Attendance Yes Use to establish whether the initial attendance status will start out as Yes (attended). No Use to establish whether the initial attendance status will start out as No (did not attend). Not Marked Use to establish whether the initial attendance status will start out as Not Marked (attendance not yet recorded). Require Initials Yes Use to specify that the identity of the person committing, canceling, copying, or moving an appointment must be entered. No Use to specify that the identity of the person committing, canceling, copying, or moving an appointment is not required. Allow Meeting Use to designate whether the Schedule Code may be superseded by a valid meeting code when scheduling meetings using the Recurring Activities feature. Valid Meeting Code Use to specify that the Schedule Code may be used to designate a scheduled meeting. Duration Minutes Use to select the total time for the activity. (The three Booked Appointment Codes, the Excluded Date Code, the Default Master Schedule Code, and the Cutoff Days Replacement Code must be assigned the same duration as the Time Increment established on the GRID Settings screen.) Display Sample Style Use to activate the Code Display Style screen to establish the background color and font color and appearance (Bold or Italic) for the selected Schedule Code.

6 SARS Anywhere Administration Manual Section 4: Schedule Codes - 6 Option Miscellaneous Groups OK Cancel Prevent Master Schedule Overwrite Clear Reasons Schedule Code Properties Description Use for all types of Schedule Codes that should not inadvertently be overwritten when re-adding a Master Schedule to the GRID for the same date range (e.g., Meeting). Use to retain any Schedule Code that exists on THE GRID when re-adding a Master Schedule within the designated date range. Use for any group appointment in which students may be scheduled for different reasons. This option will de-select all previous reasons to prevent inadvertent inclusion of unwanted reasons during the same scheduling session. Use to link the selected Schedule Code to a Group Code for reporting purposes. (See Section 4.3) Use to approve the settings. Use to undo entries. After gaining access to the Schedule Codes screen, 1. Click the desired Schedule Code. 2. Click Properties. 3. Click Allow Appointment if the code is an appointment-allowable code. This action will enable five more options. a. In Maximum Students Allowed, type in the total number of students allowed per appointment. The largest number that can be entered in this field is 999. The default is 1. b. [For all appointment-allowable Schedules Codes] In the Confirmation Options panel, i) Click Yes under Default to activate the option on the Confirmation Options panel on the Student Appointment Screen. Confirmations will be ed automatically when appointments are committed, cancelled or moved, unless the option is de-selected when taking a scheduling action. To not send an confirmation by default, click No. (If No is selected, automatic confirmations are not sent when appointments are committed, cancelled or moved; however, the scheduler may still select that option manually. confirmations cannot be re-sent. ii)... Click Yes under Print Default to activate the Print option on the Confirmation Options panel on the Student Appointment Screen. Confirmations will be printed automatically when appointments are made, unless the option is de-selected when taking a scheduling action. To set the Print Confirmation Default to not print, click No. (If No is selected, the Print Confirmation option may be selected manually when making an appointment.) iii).. [If the college has a valid license for text messaging] Click Yes under Text Default to activate the Text option on the Confirmation Options panel on the Student Appointment Screen. Confirmations will be sent via text messaging automatically when appointments are committed, cancelled or moved, unless the option is de-selected when taking a scheduling action. To not send a text confirmation by default, click No. (If No is selected, automatic text confirmations are not sent when appointments are committed, cancelled or moved; however, the scheduler may still select that option manually. Text confirmations cannot be re-sent.

7 SARS Anywhere Administration Manual Section 4: Schedule Codes - 7 c. In the Default Attendance panel, click on one of the three options to establish the initial setting for student attendance for the selected Schedule Code. If Yes is selected, the student will be automatically recorded as having attended the appointment. Non-attendance must be changed manually. If No is selected, the student will be automatically recorded as not having attended the appointment. If the student did attend the appointment, the attendance status must be changed manually. If Not Marked is selected, all attendance must be recorded manually. (See Attendance in the SARS Anywhere User Manual at Section 11.) Note We strongly recommend that Not Marked be selected as the default attendance status. Using Not Marked enables use of the automatic notification of appointment arrival feature. Also, selecting the default settings as Yes or No can easily result in incorrect attendance statistics because users are more likely to forget to correct attendance status when it is already marked. d. In the Require Initials panel, note that the Yes option is checked. This option will require that the person committing, canceling, copying, or moving an appointment sign with his or her initials. If initials will not be required, click No. Note If Require Initials is activated, the initials of the user taking the action will be recorded on the Student History screen under User Entry Information. If Require Initials is not activated, the log-on user name will be recorded in that field. Remember that Require Initials must be selected individually for each appointment-allowable Schedule Code, if desired. 4. In the Meeting Properties panel, a. Click Allow Meeting to specify that the Schedule Code may be superseded by a valid meeting code when scheduling meetings using the Recurring Activities feature. b. Click Valid Meeting Code to specify that the Schedule code may be used to designate a scheduled meeting. 5. In the Duration panel, click Minutes and then select the number of minutes that represents the total time for the activity. The default duration is the same as the Time Increment established in Grid Settings. Tip Certain Group Appointment Schedule Codes may typically have longer durations than the default time duration. For example, Workshop sessions may be one to two hours in length. It is recommended that those Group Appointment Schedule Codes that vary in duration be assigned the shortest likely duration (e.g., one hour). They can then be extended as needed using the Quick Links menu from THE GRID or MY GRID. Be aware that a group activity can only be extended into appointment-allowable time slots. 6. Click Style. The following screen will appear.

8 SARS Anywhere Administration Manual Section 4: Schedule Codes - 8 Panel Option Description Code Display Style Cell Setting Cell Color Use to display the selected background color for a cell. Color Use to select the background color for a cell. Font Settings Bold Use to make the text bold. Sample OK Cancel Italic Color Font Color Use to make the text italic. Use to select the color of the words/numbers contained in a cell. Use to display the selected font color. Used to display how the selected background cell color and font settings will look. Use to approve the settings. Use to undo any entries. 7. In the Cell Settings panel: a. Click Color to display the Color screen. Then click on the desired color from the palette of Basic Colors. -or- b. Click Define Custom Colors to create a custom color of your choice. Make a selection and click OK. Tip To save the custom color for future use, click Add to Custom Colors. c. Click OK on the Code Display Style screen to return to the Schedule Code Properties screen. Tips For ease of viewing, limit the number of Schedule Code colors. For example, assign pale yellow to all available individual appointment codes, pink to all group appointment codes, and pastel blue to all non-appointment activity codes. On some monitors, darker cell colors may obliterate the text that appears in the cell. This is due to the video driver or hardware, not the SARS GRID software. If this occurs, select a lighter color for the cell. 8. In the Font Settings panel:

9 SARS Anywhere Administration Manual Section 4: Schedule Codes - 9 a. Follow the same instructions for Color (above) to select the color of the words/numbers for the Schedule Code. b. Click Bold and/or Italic to change the font. c. Click OK on the Code Display Style screen. This will return you to the Schedule Code Properties screen. The selected colors and fonts may be viewed in the Display Sample box. Tip For ease of viewing, use the bold font property for all appointment activity codes. 9. If this type of Schedule Code should not be overwritten in the event that a Master Schedule is readded to THE GRID for the same date range, click the Prevent Master Schedule Overwrite checkbox. 10. [Optional] Click the Clear Reasons checkbox if you wish to de-select the reasons selected for the previously booked appointment during the same scheduling session. This will prevent inadvertent inclusion of unwanted reasons when adding another student to the group session. 11. Click OK to return to the Schedule Codes screen. 12. Repeat steps 1 11 to apply properties to other Schedule Codes. 4.3 Assign a Schedule Code to a Schedule Code Group Schedule Code Groups are used to link related Schedule Codes into a group. Schedule Code Groups will enable you to analyze master schedules before they are added to THE GRID. For example, you can connect all Schedule Codes involving student contact time into a group entitled ST CONTACT. Schedule Codes involving meetings, preparation time, advisor training, and conferences may also be grouped into a Group Code entitled ADMIN. Although a more efficient (and preferred) method is to assign Schedule Codes to Schedule Code Groups from the Group Codes screen, it is also possible to perform this task from the Schedule Code Properties screen. It requires that each Schedule Code be assigned to a Schedule Code Group using the Groups button on the Schedule Code Properties screen one at a time. This method is discussed below. To use the preferred method, see Assign a Schedule Code Group to a Schedule Code at Section 5.4.) After gaining access to the Schedule Codes screen, 1. Click the desired Schedule Code. 2. Click Properties. 3. Click Groups to display a Schedule Code Group Selection screen. Here is an example:

10 SARS Anywhere Administration Manual Section 4: Schedule Codes For the selected Schedule Code, now click the applicable checkbox(es) to assign that code to the desired Group Code(s). Note If the desired Group Code is not displayed, it needs to be added. See Add a Group Code at Section 5.1.) 5. Click OK. 6. Repeat steps 1 5 for each Schedule Code to be assigned to a Schedule Code Group. 7. When done, exit the screen. Notes Schedule Codes must be assigned to any Schedule Code Group that is to be used for esars. A Schedule Code may be assigned to more than one Schedule Code Group. 8. To continue with the initial set-up for this Location, click Apply, and then click the Miscellaneous Settings tab (see Miscellaneous Settings at Section 6). -or- At any time, click OK to return to Location Maintenance. 4.4 Copy a Schedule Code from another Location Any Schedule Code that has been created for one Location may be selected for use by other Locations via the Copy function. However, the copied Schedule Codes will reset to the shortest duration established for that Location. If a copied Schedule Code needs to be longer, remember to set its duration in Schedule Code Properties (see Section 3.4). All other settings will be copied intact. After gaining access to the Schedule Codes screen, 1. Click Copy. A Copy Schedule Codes screen will be displayed. Here is an example:

11 SARS Anywhere Administration Manual Section 4: Schedule Codes Click Location and select the Location from which existing Schedule Codes are to be copied. 3. Click the checkbox adjacent to each Schedule Code to be copied to the current Location. Any or all of the codes may be selected. The OK button will be enabled after the first Schedule Code is selected. -or- Click Select All to check all boxes. 4. Click OK. The selected Schedule Codes will appear on the Schedule Codes screen for that Location. 5. Click OK. 4.5 Change Information about a Schedule Code After gaining access to the Schedule Codes screen, 1. Click the desired Schedule Code. The existing code and description will be displayed. 2. Overwrite the existing code with a different code and/or description, if desired. 3. Click Properties and make any applicable changes. (See Establish Schedule Code Properties at Section 4.2.) 4. Click OK.

12 SARS Anywhere Administration Manual Section 4: Schedule Codes Delete a Schedule Code You may delete a Schedule Code only if it has never been used. The following Schedule Code types are required and should never be deleted: the default master schedule code, the booked appointment code, the booked appointment code for attended appointments, and the booked appointment code for no show appointments. In lieu of deleting a Schedule Code, you may archive it (see Archive a Schedule Code at Section 4.7.) After gaining access to the Schedule Codes screen, 1. Click the desired Schedule Code. The existing code and description will be displayed. 2. Click Delete. A confirmation message will be displayed. 3. Click Yes to confirm the deletion. 4. Click OK to return to Location Maintenance. 4.7 Archive a Schedule Code If a Schedule Code has ever been used, even if it is not currently in use, it cannot be deleted. However, these Schedule Codes may be archived. Archiving reduces clutter on the screen by hiding the Schedule Code on the following screens: Change Column, Quick Day Change, Master Schedule, and any reports that display a list of Schedule Codes. The Schedule Code will still remain on a Master Schedule template if it has already been added to the GRID. After gaining access to the Schedule Codes screen, 1. Click the Schedule Code to be archived. The Archive checkbox will be activated. 2. Click the Archive checkbox. 3. Click Save. The Schedule Code will be archived until the checkbox is unchecked. 4. Repeat steps 1 3 to archive another Schedule Code. 5. Click OK to return to Location Maintenance.