The Scheduler activity allows you to create appointment slots with your students in Moodle. You specify the time and length of the timeslots and students book a slot to meet with you. You can record the outcome of the meetings which may include marking the student as 'seen', adding comments or assigning a grade or rating for the student, if appropriate.

In this guide:

• Add a scheduler activity

• • Add slots to the scheduler
  • Manage appointments

• Add appointments to Outlook

Add a scheduler activity

1. Enable Edit mode in the Moodle space where you want to add the scheduler.
2. Click Add an activity or resource and select Scheduler.
3. Enter a name for the scheduler, e.g. Tutorial appointment booking and, optionally, an introduction (description/instructions).
4. Choose the settings under Options:
   • Role name of the teacher - you may choose a more appropriate name or title for the person with whom the students are making appointments. For example, tutor or supervisor.
   • Mode - if you intend to use the scheduler activity on an ongoing basis, choose the at a time option for the number of appointments a student can book. The in this scheduler option will only allow students to book the number of appointments you specify, after which they will be unable to book any more unless you delete the record of one or more of your meetings.
   • Booking in groups - choose whether you want to allow students to book an appointment on behalf of a group if students are allocated to groups within Moodle.
   • Guard time - to prevent students from signing up to or cancelling appointments at short notice, enable and choose a guard time.
   • Default slot duration - choose the default length of the appointment slots in minutes. The length of slots can be changed when adding them.
   • Notifications - choose yes to notify the teacher when a student books or cancels an appointment.
   • Use notes for appointments - choose which type(s) of notes, if any, you would like the teacher to make for the appointments.
5. Use Grade options if you want to grade (point) or rate (scale) students' performance or progress, if relevant to the meetings.
6. If you want to allow students to enter information or upload files in preparation for their meeting, set Use booking form to yes. Choose other options as required. Click the help icons for each setting to learn more.
7. Choose any other standard Moodle activity settings as appropriate and click the Save and display button.

Add slots to the scheduler

The next step is to add slots either individually or as repeated slots. If there are multiple teachers enrolled in the Moodle space, you can add slots for any of them.

1. Click Add slots on either the My appointments or All appointments tab.
2. Choose either Add repeated slot or Add single slot.
3. Enter your desired settings for the new slot(s) and click the Save changes button.

See the Moodle Docs guide to adding slots.Link opens in a new window

Students can now book slots at their desired time. You may also assign students to slots yourself in the Schedule by student section.

Manage appointments

Once slots have been added to the scheduler, you will see the list of appointments and the details, including which students have booked each slot. There are also several actions available in the far right-hand column:

• to delete the slot altogether
• to edit the slot
• / to toggle between the setting the slot as exclusive (open to just one student) or to groups (multiple students). If you have set a maximum number of students above one, the number will show in brackets.
• will display instead of the above once a student has been 'seen'
• to remove a student from a particular slot

When the appointment is over:

• Quickly mark the student as 'seen' by ticking the box above their picture in the Students column, OR
• Click on the cog icon and scroll down to the appointment. Tick the 'seen' box and, if enabled during the setup phase, add the grade and notes from the appointment.

Use the Overview tab to see the details of all appointments that have taken place. You may also find the Statistics and Export tabs useful.

Add appointments to Outlook

The scheduler appointments will display as events in the Moodle calendars of both teachers and students. There is no direct link to Outlook. However, you can add a new calendar to Outlook to show your Moodle events.

1. Click on Calendar from the Moodle navigation drawer.
2. Click the Export calendar button underneath the calendar.
3. Chose your export settings. We recommend:
   • For Events to export, select All events
   • For Time Period, select Recent and next 60 days
4. Click the Get calendar URL button.
5. Select and copy the full generated URL, from https:// onwards.
6. Open Outlook and navigate to File > Account settings > Account settings > Internet calendars.
7. Click New, paste the URL into the box and click Add.
8. Add a name for the calendar e.g. 'Moodle calendar' and click OK.
9. The calendar will now show under Other calendars and can be ticked to open.

• Recipe Link