TECH TALK SESSION
In this week’s Tech Talk Session, Support Specialist Jorge Rodriguez went back to basics with a presentation on Accudemia Calendars and Tutor Schedules, two very useful features of Accudemia that fit together like a puzzle. Even if you’ve set up tutor schedules before, read on for helpful tips that could save you a ton of time in the future!
Calendar Configuration
To find and adjust the calendar settings, go to Administration > Control Panel > General in Accudemia, and set the scope to the institution level. Pay close attention to your settings here, because they will change the way that your tutor schedules are viewed.
The hour blocks determine the number of divisions in an hour that will appear in the tutor schedule and the scheduling tool. For example, if you set two blocks per hour, tutor shifts may be set at every half hour. If you set four blocks, the shifts can be in fifteen-minute increments. For maximum flexibility, we recommend four blocks per hour, but select whichever one works best for your centers!
The start and end times are important as well. These are the earliest times activities and shifts might begin in any center using Accudemia, and the latest times activities and shifts can end. Since this will apply to all centers using Accudemia at your institution, make sure you check with each of them before selecting scheduled start and end times.
The default maximum number of attendees is often overlooked, but be sure not to overlook it! This will determine the default maximum that will be set for each tutor or support staff shift, and it will need to be manually changed for each shift if the number is different. For example, if you set the maximum to three, then all shifts will default to three students maximum, and if a particular shift can support more or fewer students, that will need to be set for that individual shift. So try to use the number that applies to the most common circumstance. For example, if most appointments are one-on-one, then enter the maximum number of students as 1.
Tutor/Support Staff Schedules
Once your calendar settings are configured the way you want them, Jorge shared some important tips for setting each tutor or support staff’s schedule.
When setting each staff member’s shift, make sure to select the specific services and courses they can assist with, as shown in the picture. Even if you’ve imported their course assignments, if the courses they can help with for that particular shift are different, make sure to select that by clicking “Custom” next to Subject Areas. Remember, though, that the subject area must be linked to both the center and tutor in the first place to be selected at this step. You can also select from the services that are associated with your center, in case a tutor can only assist with certain services during a given shift.
Jorge also shared a powerful tool in Accudemia that isn’t used very often: the ability to clone a tutor’s schedule to another. You’ll see the “Copy” button at the top right corner of a tutor’s schedule, which will allow you to select tutors to copy the schedule over to another’s. If you have two or more tutors whose schedules are identical or even similar, this tool can save you a lot of time.
While many users regularly set up tutor schedules, many are not aware of all of the tips and tricks we’ve covered in this post, which can make the process much smoother and quicker. Let us know if you have any questions, and we hope to see you at the next Tech Talk!
Join us next time!
Engineerica Systems is pleased to present our Tech Tip segment recap for 2/1/2022 for the weekly Accudemia sessions. Held every Tuesday at 1 pm EST, Accudemia clients can join a session to learn about a quick, useful topic from one of our Support Specialists. Each week, we’ll follow up Tech Tip Tuesday with a blog recapping that week’s topic. If you’re an Accudemia client and would like to join us for the next session, just visit https://www.engineerica.com/accudemia-weekly-sessions/.
