Page Comparison

Brightspace does not include a dedicated sign-up tool for appointments or events (e.g. office hours or presentation timeslots).

Below is an evolving list of options that can be used to address this need. This includes repurposing Brightspace Groups self-enrollment Groups within Brightspace.

Brightspace Groups

Brightspace offers a self-enrollment group type which can be used to provide students the ability for students to do things like form their own groups for a project, select a discussion topic in which they will enroll and participate, or to choose a timeslot for a presentation.

Creating Groups is not complicated, although renaming them based on project topics or timeslots can become laborious. Once in place, an instructor needs only needs to direct students to the Groups tool through Course Tools on the navbar, where students then have the ability to join and leave groups.

Learn more about Groups here.

Microsoft Office365 files

One of the easier methods of facilitating a sign-up process is making use of the Office365 applications such as Word or Excel.

Instructors can create a file and set the permissions to be sharable with their class. Then, instructors can post the link to the document in the Content area, Announcements, or Discussions of their course site.

Etherpads

Etherpads are similar to editable text documents, except they lack many of the functionalities that a text document offers. They can be embedded into the Content area through the Add Existing button. More information about embedding an Etherpad can be found here.

Once embedded, Etherpads are available to all students in the class and everyone members of a site and anyone can make live edits.

Microsoft Bookings

Bookings is dedicated to handling appointments and, while it has a steep learning curve, is perhaps one of the most powerful tool when it comes to managing appointments and office hoursmore powerful office hour management tools around. It is also already available to all Brock users and , synchronizes with the Outlook calendar.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/microsoft-365/business/scheduling-and-booking-app

Microsoft Bookings allows you to provide a URL which you can email or post on your website, and through which your clients (e.g. staff/ faculty/ students/ visitors) can book an appointment with you or a team member.

Booked appointments via the URL create an appointment in your existing Exchange calendar — there is no need for you to use extra software. Double-booking by your clients is not possible – when a timeslot has been booked, it is no longer available for appointments.

As the creator / owner of your booking calendar, you can configure at any time:
– your available-for-booking timeslots (e.g. Wed & Fri, 1-4pm)
– the length of a timeslot (e.g. 30 minutes, 60 minutes…)
– a list of team members, in addition to yourself, who are bookable
– an option for your clients to specify a specific team member
– an automated email response with an optional Teams meeting link

Microsoft Bookings simplifies your clients booking meetings with you or your Team, within your team’s available-for-booking time-slots.

• Log into bookings.office.com using your staff/faculty email: JaneDoe@cunet.carleton.ca
  

• Select: Get it now

• Enter the name of your new Booking calendar to create (If creating the  Booking Calendar on MS Teams where it says Type a business name make sure to put the name you want your Calendar to be Do not put Carleton or that is what the Calendar will be called).

• Select Booking Page

  • Optional: Add logo

  • Optional: Require an Office 365 email account from Carleton to book

  • Select your Scheduling policy
    – Time increments: 30min, 1hr, etc.
    – Optional: Minimum and Maximum lead time

  • Select Email notifications

  • Optional: Staff: Allow customers to choose a specific person for the booking

  • Optional: Display business logo on your booking page

• Click on “Save and publish”

• Your Booking page status will show “published” and the URL of your Booking webpage will be shown and can be copied onto your departmental website or sent in an email to a client:
  https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/…

• Click on “Staff”

  • Add the Team members who can be booked through this calendar

Your clients can click on the Booking page URL that you created above which you can email them, place on your (departmental) website, or both.

can launch Teams meetings.

View all of the features and Microsoft’s instructions here.

With Bookings, you can:

• Configure time-slots for days, times, durations, etc. and create a shareable landing page to promote all options.

• Create links to individual appointments or upcoming availability and share these in Brightspace Content items or Announcements.

Microsoft Teams sites

Instructors that make use of a Teams site may find that hosting sign-up materials on the Teams site instead of on Brightspace could to be beneficial. Microsoft Office documents that are created from the Files area of a Teams site automatically grant everyone in the Teams site access to them, which means instructors an instructor wouldn’t have to configure sharing permissions.

Additionally, instructors who host office hours could benefit from creating a separate channel for office hours, channels where students can post in the chat to create a queue.

Instructors can generate a Teams site from an official course roster here. Note that this process may take a few hours.