It’s almost Advising Day again here at WPI, which never fails to remind us of the variety of scheduling tools used here on campus and the options that are available in the big wide world. WPI Staff use Microsoft Outlook Calendars, but you may find that faculty and students have a variety of calendar preferences – from a Google Calendar to a paper book!
Some faculty use paper or white board sign up sheets outside their door for student appointments, which works well for many folks! Others prefer to be able to access the day’s events from anywhere, for both themselves and their students.
We in the TTL group get requests from a variety of groups and individuals needing to schedule appointments and there is a different tool for each need. Here is a quick overview of some that we’d like to share – let us know what works for you by leaving a comment below!
Microsoft Outlook Calendar
Outlook allows you to share your calendar with selected folks or just to display your free/busy time. It is the standard for scheduling campus meetings at WPI, and allows individuals and groups to manage schedules of people and spaces.
General Microsoft Training on Outlook Calendars
Register for WPI’s upcoming Managing Calendars class on February 25th at 2pm.
Try a Wiki
If you’re only interested in sharing your availability for a certain day or week, a wiki might be the right tool for you. You can set one up on your SharePoint MySite (for WPI community members only), or try a free tool such as WetPaint or PBWorks. Some wiki services require that the user enroll for a free account in order to edit your page, but others allow you to choose this setting.
Tungle: http://tungle.me/Home/
Tungle is a fairly new tool that combines some of the features of other online scheduling tools for a nice feature set. You post your availability, either entering it by hand or by synching your Google, Outlook, Apple iCal, or Entourage for Mac (Lotus Notes in beta) Calendar, and then Tungle gives you a url which users can access to sign up for your available time slots. No account is required for the user, which can be convenient.
Other scheduling tools:
Jiffle: http://www.jifflenow.com/
Doodle: http://doodle.com/
More Info:
Learn more at the Prof. Hacker Blog’s “Scheduling and Surveying 101” series!
http://www.profhacker.com/2010/02/11/scheduling-101-the-ideal-academic-app-2/