TracCloud: Appointment Invites

TracCloud's Appointment Invite feature allows custom appointment search invites, where students can find availabilities according to what their invite allows. This feature is primarily designed for testing centers, but can be used for other centers too. This article explains how you can configure and use this feature.

Configuration

Appointment invites are initially configured as part of Search Availability Widgets. Go to Other > Other Options > Preferences > Search Availability Options and click on the widget that you want to link this appointment invite to.

Is Invitation

Check this box to enable this functionality for this widget.

Hide On Dashboard

If checked, this entire search widget will be hidden from the dashboard. It will only be accessible via appointment invite.

Invitation Types

Enter a semi-colon delimited list of types. E.g., Exam, Pop Quiz, etc. It will be possible for the staff to choose one of these types during invite creation.

Send instructions x days

Choose when invite emails will be sent, relative to the due date chosen during the creation of the invite.

Invitation Instructions

These instructions will appear in the invite email sent to the student.

Ask staff for these fields per invite

Choose the fields that staff can select when preparing and sending invites. Some of these fields will restrict which availabilities can be found and booked by students when using the invite link.

Invitation Type is a drop-down menu containing the types defined above.

Section & Reason adds their respective fields to the invite form, allowing the staff member to restrict what section and reason the student can select.

Duration will add a duration choice to the invite form. If the staff member specifies a duration, only availabilities at least that length will be found. If the student clicks an availability that is longer than this duration, their appointment duration will still be capped to the limit specified in the invite.

Exam Code/File/Passcode allows you to store exam information in the invites.

Notes allows for any arbitrary notes to store in the invites.

Ask Group, 1on1, Online, etc allows the you to choose which modalities and availability types can be returned during the search. By default (if these fields are not editable during invite creation), only in-person 1-on-1 and group availabilities will be found.

Resend with Reminder every x days

How often to send reminders for this invite.

Reminder text

This text will be included in the reminder notice, appended to your invitation instructions.

Usage

After the appointment invite settings have been configured, you're all set to send invites to students. As a staff member, you can go to the Students Listing and select the students you want to invite on the right. Then, go to the hamburger menu, choose Create Appointment Invite, and select the widget that corresponds to your invite.

The due date will be used to determine when the instructions will be sent. The prepopulated Email Text field shows the text that will be sent to students. This field supports Twig, allowing for more personalized and dynamic emails. All other fields will display according to the field configuration in the section above.

Clicking Create Invitations will then send the invitation emails to students, allowing them to search for and book an appointment.

Faculty on the other hand will have the ability to quickly create invites for students in their rosters. From the Faculty Options dashboard widget, under the referrals menu, the invite options will appear as shown below.

After clicking the invite to submit, the faculty can select the students from their section roster to send the invite for. The process is otherwise the same as the staff perspective.

Student Perspective

The student-facing side of appointment invites is very simple. The student will receive an email with the contents of Email Text as described above, along with a link to click on. Clicking that link will take them to the search availability widget that your invitation is linked to. The subject, reason, etc will be restricted depending on what was selected when the invite was being sent out.

After searching, the student will receive the filtered list of results where they can choose the time that works for them and book, just like a regular appointment search.

For convenience, the link the student received in the invite email will change purpose after the appointment has been booked. If the student clicks the invite link again, they will be taken directly to their appointment record that they previously scheduled.

Listing, Duration Rules, & Appointments

After an invite has been created, you can revisit it by going to Other > Listings > Appointment Invites. This allows you to review existing invites or create duration rules.

After opening one of the existing invites, you can view the fields that were filled out as well as a list of the invitees. If a student has booked an appointment from the invite, a link to the appointment will be made available under the Appointment column.

You can create duration rules by clicking the hamburger menu, then Edit Duration Rules. These rules allow you to automatically adjust the duration of appointments booked via invite if certain conditions are met. For example, in the screenshot below, if an invite is sent to a student on the 'Active' list, for the type 'Exam,' and for a duration of 60 minutes, when that student books their appointment will be extended to 90 minutes automatically.

When editing an appointment that was booked via an invite, a special tab will be available in the bottom of appointment entry. This will show the invite details such as the invitation type, exam details, etc. This is not accessible to students, only staff.

Report

The Appointment Invite Schedule report, found in the Scheduling category, provides details about students who booked appointments via an invite. This includes who the appointment was booked by, exam information (code, pass code, file), and whether or not the student attended.

Time Frame

The date range for the data in this report. Beyond entering a date range manually, you can also choose a preset date range (Today, This Month, This Semester, etc) from the dropdown list above.

Type

Optionally filter by the type of invite (e.g., Exam).

Subject/Course/Section

Only show results for the specific Subject, Course, or Section.

Reason

Only show results for the specific Reason.

Additional fields to show

This can be used to add additional data fields to the report results. For example, you could use this to add a student's email address in a visit report.

Output format

Use HTML to view report data in your browser, or export this report to a CSV file (available for most reports). Some reports offer additional CSV options depending on if you want to include totals and/or data grouping in your export.

Deliver to

Display this report immediately in your browser ("Screen"), or send the report to a specified email address ("Email"). Multiple email addresses can be specified, use ; to separate them (example@example.edu;sample@example.edu).

HTML

CSV