Conferences Administration Guide
Overview
Staff responsible for administering cycles will have a range of settings and functions they can access/adjust within a cycle.
Permissions
To administer cycles, staff will require the PstAdmin permission. This allows them to create/edit/delete all conference cycles at the school.
For information on assigning permissions, please refer to the 'Permissions' article from our Knowledge Base.
Creating/Accessing Cycles
To create new cycles or access existing cycles, go to the Community menu and click on 'Conferences'.
You will be taken to the Conferences page where you will see all existing cycles for your school.
To create a new cycle, click 'Add Cycle'. For all the details on creating a new cycle, please refer to the
'Creating a Conference Cycle' article from our Knowledge Base.
To administer aspects of an existing cycle, locate the cycle in the list and click the 'Admin' button for that cycle.
On the Dashboard tab you will see a range of information that provides you with an overview of how the cycle is progressing with regard to bookings. At a quick glance you can easily ascertain how many bookings have been made to date, the proportion of households who have made bookings and if there are any alerts.To administer aspects of an existing cycle, locate the cycle in the list and click the 'Admin' button for that cycle.
This will take you into that cycle where you will see a series of tabs.
Dashboard Tab
Cycle Settings
If you need to adjust any of the cycle settings, click 'Cycle Settings'.
If you need to open or close access to the cycle for staff, parents or students (whether the field is 'Parent Access' or 'Student Access' depends on who the target audience is for the cycle), adjust the 'Staff Access', 'Parent Access' or 'Student Access' field.
| Read Only | Closed | Open | |
| Staff Access | Allows view-only access to the cycle in which they can see their booking schedule. | Staff cannot see the cycle at all. | Staff can manage their Unavailable timeslots and Interview Requirements. If the 'Allow Staff to book from own booking sheet' option is enabled for the cycle, staff can also make their own bookings while their access to the cycle is set as 'Open'. |
| Parent Access | Parents can view only their bookings for the cycle. | Parents cannot see the cycle at all. | Parents can make bookings for the cycle. |
| Student Access | Students can view only their bookings for the cycle. | Students cannot see the cycle at all. | Students can make bookings for the. cycle. |
For details on each of the fields in the Cycle Settings screen, please refer to the 'Creating a Conference Cycle' article from our Knowledge Base.
Exports
The 'Exports' button enables you to download a csv file of all bookings made for this cycle.
Classes Tab
The Classes tab is where the classes enrolled in the cycle are managed. The possible staff parents/students can make general bookings with are based on these class associations.
Custom staff/student associations are managed on the 'Staff' tab. For details on Custom booking groups, please refer to the 'Creating Custom Conference Groups' article from our Knowledge Base.
If you need to edit who the lead teacher for the class is going to be for the purposes of this cycle only, click the associated edit pencil icon for the class and edit the staff member. You can also assign more than one lead teacher per class for the cycle. This will allow parents/students to book with one of the applicable teachers for their class.
To add an additional Lead Teacher just start typing into the dropdown box, or click the down arrow and select the teacher's name from the list. Then click the '+Add as Lead Teacher' button to add the teacher to the list.
To remove a Lead Teacher or multiple Lead Teachers, just click the tickbox next to the teacher's name and click the 'Selected Lead Teachers' button and click 'Remove' from the dropdown options.
When a class has multiple Lead Teachers the attendee will be able to select which Lead Teacher they want to book in with. They will still only be able to make one booking for the class, with only one of the Lead Teachers.
Please Note: Editing the Lead Teacher of a class within a Conference cycle only applies within that specific cycle, it will not affect the set Lead Teacher for the class in other areas of Compass.
If you need to add or remove a class from the cycle, click 'Manage Classes'.
Tick the classes you want to add or untick the classes you want to remove. Click 'Save' to update the cycle.
If you attempt to remove classes that already have associated bookings, you will be required to delete these bookings before you can remove the class from the cycle.
On the 'Classes' tab you may have some teachers who are listed with a little warning symbol next their name (a black exclamation point in a yellow triangle) as highlighted in the image below. This indicates that the staff member is not included as a staff member on the cycle, and should be added to the 'Staff' tab in order for attendees to be able to book with them (managing the 'Staff' tab is covered more thoroughly in the 'Staff Tab' section further below).
Enrolments Tab
The 'Enrolments' tab lists all the students who should be associated with this Conference cycle.
If the Target setting on the Cycle Settings was 'Students', then it will be the students who will be able to book interviews with the staff members. Alternatively, if you selected 'Parents' as the Target, then it will contain the students whose parents you want to book the interviews.
Add/Remove Enrolments
To add enrolments to the cycle click the '+Add Enrolments' button to open a pop-up window where you can select students either by group, class, or individually. Click the 'Advanced' button to expand further options such as adding students by class or custom flag.
If you need to remove any students who have been enrolled you can do so by selecting the tickbox next to their name/names, clicking the 'Selected' button, and choosing 'Remove Enrolments'.
Contact
Once the students are enrolled you can use the 'Contact' button to contact the Target group (either parents or students) who have not yet booked. Within this you can further filter to just contact only those who are marked as 'Interview required'. Clicking the 'Launch Email Widget' button will take you to the familiar window you see in Compass when sending an email, here you can write your email, review the attendees list, and send it.
Filters
Across the top of the table there are three filter options to assist with locating enrolled students - by Year Level, by Form Group, or Search by typing in the student's name or code.
Enrolled Students
Each student enrolled is displayed on their own row, with three symbols at the end of each row, a book icon, a download icon, and a pencil symbol, which are highlighted in the following image and explained more fully below.
Manage Bookings (book icon) - This allows the Conference Administrator, and others at the school with the relevant permission, to create, see and edit bookings on behalf of the attendees. This allows the school to book users in for interviews even if the family does not have access to the Internet. Clicking the Manage Bookings icon for an enrolled student opens the following screen. You can see who you're booking on behalf of at the top-left of the window, within the the light blue ribbon.
Print/Export Bookings (download icon) - Clicking this button opens a new window from which you can view and print the bookings for the Target user. If Parents are your Target group, you will need to select which household you want to see. This button will take you to the following screen, from which you can indicate the attendees attendance status if you choose, check their bookings, as well as print this view out. Keep in mind that if your Target is parents you will see all bookings for that household, not just the bookings for the student you selected.
Edit (pencil icon) - This button allows you to edit the information associated with the student for this specific Conference cycle. The editable fields are the Gender, Year Level, Form Group, House and Campus. Altering these fields does not change the student's information throughout Compass, only for this Conference cycle specifically.
This function is useful if you want to associate a student with a different year level or form group to facilitate booking with a staff member from a different year or form when that staff member has been setup with a Dynamic Interview Eligibility. This change will have no bearing on Explicit Interview Eligibilities. Associating staff with a year or form and creating custom Interview Eligibilities is detailed in the 'Creating Custom Conference Groups' article from our Knowledge Base.
Staff Tab
The 'Staff' tab contains all staff who the Target Group will be able to potentially book with.
Add Staff
If you need to add staff, click the '+Add Staff' button, which will open a popup window where you can either add all staff members at the school, or add specific individuals by selecting them from the dropdown menu. Clicking the 'Advanced' button allows you the opportunity to paste in a string of comma separated staff member ID codes or add staff based on their status.
Tip: Keep in mind that when you add staff to the cycle they will be added with the default number of unavailable timeslots that were selected for the 'Default maximum unavailable timeslots' field on the Basic tab of the Cycle Settings for the conference cycle. You can still edit this amount on a per-staff member basis or in bulk, but ensuring this value is set to what a majority of your staff will require is helpful before adding staff.
Remove Staff
If you need to remove staff from the cycle, select the applicable staff by ticking the box next to their name (you can select multiple at once). Then under 'Selected' click 'Remove Staff'.
If a staff member has existing bookings for the cycle, you will need to delete those bookings before you can remove the staff member from the cycle.
Edit Individual Staff Information
To edit information about a staff member for the cycle, click the edit pencil icon.
| Title | This field allows you to indicate the role of the staff member at the school i.e. Year 5 Teacher, Assistant Principal, Careers Coordinator etc which will display next to the staff member's name when the Target audience make bookings. |
| Location | In this field you can enter the location in the school where the interview will take place. This information is included on the booking sheet for those who make a booking with the staff member. |
| Comment | This field allows you to include additional information if needed for the users who will be booking with the staff member. |
Interview Eligibilities - this section will display any classes the staff member teaches that have been included as Classes for the Conference cycle under the sub-heading 'Classroom Eligibilities'.
You can also configure custom groups here for the staff member so that attendees can book with them even if they, or their child (in the case of parents), are not taught by the staff member. This can be set up by using either the '+Add Group (Dynamic)' button, or the 'Add Group (Explicit)' button. This is especially useful for allowing bookings with Year Level Coordinators, Assistant Principals, Career Advisors or others at the school who work with the students but do not teach classes.
For details on creating Custom Groups, please refer to the 'Creating Custom Conference Groups' article from our Knowledge Base.
Unavailable Slots - This displays the number of unavailable timeslots set for this particular staff member. You can edit this number for the individual staff member by using the up and down arrow or typing a number into the box which then enables them to make themselves unavailable up to this number of timeslots.
This function is especially useful if you have a staff member who can only attend a portion of the day - you can give them a large number of unavailable slots and they can book themselves out for all the time they are unable to be at the interviews.
Setting Unavailable Timeslots on behalf of a staff member - If you would like to indicate the timeslots that the staff member will be unavailable on their behalf, just select the time from the 'Timeslots' dropdown click '+Add Unavailable Timeslot'. As mentioned previously this means that attendees will not be able to book with this specific staff member during this timeslot. If they need you to remove a timeslot that was set as 'Unavailable' to make it 'Available', click the red cross icon next to that listed timeslot.
Tip: Many schools prefer their teachers set their own unavailable timeslots. To facilitate this just ensure that you've given staff the correct number of unavailable timeslots, and then when you're ready for them to set their unavailable timeslots go into the Cycle Settings and set the cycle as Open to Staff. We recommend changing the Staff Access to Read Only before opening to Parents/Students, to ensure staff do not add their unavailable timeslots once attendees can access the cycle.
Bulk Update Staff Information
You can bulk update some staff information such as Location, Unavailable Timeslots and Titles.
Bulk Import Locations and Titles - Once you've set the Title and Location for the staff members in one cycle, you can copy this across to another cycle, by clicking the 'Import Locations and Titles' button available across the top of the Staff tab. Choose the past cycle you want to import the Location and Title information from and then click 'Save.
Bulk Set Locations - For instances where you have staff in centralised locations for their interviews, you can batch set the Location for the staff who will be in the same Location together.
To do so, select all the applicable staff and click 'Selected' and then 'Update Locations'.
Type in the Location and click 'Save'.
Bulk Set Possible Unavailable Slots - If you need to update some staff to have the option to set more or less Unavailable Slots than the default number for the cycle, select the applicable staff who will have the same adjusted number. Then click 'Selected' and then 'Set Unavailable Timeslots'. Enter the number of slots you want to allocate to the selected staff and click 'Save' to update.
Set Unavailable Timeslots - If you need to block out some timeslots as unavailable for multiple staff at once, select the applicable staff and then click 'Selected' and choose 'Set Unavailable Timeslots' from that menu. This will open a pop-up with the selected staff and each possible timeslot. Tick or untick a timeslot to set is as available or unavailable for a staff member. Click 'Save' to update your changes.
Note that in order to set a timeslot unavailable for a staff member they must first be allocated a number of possible timeslots to have as unavailable.
Manage Interview Requirements
You can indicate on a per-staff member basis whether an interview with a specific student is Required, Welcome, or Not Necessary. This is indicated to the applicable student/parent when the cycle is open for bookings.
By default all students are set as 'Interview Welcome'.
If you want to leave all students with this default, no action is required.
Alternatively, if you do want to change the default 'Interview Welcome' status for some or all students on behalf of staff, click the 'Manage Interview Requirements' button.
In the pop-up, select the staff member from the dropdown and the applicable class/group in the 'Interview For' drop-down list.
This will then display a list of all the students for the selected class/group that can book with this staff member. To change the interview requirement, click the tick box/es at the left for the students you want to alter, then click the 'Selected Students' button and choose which status you want to update the selected students to.
This will update the highlighted field under the Interview Requirement column, like in the image below.
Tip: Staff members themselves will have access to set these statuses for the students they are associated with when the cycle is set as 'Open' for 'Staff Access' in the Cycle Settings. They will only have access to the classes they are a Lead Teacher for or any other Additional Eligibilities that have been added for them as Custom groups. Please refer to the 'Conferences' article from our Knowledge Base for details on this process. It is recommended that the staff members setup their Manage Interview Requirements screen when they set up their unavailable timeslots BEFORE the cycle is set to Open for Parents/Students.
Contact
The 'Contact' button allows you to send an email to the attendees who have booked in already with the selected staff members.
This can be useful if you need to advise attendees of a staff member being unavailable at the last minute due to illness or a change in where that staff member's interviews will be located etc.
Exports
You can click 'Exports' to export a csv file of the set Teacher Locations for the cycle; or select staff and then export the selected staff member's bookings as a csv. You can also export pdf running sheets for all staff or selected staff if required.
Timeslots
The 'Timeslots' tab is where you manage the timeslots for the cycle.
Add Timeslots
To add Timeslots, click the '+Add Timeslots' button and a popup widow will display. Select the date for the first lot of timeslots, then select the times you would like to create the timeslots between, with the first time being when the conferences should start, and the finish being the time the last timeslot would end. You will see the set duration for each timeslot, this information is based on the information entered when creating the cycle and cannot be altered. You will see the number of timeslots that will be created based on the time range you have entered. When you're happy with your selection click the green 'Add Timeslots' button.
If you're running interviews on multiple days click the 'Add Timeslot' and repeat the above steps to add the timeslots for each date the cycle will run. Once you've added all the necessary timeslots click the 'Close' button.
Once you've created your timeslots you will see them listed on the 'Timeslots' tab.
Set Selected Timeslots as Unavailable for All Staff
At times you may need to block out some timeslots as Unavailable for bookings for all staff in the cycle i.e. to have a Meal Break. To do so, select the applicable timeslots and then click 'Selected' and choose 'Bulk Edit Timeslots'.
In the pop-up, you can add a reason in the Comment field and then ensure the 'Bookable' box is unticked. Click 'Save' to update. You will see the Status column for these timeslots update to 'Unavailable'.
To make these Available again for all staff, select the applicable timeslots and ensure 'Bookable' is ticked.
To attendees these timeslots will be greyed out and not able to be booked into, with the information from the Comment field showing when they click on the timeslot.
You do not need to edit timeslots in bulk - if you like you can add comments or mark individual timeslots as not bookable by clicking the pencil icon at the end of the row for the individual timeslot.
Please Note: Any timeslots set as Unavailable on the 'Timeslots' tab for all staff do not count towards the total number of Unavailable timeslots staff have to individually allocate for themselves.
View Bookings for Selected Timeslots
You can view all bookings made for a selected timeslot (or multiple selected timeslots) by clicking 'Selected' and then 'View Bookings'.
This will display a list of all the bookings that have been made for the selected timeslots.
From the pop-up window you can:
Cancel Bookings with the timeslot - select the bookings, click 'Selected' and then 'Cancel Bookings'.
Contact Users with Bookings in the timeslot - select the booking/s and click 'Contact'.
This is helpful if you need to remove a timeslot for any reason. You should first contact those who booked into the timeslot to advise them that their booking is being cancelled; cancel the bookings, and then remove the timeslot or set it as 'Unavailable'.
Remove Timeslots
To remove a timeslot, you will first need to cancel any bookings made for that timeslot (see the above information 'View Bookings for Selected Timeslots' for information on how to cancel bookings within a timeslot). Once there are no bookings for the timeslot, select the timeslot (or multiple timeslots if needed), click 'Selected' and then 'Remove
Invalid Bookings Tab
The 'Invalid Bookings' tab allows the school to identify bookings that have been made within a cycle that are now invalid.
An invalid booking may occur for one of two reasons:
Invalid Eligibility: A change was made that altered a student's eligibility to have this booking. This change could be an alteration to the enrolment bounds originally set on the Cycle Settings, the removal of a class or subject from the Activities tab, the removal of a staff member from the Staff tab, an editing of the additional eligibilities with a specific staff member in their 'Interview Eligibilities' section, or even an alteration to the student's class enrolments.
Invalid Timeslot: The booked timeslot was made unavailable after a booking was made.
Invalid Timeslot: The booked timeslot was made unavailable after a booking was made.
The reason for the invalidity of the booking will display under the Reason column on this tab.
To contact those with invalid bookings click the tick box/es down the left (or the top tickbox to Select All) and click 'Contact' and then select either 'Email Staff of selected' or 'Email Attendees of selected'. Either button will open the familiar email widget in Compass, which will allow you to email the selected group about the invalid bookings.
From the Invalid Bookings tab you can tick the box to the left of the bookings and click 'Selected' and 'Remove Bookings' to delete the invalid bookings.
Tip: It is recommended that before simply deleting the invalid booking(s) you use the Contact button to first contact either the Staff member the booking is with, or the attendees whose booking it is, to notify them of the issue and let them know that their booking will be cancelled and any action that is required on their part.
The 'Exports' button will download a CSV of the same content this is displayed on this page.
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