Within WCONLINE, there are several different types of appointments. This page provides information about all of the appointment types, as well as links to the various control panels that influence each type.
Keep in mind that you can always find all of the appointments within your system in the Master Listings Report and you can sort that display by appointment type as needed. Many of the specialized appointment types also have special colors used to display those appointments on the schedule and within the appointment form. Those colors are defined in the "System Color Settings" section of Global System Settings.
STANDARD APPOINTMENTS: Appointments that are not one of the specialized appointment types listed below are standard appointments. These appointments are traditionally face-to-face appointments, although you can change the name used to label these appointments in the "Language Options" section of Global System Settings, and you can hide the face-to-face labeling entirely via the HIDE "FACE-TO-FACE" LABELING option in the same control panel.
ONLINE APPOINTMENTS: Online appointments are typically synchronous appointments where the client and staff member meets online at the same time in a shared space. WCONLINE includes an Online Consultation Module that is typically used for these types of appointments, although the "Zoom Integration" section of Global System Settings allows Zoom to be used instead. The language used to describe these appointments is set in the "language options" section of Global System Settings. In order to schedule an online appointment, a staff or resource has to be made available for online appointments via the MODALITY option in Staff and Resource Management.
When making an online appointment, the client selects that option from the "meet online?" question on the appointment form. At the time of the appointment, client and staff member open the appointment and then click on the "start or join online consultation" link on the appointment form.
ETUTORING APPOINTMENTS: eTutoring appointments are typically asynchronous appointments where the client uploads a paper and the staff member uploads a response to that paper at a later time. To setup eTutoring appointments, ENABLE FILE ATTACHMENTS? must be set to one of the YES options in Schedule Management. If the entire schedule is going to be used for eTutoring appointments, consider setting SLOT SCHEDULING ONLY to YES in Schedule Management as this will remove times on your schedule and replace them with "slots" (since eTutoring appointments aren't typically attached to specific times). The language used to describe these appointments is set in the "language options" section of Global System Settings. In order to schedule an eTutoring appointment, a staff or resource has to be made available for eTutoring appointments via the MODALITY option in Staff and Resource Management.
When making an eTutoring appointment, the client selects that option from the "meet online?" question on the appointment form. At the same time or when later editing the appointment, the client attaches a paper to the appointment. Staff can view the appointment at any time, download the paper, compose a response, and uploads that response to either the post-session client report form or directly to the appointment form.
GROUP APPOINTMENTS: WCONLINE supports group appointments, events, and workshops. Group availability is set on a resource-by-resource basis via the GROUP APPOINTMENTS setting in Staff and Resource Management.
Once a staff or resource is made available for group appointments, clients can sign up for a group appointment or workshop in the same way that they sign up for an appointment--by finding an available slot and filling out the appointment form. Clients continue to see a group slot as available (or white on the Calendar Display) until the slot is completely filled, whereas administrators see the slot as having an appointment as soon as the first person makes an appointment in the group slot. Administrators can easily see who is in a group, and can add new members to a group, by selecting the slot and viewing the information on the appointment form.
Keep in mind that you can add an unlimited number of staff or resources to a schedule. Therefore, if you want to add a recurring workshop or one-time event to your schedule, simply add a new resource listing in Staff and Resource Management and make that resource available for more than one appointment per slot. If the workshop repeats regularly, set the schedule using Starting Availability Management. Otherwise, set the schedule using Blackout Times Management to blackout all times and dates other than the event's time and date.
If you have set SELECT BY FOCUS to REQUIRED in Schedule Management, then all members of a group appointment slot will be required to share the same focus. This is useful for ensuring that all clients in the same slot are, for example, working on an assignment for the same subject or class. If a slot has an existing appointment with a required focus, clients can see the previously defined focus by hovering over the appointment on the schedule or when they have to confirm the focus choice as displayed at the bottom of the appointment form. Using the standard display, clients who select a focus are offered only existing groups that match, and group openings with no appointments yet. On the calendar display, clients who select a focus at the top see existing groups with non-matching focuses as filled.
If you have set LOCK MODALITY to YES in Staff & Resource Management, then all members of a group appointment will be required to make appointments of the same type, such as all face-to-face instead of some face-to-face and some online. This is useful when a group needs to meet using only one modality. Using the standard display, clients who select a "Meeting Type" are offered only existing groups that match, group openings with no appointments yet, and appointments with any staff and resources that do not have LOCK MODALITY to YES. On the calendar display, clients who select a meeting type at the top see existing groups with non-matching modalities as filled.
NO-SHOW OR MISSED APPOINTMENTS: Missed or no-show appointments are appointments for which the client did not attend. An administrator marks an existing appointment as a no show by selecting MARK AS A NO-SHOW from the "appointment tools" menu at the top of the appointment form or by editing the appointment, checking the NO-SHOW/ MISSED checkbox at the bottom of the form, and saving the changes. Once an appointment is marked as missed, it will be removed from the schedule display. This allows a new appointment to be made that fills the now vacant slot (such as if a client walked in to the center).
Since no-show appointments aren't deleted, you can always find no-show appointments by limiting the Master Listing Report to missed appointments. Once you've located an appointment in that report, you can view or edit the appointment just as with a normal appointment. To restore a missed appointment to the schedule (and assuming that the slot is still open on the schedule), simply edit the appointment, uncheck the NO-SHOW/ MISSED checkbox, and save your changes. Finally, note that you can have WCONLINE enforce a no-show policy by using the "No-Show Policy and Enforcement" section of Global System Settings.
CANCELED APPOINTMENTS: Canceled appointments are appointments that have been canceled by either the client or an administrator. In essence, these appointments are deleted from WCONLINE and are no longer counted in any of your statistics; however, you can still find information about these appointments by limiting the Master Listing Report to canceled appointments. From there, you can see who canceled an appointment and when it was canceled. Assuming the slot on the schedule is still available, you can also restore the canceled appointment to the schedule if it was canceled inadvertently. Finally, note that you can have WCONLINE enforce a late cancelation policy by using the "Cancelation Policy and Enforcement" section of Global System Settings.
WALK-IN/DROP-IN APPOINTMENTS: Walk-in or drop-in appointments are typically appointments made at the last minute--when a client shows up at the center in person or reserves an online meeting shortly before the meeting begins. Administrators can mark an appointment as a walk-in either when making the appointment for a student or by editing an existing appointment and checking the WALK-IN / DROP-IN checkbox before saving the form.
While there isn't special functionality attached to walk-in appointments, designating an appointment as such does allow WCONLINE to report out separately on walk-in appointments in reports like the SYSTEM STATISTICS REPORT and the SYSTEM DATA EXPORT. In addition, if you set the WALK-INS ONLY option in Staff and Resource Management to YES, as described at the bottom of the relevant page in this manual, WCONLINE will automatically allow clients to only make appointments at the last minute with the resource and will designate those appointments automatically as walk-ins.
PLACEHOLDER APPOINTMENTS: Placeholder appointments are appointments that are not counted in your statistics. These are typically used to record other activities, such as staff prep time, that take time off the schedule, but are not active meetings with clients. Placeholders should not be used to record when a staff or resource is not working, as those times should be entered as blackouts.
Administrators can mark an appointment as a placeholder either when making the appointment for a student or by editing an existing appointment and checking the PLACEHOLDER checkbox before saving the form. In the "System Color Settings" section of Global System Settings, not only can you define a color for placeholders, but you can set the PLACEHOLDER COLOR OVERRIDE if you want that color to override all other colors as displayed on the schedule. This makes placeholders easy to see regardless of who made them or who is viewing the schedule.
TENTATIVE APPOINTMENTS: If a client made their own appointment with a staff or resource that is set to use TENTATIVE APPOINTMENTS (one of the options in Staff & Resource Management), the appointment will be both tentative and a placeholder. An administrator can click "confirm appointment" on the appointment form.
SECTION 1: Appointment Form Overview
SECTION 2: Specialized Appointment Types
SECTION 3: Client Report Forms