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Google Appointments: Simplifying Scheduling

The Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department encourages undergraduate students to meet with a faculty advisor twice a year, before registration for the following semester. As part of an accredited advising program, these meetings facilitate advising outside of the classroom setting. Each of the five faculty advisors on the undergraduate committee carve out twenty minute time slots where students can sign up to meet on an one-on-one basis. Students can meet with any of these professors, and they usually select the faculty member in the specialization they want to pursue.

Originally, this process was on a paper calendar and difficult to manage. Signing up was essentially a one-time thing after a departmental meeting. If a student did not sign up after the meeting, he or she would need to contact the faculty advisors or administrator, usually via email. Students would sometimes miss appointments, faculty would have changing availabilities, and the department administration had a hard time making sure that these meetings had happened.

The administration of the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering knew that there had to be a better way. Jennifer Hunter, Visibility Specialist for the ECE Department, reached out to the Office of Information Technology’s Support Specialist Joe Rodriguez. Joe researched Google’s Appointment’s tool in Google Calendar and discovered that it allows for open appointments. A professor can schedule available appointment slots. Students can check that calendar, find a time slot that works for them, and book it as their meeting time. If another student saw the calendar, the booked time slots show up as unavailable. This system also allowed the department’s administration to see when meetings were occurring and make sure that each student was meeting with their faculty advisor.

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Jennifer Hunter and Joe Rodriguez schedule a meeting with Google Appointments.

The implementation of Google Appointments streamlined the process for arranging an appointment with one of the faculty members of the ECE Department. For more information on implementing appointment slots to your calendar, check out Google’s help page (https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/190998?hl=en) or contact your OIT Divisional Representative.

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