Fields for Virtual Conferences - Part 2
We previously announced that virtual conference fields are available for schedules and individual time slots. We are happy to announce today that a virtual conference field is now available for staff. This means that a staff member (or admin) can enter a URL for a virtual conference in MyConferenceTime, and that URL will automatically be associated with all of that staff member's schedules & conferences.
Staff can add their own virtual conference information on the "Your Account Info" page:
Admins can add virtual conference information for staff on the "Staff Summary" page:
Fields for Video Conference Links
MyConferenceTime has fields for school staff to include video conference links!
Teachers and/or administrators can add video conference information to a conference schedule or to specific time slots. This information is available to anyone who signs up for either the schedule or for the time slot. If you are conducting parent-teacher conferences using Zoom, Google Meet, MS Teams, etc., you can include the information in MyConferenceTime.
The information is only available to parents after a registration is complete, and it is also included in the confirmation & reminder emails so that the video conference link remains private, accessible only to those who are supposed to have access to it.
Also - these fields are not limited to video conference links. You can include any information that you want to provide to registered participants.
Directions: Add link to a time slot Add link to a schedule
Reserve a Time Slot During Registration Process
When a parent selects a time slot, MyConferenceTime immediately holds that time slot so that nobody else can claim the time slot while the parent completes registration.
With improvements that we introduced in January, 2020, a time slot is held for a defined amount of time when the parent selects it. The parent can complete registration without worrying that the time slot will be taken from them. This process can be compared to a shopping cart system: the item (in this case, the selected time slot) is in the shopping cart and is held for the customer (i.e., the parent) until checkout (registration) is complete.
In the past, time slots were given to the person who completed student registration most quickly. Now, a time slot is held only by one parent as soon as the time slot is selected (much earlier than completing registration) so that registration information can be entered and nobody else can take the time slot.
If the parent does not complete registration, the time slot is released so that others have the opportunity to select the time slot.
We are pleased to make this feature available to improve conference registrations.
Overriding Registration Limits
MyConferenceTime admins can impose conference registration limits such as only one conference per child; three conferences per email address; only one conference per student, per time slot. Admins now have the option to allow school staff to override the school's registration limitations.
Example usage: a school has a limit of one conference per student for each teacher, but the teacher realizes that additional time is needed for one of his students. When the school allows staff to override conference limits, the teacher is able to register the student for more time slots than the permitted one per teacher.
Admins have three options for overriding conference registrations:
- Nobody can override
- Admins and Mid-levels can override
- All staff can override
New Privileges Available for Staff Members
MyConferenceTime added new user roles. In addition to the existing roles of read-only, staff, mid-level and admin, users also have two types of isolated privileges restricting access to student names on other staff members' schedules.
The new isolated privileges prevent users who are logged in from seeing student names on other staff members' schedules. There are currently two options for isolated privileges:
- Staff member can see/edit/delete students on his/her own schedule; staff member cannot see student names on other teachers' schedules. For example, Mary Smith is able to see, edit and delete students on her schedule but is not able to see any student names on other teachers' schedules.
- Staff member can see students on his/her own schedule; staff member cannot see student names on other teachers' schedules. For example, Mark Jones is able to see students on his schedule but is not able to edit/delete students on his schedule and is not able to see any student names on other teachers' schedules.
Staff privileges can be edited by admins using the Staff Summary.
New Registration Restriction Available
MyConferenceTime allows schools to limit the number of registrations based on a student's name or a parent's email address. We recently added the option to restrict the number of registrations on one conference schedule based on the parent's email address.
The following is a list of current registration limitations that can schools can activate:
- maximum number of registrations school-wide based on student name
- maximum number of registrations school-wide based on email address
- maximum number of registrations on one schedule based on student name
- maximum number of registrations on one schedule based on email address
- maximum number of registrations during a time slot, school-wide, based on student name (great for preventing overlapping conferences)
- maximum number of registrations during a time slot, school-wide based on email address (great for preventing overlapping conferences)
- maximum number of unique time slots, school-wide, based on name
- maximum number of unique time slots, school-wide, based on email address