If you choose the advanced Personalized Class Schedules (PCS) feature, your app's Calendar screen can show personalized, always up-to-date class schedules for each student. We can combine your bell schedules, block/day schedule (rotation), and class list, and we can handle just about any level of complexity or creative scheduling that your school may be using.
The feature relies on data you provide for each the following:
Not sure if your app is configured with this feature? Go to Classes/Groups in the Dashboard. If this feature is enabled, you'll see links in the Class Schedule column.
Please contact Support if you would like to add this feature to your app.
The steps are as follows:
Note: The Block Schedule feature shows students the block rotation each day on the Calendar screen of the app. Read more: Block Schedule.
There is more than one way to set up the Block Schedule, but for PCS, you must use the Spreadsheet method. To see if you have this feature, look for a Bell/Block Schedule menu item in the Content tab of your Dashboard home page. If it is not present, please contact Support.
There are two ways to navigate to the Block Schedule Spreadsheet:
A. From the Dashboard Home Page, click Bell/Block Schedule.
B. From the Dashboard Home Page, click Calendars, and find your Block Schedule. When you open the block schedule calendar, click the link in this message: "This calendar is maintained in the spreadsheet: Click Here to Edit."
You are now on a read-only Block/Bell Schedule page. The Block and Bell Schedules are maintained in an online Google Sheet with two tabs, named SCHEDULE and SETUP. To open the editable Sheet, click Edit (in new window). This will open the Google Sheet in a new browser tab.
At the bottom of your web browser page, ensure that the SCHEDULE tab is selected.
You should see one of the following:
Has your class scheduling changed since last year? If you changed how your block rotation works, e.g. changing from linear (day 1/2) to semester, or numbered to alpha blocks, please contact Support.
First of all, check the top left cell and make sure that it shows the date of the first day of classes for the current year.
Then, check that the EVENT column shows exactly what students should see every day, e.g. "ABCD", or "ABCD D1". If the EVENT column has a white background, enter the block schedule manually.
However, if the EVENT column has a grey background, do not edit this column if you don't have to. Instead, make any corrections in the lookup table if applicable, or the preceding columns (e.g. BLOCKS, DAY, WEEK, etc.), as needed. For Pro-D days and holidays, erase the EVENT value or the preceding values.
TIP: Hover your mouse over the column heading to see instructions for each column. Column headings that are not bold are optional.
Changes made to this Google Sheet are saved automatically after a few seconds. However they do not take effect in the app. If you just want to see your Block Schedule in the app, you can jump ahead to Sync. Otherwise, continue to the next section.
You may already have the Sheet open from the previous step. If not:
Now, at the bottom of your web browser page, ensure that the SCHEDULE tab is selected.
Note: The Bell Schedule here is only used for the PCS feature. To show the bell schedule in the app, you'll need to add a document or link to the Home screen or Student Handbook.
If everything is set up for you correctly, you'll only need to take care of early dismissal, late start, and non-instructional days. On this tab, review each line to ensure that the Blocks?, Day?, and Special Bell? columns are correct for that date. If the correct option is not listed, review the SETUP tab.
Tips:
Changes made to a Google Sheet are saved automatically after a few seconds. However they do not take effect in the app yet.
If you have already imported your classes, you can jump ahead to Sync. Otherwise, continue to the next section.
You'll need to import your classes from your Student Information System (SIS), including the block or period number for each class.
Read more here:
If you have the editable Google Sheet open, close that browser tab.
Return to the Block/Bell Schedule page in the Dashboard if you are not there already. Then, refresh your browser window and confirm that you can see your latest changes.
If you have just imported your classes, you may see that synchronization (generation of Personalized Class Schedules) is currently in progress.
If you have not made any bell/block spreadsheet changes since importing classes, synchronization is run automatically. In that case, you can continue on to Check.
Otherwise, if you are ready to publish the block/class schedule(s) to the app, click the Sync button.
It can take several minutes to complete the process. You can leave the page while this is in progress, but it needs to complete before you can continue to the final step.
Once the above 4 steps are complete, be sure to check your work and ensure that the resulting schedules are accurate.
Here are two ways to check (the second one is quicker, easier, and recommended):
Subscribe to a variety of classes in the app, and ensure that the correct class times appear on the Calendar screen.
In the Dashboard, go to Classes/Groups. For various different classes, click the Class Schedule link in the Schedule column and ensure that the times are correct (look at both semesters, if applicable).