The following are terms and terminology used within Appointments. They are not listed in alphabetical order, but rather in a more sequential order, so that one definition may build upon or use previously defined terms.
Appointment User – A user within the appointment systems who accesses the back-end (i.e. office end) of the system. These users may or may not have an associated user calendar. For example, you may have users who do not actually meet with clients, but do create appointments on other calendars, or check in clients as they arrive. An appointment user can either be a regular user, or have the elevated manager permission. The only difference is that managers have additional access to the management tabs and functions. Appointments users access the system using https://appointments.web.uci.edu/system/
Client – A person who an appointment is booked for (i.e. generally students – although a client does not have to be a student). In order for a client to self-book an appointment, they must, at a minimum, have an active UCInetID and password. Clients access the front-end scheduling using https://appointments.web.uci.edu/
Appointment Slot – A specific time available for booking an appointment.
Access List – An access list is a list of UCInetIDs that is used to control who is allowed or denied access to self book appointments. (We refer to it by UCInetID, because a person on an access list may or may not yet be a client. A person only becomes a client once they have actually booked an appointment. Until that point they are a potential client). An access list can allow a specific UCInetID to make an unlimited number of appointments (only one active at any given time), or restrict the UCInetID to a specific number of appointments (i.e. an allotment) before they will no longer be able to self-book appointments in slots restricted to that access list. (i.e. If John Doe is on the “International Students” access list, and this list is set to Unlimited appointments, then John could self-book an appointment at the beginning of Fall quarter, another part way through the quarter when he has a question about registering for GE courses for Winter quarter, another a few weeks later when he wants to discuss his mid-term performance and tutoring resources, another at the beginning of Winter quarter, etc. If however, this access list is set to 2 appointments, then after John had the appointment about registering for GE courses for Winter quarter, he would no longer be able to self-book the subsequent appointments. He would have to contact the office and have the appointment booked for him by office staff (or they could increase his number of self-book appointments remaining – i.e. increase his allotment). A given UCInetID can – and often does – belong to multiple access lists at the same time. This allows for more complex and flexible restrictions to be set. When there are conflicts between settings of multiple access lists for a given person, there are two rules to remember.
- Denied access always takes precedence over Allowed access.
- Access lists are prioritized by management and apply in the specified order. An access list with the most priority (i.e. a lower number) takes precedence (so priority 1 is higher priority than priority 2).
- As an example, if a person was on access lists ordered 2,5,8, then in the event of conflicting settings – such as number of days visible – the settings for list 2 would be used.
Master Calendar Group – A master calendar group is an administrative grouping generally for an office. All master calendars in a group will have the same site settings (such as late cancellation penalty or no show penalty, etc.). In general a master calendar group will not even be noticed by users, with two exceptions. One is an employee working in two different units using the system (for example if a peer advisor worked for the CAES Dean’s Office and the LS Deans’ Office, they would have to select the appropriate master calendar group when they logged in). The other location this appears is on the home screen for clients (students) booking appointments. On the very first screen a client is asked to select the office they are seeking an appointment with.
Master Calendar – A master calendar is the main combined calendar for all appointment users (advisors) in an office. In general, most offices will have a single master calendar.
Calendar Group – Within each master calendar is at least one calendar group. Most master calendars have a single calendar group. However, multiple calendar groups can be defined when you want the ability to restrict a population of students to a subset of advisors. The sole purpose of calendar groups is to control different access lists to different subsets of advisors. Calendar groups are not visible to anyone except management – not even other Appointment Users.
User Calendar – Each person who meets with clients (i.e. has appointments) has a user calendar. This calendar tracks the appointments by clients with that particular user. Users can schedule appointments directly on their calendar – even outside of their scheduled availability.
Master Schedule – This is where managers indicate when the office is open for appointments. The master schedule is also where managers indicate which access lists are allowed or denied to appointment slots. This is indicated per calendar group, per schedule time period.
User Schedule – This is where an Appointment User indicates when they are available for appointments. An Appointment User can specify that certain blocks of time are only for walk-in appointments. This schedule information is combined with the master schedule. Wherever a user schedule overlaps a master schedule, an appointment slot will be created on the user calendar.
Penalties – A client can have a penalty associated with their account. This prevents the client from self-booking an appointment for a specified period of time (i.e. until the penalty expires). Penalties can be cleared by an Appointment User if they need to be removed early.
Follow-up Ticket – This is a “pass” issued to a client when they check in for an appointment, so when they book future appointments with this same office, they will by default be sent to see the same advisor they met with previously.
Fail behavior: determine how failures to communicate with an external calendar should be handled:
- Fail Open: The appointment will be booked; the system assumes there is no conflict on the user’s Outlook calendar, so it books the appointment. (Note: the appointment will likely not appear on the user’s Outlook calendar since communication with the external calendar was broken.)
- Fail Closed: The appointment will not be booked: the system assumes there might be a conflict on the user’s Outlook calendar so it does not book the appointment (Note: this is the default and most preferred behavior for any offices that have external calendar integration).
Appointment Statuses – Appointments can have the following main statuses:
- Pending – the appointment has been scheduled, but the client has not yet checked in. The appointment has not ended.
Checked In – the client checked in for the appointment.
No Show – the appointment has ended, and the client never checked in.
Cancelled – the client cancelled the appointment
Appointment Log – This allows Appointment Users to see the history of the appointment. It is useful to see who the initiator was (i.e. was the appointment self-booked, or made by an Appointment User). It is also useful for looking at information about appointments that were moved or cancelled, such as who took the action and, in the case of the move, the details of the move.