School’s Out? Get Your Scheduling Software Ready for Fall Semester

Seems like just last week you were welcoming a cohort of nervous first-year students.

Now they're strutting their stuff confidently on campus.

It’s a great time to reflect on the academic year that just passed: what worked, what didn’t, and what can you prepare now so you’re ready to hit the ground running after the break? 

When you work in a university or college, scheduling software is a critical tool for keeping your meetings running smoothly.

Here are our tips for updating your booking pages so you’re ready for all those new student appointments on day one.

Update your availability

Whether you’re going to be in the office over the break or taking a few months off, you can update your YouCanBook.me booking pages to reflect your change in availability over the next few months.

💡 Pro tip: if you set a fixed start date for August/September, the page will automatically display that date first. No one will have to scroll through each week to find a future time.

Fixed start date booking setting

  • If you’re going to be on campus, but working different hours, update your availability to reflect the change.
  • Add a brief description to your booking page intro so students know about any changes to how and when you’ll meet  

Organize your dashboard

A new semester sometimes means new booking pages. Or maybe you recycle your pages from year to year. In either case, make sure you’ve saved the data you need from this last academic year.

  •  If you don’t plan to use your booking pages over the break, or next year, you can set your pages offline. No one will be able to make a booking on it, but you’ll be able to refer back to it for settings or data whenever you need to.

💡 Pro tip: when you set a page offline, it stays on your dashboard. If you choose to “sort by status”, it will move to the bottom of the page and out of your way.

  • Move all your last year's booking pages to a separate folder on your dashboard so they are out of view for next year but easily findable again when you need the data.
How to move your booking pages to a separate folder with YCBM

You can also organize booking pages by department, student group, or any other way that makes sense. Folders make it easier to find and update booking pages for the upcoming semester. 

Review your booking data

A bit of downtime between semesters gives you a chance to identify key trends from your college scheduling software.

  1. Which days are most popular for students to book meetings?
  2. When do your bookings come in: right after class? Just before exams? Evenings? Weekends?
  3. What’s the most common reason students schedule time with you?

Taking time to discover these metrics can help you to better understand common student concerns and improve student support for the fall semester.

You can crunch this data by exporting your booking data for the past year.

You’ll get a spreadsheet that includes all booking data - including any cancellations, rescheduled, and no-shows - on one page. 

💡 Pro tip: save yourself this step next year and set up automatic data exports using Zapier or webhooks now. They’ll automatically pass the information into the systems you already use, every time a booking is made. 

Pick up some new tips and tricks 

Join our live training sessions created specifically for university teams. They’re designed to help you get the most out of YouCanBook.me’s appointment scheduling software for education:

  1.  Be the first to know about YouCanBook.me’s newest features
  2.  Come with questions! No issue is too big or too small for our EDU team
  3.  Get the inside track on how other university teams use YouCanBook.me for maximum time savings and ultra-efficiency

There’s always something new to learn when you use scheduling software for higher education

EDU_end_of_semester_checklist

Download checklist

Explore our knowledge base

Our Knowledge Base is a great resource for how-to's, FAQs, and troubleshooting! 

  1. Find video and text answers to all your questions on our help pages
  2. Join the YouCanBook.me community in our private online Facebook group. Ask a question, help someone with an answer, and share your expertise! 

Summer is a time for university teams to ease off the gas and make time for reflection and improvement. And we're here to help! Book a call or email us at edusuccess@youcanbook.me today.

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