Appointment types are the second level of appointment organisation. Active appointment types are visible to students as long as at least one staff member has added the type(s) in their user settings.
Configure and manage Appointment Types in Institution Settings:
- Add a new appointment type
- Edit an existing appointment type
- Delete an appointment type
- Archive an appointment type
Click your name in the upper-right corner of Handshake, click Institution Settings, then click Appointment Types from the menu on the left of the page.
Tip: Use the filters or keyword search at the top of the page to narrow down displayed types!
Add a new appointment type
To create new appointment types that represent the types of appointments available to students, follow the steps below.
1. Click the blue button Add Appointment Type at the top of the page.
2. Enter the details about this appointment type. Counsellors/advisors will add appointment types to their user profile, so these details should represent the appointments counsellors will be conducting.
- Name: should describe this appointment
- Description: helps students select the correct appointment type
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Length: duration of appointment in minutes
- Note: since each user will have appointment types connected to their account, this will be important when setting up available blocks to take appointments
- Maximum open appointments: the maximum number of scheduled (future, not completed) appointments a student can have of this appointment type
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Categories: the category/categories that this appointment should be organised under
- Note: if you do not know yet, you can always update this at a different time
- Drop-In Enabled: check this box if students can walk into your office for this type
3. Click the blue Next button to proceed to the next step.
The next page covers the option to connect surveys to this appointment type. These surveys should be created in the surveys section of Handshake - refer to Creating and Testing Surveys for more information.
For each survey option, select the desired survey from the dropdown menu(s).
You also have the option for a custom message to be shared with the student as well.
- Pre appointment survey: These additional questions will be included in the registration process for this appointment. The message will be sent as a confirmation once the student's requested appointment is approved
- Post appointment survey: This survey and message will be sent together after the appointment is completed. The Complete Appointment button (on the appointment overview page, or the edit page) must be clicked in order for this to be sent to the student
- Staff Member Survey: This survey is included in the appointment notes options and is a great way to track common questions for certain types of appointments
4. Click the blue Next button to proceed to the final step
If you would like this appointment type to be selectable by all students, you should not select any qualifications.
If you'd like to set qualifications for students in order to view and select this type, you can do so on this page.
- Institution year: students with the chosen institution year(s) will be able to schedule with this appointment type
- Individual courses: limit this appointment type to specific courses at your institution
- Course groups: click the blue Course groups to pop up a box where you can select from a list of course groups
- Colleges: select colleges connected to your institution in Handshake. For more information refer to Institution Settings: Campus Information
- Required labels: the labels that a student needs to have added to their profile so that they may select this appointment type
- Career clusters: select career clusters associated with the students' profiles
Note: if you'd like to review more information, please check out Set Appointment Qualifications.
4. Click the green button Create Appointment Type in the lower-right corner to save this new appointment type.
Edit an existing appointment type
For more information on any of the fields when editing, refer to the above section for adding a new type!
1. Click the Edit button on the far right of the page for the appointment type you would like to change.
2. On the first page, you can:
- add/remove Details of the appointment type
- attach or remove attached surveys
- add messages for the system to send out in regards to this appointment type
3. Click the blue button Next, or click the Requirements tab, at the bottom-middle of the page to add or remove the qualifications a student must meet in order to request this type.
4. Once you are finished editing the appointment type, select the blue button Save Changes in the lower-right corner to save your changes.
Note: if no changes have been made, the Save Changes button will not be clickable.
Delete an appointment type
1. Click the Edit button on the far right of the page for the appointment type you would like to delete.
2. In the upper-right corner of the page is the Actions button with an arrow pointing up. Click on the button to access a pop-up selection of Delete and Archive.
Click on Delete to delete the appointment type.
Deleted appointment types will not be able to be recovered – if there's a chance you'll need the type in the future, we recommend to instead archive the appointment type.
Note: if there are any existing appointments linked to the appointment type you wish to remove, you'll first need to manually edit the existing appointment(s) and change the type to something else. Once you've completed that, you will be able to delete the type successfully.
Archive an appointment type
If you'd like to archive the appointment type instead of deleting it (for example, if there are many linked appointments that will take too long to edit), you can use the same steps as above for removing a type, and then choose Archive instead of Delete.
Archiving instead of deleting can be beneficial for reporting accuracy as well, if you have existing appointments!
Best Practice: to easily identify an archived appointment type later, add the word "Archived" to the appointment type name prior to archiving. Make sure you save the name edit, then select Archive.
If you'd like to review archived appointment types, use the filter "Other", then click "Include Archived".