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Create and manage events and event schedules
Article Content
This article covers the following topics. Click on the topic to go to that section of the article.
Manage Events Dashboard
Note: Medtech: Admin, Staff: Admin, and Staff: Pcoor users can add events to courses in Elentra. Either create an event through the user interface and make it immediately accessible to users in Elentra, or create a draft event schedule to build events for future courses and publish the schedule when finalized.
To create individual events that appear immediately in the schedule, navigate to Admin > Manage Events and click Add New Event. At that point, follow the instructions in the Manually Add New Event section below. Using this method, the event will be live in Elentra once saved.
To create a schedule of draft events that can be populated with dates, times, locations, associated faculty, learners, etc. you must be logged in as an administrator or as a pcoordinator who is assigned to a course. Once a draft schedule is created, you can populate it with events by building them through the user interface, or importing a csv file. The benefit of creating a draft schedule is that you can create a number of events that won't appear on users calendars until they are published. This allows for further editing and the ability to control when exactly users will see the events appear on their calendars.
If a course with events already exists, you can optionally copy forward existing events into a new draft event schedule. This may be the fastest option if you have a relatively stable course that is being offered a second time. Please see the Knowledge Base article here on Copying Forward a Schedule of Events for more details.
Create a Draft Schedule of Events
A draft schedule allows you to create a number of events that won't appear on users calendars until they are published. This allows for further editing and the ability to control when exactly users will see the events appear on their calendars. To create a Draft Schedule of Events, follow the below instructions.
Navigate to Admin > Manage Events, then click Manage My Drafts. This will bring you to your Draft Schedules dashboard.
Click Create New Draft. Provide a logical draft name and an optional description (this will only be visible to users accessing the draft).
Copy Forward Existing Learning Events will appear greyed out, but can be expanded by clicking on the title, or the + icon to the far right of the title. Copying forward learning events is covered in another Knowledge Base article here.
Click Create Draft. You will be redirected to your created draft.
Note: At this point a greyed out Draft Information heading will display, and it can be expanded by clicking on the grey heading, or the + button to the far right of the heading.
Add Draft Authors
Navigate to Admin > Manage Events, and click Manage My Drafts. Click on the appropriate draft and then click the greyed out Draft Information heading.
Add users to Draft Authors by beginning to type a name and clicking on the appropriate name in the displayed options. Click Save Changes once complete.Note: Only Staff: Admin and Faculty: Director users are able to be added to draft schedules. If you need to add other user types as draft authors you can contact Elentra support for assistance.
Add New Events via the Interface
You have two options when adding events through the user interface, Quick Add Events or Add New Event.
- Quick Add Events allows you to add multiple events only to your draft schedule without initially providing event details. Since these events contain little details, they will need further information inputted into them at a later time in order for them to be ready to be published. To Quick add events, a draft schedule must first be created as per the section above.
- To add a Quick Add Event, navigate to Admin> Manage Events> Manage My Drafts> (click on an existing draft to open it)> click the Quick Add Events button. This will quickly add an event to the draft in the list below.
- Beside the Quick Add Events button, there is a number selector field which corresponds with how many events will be created upon pressing the button. Change this number to match how many events need to be added.
- Once the events are added to the list below, you can quickly input the basic details such as the event of Date, Time, and Event Title. Additional details can be inputted once the event is created.
- To delete an event, select the checkbox beside the event in the list, and press Delete Selected.
- Columns can be hidden by clicking on the title row of the column. They can be restored by clicking Some columns are hidden - click here to restore.
- Once all of the required information is inputted, click Publish Draft to publish your events.
- In order for the draft to be able to be published, all the events need to have a green check in the right side Valid column. If there is a red X next to any events, the required information will need to first be inputted into that event in order to publish.
- To add a Quick Add Event, navigate to Admin> Manage Events> Manage My Drafts> (click on an existing draft to open it)> click the Quick Add Events button. This will quickly add an event to the draft in the list below.
- Add New Event allows you to add events one by one and provide details about each as you build it. An event can be added to a created draft by pressing Add New Event while in the draft, or directly into the schedule by navigating to Admin> Manage Events> and clicking Add New Event. The below steps will provide further details about the event creation page and its fields.
Select Course: All events must be affiliated with a course. For this reason some organizations create a general course for non-curricular events if needed.
Event Type: This will display to the event audience. If you hover over an event type you'll see its description. This is customizable to your organization - see more on the Learning Event Types Knowledge Base article.
The following columns are optional to import on a draft event schedule. These can also be configured once a draft schedule with the minimum required information has been entered, from within the draft schedule:
Event Type: This will display to the event audience. If you hover over an event type you'll see its description. This is customizable to your organization - see more on the Learning Event Types Knowledge Base article.
- Be aware that you can add multiple event types to a single event (e.g., 60 minutes lecture, 60 minutes small group work).
Duration: Elentra will automatically put a default duration for each event type segment added. To adjust the default durations or set a default maximum or minimum duration for your organization, contact Elentra Support.
Title: This will display to the event audience and will also be used in other modules of Elentra where you might be linking something to an event (e.g. posting an exam to an event).
Start Date and Time: This is required and controls the start date and time of the event.
End Date and Time: By default, the end date and time will be automatically calculated based on the event start date and time and the duration of the event. If you want to create a long event to display on the learner calendar for one or more days, check the tick box and enter a different end date and time.
Curriculum Period: The curriculum period will automatically be populated based on the course and start date and time of the event. Setting the curriculum period helps the system filter the audience for your event. If the date of an event is included in two or more curriculum periods you can select the appropriate curriculum period. You can also optionally set the curriculum period to None.
If your event falls on a date that could be in more than one curriculum period, how you assign curriculum periods will impact the audience of the event.
- For events on dates that could be in more than one curriculum period:
- If no curriculum period is defined for an event, and event is set to audience of all enrollees, all learners will see the event.
- If a curriculum period is defined for the event and the event is set to audience of all enrollees, only the learners enrolled in the course for the matching curriculum period will see it.
Event Series: Use this option if you are creating recurring events (e.g. you want to schedule 10 identical events for 10 small groups).
Event Location: Define where the event will be. This will display to the event audience. If your organization has sites, buildings and rooms configured you can assign the event to an existing room. Elentra requires you to provide a room for an event, not just a building or site.
- If you need to add locations to your organization please see the Knowledge Base article called Introduction to Manage Locations.
- If you want to type in a location, pick Other location from the dropdown option (URLs entered here will become clickable links on the event page).
Course Unit: This option will only be visible if you have weeks and units enabled for your organization.
Associated Faculty: Add teachers to this event by beginning to type a name, clicking on it and clicking Add. Note that you can define an associated user as a teacher, tutor, teacher's assistant or auditor.
Associated Learners:
- All Learners Enrolled: This option is selected by default when creating events. This option is useful if you plan to roll forward a schedule from one year to the next. All learners enrolled in the course, for the curriculum period defined in the event, will see the event.
- Custom Event Audience: This allows you to assign a cohort, course group, or individual(s) as the event audience. If you add multiple cohorts or groups to an event you'll be able to specify how much time each group will exposed to for the event. For example, if you assigned a medicine cohort and a pharmacy cohort to a sixty-minute event you could indicate that the meds students will be there for the full hour, while the pharmacy students will be present for thirty minutes.
- To use this tool, add your audiences and then click on the grey clock icon beside the cohort/group name. This will open an Event Audience Time Override window where you can click and drag the slider (from either side) to set the appropriate time for the audience you're working with. Click the Warn me checkbox if you want to be alerted to overlapping times. Click Close to save your changes. When times have been adjusted for specific audiences the small clock icon will display green.
Color: If you select a color here it will display on the learner calendar and override any course color, event type color or default color you have set up for your organization.
Event Options:
- Allow learners to view who else is in this Learning Event
- Learner attendance required: If checked the teacher of an event (or an administrator) be able to record attendance during the event itself.
- Enable Location Attendance Taking for this Learning Event: This is used for geo-location attendance tracking (i.e., letting learners mark their own attendance based on their physical proximity to a building).
- This is a Team-Based Learning (TBL) Event: This will only display if you have TBL enabled for your organization. Checking this box will allow the event to have the TBL user interface elements displayed assuming you have associated exams with the event (e.g., iRAT and tRAT).
- Time Release Options: Leave this empty to allow users in the event audience to access the event at any point. Completing these fields will restrict when learners will be able to view and access the event. Note that there is another tool that allows you to apply time release options to specific resources when adding them to learning events.
Click Save. By default, when you save this page you will directed to the event content page. If you'd like to go somewhere else, use the dropdown menu to select your destination after saving. For more information on the event content page, please see the Event Pages: Content tab Then click Save.
Add New Events via CSV Import
Events can be added in bulk through the use of the CSV Import function. You can use a CSV file template to fill in the details of a large number of events, then upload this file to Elentra using the CSV import function to add all these events at once to save configuration time. You will need to have a file prepared with your schedule information. This could include date, start time, event title, audience, duration (in minutes), attendance required, etc. For a detailed list of the event information you should and can provide, please see the Create a CSV file for Import section below.
Depending on the events you're scheduling, it may be most efficient to copy events from an existing course in Elentra, modify the events, and import the file as your new schedule. For more details about this please see the article on Copying Forward a Schedule of Events.
Once your CSV file is ready, from within a draft schedule, click Import CSV File. Drag and drop or browse your computer to find the required file and then click Import.
Use the drag and drop tools to match the column headers in your CSV with the relevant fields in Elentra.
- Fields that are matched and green indicate required fields.
- Fields in the top section and in red are required and you'll need to add them to your CSV if you haven't already included them.
After you have matched your columns, click Import.
Create a CSV file for Import
For a draft event schedule import, the following columns are required:
Course Code: This schedules the events in the correct course. You can find course codes on a course setup tab.
Event Types: This defines the event type and can hold multiple event types if needed (e.g., a two-hour session split between lecture and small group work).
- Event types must match the list of event types in your organization. If using more than one event type, and separate them with a semicolon and space (e.g., lecture; small group). Keep the order the same as the event type duration column.
Date: Enter the date. Multiple formats are accepted.
Start Time: This is what time the event should start. Enter in 24 hr. format.
Event Type Durations: If you have multiple event types scheduled in one event, this column can be used to indicate how much time is allotted to each event type. Enter the time in minutes and separate times with semicolons and a space (e.g., 60; 60). Put the times in the same order as you list the event types.
- If there are not multiple event types scheduled during an event, this column should be identical to the Total Duration column.
The following columns are optional to import on a draft event schedule. These can also be configured once a draft schedule with the minimum required information has been entered, from within the draft schedule:
Draft Event: If you have exported a CSV of copied events, this column will already be populated for you. If you are importing a completely new schedule (i.e. you did not roll forward a schedule), this can be omitted or left blank.
Original Event: If you are importing a completely new schedule, this column can be left blank.
If you have exported a CSV of copied draft events, this column will be populated with the unique ID numbers of the existing events. This information should not be changed as the original event ID will help Elentra know which resources, curriculum tags, etc. to associate with this event.
Recurring Event: If you are creating a brand new schedule, enter the draft event ID of the first event in the series in the recurring event column for the main event and each subsequent recurring event. If you are working with a schedule of events copied forward, you will see the identifier of the draft event number of the first event in the recurring series.
- To add additional recurring events to a schedule, copy a line representing a recurring event. Edit the duplicated draft event so that it has a new, unique draft id number, and update the title, audience and location as required. Leave the original event information as it is.
- This field can take any integer value greater than 0.
Parent ID: This column is applicable only if the event is part of a recurring event series and is to be linked as a child to a parent event.
- If the event is a child event, enter the draft event ID of the relevant parent event.
- If the event is not a child event leave this column blank.
- This field accepts any integer greater than 0.
Curriculum Period #: Specify which curriculum period the event should be associated with (or leave it blank). This is especially important if you have events on dates that fall in two different curriculum periods within the same curriculum layout. You need to use the curriculum period id from the database to provide this information (request it from a developer). Alternately, you can assign curriculum periods to events in the user interface after you have uploaded a csv.
Finish Date: Use this to create long events appropriate for assigning tasks to learners to complete over several days.
Finish Time: Use this to create long events appropriate for assigning tasks to learners to complete over several days.
Total Duration: This is the total duration for the event (including different event types). Enter in the number of minutes. If you are using long events, this represents the time a task is expected to take students.
Course Unit #: This is only applicable if you have units built for the relevant course. You need to use the course unit ID from the database to provide this information. Contact Elentra Support for assistance.
Location: Use this column only if you don't have sites loaded for your organization. Manually type what you'd like users to see.
Location Room: This can be used to indicate a building and room for an event. Enter the building code and room number (e.g., CH-100). You can find building codes in the Locations section of System Settings. If you are not a medtech or staff:admin user you may need to ask for the building codes to be provided to you as you won't be able to access System Settings. (Be aware that what displays on the learning event is actually the building and room name if a name was provided.)
Audience - If you'd like the audience for an event to default to the learners enrolled in the course you should not fill in any information in any Audience column.
Audience (Groups): If the course to which the event belongs is using the course groups function and one or more groups is the audience for this event, provide the group name(s) here. Group names can be found via Admin > Manage Courses > select course > Groups.
Audience (Cohorts): If a specific cohort is the audience for this event, enter the cohort here.
Audience (Students): If individual students need to be added to the audience, provide the names in this column.
Audience (Faculty): If specific faculty are to be included in the audience, enter their institutional id. Separate multiple numbers with a semicolon.
Event Description: Enter the event description.
Attendance Required: If attendance is required for this event and will be taken via the Elentra attendance feature enter a 1. If the Elentra attendance feature will not be used for this event, enter 0.
Course Name: Enter the course name. (You can omit this since you've already provided the course code, however some people find it useful to include for their own reference.)
Term: This refers to the curriculum layout the course is a part of. Examples include terms, years, phases, etc.
Objective Release Dates: If there are specific release dates for the objectives linked to this event, enter 1. If not, enter 0.
Teacher Number/Email: Enter the institutional ID or email address of any teachers to be linked to this event. Separate multiple numbers or emails with a semicolon.
Tutor Numbers: Enter the institutional id of any users to be linked to this event as tutors. Separate multiple numbers with a semicolon.
Teacher Assistant Numbers: Enter the institutional id of any users to be linked to this event as teacher's assistants. Separate multiple numbers with a semicolon.
Auditor Numbers: Enter the institutional id of any users to be linked to this event as auditors. Separate multiple numbers with a semicolon.
Free Text Objectives: This can be text and will populate the free text objectives box on the event content page (if such a box is enabled).
Teacher Name: This is not a required field and will not be checked by the system; however, some people find it useful to include in their CSV to more easily view who is teaching what.
Learning Event Color: If you supply a colour code here it will override any course colour set. (Note, you will not see this column in the event export.)
Assign a Curriculum Period to Draft Events
If you did not define a curriculum period for your event on your CSV import, you can optionally do so through the user interface. It is not a requirement to define a curriculum period, however it can be useful to help control the audience of events, especially if you have an event that occurs on a date that falls in two different curriculum periods.
From within a draft schedule, check off one or more events. Click Assign Curriculum Period. You will see a period selector to the left of where you just clicked. Select the appropriate curriculum period and click Apply to Selected. You will get a green success message and the Curriculum Period column for the relevant events will now be populated.
Delete a Draft Event
- From within the draft schedule, select the checkbox beside an event name (there is a Select All box at the top of the column).
- Scroll down and click Delete Selected.
- Review the events you've selected and scroll down to click Confirm Removal. You will get a green success message and be redirected back to the draft event list
Delete a Draft Schedule
- From within your drafts dashboard, select the checkbox beside the names of the draft schedule(s) you want to delete.
- Scroll down and click Delete Selected.
Publish a Schedule of Events
After you've added the necessary events, you need to publish or approve your draft; this will cause the events you created to be imported to the system and make them accessible for adding content. From the drafts dashboard, scroll down and click Publish Draft. Confirm your choice.
Your schedule will now show as approved on your drafts list and within about an hour, the scheduled events will be live in your system. If the events are not visible to learners and you can still see and reopen your draft schedule, it's possible that the background action required to publish the schedule (a cron job) is not turned on or is set to run very infrequently. If needed, speak to Elentra Support to investigate further.
Editing an Approved Draft Schedule
If you need to make immediately changes to a recently published draft schedule, you can reset it to open as long as the background action required (a cron job) has not happened yet. Click the checkbox beside the schedule you want to open.
Click Reopen Drafts. Confirm your choice. Your schedule will now show as open again on your drafts list and you can click on it to edit events.