Using Calendar — Instructor Version

Add the Calendar tool under Course Tools to allow students to access the Calendar.

Accessing and Viewing the Calendar

The Calendar allows you to view and create entries for campus or personal events. Entries can be viewed for a day, a week, or a month on both the My Vista page and from within your section(s).

My Vista: On your My Vista page, click the Calendar icon on the upper right-hand side of the screen.

You can also view weekly entries under the Calendar Week, which is located below the list of courses and Campus Announcements.

Section: From within your section, select the Calendar under Course Tools, as shown in the previous figure. You can access the Calendar from both the Build and Teach tabs.

Month View

The Month View displays entries for the current month with the current date highlighted. Entries do not show details.

To display entries for the previous or next month, on either side of the month name click the Previous Month or Next Month icon.

To quickly select a month not adjacent to the current month, select the month and year from the drop-down lists and click the green arrow icon.

Week View

To view entries for a particular week, select the View Week link next to the week that you want to view.

Week View shows full entries, including summaries and details.

You can toggle back to Month View by clicking the View Month button.

Day View

To view entries for a single day, select the date and the Day screen appears.

The Day screen displays the full entry for the day, including summaries and details. To display entries for the previous or next day, on either side of the day name click the Previous Day or Next Day icon.

To quickly select another day, which is not close to the current day, select the month, day, and year from the drop-down lists and click the green arrow icon to go.

You can also click the Date Selection Calendar icon  next to the drop-down lists. Locate and select the date you want from the pop-up Calendar.

You can toggle among the Week and Month Views by clicking the buttons at the top.

To choose which entries you want to display, use the View drop-down list:

All Courses + Personal: All the possible Calendar entries you can view. It displays all entries associated with all the sections in which you are enrolled as well as your personal and private entries.

All Courses: Displays only course-related entries for all the sections in which you are enrolled.

Custom View: Displays a subset of entries, depending on how you set up a custom view using the Calendar Settings.

Calendar Settings

The Calendar can display three types of entries:

• Course-Related: Entries that are public (viewable by all section members) or private (viewable only in your Calendar).

• Personal: Private entries that are not related to the course but are meant for personal reminders.

• Institution: Entries created by the Institution Administrator to communicate campus events are viewable by all institution members (Note: These are not being created at the moment).

As a Section Instructor, you can create Course-Related or Personal entries. It is up to you to grant privileges to your students and teaching assistants to create course-related entries that are public. To grant privileges and perform other setting manipulations, select Edit Settings on the upper right-hand side.

On the settings page, you can change the types of entries the Calendar can display for you and your students:

• You can allow students to add public entries. If you do not check this textbox, students (by default) cannot make entries for everyone to see.

• The default entry type for the Instructor is Public. Change this to Private if you do not want your entries to be seen by everyone. Change this setting to Public if you want people to see your entries. Keep the Calendar private if you are using it for personal purposes.

• You can view Calendar entries by month, week, or day and start the week on a day of your choice.

• You can also choose to display:
• entries associated with all courses
• entries associated with specific courses
• a symbol of your choice to associate with a course
• personal entries

Adding a Calendar Entry

To add a new entry to the Calendar, select the day you want to add the entry to. This will take you to the Day View. Click Add Entry.

Create a summary for the entry. This is a short descriptive title for the entry, which will be shown on the Calendar. Determine a start and finish day and time for the entry. If this is an all-day entry, select the related textbox.

Choose the type of entry. It can be personal or associated with a course. Next, choose an access level. Course-related entries can be private or public. Personal entries can only be private. Type a detail for the entry.

For additional settings, click More Options.

Within these options, you can provide a link to a component in your course or to an outside URL (Web page). You can also repeat this entry every day or every week on the days of your choice over the course of the semester. Note, however, that if you decide to repeat this entry, you need to make the summary generic; for example, name a quiz you give every week something like “Weekly Quiz” instead of “Quiz 1.” Also make sure that if you are repeating every week that the start date, end date, and the date repeating must be the same for all the Calendar entries.

When you complete your new entry, click Save. You will see the new entry displayed.

If there are new entries since you last visited the Calendar, the Month screen will display the Display New Entries button.

When you select Display New Entries, all the new entries will appear.

You can view the new entries and print them. You can also edit the entries by clicking the Edit  button or the Delete button in the drop-down menu for that entry. Clicking the Cancel button will take you back to the Month View.