Scheduling 101: Using Jiffle for Student Appointments

In yesterday’s post about scheduling appointments with students, I demonstrated how to use Doodle to avoid the drawbacks of a paper or whiteboard signup system. Then Wendy left a comment suggesting that I try out Jiffle, and so I did… The result?

So long, Doodle!

(At least for this particular task.)

Like Doodle (and other, similar services), Jiffle is available as both a free version and a paid version. But there are 2 things that make Jiffle more appealing to me than Doodle:

1. The fact that when a student requests an appointment, the status in the request interface is changed to “Pending” and requires me to confirm the appointment (more on that in the steps below…), and

2. The scheduling function integrates nicely with my Google Calendar account (more on that, too, in the steps below).

In what follows, I walk you through what it takes to schedule appointments with students using a free Jiffle account and your Google Calendar account. There are basically four sections to this tutorial:

1. “Instructor Steps” that the instructor takes to set up the available time slots.
2. Instructions for how to integrate Jiffle and Google Calendar.
3. “Student Steps” for how to request an appointment with the instructor.
4. “Instructor Steps” for how to respond to a student request for an an appointment.

Note, that if you use an Outlook instead of Google Calendar, you can still use Jiffle, but I’m not sure about other online calendar tools. And if you don’t use an online calendar at all, you can still use Jiffle.

Okay, let’s go!

Instructor Step 1: Go to the Jiffle home page and look for the Google logo

Instructor Step 2: On that home page, click on “Sign Up for Free” under the Google logo

Instructor Step 3: On the next page, click on “Sign Up Free”… again
(Yes, this seems like an unnecessary step to me, too.)

Instructor Step 4: Enter the necessary information to sign up

(Make sure you specify the right time zone!)

Instructor Step 5: Once you’ve registered successfully, click on the “Manage Time” tab in the upper right-hand corner

Instructor Step 6: Marvel at the beauty of an empty schedule

Brief digression

I have a page on my wiki with my typical weekly schedule and directions for how to make an appointment. Students are free to drop by during office hours–bright yellow–without an appointment of any kind (though they’re encouraged to make an appointment to ensure that I’ll be available). Students are also free to request an appointment during my afternoon work hours–light green–though I may be busy with research or class prep or committee meetings.

I believe that Jiffle will allow me to accomplish what I want to accomplish while avoiding the disadvantages of my current system.

Instructor Step 7: To indicate when you’ll be available for appointments, click on one of the time slots.

A dialog box will appear, allowing you to indicate start and finish times for your availability on that date.

When you’re done, just click the “OK” button.

Instructor Step 8: Gaze with wonder upon the little turquoise boxes that appear in your available time slots

Repeat the “indicate available times” process as necessary. Different dates, different times… as much as you like.

Now let’s integrate Jiffle with Google Calendar (optional)

These are the easy-to-follow (fingers crossed!) directions from the Jiffle web site:

Now, I choose to trust Jiffle with my Gmail ID and Password–it’s the required information for logging into my Google Calendar account–but I’d certainly understand anyone who decided that this was not something they wanted to do. You’re not required to integrate your existing online calendar with Jiffle: this process works fine without doing so. However, it’s pretty nice to have your 2 calendaring systems working together, in my opinion, because it eliminates some of the repetitive tasks that scheduling can require.

I’ll leave it to our resident API expert, Julie, to weigh in whether or not it’s really necessary for Jiffle to have this information.

Here’s what a typical week in my Google Calendar looks like

Note that this is the view from inside my account; this is not the public view of my calendar. It’s possible to make parts of your Google Calendar visible to others, but that’s a subject for a later blog post.

And here’s what my view of my Jiffle calendar looks like with my Google Calendar info pulled into it

Again, this is my view of my Jiffle calendar, not my students’ view.

Student Step 1: Click on the time you’re interested in

After the instructor sends the Jiffle calendar link to the students, this is what they’ll see when they go to that address.

In this hypothetical example, a student wants to meet at 2:30.

Student Step 2: In the dialog box, fill in the requested information and click “Send”

To begin the process of requesting an appointment, just click a time to make a dialog box appear.

Once the student clicks “Send,” an email is sent to the instructor.

Student Step 3: Notice that in the public calendar, the time slot changes from “Available” to “Pending”

Note that in my tutorial yesterday on using Doodle, none of this is possible. (That doesn’t mean Doodle cannot do this, just that I don’t know how to do this with Doodle.)

Instructor Step 10: Open the Jiffle-generated email telling you your student has requested an appointment

You’ll find the student’s meeting request in your email inbox. After opening the email notification from Jiffle, you can read the comments the student wrote, hopefully explaining why the student wants to meet.

Next, just accept or decline the meeting by clicking on the link at the bottom of the email.

Instructor Step 11: Fill in the response to be sent to the student

Once you click on that link in the email, you’ll be taken to a Jiffle web page where you can respond to the student’s request. Just specify a location (if necessary), write some comments, and click “Accept Meeting”

The student will then receive an email with confirmation of the meeting, and your calendars (Google as well as Jiffle) will automatically be updated to reflect this new appointment (see below).

Notice that your Google Calendar has changed automatically…

Once Jiffle and Google Calendar are integrated, your approval of the request will make the appointment appear on your schedule on Google Calendar. This means you don’t have to take the extra step of logging into your calendar and manually adding the appointment.

…and your Jiffle calendar has also changed

The Monday at 2:30 time slot no longer says “Available” and it no longer says “Pending.” It’s just blank. Students after hypothetical student Derek will just have to pick another time.

Pretty cool, huh?