Whether you’re an instructor, a student, or a staff member, part of your responsibilities inevitably involve meeting with other people for collaborative work or discussion. And there aren’t many things more tedious or unnecessarily difficult than trying to find a meeting time that works for everyone. If you’ve ever had to suffer through a dozen back-and-forth emails among 5 or more people about who’s going to be free when, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. Email is great for many things, but this task just isn’t one of them.
Fortunately, there are several possible solutions to the problem. In a series of “ProfHacker 101” posts over the next few weeks, I’ll demonstrate various digital tools that simplify and automate the task of selecting an ideal time for meetings. For some of these tools, however, scheduling is only one of the tasks they can accomplish: conducting simple surveys—and sometimes not-so-simple ones—can also be done automatically and asynchronously. Your group can then make some decisions before you ever meet, allowing you to devote your face-to-face time for the tasks that cannot take place online.
These are the tools I plan to cover:
Doodle: “The basic service is a free online coordination tool which requires neither registration nor software installation.”
When Is Good: “An easy way to find out when everyone is free for your next meeting or event.”
Diarised: “A quick and simple online tool to help you pick the best time for a meeting.”
SurveyMonkey: Intended “to enable anyone to create professional online surveys quickly and easily.”
Google Apps: “Free, intuitive tools you can access anywhere with a single account.”
Are there other online tools that allow you to accomplish this task? Let me know in the comments!
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6 Responses to Scheduling & Surveying 101: Introduction
Cory Bohon - September 17, 2009 at 11:04 am
Very good suggestions. I use Google Docs religiously and had the very good opportunity of collaborating with a fellow student on a Computer Science presentation. It turned out very well and allowed us to work off campus to create something that amazed the professor. :-)
Stephen Francoeur - September 17, 2009 at 11:49 am
If you’re locked into Micosoft Outlook, then the TimeBridge plugin offers nice scheduling features that will allow you to share your Outlook calendar with those not on your Exchange server and let them suggest appointment times with you. Here’s the web page for my calendar, which is synced to my calendar in Outlook.
Tona - September 17, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Here’s what I’d like – do any of these tools do this? – to be able to take a committee, let’s say a book prize committee, and permit them to rank the items to help us decide on a winner. Or let people say not just which meeting time slot they can make it, but which time slot they PREFER by putting them in rank order.
George H. Williams - September 17, 2009 at 2:38 pm
I didn’t know about TimeBride, Stephen. Excellent suggestion!
George H. Williams - September 17, 2009 at 2:40 pm
For your first example, the answer is definitely yes with regard to Doodle and SurveyMonkey. (I’m not sure, yet, about the other tools being able to accomplish that).
For your second example, I think that the answer is also yes with regard to Doodle and SurveMonkey.
I’ll take these questions into consideration when demo’ing and explaining each tool; my plan is to do one per week, so look for a discussion of Doodle to appear next week on the same day and at the same time as the above post.
Wendy - September 18, 2009 at 12:10 pm
First, I am thrilled that this blog exists. :) I love how helpful it is!
Second, how do you get buy-in from others? I’ve used Jiffle and Doodle to schedule meetings and conferences, and I cannot get my colleagues to use them! Even when I explain very carefully in my e-mail how easy it is, they still do not click on the link and click on the easy-to-use interface. I hope to lead a workshop on some of these productivity tools for my colleagues, but most resist even though it would be so much easier.
Third, I’d add Jiffle to your list. I use it when I have to set up conferences with students. I just note which times I have available, send them the link, then I let them do a sign-up. When they click on the link, I get an e-mail saying “Joe Student has requested a meeting.” I approve the request and the meeting is instantly added to my Google Calendar by the Jiffle program.