Navigate360: Advisors and Student Support Staff - Creating Availability/Office Hours Guide

Overview

This guide is for professional academic advisors and student support staff with permissions to create office hours/availability in Navigate360. This guide will demonstrate how to schedule availability in Navigate360. It is important to set up availability so that students can schedule appointments to see you. Note that locations and services are created by institution administrators.

If you do not currently have permissions to create availability in Navigate360 but would like to explore this option, please email the Navigate360 app admin team at navigate360@mnsu.edu.

Before You Begin

Before creating your office hours, known as Availability in Navigate360, consider your schedule and when you want to host office hours for student scheduling. See your supervisor for instruction if needed. We recommend that you write out the days and times you will build office hours for, to include information about how you are open to meeting (in-person, virtually, via phone.) Having this information pre-determined will help you build your office hours, or Availability in Navigate360, more efficiently.

Instructions

1. Go to the Navigate360 home screen. Ensure that you're logged in under Staff. You MUST use Staff Home to create Office Hours / Availability Blocks.

2.  Click on My Availability.

3. Click on Action and Add Time to establish a new availability block for advising sessions.

4. Choose the days and times you want to hold your appointment blocks.

5. Choose how long this block should be active. In the very least, we suggest that you end your availability at the end of each term to ensure that you can readjust your availability if it changes for breaks/future semesters. You can also build shorter blocks, etc.

6. Choose if this availability block should be displayed on your personal availability link (PAL). You can find your personal advising link on the My Availability tab underneath your scheduled appointment blocks. PAL links will only work for students who are connected to you or have access to your services. 

7. Choose Appointments as the type of block you are setting up.

• By choosing "Appointments" you are making this block available to students to see via the Student Scheduler.

8. Select your Meeting type. Can choose multiple modes.

9. Select the Care Unit relevant to you.

10. Select the location.

• IMPORTANT NOTE:  Location descriptions are generally very generic. With this in mind, it is critical that you put your specific appointment directions into the “Special Instructions to Students” area when you set up your availability. A sample message you can use and post here is available below. You will need to add it each time you set up an office hour block, and best practice is to cut and paste the text you want to provide from a saved document for ease.

• Sample Message for Special Instructions Sections:

  I look forward to connecting with you soon!

  If we are scheduled to meet in-person, please come to my office in XXXX building, office #.

  If we are scheduled to meet virtually, please use the following link to connect with me on Zoom: LINK.

  If we are scheduled to meet via phone, please call me at XXXXXXXX at our scheduled time.

11. Select your appointment services/reasons. You can choose to select one per appointment block or choose multiple to provide different appointment service options to your students.

• Talk with your supervisor, as what services you use will be determined by your student support role and department.
• For professional advising and student support areas, there are many services that come with varying back end configurations determining schedule ahead limits, service length defaults, etc. If you have additional questions about services and configurations, first speak with your supervisor and, if necessary, contact navigate360@mnsu.edu.

12. You can post your URL/phone number in the box labeled this; however, it is critical that you do step 13 listed below to ensure students get more details for your appointments via a confirmation email when an appt is sent.

13. Ensure you put Zoom links and your office location (building/room), appointment details in the Special Instructions to Student area (see samples from step 10).

14. Click Save to establish the appointment block.

15. Repeat building appointment blocks until you have created blocks to match all of the office hours you'd like to have availability to students. 

Still Need Help?

For Navigate360 staff system questions or issues, email navigate360@mnsu.edu or contact the Office of Student Success.