Using Astra Schedule to Transition to More Online Delivery

Higher education has risen to the challenge required to navigate the transition to offering more online instructional methods in a short amount of time. As institutions continue to refine their enrollment plan, here are five ways institutions can strategically use Astra Schedule to accomplish their work while maximizing time and effort. 

1. Turn Off Imports & Exports

If you are considering room assignment changes for sections on your campus, but do not want to impact the room assignment data for sections in your Student Information System (SIS), consider turning off your import and export jobs. If you need to keep the original room assignment for historical purposes, turning off import and export jobs will allow you to keep a record of the room assignment in your SIS while keeping track of real-time room usage in Astra Schedule. Once you are ready to receive information from your SIS, be sure to turn your import jobs back on.

Import Export Help

2. Change Room Assignment for Online Delivery

With sections moving to an online delivery method, you may still need to track what physical space is being used on your campus to conduct online learning. One institution creatively used Astra Schedule to change section room assignments by creating a room for “online delivery” sections and then created a role that had the capability of double booking that room only. This allowed the institution to see what spaces were still being used for sections. Let us know if you would like to learn more about room assignment changes or if you need a creative solution for room tracking.

Changing Room Assignments

Assign Rooms to Event Meeting Help

Section Meeting Dates Help

3. Cancel Events in Bulk

Do you need to cancel multiple meetings on your campus? Here is how you can save time and effort by canceling multiple meetings at once within a single event.

Learn how to delete multiple meetings in a single event in the Advanced Events article.

Learn how to cancel an entire event in the Event Status article.

4. Display Important Campus Announcements

To display important campus information within Astra Schedule, you can add a custom content widget to your Astra Schedule Homepage. A custom content widget allows you to display a tailored message which can include text, images, and links.

Homepage Help

Homepage Widgets

5. Create Custom Reports

Reports can be customized to pull information from your site based on parameters you may have not needed to use, such as meeting type and instructor. For example, an institution that needs to find sections for a specific instructor that require an in-person presence would use meeting type and instructor as parameters. Reach out to Software Support if you need a custom report solution.

Creating and Editing Reports Help

Events by Building and Room for Selected Attendance

Sections by Selected Meeting Type and by Room with Instructor

Ad Astra customers can reach out to Software Support for more information or assistance on using Astra Schedule to effectively manage your online transition. Visitors who are not current customers are welcome to use the Contact Us form to have someone from our team get in touch with you.