** ACTION REQUIRED **


  • Starting July 12th, 2024, Watermark is implementing a new and improved meeting scheduling system. All faculty and staff that use the Watermark system to allow students to request and schedule meetings must follow the steps outlined in this How To article by or after July 12, 2024. **

  • If you do not use Zoom or MS Teams for your online meetings, you do no need to follow the steps under section 2 "Add online meeting link" of the article above. If you do have a Zoom account, then it is highly recommended to follow the steps to add a link to your personal Zoom meeting room AND to enable the  "Waiting Room" feature.  You should not enable automatic recording of all meetings. You should carefully consider recording any meeting where confidential matters might be discussed and you should only record meetings with the consent of everyone involved.


Here is a link to a 10 minute video that walks through the instructions outlined below.


* Please note with the recent changes Watermark has made to their scheduling system, some of the specific details in the instructions below might be slightly different. *


Highlights and Features:

  • Provides an easy to use 'wizard' approach to help guide students to schedule a meeting with their advisor, instructor or the correct staff member that can assist with their needs
  • Automatically links to your Google calendar so that Aviso will automatically avoid scheduling meetings whenever there is an existing event on your calendar
  • Automatically adds calendar appointments to both your Google calendar as well as to the students @Webmail Google calendar
  • Allows other faculty or staff members to schedule an appointment with you on behalf of a student
  • Provides a level of accountability for students since it automatically adds to their student email account calendar and since it is easy to view future and past appointments
  • Provides automated meeting reminders using the same Google calendar reminder notification system that you are already familar with 
  • Prevents surprise or short notice meetings from appearing on your calendar by allowing faculty to require at least X number of hours or days of advanced notice before it allows a meeting to be scheduled
  • Provides an easy-to-use "what do you want to do" process that helps guides students to schedule appointments with the proper advisor or student services staff member best suited to meet their needs for that appointment


Google Appointment Slots:

  • Although the Aviso system can also point to Google Calendar Appointment slots, in general, faculty should NOT continue to use Google Appointment slots to arrange office hours with their students. Instead, please follow the instructions below to setup your office hours in Aviso.
  • If you do continue to use Google Appointment Slots please note that Aviso will recognize any Google Appointment Time Slots as busy -- whether an appointment is booked in them or not. Therefore, if you do use Google appointment slots, your appointment slots should NOT overlap with the time periods you list in Aviso as available for appointments



How to setup Aviso to allow students or other employees to schedule appointments with you:


1. Log in to the Aviso website by clicking the link to Aviso in the "Useful Links" section of The Insider or by pointing your browser to: https://blueridge.avisoapp.com

2. If prompted, login using your BRCC email address in the format username@blueridge.edu and your current password. Note: You might be promted to perform 2-step verification with a phone if you are using a different computer or web browser for the first time

3. Once logged in, click on your profile button in the upper right corner of the screen, then click "Settings"

Screenshot showing profile menu

4. Scroll down to the Calendar Meetings and "Meeting Request Locations section of the settings page

5. In general, faculty members should NOT select "I would like to allow students to schedule meetings using my public calendar".In general, faculty members should let students use the Aviso system to schedule meetings and not 'bypass' aviso by using Google Appointment Slots. However, if you have a need to use appointment slots in addition to Aviso you can do so. Although your Google Appointment Slots times must NOT overlap with your availability in Aviso.

6. In the "Meeting Request Locations", check the "Accept scheduled meetings from students". 

7. Specify minimum amount of lead time before someone can schedule an appointment. 

Tip: Most folks will set this to at least 12 hours or possibly 24 hours.


Screen shot showing add meeting location button

8. Click the "Add" button to add a meeting location. 

Tip: Most full time faculty will have at least two meeting location(s) - one for their physical campus office and one for online/virtual. Most adjuncts will only have one location specified for the online/virtual location "Internet Based Course - Remote". 

9. Click the "Add row" button to specify available times. Whatever time frame you select, if any other meetings or events appear on your BRCC Google Calendar within that time, Aviso automatically knows you are unavailable during that time. Therefore, if you specified 10 AM - 2 PM as an available time in Aviso but you have a committee meeting next week during that time, Aviso will automatically prevent students from creating a conflict. 

10. Add another row if you need to specify multiple time periods of availability during the same day of the week. 

Tip: In general, most folks only need to setup their availability in Aviso once a semester. This is because Aviso automatically addresses calendar conflicts so there is no need to adjust your availability in Aviso if a conflict arises during a time you were slated to be available. 

11. Be sure to click the "Save" button to ensure your changes are recorded. Once saved, you should see a screen similar to below. At this point, you are done with the process.


screenshot showing completed availability setup

  




Here is a link to a detailed How To Setup the Aviso Meeting Scheduler - includes step-by-step video guides




(Optional) How to create a printable view of your schedule:

  1. Go to your Google Drive / Google Documents
  2. Select Create new Google Document, then select "From Template"
  3. Select the "Blue Ridge Community College" tab
  4. Select "BRCC Faculty Locator Card Printable Template"
  5. Edit the document as needed
  6. Once you are done editing, print the document to a nearby printer
  7. You might want to use the "Scale" print out feature in the print dialog to shrink the output to fit in a wall placard or to suit your needs. Depending on your needs, we have scaling down the 8.5x11 output to about 70% seems to fit well in placards. 


<< Note: This is your own personal copy of the template. It will remain in your Google Drive folder and available for you to revise and print whenever needed.>>