Access Class Schedules in Google Calendar

This article is...

	We create events in your Google Calendar for every single class and meeting time that shows up in your printed schedule (for MS and US courses only). Seriously.
	Intended for Employees and Students
	Categorized under RCS software and services
	Maintained by Jonathan King
	in need of review.

What's new in 2020-2021?

We have completely rebuilt our integration between your schedule in Veracross and Google Calendar this year due to hybrid learning and our more complex scheduling needs. There are some main changes you'll notice:

• Events are NO LONGER repeating. This means that you cannot (easily) color-code them, but you CAN copy them now!
• Events will now include the URL to your virtual meeting if you enter a Zoom or Meet link for your class in the Employee Portal.
• If you have a class that meets in more than one physical space (classroom+tent) then that will show in the Location field for the event (relevant really just for Hill folks)
• Athletic events will now show up in your calendar too.
• There will no longer be duplicate events for classes that have both MS and US students.

Short Version

We create events in your Google Calendar for every single class and meeting time that shows up in your printed schedule (for MS and US courses only) as well as all Athletic events. Seriously.

Want to have your teaching schedule show up in Google Calendar?

Look no further!

Want to schedule a meeting with a student but are tired of going round-and-round to find a time?

Check his/her Google Calendar and book a time!

Need to find a student but don’t want to walk to a Dean’s office to consult the schedule book?

Add him/her to your Google Calendar list and look at his/her schedule!

Longer Version

Some details about the events: (subject to change)

• Availability: You will be marked as Busy for the event.
• Visibility: The event details will be public, so the details will be available to anyone in RCS.
• Reminders: Notifications will not be set and whatever you have as your default Reminders will be used. We strongly suggest you set your default reminders RIGHT NOW unless you want to be notified 10 minutes before every class begins.
• Colors: Events will not have any colors associated with them, nor will the calendars. We cannot assign colors by department for instance.
• Reply: Your reply will be set to Yes, so you aren’t going to be nagged to accept an invitation.
• Editing: You won’t be able to modify the original event details because they are on a special calendar you cannot modify. If you edit an event on your calendar, it will be modified ONLY for you, *not anyone else who is invited to that event*. We strongly discourage you from editing the events (this is for your own protection).
• Location: If a location has been entered for the meeting (e.g. room 101), that will be visible in the event
• Names: Some meetings in our database don’t follow the standard A/B/C, etc. pattern and have instead sections like 49 instead of A. You will see this.

Some details about the system:

• LS, MS and US Students will also have this setup for them, and will be invited to the same events you are for a particular course
• We will run the synchronization nightly, which means that if a student is moved between sections, or the schedule is tweaked, calendars will be updated pretty quickly.
• If the course meeting times are modified in Veracross, the events will be deleted and recreated in your calendar with the new information. Conclusion: don’t modify the events!

Some sharp-eyed individuals have noticed that the Week 1 / Week 2 system does not always alternate consistently throughout the entire school year. When Semester 1 ends in Week 2, then we have Exam Week, and Semester 2 then starts in Week 1, our system takes this into account automatically.

FAQs

What if I want to schedule a resource like laptop carts or computer labs in the event?

You can add a resource to an event, which will modify the original event. What you cannot do is REMOVE the resource, since you don't have edit rights to the calendar on which the event lives. Really. So please please please, don't add resources like labs or laptop carts to these events. The best way for you to book a resource is to COPY the event into your own calendar, remove the students, and book the resource.

What happens if I want to color-code my calendar?

You CAN color code your calendar events. If you click an event in the calendar and then select the color dropdown next to the name in the popup window, you can choose a new color but *note that will affect only that one event*.

What happens if my schedule changes?

If a meeting time is modified (i.e. start or end date changed, day in cycle changed, etc.), the related events will be deleted and you will lose anything you stored in it. If a class moves from A to B period for instance, the entire set of events will be deleted and new ones created.

I store information about my classes IN the calendar event, what is going to happen to that info?

If your schedule changes, events will be automatically deleted and recreated as appropriate (see question above). For this reason, we don't suggest you store data in the events, as even seemingly innocent scheduling changes may cause you to lose important information

Can I make my own events in my calendar, or are you going to take control of the whole shebang?

We only invite you to events that are created in hidden calendars. We do not ever directly modify your calendar entries. If we need to make major changes to a course calendar (say your class moves from F period to A period), we delete all the events on the hidden calendar, delete the calendar, create a new calendar, create the events and invite you to them. This is to protect your calendar events from any possible modification.