Scenario: A university needs to provide a calendar of professional development opportunities for the entire faculty and staff. They want each department to be able to add their own events to the calendar.
Scheduling factors
There are a couple of administrators who oversee the calendar. These admins manage the calendar settings and set up access for others, but they don't want to create and update all the events on the calendar.
Each entity (department, committee, center, etc.) that organizes professional development opportunities for university faculty and staff should be able to add and update their own events on the calendar.
However, any one entity should only be able to add/modify/remove their own events; they should not be able to modify or remove events created by another department or group.
All faculty and staff members need secure access to the calendar so they see all professional development opportunities.
Calendar structure
Sub-calendars
The color-coded sub-calendars represent separate entities (a group, school, committee, center, etc.) that create and share professional development opportunities for the university faculty and staff.
The sub-calendars can be arranged hierarchically if needed. For example, the School of Arts + Sciences is a folder containing two sub-calendars (English Department and History Department).
Event fields
Some built-in event fields are reconfigured to work best for capturing information relevant to these events. For example, the Who field is renamed to Event Organizer and moved below the Event Link custom field. The Attachments field is enabled.
Custom fields are used to designate event type and event topic. Using choice fields with options ensures that the info is captured in a consistent way. The fields are required so no one is able to add an event to the calendar without choosing an option for event type and topic.
A custom text field is added below the Where field; if the event is virtual, this field holds the clickable link to the online session.
Calendar access
Each department (or other entity) has a secure access link to the calendar with modify permission for their own sub-calendar and read-only permission for other sub-calendars.
Alternative access: If there's one or two designated staff members from each department who are responsible for adding and updating the departmental events, these individuals could be given account-based access to the calendar (rather than using link-based access).
For faculty and staff, there is a calendar link with read-only access to all sub-calendars. This link is made available to all faculty, staff, TAs, etc. and posted at various internal pages for easy access.
The calendar could also be embedded on a university website.
Faculty and staff members can create their own free Teamup user account, then add the calendar's read-only link to their dashboard. Then they could log into their account on any mobile device or browser to access the calendar, no need to remember or bookmark the link. They can also set up notifications and event reminders.
How it works
When a department needs to add a new professional development opportunity:
The event organizer creates a new event on the departmental sub-calendar.
If the event is virtual, the link to the online session is added in the appropriate field. Otherwise, the address for the physical location or building name and room number can be added to the Where field.
The custom fields for event type and event topic are required, so the event organizer has to select an option for each field before they can save the event.
The event organizer can put their own name in the Event Organizer field. This field could also be made required.
The event organizer can upload images, forms, documents, worksheets, or any other files relevant for the event. They can also add links and other information in the event description.
If space for an event is limited, the event organizer can use the signup feature and set a deadline and a maximum number of participants.
When a faculty or staff member wants to see professional development events:
They can access the calendar in any browser, mobile browser, or the Teamup app, using the read-only link or by logging into their Teamup user account.
They can toggle sub-calendars on and off to view only events from certain departments.
They can use the built-in filters to view events matching their criteria (e.g. only virtual events, or only events about X topic).
They can also filter events by any keyword.
More tips and ideas
Any calendar user can use the built-in sharing options to create and share a stand-alone event page or share an event on social media, email, or messaging.
Any department can view all their professional development activities for the month, quarter, semester, or academic year using Table view and filters.
Calendar data can be exported for record-keeping or other documentation needs.
Repeating events with customizable recurrence patterns make it easy to set up regularly occurring opportunities or meetings.
Event comments can be enabled and made visible to all users for collecting feedback, asking questions, or discussions with event participants.
Alternately, event comments can be enabled and made visible only to users with modify access; then the departmental staff would only see event comments on their own department's events. Comments could be used by event organizers for notes, discussions, etc. as they plan the event.
If iCalendar feeds are enabled, any faculty or staff member can set up an iCalendar feed (from a selected sub-calendar or all sub-calendars) so they can check professional development opportunities from their own personal or work calendar.
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