Blocks should be created for curriculum periods in which associated courses will have clinical learning experiences (e.g., clerkship, residency rotations). Later, you'll use blocks to build slots in the rotation scheduler.
Once a rotation schedule has been built and rotations created using the block schedule templates, any changes made to the block schedule template in a curriculum period will not be inherited by the existing rotation schedules. You will need to either rebuild your rotations or if they have already been extensively used, adjust the block dates per rotation.
You must be logged in with an administrator role to create blocks.
Navigate to Admin>Manage Curriculum.
Click 'Curriculum Layout' from the left sidebar.
Click on the appropriate curriculum layout.
Beside the appropriate curriculum period, click 'Block Schedule'.
Click 'New' in the bottom right.
Provide a Schedule Title (e.g. 1 Week Blocks or Psychiatry Rotations) and description as desired. The title is the title of the set of blocks, not the individual blocks. The start and end dates for the schedule are set by the curriculum period within which you are creating the blocks (you will be able to alter the individual block dates after they have been created).
Click 'Save'.
Now you can create the actual blocks of time within this schedule. Block Type: By default you'll see one, two and four week blocks. (If you'd like to build blocks of different lengths you can get a developer to make a database change to facilitate this.) Block End Day: This is the day you want blocks to end. Start and End Date: Set by the curriculum period in which you are creating these blocks. First Block End Date: Optional. You can use this to force the first block to end on a specific date (useful if the curriculum period starts on an irregular day).
Click the down arrow beside Save and select Autogenerate Blocks; a list of blocks will appear.
Click on any row to edit the block name, or the start and end dates.
You can also add a custom block by clicking 'Add' in the bottom right and providing the required information.
When you have made the required adjustments to the block schedule, click 'Save' on the right above the list of blocks.
You can add multiple sets of blocks to one curriculum period. For example, you might add a set of one, two and four week blocks to one curriculum period. This allows you to schedule learners across blocks of varying lengths during their clinical learning experience.
Toggle between a list and calendar view of blocks using the list and calendar icons above the block end dates. (Note that as of ME 1.12 the calendar icon does not properly display blocks.)
