Elentra uses the word event to describe any scheduled time in an organisation's calendar. Events can be learning oriented and include lectures, labs, clinical experiences, independent reading time, etc. or can represent other activities including lunch, paperwork collection, clubs, committee meetings, etc. The types of events included in a calendar are up to the organisation. Scheduling events is accomplished through the Manage Events tab and is available to users with administrative role types (e.g., staff>admin). Faculty members assigned as course or program directors can view and edit events within their own course(s), however, they cannot schedule events through the user interface.
Some notable features of scheduling events with Elentra include:
the ability to export and import CSV files to create schedules,
the ability to copy existing events into a new schedule, including mapped curriculum tag sets, descriptions and instructions, and affiliated resources,
the ability to easily create recurring events,
the ability to create parent child links between repeated events (e.g., 10 small groups all doing the same thing) to create accurate reports about event types and durations across a course, and
the ability to group events in a unit within a course.
For information about scheduling clinical learning experiences (including creating rotations, and blocks) please see the Clinical Learning help section.
Once scheduled events exist they can contain detailed information including affiliated faculty, learners, curriculum tag sets, locations, resources, instructions, etc. Further information about managing the content of events and features like attendance tracking, history, and statistics is available in the Events help section.
Elentra allows you to report on scheduled events in a variety of ways. Highlights include:
a report listing learning event types and durations across courses (e.g., 12% lecture, 25% small group activity, 5% self-assessment),
a report listing which curriculum tags are used across events within a course, and
reports on faculty hours across courses (at the individual and departmental level).
Elentra allows you to copy an existing schedule of events and roll it forward to be added as a new schedule in the same or a different course. This can save significant amounts of time as you can also copy forward event resources, curriculum tags, etc.
If you copy forward recurring events that do or do not have the parent-child id feature enabled these links will also be maintained in the copied events.
Navigate to Admin>Manage Events.
Click 'Manage My Drafts'.
Click 'Create New Draft'.
Provide a logical draft name and an optional description.
Click on the greyed-out words Copy Forward Existing Learning Events.
Complete the required information noting the following: Copying Learning Resources: Decide which resources should be included in the new draft events. Courses Included: Select the course where the scheduled events are and the course to which your new scheduled events will belong. In most cases, this will be same course. Note that you can add multiple destination courses if required (to delete an unwanted destination course click 'Remove' beside the course name). Copy Start and Finish: These dates define the start and end dates of the existing events in your source course and should match when the course happened (usually people select the most recent version of the course). New Start Date: Select the date on which you'd like the copied events to start. Elentra will respect the spacing and timing of all events to be copied.
After you've made your selections, click 'Create Draft'.
If there are no changes you wish to make to the schedule, you can publish the draft now.
Click the checkbox beside draft you wish to publish and click 'Publish Draft'.
You may be asked to review the draft. Note that if you have included resources to copy forward, you can decide on this screen whether to set all resources to draft mode when the newly scheduled events are published. After you've made your choice click 'Confirm'.
Within about an hour the scheduled events will be live in your system. If you wish to change information about the events, see further instructions below.
After you've copied the events, use the export and import tools to make adjustments to the scheduled events including their times, teachers, audience, etc. You can export a CSV of the existing schedule, make adjustments, and upload the CSV. When you export the events you'll be prompted to select which fields to include in the export; consider the fields you may need to edit or review to help you decide what to include in the exported file. (A list of these fields and what they include can be found on the Create Events help page.)
After you've exported a file you can edit it in your preferred spreadsheet tool. Tips for adjusting the schedule include using the find and replace function if there are consistent changes across the schedule (e.g. all audience group 2020-1 will become 2021-1, or one tutor is replacing another across multiple events). When you upload your revised CSV, the system will register the changes in the CSV and apply them to the draft schedule.
If you choose to import a csv, click 'Import CSV'. You will be prompted to match the column headings from your CSV with the available import fields. The system will try to match this for you as much as possible but you may need to manually move some. To do so, drag and drop the appropriate field name with the column heading from your file.
When the events are as you wish them, click 'Publish Draft' and within about an hour the scheduled events will be live in your system.
One feature of Elentra is the ability to schedule recurring events. The advantage of a recurring event is that you can simultaneously edit a variety of event characteristics including title, location, event type, associated faculty, event description, required preparation, objectives, etc. across multiple events. What you edit and for which events is entirely customizable.
You can create recurring events in different configurations including a custom series or events that repeat daily, weekly, or monthly.
If you eventually copy a schedule forward, recurring event status, as well as parent-child links if enabled, will be maintained.
For all of the above event types, navigate to Admin>Manage Events and click 'Add New Event' to begin.
Select a Course, add a title, and provide a first event date. Next, follow the instructions for each specific recurring event type.
Select Custom Series from the Recurring Events dropdown menu.
Enter the number of events you want to have in this series (remember one will exist as the original so type in a number one less than the total you want) and click 'Set Frequency'.
Note that the first event you create will be imported into the system, so even though the list of events starts with Event 1 that will actually be the second event in the series.
Adjust the title, date, and time for each event.
To make these events children of a parent (and therefore have them reported only once in learning event type reports, etc.), tick off the small box beside "Events created in the series are considered child events."
To completely rebuild your list of events, click 'Rebuild Recurring Events List'.
Set additional event characteristics like location, event type, and faculty.
Click 'Save'.
Select Repeat Daily from the Recurring Events dropdown menu.
Set how often you want the event to recur and set an end date. The system includes and counts weekends so bear that in mind if you use this scheduling tool.
Click 'Set Frequency'.
Note that the first event you create will be imported into the system, so even though the list of events starts with Event 1 that will actually be the second event in the series.
Adjust the title, date, and time for each event.
To make these events children of a parent (and therefore have them reported only once in learning event type reports, etc.), tick off the small box beside "Events created in the series are considered child events."
To completely rebuild your list of events, click 'Rebuild Recurring Events List'.
Set additional event characteristics like location, event type, and faculty.
Click 'Save'.
Select Repeat Weekly from the Recurring Events dropdown menu.
Set the day of the week on which you want the event to repeat and provide an end date for the event series.
Click 'Set Frequency'.
Note that the first event you create will be imported into the system, so even though the list of events starts with Event 1 that will actually be the second event in the series.
Adjust the title, date, and time for each event.
To make these events children of a parent (and therefore have them reported only once in learning event type reports, etc.), tick off the small box beside "Events created in the series are considered child events."
To completely rebuild your list of events, click 'Rebuild Recurring Events List'.
Set additional event characteristics like location, event type, and faculty.
Click 'Save'.
Select Repeat Monthly from the Recurring Events dropdown menu.
Set when and how often you want the event to recur and set an end date.
Click 'Set Frequency'.
Note that the first event you create will be imported into the system, so even though the list of events starts with Event 1 that will actually be the second event in the series.
Adjust the title, date, and time for each event.
To make these events children of a parent (and therefore have them reported only once in learning event type reports, etc.), tick off the small box beside "Events created in the series are considered child events."
To completely rebuild your list of events, click 'Rebuild Recurring Events List'.
Set additional event characteristics like location, event type, and faculty.
Click 'Save'.
To create a schedule of events that can be populated with instructors, learners, resources, etc. you must be logged in with administrator or pcoordinator permissions. While you can create an entirely new schedule using a CSV or manually (one event at a time), if you have an existing course, the fastest option to make a schedule is to copy an existing schedule.
You can also create individual events that appear immediately in the schedule. To do so, navigate to Admin>Manage Events and click 'Add New Event'. At that point, follow the instructions in the Manually Add New Event section below. Using this method, the event will immediately be live in the system upon saving.
Navigate to Admin>Manage Events.
Click 'Manage My Drafts'.
Click 'Create New Draft'.
Provide a logical draft name and an optional description, then click 'Create Draft'.
At this point you can import a CSV file or manually add new events.
Import CSV File
You will need to have a file prepared with your schedule information. This could include date, start time, faculty, audience, location, duration (in minutes) attendance required, etc. For a detailed list of event information please see below.
Depending on the events you're scheduling it may be useful to download an existing schedule from elsewhere in Elentra, modify it, and upload it as your new schedule.
Click on Import CSV File.
Drag and drop or browse your computer to find the required file and then click Import.
Use the drag and drop tools to match the information in your CSV with the relevant fields in Elentra. Suggested matches will display in red. Click 'Import'.
Manually Add New Event
Click Add New Event.
Complete the required information, noting the following: Event Colour: The colour selected will be displayed on the calendar. Recurring Event: More detail is available in the Recurring Events help section. Time Release Options: This controls when the event will be visible to users in the system.
Click Save.
Draft Schedule Permissions If you would like to give additional users access to a draft schedule, you'll need to add them as authors to the draft. Return to Admin>Manage Events, and click 'Manage My Drafts'. Click on the appropriate draft and then click the greyed out Draft Information heading. Add users to Draft Authors by beginning to type a name and clicking on the appropriate name in the displayed options. In stock Elentra you will be able to add staff:admin users to draft schedules but there is a setting for this that can be configured to allow you to add faculty and other staff as draft authors. You'll need a developer to help you change these settings if you'd like to.
Next, you need to publish or approve your draft; this will cause the events you created to be imported to the system and make them accessible for adding content.
Click Publish Drafts or, if you are returning to a draft you previously worked on navigate to your drafts, tick off the box beside the schedule you want to publish and click Publish Drafts.
Confirm your choice.
Your schedule will now show as approved on your drafts list and within about an hour, the scheduled events will be live in your system. If the events do not appear it's possible the behind the scenes actions required to do this are not turned on so speak to a developer to investigate further.
If you need to make immediately changes to a recently published draft schedule, you can reset it to open.
Click the checkbox beside the schedule you want to open.
Click 'Reopen Drafts'.
Confirm your choice. Your schedule will now show as open again on your drafts list and you can click on it to edit events.
Calendar Preview After you've drafted some events, use this tool to preview the calendar view of drafted events.
Note that you will be unable to create event content until the drafted events are published.
Note that if you have exported a schedule there may be some columns that exported which you are not required to import. These columns can be deleted before uploading data.
Date: Enter the date. Multiple formats are accepted.
Original Event: If you are importing a completely new schedule this is unnecessary to complete, as an event id will be generated when the event is created. If you have exported a CSV of copied draft events, this column will be populated with the unique id numbers of the newly drafted events.
Parent Event: This column should indicate if the event is a parent event or not (e.g. it is an event of which there are multiple copies in the system for multiple small groups - each event is identical in terms of structure and content but has a unique audience and perhaps teacher/tutor). Enter 1 if the event is a parent and 0 if it is not.
Parent ID: This column is applicable only if the event is to be linked as a child to a parent event. If it is, enter the parent event id. If this is not a child event enter 0.
Course Code: Enter the course code for the course to which this event should belong.
Term: This refers to the curriculum layout the course is a part of. Curricular layouts are defined at the organisation level and can be found in Admin>Manage Curriculum>Curriculum Layout. Examples include terms, years, phases, etc. You can also view curriculum layouts from the Courses tab where the layouts will be the headings above groups of courses.
Start Time: This is what time the event should start. Enter in 24 hr. format.
Total Duration: This is the total duration for the event. Enter in the number of minutes.
Event Type Durations: If you have multiple event types scheduled in one event, this column can be used to indicate how much time is allotted to each event type. Enter the time in minutes and separate times with semicolons and a space. For example, 60; 60. Put the times in the same order as you list the event types in the next column. If there are not multiple event types scheduled during an event, this column will be identical to the Total Duration column.
Event Types: If you have multiple event types scheduled in one event, this column can be used to indicate what those events are. Event types must match the list of event types in your organisation (found in Admin>System Settings>Event Types). Examples include lecture, lab, small group learning, etc. Type in an event type and separate it from another with a semicolon and space. For example, lab; lecture; patient interview. Remember to keep the order the same as the event type duration column.
Event Title: Enter the event title.
Event Description: Enter the event description.
Location: Indicate the location of the event. (Eventually this will need to match the locations stored in your organisation.)
Location Room: This should indicate the room number is applicable (this should eventually match the buildings and rooms listed in Admin>Manage Locations).
Audience (Groups): If the course to which the event belongs is using the groups function and one or more groups is the audience for this event, provide the group name here. Group names can be found via Admin>Manage Courses>select course>Groups.
Audience (Cohorts): If a specific cohort is the audience for this event, enter the cohort here.
Audience (Students): If individual students need to be added to the audience, provide the names in this column.
Attendance Required: If attendance is required for this event and will be taken via the Elentra attendance feature enter a 1. If the Elentra attendance feature will not be used for this event, enter 0.
Teacher Names: Enter the names of any teachers to be linked to this event. Separate multiple teacher names with a semicolon.
Teacher Numbers: Enter the institutional id of any teachers to be linked to this event. Separate multiple numbers with a semicolon.
Objective Release Dates: If there are specific release dates for the objectives linked to this event, enter 1. If not, enter 0.
Event Tutors: Enter the name(s) of anyone to be linked to this event as a tutor. Separate multiple names with a semicolon.
Recurring Event: If this is a recurring event you have copied forward, enter the original event number of the first event in the recurring series. If you are creating a brand new schedule, enter 1 to indicate if this is a recurring event.
Free Text Objectives: This can be text and will populate the free text objectives box on the event content page (if such a box is enabled).
Elentra includes the ability to link multiple repeating events in a parent-child relationship. This is most often used when small groups of learners will complete the same activities in repeating learning events. For example, there may be 10 events scheduled for 10 small groups but each event is essentially identical in terms of content, curriculum tags applied, etc. If you use the parent-child feature some reports will look only to the parent event to collect data and therefore help to report accurately from the perspective of a single learner.
Note that the parent child relationship is only available for events that are part of the same course.
If you eventually copy a schedule forward, recurring event status, as well as parent-child links if enabled, will be maintained.
There are several ways to create parent child relationships between events, you can either do so when creating recurring events through Admin>Manage Events, include the information on a spreadsheet you are importing to a draft schedule, or link existing events through the event setup page.
For more details about using the parent child relationship with recurring events please see the Recurring Events help section.
For more details about using the parent child relationship when importing a schedule using a csv please see the Creating a Schedule help section.
If you have already created multiple events and want to link them using the parent child feature you must know the event titles or id numbers of the events intended to be children. A consideration in terms of workflow when linking events through the event setup page is that without the 'recurring' feature being used you can't easily bulk change anything in the linked child events. Manually linking events like this is a feature from before the recurring event tool existed.
Navigate to Admin>Mange Events.
Find the intended parent event by applying filters or looking in a specific time frame.
Click on the event title. (Alternatively, you could use curriculum search to find the event but then make sure you switch to Administrator View to edit the event.)
On the event Setup page scroll to Child Events just above the Time Release Options header.
Type in the intended child event id or title, click on the desired event, and click 'Add'.
Added child events will be displayed in a list. On the setup page for a child event it will list the parent event.
Click 'Save' at the bottom of the page.
Not every feature of Elentra reflects the connections made between events using the parent child relationship.
Curriculum Search does respect the parent child relationship and only return results for the parent. (In fact, curriculum search won't look at child events so even if a child event has distinct content from the parent, that won't be reflected in the search results.)
Curriculum Explorer does not respect the parent child relationship and returns all events regardless of relationship.
The Learning Event by Type Report does respect the parent child relationship.
