Password-Protect a Conference Schedule

September 1, 2014 by

Several schools have asked for a way to limit conference sign-ups to specific people. We added password protection for conference schedules so that only people with the password can access the conference schedule.

Why would you want to have a password-protected schedule?

  • Maybe you have a limited amount of times available and can only meet with parents whose children are in danger of failing. Put a password on the schedule, then give the password only to the invited parents. These parents will be able to sign up because they have the password; others will not be able to sign up because they do not have the password.
  • If you are a building principal who wants to meet with teachers to discuss observations, you can schedule appointments on MyConferenceTime. You don’t want parents seeing the available times but want staff to be able to sign up. A password on your meeting schedule will prevent parents from seeing the conference schedule but will allow staff to view the schedule and sign up for a meeting time.
  • Schools use MyConferenceTime to schedule computer labs. A parent might think the schedule is for a conference with the computer teacher instead of a lab reservation schedule. A password ensures that only the correct people can access the schedule.

We know there are many other uses for passwords. Do you have other suggestions? We’d love to hear about them.

How to assign a password to a conference schedule:

  1. Log in (admins only)
  2. Click on the “Schedule Summary” in the left column
  3. Select the name(s) of the schedules that will have a password
  4. Using the drop-down menu at the top of the list of schedules, select “secure schedule with a password”
    password_dropdown image
  5. After being asked if you’re sure you want to add a password, you will see the screen to enter the password. Type the password, then click on the button to “Set Password.”
    Field to Enter Password for Schedule

Please note that this replaces any existing password on the selected schedule(s). Staff members who log in will not be prompted for the password. To remove a password, simply submit the form with the password field empty.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Folders Added to MyConferenceTime

August 29, 2014 by Leave a Comment

We added the ability to organize conference schedules in folders that are displayed on the main page for a school!

Screenshot of Folders

Screenshot of Folders to Organize Schedules

We know that some schools have many teachers in each grade level, so this makes it easier for school admins to keep the main page organized as well as makes it easier for parents to find their child’s teacher when signing up for a conference.

Folder Manager Link

Folder Manager Link for Admins

If you are a school admin, you can create a folder by using the “Folder Manager” link that you will see in the admin’s left column (only when logged in as the admin).

The Folder Manager allows you to

  • create folders
  • edit the names of folders
  • delete folders
  • add schedules to folders
  • delete schedules from folders
  • change the order in which schedules appear on the main page (allows you to control whether they appear in order by grade level, team name, importance – it’s up to you)

If a schedule is added to a folder, then the schedule will not appear on the main page. The only way to access the schedule is to first click on the folder, then click on the link for the schedule.

Screenshot of Folder Manager

Screenshot of Folder Manager


Schedules can be added to multiple folders! For example, your school has a folder for 6th grade, a folder for 7th grade and a folder for 8th grade. If your art teacher teaches all three grades, add the art teacher’s schedule to all three folders.

We hope that our new folder feature makes it easier for schools and parents.

Filed Under: myconferencetime

Changing the Dates of Conferences

September 28, 2013 by

When editing a schedule in MyConferenceTime, it’s easy to change the date of conferences. You can either edit the specific conference date/time, or you can edit all conferences for that date. But these edits only affect the conferences on that specific conference schedule. But what if the admin for your school’s account made a mistake and scheduled all of the conferences for the wrong date? We now have a quick solution!

  1. Using the “Date Summary” option in the list of admin options (you must be logged in as an admin to use this new feature).
    date_summary
  2. You will see a list of all conference dates that are scheduled for your school. Select the date(s) you want to change. Please note that you can only change TO one date at a time, so all dates that you select in this step will be changed to the same date. If you are changing multiple dates TO multiple dates, just repeat this process several times.
    select_date
  3. Use the drop-down menu at the top of the list of dates. Select “change date.”change_date_drop_down
  4. On the next webpage, select the new date.
    change_date_new_date
  5. Click on the “Change the Date” button.
  6. Your conferences now have the new date, and you don’t have to update each conference or schedule individually.
Filed Under: myconferencetime

Updated Page for Staff Account List

September 13, 2013 by

If you are a MyConferenceTime admin, you’ll see a few changes when you view the Staff Account List.

All of the staff is still listed, and you can still click a link to view a staff member’s schedule or to edit the staff member’s account info. But now it is much easier to make changes to multiple staff accounts at one time.

Image of MyConferenceTime Staff Account List

New updates to the Staff Account List

The biggest change is that you can select multiple staff members at one time and then make changes. Let’s say you want three people to have admin privileges. Simply select those three accounts (use the checkbox in the left column), then use the drop-down menu to apply admin privileges. It’s a lot quicker than the old way. The same method is used to delete staff members who no longer work in your building.

Instead of clicking the “approve” button when someone requests a staff account, you now select the staff member, then select “approve” from the drop-down menu. Have several new staff members to approve? You can now approve all of them at the same time!

Staff Account List menu options

Menu options for Staff Account List

A new feature is to send staff member passwords. We know that it’s easy to forget a password over the summer. The admin can send a forgotten password to a staff member by selecting the staff member (use the checkbox in the left column), then selecting “Send Password” from the drop-down menu.

We hope this makes it even easier for you to use MyConferenceTime.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Add Your School Logo

August 20, 2013 by

You can give MyConferenceTime a more customized look that reflects your school.

Instead of the big MyConferenceTime logo at the top left of the screen, you can upload your own logo to represent your school.

If you’re an account admin, you’ll see a “logo” option in the Appearance menu at the top of your screen after you log in to your account. Use that icon to upload a logo/banner and show some school spirit!

All of the following instructions are on the actual logo uploader page, but we’ll put it here, too, for those who want to know the specifics:

  1. The logo you upload will replace the default MyConferenceTime “calendar/star” banner in the upper left.
  2. Only image files may be uploaded.
  3. Your logo, if necessary, will be proportionally resized to have a maximum height of 90 pixels and a maximum width of 450 pixels.
  4. Your logo will have a “MyConferenceTime” logo on the lower right corner. The MyConferenceTime logo will cover up anything in the lower right of the logo you are uploading.
  5. “Delete my current logo” will reset your logo to the default MyConferenceTime “calendar/star” banner.

It’s really easy to upload: just pick an image file, then click on the upload button. (And if you select a file that isn’t an image, the site will politely reject it – so don’t worry, you won’t break anything.)

We hope you like this new feature!

Filed Under: myconferencetime

Schedules are Mobile-Friendly

August 16, 2013 by

Conference schedules (and teacher lists) are mobile-friendly. This should make conference registrations on a mobile device much easier.

What do you need to do to access the mobile-friendly version of MyConferenceTime? Absolutely nothing. The site will automatically adjust to fit the size of your screen.

Our mobile-friendly site makes it easier for the growing number of mobile users to sign up for a conference. For those parents who want to sign up for a conference at open house or back-to-school night, navigating the site should be very easy. And when you combine the mobile-responsive site with the shorter domain name mentioned in an earlier post, signing up for conferences on MyConferenceTime has never been more convenient.

Filed Under: myconferencetime

Clear a Conference Schedule

August 13, 2013 by

We received a request recently to clear all student registrations from a conference schedule. We’re glad to report that as of Saturday, 8/10/2013, this is now a feature of MyConferenceTime.

When logged in and viewing your conference schedule, there are options to the right of the conference schedule’s name. You can edit the schedule, delete the schedule, and now clear the schedule (plus there are some printing options there, too). The clear button permanently removes all student registration data from that conference schedule.

Filed Under: myconferencetime

Shortcut to Access School Account

August 12, 2013 by

If you are a staff member at a school and need to give parents the URL to the school’s MyConferenceTime account, you now have the option of providing a shorter URL.

The domain name myctime.com can be used in addition to myconferencetime.com when first accessing an account. This means you now have the option of providing parents with www.myconferencetime.com/school or www.myctime.com/school. For example, our MyConferenceTime demo site can be accessed via www.myconferencetime.com/demo and also www.myctime.com/demo.

We hope this makes it a little more convenient for parents who are typing the URL. It’s especially useful at back-to-school night and open house when parents want to sign up for conferences using their mobile devices.

Filed Under: myconferencetime

New Videos Added – Help for Parents

August 11, 2013 by

We added two videos to help parents sign up for parent-teacher conferences. We hope that these will assist anyone who is unsure of how to register for a parent-teacher conference.

The videos are short (each is around two minutes) and hosted on our YouTube channel so that parents can quickly and easily watch the instructions, then sign up for a conference.

You can access the videos several ways:

  1. Directly: http://www.myconferencetime.com/info/help/video-how-to-sign-up/
  2. Via the help page: http://www.myconferencetime.com/info/help/
  3. On our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/fislerdata
  4. Use this short URL: http://goo.gl/9mMCnJ

For school personnel, if you are going to provide any of these links to parents, remember to keep it simple! We suggest that you either include the link in an email (or on your own website) so that parents can click on it (and don’t have to type in the really long URL) or use the short URL (option #4) to make it convenient for parents to access the videos.

Filed Under: myconferencetime

Customizing MyConferenceTime.com

February 26, 2012 by

advanced_settingsUse the Advanced Settings to customize a few features for your school account.

If you do nothing else on this page, we strongly recommend that you specify the time zone. This is especially important if your school has the schedules open/close automatically, and for parents who are using the Outlook or Google Calendar links to add the conference to their personal calendar.

We are pleased to announce that account administrators now have the ability to hide the multiple conferences link. This can be done using the “Advanced Settings” link in the left column (admins only).

When viewing the advanced settings, account administrators will also see there are several other settings that they can customize.

Advanced settings options for account administrators in MyConferenceTimeIn addition to the link for multiple conferences, admins can also specify whether the “Request staff account” link will be visible to anyone who is not logged in. (This is useful if all of your staff members have accounts set up and you don’t want to receive any more requests to approve additional accounts.)

Staff names on the main page can be displayed in one column or two columns. (If you have many staff members, it might be easier for parents to find staff names in one column instead of two.)

You can also limit the number of conferences for which a parent signs up. We have a separate page dedicated to limiting conference registrations.

 

Filed Under: myconferencetime
Next Page »