Doodle is possibly the simplest way of setting up office hours – within five minutes you can have signup splots. This article explains how to use Doodle for scheduling your office hours.
Understanding Doodle Calendar slots
The role of office hours may be particularly important in online teaching, helping resolve administrative and course questions. Doodle offers one of the most simple ways of setting up calendar slots for office hours – an intuitive approach that enables you to quickly schedule meetings with students. As illustrated below, students are able to select from a series of available time slots, with Doodle ensuring that only one student is able to sign up each slot.
Creating Appointment Slots on Doodle
The first stage in creating office hours slots on Doodle is to click the ‘Create a Doodle’ option in the top right corner of the page.
Step 1: Basic details of the meeting
The first options to stage in creating the meeting involves entering basic information:
- Title: The title that will be displayed when signing up.
- Note: This is useful for entering some instructions for using the signup slots – an instruction such as ‘Please signup for one slot’ may be appropriate.
Step 2: Basic details of the meeting
When selecting time slots, there are two options that may be appropriate for office hours – using the calendar under the ‘week’, or entering the meeting slots manually using the ‘text’ option.
Creating office hour time slots using the 'week' option
It is possible to create signup slots on a calendar, adjusting the time slots to the time period and length desired.
While this approach may appear more intuitive, it can be slightly fiddly, and time slots are limited to a minimum length of 15-minutes (allowing a maximum of 4 meetings per hour), which in many cases may be too long for ensuring you are able to meet with many students.
Creating office hour time slots using the 'text' option
The more flexible approach for creating time slots is using the ‘text’ option. This allows you to enter the specific times desired for the slots.
Step 3: Poll Settings
There are several settings that are important when using Doodle to allow signups to slots.
- Limit the number of votes per option: To constrain the signup so that only one student is able to signup per slot, restrict the number of ‘votes’ (i.e., signups) per option to 1.
- Limit participants to a single vote: Given you will likely want to meet with multiple separate students, you can limit participants to only be able to sign up for a single slot.
- Hidden poll: Since other students do not need to see who else has signed up for office hour slots, and there may be privacy implications of making this information available, select ‘hidden poll’.
Step 4: Finalizing the Doodle
The final stage in finalizing the Doodle is to enter your name and email.
Using the created Doodle
Sharing the link
After creating the Doodle, you will have a link that you are able to share with others. If you have selected a hidden poll, this link will enable them to view the available slots, but not see who has signed up already.
Signing up to a meeting slot
Using the shared link, it is intuitive for users to select a meeting slot – they need only 1) enter their name, 2) select the slot, and 3) click send. If a meeting slot has already been filled, it will not be possible for a another student to select that option.
Viewing individuals that have signed up for meeting slots
After creating the sheet, you will receive an email containing the link to view the submissions to the Doodle. This enables you to view the names and times of individuals who have signed up, as well as monitor the number of remaining slots available.
Adjusting student signups
Unlike other signup options, such as Google Calendar, where students can adjust scheduled appointments themselves, this is not possible in Doodle (at least for the majority of students that are not registered and close the initial signup page). If a student does let you know that they can no longer attend their time slot, it is possible to change or delete the student. If a slot is released, other students will now be able to signup to that slot. Hovering the mouse over the student reveals the edit pencil, as illustrated below:
Limitations of using Doodle
Lack of confirmation emails and calendar invites
One of the limitations associated with the simplicity of Doodle is the lack of confirmation emails and calendar invites (at least when using the free version of Doodle). Students need to record the slot that they signed up for and email you if they need to change their scheduled slot.
Significant advertising included on meetings signup pages
The free version of Doodle is advertising-supported and as illustrated below, includes a significant number of advertisements on its signup page. If this is not desired, Doodle does offer paid plans which remove the advertising from signup pages, starting at $4.49 per month.
Summary
Doodle is one of the easiest ways of scheduling student office hours. In less than five minutes it is possible to create simple signup forms that can be shared with students, enabling you to schedule signup slots with minimal oversight. While not as powerful as alternative options such as using appointment slots in Google Calendar, Doodle can be a great option when needing to quickly schedule individual meetings.
Related articles
See a Participant View of Zoom
It can be useful to see Zoom as your students do – this makes it easier to know what they are likely seeing at there end and provide guidance and instructions. This article shows how Zooms looks from the student perspective.
Changing Zoom’s Resolution
The resolution of your video classes can have a big impact on the overall experience – high resolution makes everything feel crisper and closer to in-person discussions. The guide illustrates how to change the resolution of Zoom calls, reducing pixelation from default settings.
Enhancing the Integrity of Online Examination
While remote, unsupervised exams are inherently difficult to supervise, there are approaches that can reduce the risk of integrity issues in an online environment. This article explores approaches for enhancing the entirety of remote examinations.
Hide the Zoom Control Bar When Screen Sharing
The Zoom control bar is normally useful to have at hand (and for teaching it can be useful to always have it displayed). However, if you are sharing your entire screen it can be useful to disable it so that viewers can see your entire screen.
Establishing Online Class Norms
Establishing clear norms and expectations around online learning is important for ensuring a smooth and successful class delivery. This article explores some of the important expectations to establish to help deliver a smooth and successful class.
Using Gallery View in Zoom
Want to see everyone at once on Zoom? Our complete guide to using Gallery View in Zoom – how to select Gallery view, both during a regular call and also when sharing your screen.
Scheduling a Zoom Meeting
If you are new to Zoom, there are a lot of settings that are useful to be aware of when setting up a meeting. This article explores those settings, with guidance on what may be useful for your class.
The Role of Zoom’s Breakout Rooms
Breakout Rooms can be one of the most effective ways of integrating discussion and student engagement into classes – explore ways of integrating them in your classes.
Top Guides for Teaching Online
Our collection of some of the most popular guides from experienced online and distance learning educators.
Related articles
Top Guides for Teaching Online
Our collection of some of the most popular guides from experienced online and distance learning educators.
Bringing Energy to your Online Class
One of the most important considerations when teaching online is how to maintain student energy and engagement. This article explores ways of bringing some energy to the class, with a specific focus on online teaching environments.
Display 49 Participants in Zoom Gallery View
Although the default settings in Zoom limits the number of thumbnails displayed in the gallery view to 25, this can be increased to 49. This article explains how to increase the number of participants displayed and the technical requirements to do.
Elevate your Online Presentation Skills with Masterclass
This article explores how Masterclass – a platform of professionally produced online instructional material from some of the most respected experts in their fields – can be an invaluable source of inspiration when transitioning online.
Contingency Planning your Online Classes
Online teaching presents some new difficulties that have the potential of derailing a class. This article explores some possible sources of disruption and considers ways of reducing the likelihood of issues arising, or dealing with such problems should they occur in the class.
Scheduling a Zoom Meeting
If you are new to Zoom, there are a lot of settings that are useful to be aware of when setting up a meeting. This article explores those settings, with guidance on what may be useful for your class.
Downloading Attendance from Zoom
If your class incorporates attendance as part of its grading structure, it is useful to be able to download a list of class attendance, rather than have to manually record participation levels – this article describes how to download attendance for each class.
Establishing Online Class Norms
Establishing clear norms and expectations around online learning is important for ensuring a smooth and successful class delivery. This article explores some of the important expectations to establish to help deliver a smooth and successful class.
Sharing a PowerPoint via Zoom
One of the most common ways of presenting on Zoom is to share a PowerPoint Presentation. In this article, we will explore how to set PowerPoint presentations to open as a separate Windows that can then be shared from within Zoom.
See a Participant View of Zoom
It can be useful to see Zoom as your students do – this makes it easier to know what they are likely seeing at there end and provide guidance and instructions. This article shows how Zooms looks from the student perspective.
Resolving Technical Issues with Zoom
From connection and internet issues to microphone and webcam problems, there will inevitably be at least some technology issues during your Zoom classes. This article and its accompanying student-companion, is intended to help you to provide support to students who are having issues connecting to your Zoom call.
To Sit or to Stand when Teaching Online
It’s easy to assume that sitting is the best way of teaching on-line – all your students will be sitting down. However, there are some advantages to consider of standing up when delivering your class. This article will explore the benefits of both options.