Frequently Asked Questions

Setting Your Availability

(If utilizing the appointment feature in Navigate, this is one of two steps to complete. The other step is Syncing your Google Calendar.)

Objective: Setting your availability in Navigate is the feature that allows students to schedule appointments with you. Set your availability in Navigate for specific days of the week and for the different appointment types offered (Appointment, Drop-Ins, and Campaigns).

1. From your home screen, click the “My Availability” tab under the Staff Home button
2. Under Available Times, click the Actions button to “Add Time.”
3. Choose the days of the week for appointments, time, and duration.
   1. One thing to be aware of when setting duration – If you set your duration to be term-specific, it is bound to the start and end dates of the term. If you set availability for Summer Term 20XX and subsequent availability for Fall Term 20XX, there will be a gap of time from the ending of the Summer Term to the beginning of the Fall Term where you will not have an availability set up to meet with students. This can be managed by adding an availability setup to cover that range of dates or changing the duration option completely to a range of dates or forever.
4. Check the box to add to your “Personal Availability Link” or PAL so you can hyperlink in your email signature. Your PAL will take students directly to your availability and services in the student scheduler, eliminating some of the guesswork. 
5. Click Appointments, Drop-Ins, and Campaigns for the type of availability.
6. Select your Meeting Types. You can select more than one at a time. Availability can be In-person, Phone, or Virtual.
7. Select the appropriate Care Unit, Location, Services.
   1. It is recommended to group as many services together as possible for your availability setup. For example, Mon-Fri, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., available for appointments, in-person location, for all services. This will be easier to manage long-term.
   2. If you plan to offer specific services during selected times, those will need to be configured for each separate grouping of services. For example, if students are only allowed to drop-in for Hold Support Mon-Fri from noon- 4 p.m., it would get set up as its own availability configuration.
   3. If you have specific instructions for services (meeting reasons), you will need to set those up as individual availabilities and enter the special instructions for the student. For example, if they are required to bring a specific document or fill out a form before the appointment, you would select the one service the instructions pertain to and enter the specific student instructions. See the *TIP below.
8. Add your Zoom and/or Phone number in URL and any special instructions.
9. Choose 1 student per appointment and Save.
10. Your availability will then populate and underneath it, you will find your individual PAL link to add to your email signature.

*TIP: To configure the same availability for another service, click the check box next to the availability you want to copy. Then click the Actions menu and select Copy Time. When the Copy and Add Availability box pops up, change the service and special instructions for the student.  Click Save.

Managing Existing Availabilities

When you create availabilities, you can usually edit, copy, or delete availabilities.

1. To edit an existing availability, click the Edit link next to the entry you want to change. Editing an availability is very similar to adding an availability, so refer to the instructions above for information. Please note: editing an existing availability DOES NOT edit or change already scheduled appointments.
2. To copy an existing availability, select the time you would like to copy, open the Actions menu and click Copy Time. The availabilities are copied and a Modify Availability dialog opens, allowing you to make edits or to save your newly created availability.
3. To delete an availability, simply select the time, open the Actions menu and click Delete Time.

Troubleshooting Common Availability Issues

1. I synced my calendar but I did not set up my availability. You must have availability configured in Navigate.
2. Availability is inactive - That usually happens if the availability is set for a time period in the future or past. You can always reactivate an availability by selecting Edit in the Actions menu for the availability on the My Availability tab and change the time period to a current time. You can set the active duration to Forever to keep your availability from expiring.
3. I have active availability, but students are still unable to schedule with me. Why?
4. There are a variety of reasons students can't schedule. Common scenarios include the following:
   1. Student doesn't have permission to schedule appointments.
   2. The Location and Service combination the student chose doesn't have appointment scheduling.
   3. You have a calendar conflict during the time slot they chose.
   4. The student can't schedule because they reached the No-Show Limit.
   5. The student can't schedule because of appointment restrictions based on student category or major.
   6. Your availability for the time slot is drop-in only. You need appointment availability if you want students to schedule appointments with you.
   7. If you typically mark your office hours or available appointment times as “busy” on your Google Calendar, those will need to change to “free.” If they remain as “busy” when you set your availability to meet with students, Navigate will block those times as unavailable.

Related Navigate Help Center Articles (requires first logging into Navigate): My Availability