Fall 2012 Classroom Reservations - Now on Google Cal

Beginning with Fall 2012 reservations, the Language Center is moving to Google Cal! Reservations for all our four classrooms (Jones 10, 15, 30 and 35) will be managed on Google Cal. This change will allow us to use a universal scheduling system that is easier to access on multiple platforms. Here are some highlights of this upcoming change:

• Classrooms should be reserved via the Language Center online request form, not directly into Google. The online request form can be used to reserve all Language Center resources, including small rooms, media and equipment.


• Language instructors and other individuals who schedule rooms will be "invited" to the reservation so that it shows up on their calendar. This will make it easier for instructors to remember when their class meets in a Jones classroom.


• When classrooms are scheduled by a level coordinator, and the instructor is TBA, no instructors will be invited. Instructors will be added at a later date, once the teaching schedule is posted on Onestop.


• When a reservation is confirmed, instructors and other individuals who reserve rooms will receive an attached agenda with all upcoming dates at a glance. This is the closest equivalent we have to the traditional confirmation PDFs we have sent in the past.


• Confirmations will be sent from a new email account, lc-staff@umn.edu.The primary departmental account remains elsie@umn.edu.


• Summer 2012 classroom reservations will still be managed on our FileMaker Pro system and instructors who make new reservations for summer will receive the traditional confirmation. Media and equipment reservations will remain on the older system for the time being.


• We are continuing to work on a new web view of the classrooms, and this will be ready by the start of Fall semester.

We begin accepting classroom reservations for Fall 2012 on July 16, and instructors will start receiving Google Cal invitations and confirmation agendas shortly afterwards. If you are a pioneer who makes Fall 2012 classroom reservations this summer, we would greatly appreciate your feedback, particularly recommendations on how the process could be easier for you. Please email your thoughts to elsie@umn.edu.